The heat wave is in full effect and there’s not much else to do but curl up inside close to an AC vent and chill out with a good book. It’s too hot to even go to the beach. No matter. A summer read is a summer read, no matter where you read it. This week I’ve got a full slate of beach reads, so maybe I’ll scatter a little sand on the floor, drag in a lawn chair, and try to make the best of it.
- Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume. Like many people, I grew up reading the YA and middle grade works of Judy Blume. Summer Sisters is one of her adult novels. I somehow missed it when it came out and only discovered it in a write up of her most recent release, In The Unlikely Event.
- Backlash, by Sarah Darer Littman. This YA novel is one of many that deals with the issues of suicide and cyber bullying. I call these books “misery fiction” because they’re just so sad. I usually avoid them (real life is miserable enough, I don’t need my reading time to be miserable, too), but a friend recommended this one, so I’m giving it a shot.
- Summer Secrets, by Jane Green. I loved Jane Green when she first hit the market with her really light chick-lit, but lately she’s gone toward the more serious end of the spectrum. I haven’t enjoyed those books as much, but I keep checking them out, hoping to find an echo of what I once loved about her work. I suspect this one will be no different, as it deals with family secrets, issues of alcoholism, and single motherhood. Not light at all.
- Day Four, by Sarah Lotz. I love ocean cruising and it’s not that common to find books that use cruising as a backdrop. That was the only reason I checked this one out. I have no idea whether or not I’ll like the plot, which is a mash up of horror, plague, and supernatural activity.
- Wicked Charms, by Janet Evanovich. Janet Evanovich is another author that I’ve fallen out of love with but whose books I keep checking out in the hopes that she’ll get back to what I loved. Her “numbers” series crashed and burned for me at about number fifteen. This book is number three in her relatively new series that, unfortunately, is pretty much a carbon copy of the numbers series. Easy entertainment, but nothing serious or even that funny anymore.