Summer Beach Reading . . . in Oklahoma
While the idea of ”Summer Beach Reading” in Oklahoma may conjure images of heatstroke, fifth-degree sunburn, and the unmistakable orange tint of lake water permanently dyeing every substance with which it comes into contact, there is no shortage of recommended summer reading lists available on the web. Most of these selections seem just as enjoyable to read indoors with a tall glass of iced tea and the air conditioning cranked down to 64 degrees.
One of the most interesting and diverse lists belongs to Super Librarian Nancy Pearl, whose recommendations are posted at NPR.org. Her selection of “Summer’s Best Books” includes Matthew Quick’s The Silver Linings Playbook, the tale of a released mental patient who quirkily critiques classic fiction like The Great Gatsby and A Farewell to Arms in an effort to impress his estranged English teacher wife. An unlikely and important subplot involves the obsessive love for the Philadelphia Eagles shared by the main character and his psychiatrist.
NPR.org has a whole section devoted to summer books, with critics’ and readers’ selections in categories like “Books to Keep You Sane on a Family Road Trip” and interesting series like ”My Guilty Pleasure.” There’s also a list of the summer’s “10 Best Cookbooks” and a reader-generated list of “The Best Beach Books Ever.”
Salon.com’s book section features summer reading recommendations from authors like Neil Gaiman and Michael Connelly, and special sections include listings of highlighted memoirs and thrillers.
Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch blog has a “Summer Reading List” with tons of reader-contributed suggestions, and USA Today’s “Summer Books Calendar” has dates and blurbs about some hot upcoming titles.
All of these previews and recommendations have driven me to fill up my library reserve list with 30 titles, each seemingly more interesting than the last. It’s gotten to the point where books arrive on reserve for me and I can’t even remember what compelled me to order them in the first place. I’m sure I saw some glowing notice about Chandler Burr’s new novel, You or Someone Like You, in one of these previews, but I can’t for the life of me retrace the steps that led me to order this tale of pseudo-academic book clubs and, as the dust jacket describes, “literature’s power to change our lives.”
(It seems a little heavy for beach or lakeside reading, but I’m kind of captivated by the cover.)
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