fourthtimer
SBH Insider
Summer reading season is getting ready to heat up
12:00 AM CDT on Monday, May 25, 2009
By JOY TIPPING / The Dallas Morning News
jtipping@dallanews.com
It's not Christmas, but it certainly feels like the most wonderful time of the year for book lovers. Summer is when the publishers pull out the stops with the "good reads," the books that somehow work best when accompanied by margaritas, a comfy spot at the beach or poolside, and the subtle whiff of sunscreen (preferably coconut-scented).With summer reading season about to kick into high gear, we pondered: What makes a great beach book? Herewith, the basics:
BRIAN STAUFFER/Special Contributor
• It must be either hefty – enough to carry you through a two-week vacation or possibly the entire summer – or bikini-slim, brief enough to be read over a weekend getaway or even in one sitting.
• It must have an element of fluff. That doesn't mean it can't be about a serious topic, but beach books are best served with at least a dash of wit, a soupçon of absurdity or a touch of snarkiness.
• Ideally, it should suck you in to the point that you forget to reapply the sunscreen (we recommend setting a timer), and should include several gasp-worthy moments to share with your beach- or pool-mates (The Da Vinci Code is still the all-time champ in this area).
• It should sport an attractive cover that inspires curiosity from gorgeous strangers, preferably with mysteriously unidentifiable foreign accents.
With those parameters in mind, we're listing several promising titles and their scheduled release dates. Happy reading, and remember, a teensy paper umbrella on a toothpick makes a most excellent bookmark.
Fiction and poetry
Tuesday: Shanghai Girls, Lisa Unger. 1930s historical adventure of Chinese sisters who flee Japanese-occupied Shanghai for Los Angeles. (Shaye Areheart Books, $25)
Wednesday: The Halfway House, Guillermo Rosales. A young Cuban-American man navigates his way through a way station for the mentally ill. (New Directions, $14.95)
June 1: Romanticism, April Bernard. Poetry collection challenging and exploring the basic tenets of high Romanticism. (W.W. Norton, $23.95)
June 9: Far North, Marcel Theroux. Icebound apocalyptic adventure. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25)
June 9: Black Water Rising, Attica Locke. Debut thriller set in Houston. (Harper, $25.99)
June 16: The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Sweeping tale of 1920s Barcelona, from the author of The Shadow of the Wind. (Doubleday, $27)
July 7: The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, Rebecca Wells. Nostalgic heart-render from the author of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. (Harper, $25.99)
July 14: In the Heart of the Canyon, Elisabeth Hyde. Life-altering river-rafting trip down the Colorado. (Knopf, $25.95)
July 28: Labor Day, Joyce Maynard. Grown man recalls his 1980s youth in small-town New Hampshire (William Morrow, $24.99)
July 28: The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larson. Sequel to last year's remarkable debut thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. (Knopf, $25.95)
Aug. 10: Amigoland, Oscar Casares. University of Texas professor and Brownsville native looks at two border-town brothers facing festering family wounds. (Little, Brown, $23.99)
Aug. 11: South of Broad, Pat Conroy. A sweeping love letter to Charleston, S.C. (Nan A. Talese, $29.95)
Aug. 25: After You, Julie Buxbaum. Heroine helps her best friend's child recover from her mother's murder. (Dial Press, $25)
Nonfiction
Tuesday: I'm Down, Mishna Wolff. White girl's search for identity, both aided and hampered by a father who thinks he's black (he's not). (St. Martin's, $23.95)
June 2: The Whole Death Catalogue: A Lively Guide to the Bitter End, Harold Schechter. Gallows humor in a lavishly illustrated format. (Ballantine, $18)
June 9: The Rise and Fall of Communism, Archie Brown. Just in time to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. (Ecco, $35.99)
June 9: Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal, Julie Metz. A young widow must simultaneously deal with her husband's death and her subsequent discovery that he'd been cheating on her. (Voice, $23.99)
June 23: Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home From the Moon, Buzz Aldrin. The superstar astronaut writes candidly about his out-of-this-world adventures and the humbling depression that set in later. (Harmony, $27)
July 5: Why America Fights: Patriotism and War Propaganda From the Philippines to Iraq, Susan A. Brewer. The subtitle says it all. (Oxford University Press, $29.95)
Aug. 4: The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After, Melanie Gideon. Memoir about figuring out how to live once you realize you're actually going to die. (Knopf, $23.95)
Aug. 11: Cults, Conspiracies and Secret Societies, Arthur Goldwag. The straight scoop on the Illuminati, Skull & Bones, black helicopters and anything else Dan Brown might ever write about. (Vintage, $16)
Aug. 18: Soul of a Dog: Reflections on the Spirit of the Animals of Bedlam Farm, John Katz. Tackles the subject of whether animals have souls, and if so, whether they make moral choices. (Villard, $24)
Aug. 18: Time of the Rangers, Mike Cox. A look at Texas Rangers in the 20th and 21st centuries, following on the heels of the author's well-received look at 19th-century Rangers. (Forge, $27.99)
12:00 AM CDT on Monday, May 25, 2009
By JOY TIPPING / The Dallas Morning News
jtipping@dallanews.com
It's not Christmas, but it certainly feels like the most wonderful time of the year for book lovers. Summer is when the publishers pull out the stops with the "good reads," the books that somehow work best when accompanied by margaritas, a comfy spot at the beach or poolside, and the subtle whiff of sunscreen (preferably coconut-scented).With summer reading season about to kick into high gear, we pondered: What makes a great beach book? Herewith, the basics:
BRIAN STAUFFER/Special Contributor
• It must be either hefty – enough to carry you through a two-week vacation or possibly the entire summer – or bikini-slim, brief enough to be read over a weekend getaway or even in one sitting.
• It must have an element of fluff. That doesn't mean it can't be about a serious topic, but beach books are best served with at least a dash of wit, a soupçon of absurdity or a touch of snarkiness.
• Ideally, it should suck you in to the point that you forget to reapply the sunscreen (we recommend setting a timer), and should include several gasp-worthy moments to share with your beach- or pool-mates (The Da Vinci Code is still the all-time champ in this area).
• It should sport an attractive cover that inspires curiosity from gorgeous strangers, preferably with mysteriously unidentifiable foreign accents.
With those parameters in mind, we're listing several promising titles and their scheduled release dates. Happy reading, and remember, a teensy paper umbrella on a toothpick makes a most excellent bookmark.
Fiction and poetry
Tuesday: Shanghai Girls, Lisa Unger. 1930s historical adventure of Chinese sisters who flee Japanese-occupied Shanghai for Los Angeles. (Shaye Areheart Books, $25)
Wednesday: The Halfway House, Guillermo Rosales. A young Cuban-American man navigates his way through a way station for the mentally ill. (New Directions, $14.95)
June 1: Romanticism, April Bernard. Poetry collection challenging and exploring the basic tenets of high Romanticism. (W.W. Norton, $23.95)
June 9: Far North, Marcel Theroux. Icebound apocalyptic adventure. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25)
June 9: Black Water Rising, Attica Locke. Debut thriller set in Houston. (Harper, $25.99)
June 16: The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Sweeping tale of 1920s Barcelona, from the author of The Shadow of the Wind. (Doubleday, $27)
July 7: The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, Rebecca Wells. Nostalgic heart-render from the author of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. (Harper, $25.99)
July 14: In the Heart of the Canyon, Elisabeth Hyde. Life-altering river-rafting trip down the Colorado. (Knopf, $25.95)
July 28: Labor Day, Joyce Maynard. Grown man recalls his 1980s youth in small-town New Hampshire (William Morrow, $24.99)
July 28: The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larson. Sequel to last year's remarkable debut thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. (Knopf, $25.95)
Aug. 10: Amigoland, Oscar Casares. University of Texas professor and Brownsville native looks at two border-town brothers facing festering family wounds. (Little, Brown, $23.99)
Aug. 11: South of Broad, Pat Conroy. A sweeping love letter to Charleston, S.C. (Nan A. Talese, $29.95)
Aug. 25: After You, Julie Buxbaum. Heroine helps her best friend's child recover from her mother's murder. (Dial Press, $25)
Nonfiction
Tuesday: I'm Down, Mishna Wolff. White girl's search for identity, both aided and hampered by a father who thinks he's black (he's not). (St. Martin's, $23.95)
June 2: The Whole Death Catalogue: A Lively Guide to the Bitter End, Harold Schechter. Gallows humor in a lavishly illustrated format. (Ballantine, $18)
June 9: The Rise and Fall of Communism, Archie Brown. Just in time to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. (Ecco, $35.99)
June 9: Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal, Julie Metz. A young widow must simultaneously deal with her husband's death and her subsequent discovery that he'd been cheating on her. (Voice, $23.99)
June 23: Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home From the Moon, Buzz Aldrin. The superstar astronaut writes candidly about his out-of-this-world adventures and the humbling depression that set in later. (Harmony, $27)
July 5: Why America Fights: Patriotism and War Propaganda From the Philippines to Iraq, Susan A. Brewer. The subtitle says it all. (Oxford University Press, $29.95)
Aug. 4: The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After, Melanie Gideon. Memoir about figuring out how to live once you realize you're actually going to die. (Knopf, $23.95)
Aug. 11: Cults, Conspiracies and Secret Societies, Arthur Goldwag. The straight scoop on the Illuminati, Skull & Bones, black helicopters and anything else Dan Brown might ever write about. (Vintage, $16)
Aug. 18: Soul of a Dog: Reflections on the Spirit of the Animals of Bedlam Farm, John Katz. Tackles the subject of whether animals have souls, and if so, whether they make moral choices. (Villard, $24)
Aug. 18: Time of the Rangers, Mike Cox. A look at Texas Rangers in the 20th and 21st centuries, following on the heels of the author's well-received look at 19th-century Rangers. (Forge, $27.99)
