Good Summer Picks from Oprah!
Unsure of what summer reading books you need to stuff in your beachbag or download to your e-reader? Oprah has a list of selections. If you have something to add, please share! It’s the best time of year to kick back with a great book and get absorbed. Share with your fellow members!
Lush historical novels, wise contemporary tales and crowd-pleasing beach reads… Go on, dive into O‘s summer reading list!
Kings of the Earth
By Jon Clinch
416 pages; Random House
For his acclaimed debut, Finn, Jon Clinch borrowed from Mark Twain, telling the story of Huckleberry Finn’s malicious father. In his masterful and compassionate new novel, Kings of the Earth, Clinch borrows again, this time from a true-life case of possible fratricide in 1990. Three elderly, semiliterate brothers live in squalor on a ramshackle dairy farm in central New York state. They barely wash, their coveralls are splattered in cow manure, and their tiny house is a fetid mess. Strangest of all, they share a bed—and on a summer night one dies from what the local medical examiner calls strangulation. The prismatic narrative shifts time and point of view, and Clinch easily slips into the voices of his diverse cast of characters—a nosy, good-hearted neighbor, a police investigator struggling to do the right thing, and the brothers’ drug-dealing nephew. Through evocative descriptions of the rural landscape—”a countryside full of that same old homegrown desolation”—and by imbuing these odd men with a gentle nobility and an “antique strangeness,” Clinch has created a haunting, suspenseful story. — Taylor Antrim
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
A book I would recomend is any of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia.
True as it may be, the story is somewhat childish. But if you just find your inner child, you can really appreciate the fantasy stories. The movie is also great…but of course the book is better.
The story will definately hold your interest, and its a story you can talk about with your kids.
The books can be purchased at Borders.com
I’d also recommend Spooky Little Girl: A Novel by Laurie Notaro. Good summer read!
I like anything by Adriana Trigiani…but I recommend starting with the ‘Big Stone Gap’ trilogy. Also great for summer reading are the Jen Lancaster books, all funny and light, perfect for the beach!