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Summer Reading List

General

Visiting a good bookstore is like standing in line for a gourmet buffet. Glossy hardcovers piled high on the right, and stacks of aromatic new fiction fresh from the printer on the left. You just want to eat it all up. Bookshop Santa Cruz is one of my favorites because of the hand-written reviews posted throughout the store. And it’s located on the same street as Verve Coffee and Pleasure Pizza, so you can make a day of it if you’re in the Santa Cruz area. Anyway, here are the books that caught my eye on our last visit…

The Goldfinch – Here’s what the staff review said (it totally convinced me!): For a few years, I’ve been reading new fiction and waiting for that book: the one that would change me as a reader, the one standard to which all after it would be held. This is that book: a multi-faceted masterpiece about loneliness and love.”

Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? and To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

– I was excited to see that Dave Eggers and Joshua Ferris, two of my favorite authors, have new books out. Although I was tempted to get them both, I decided to be adventurous and look for something by someone I’d never read before.

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls – Another book at the top of my reading list. If I could have lunch with someone famous, I might choose David Sedaris. It would either be a really hilarious time or a really awkward one, both of which I’m fine with.

The Best Punctuation Book, Period: A Comprehensive Guide for Every Writer, Editor, Student, and Businessperson – I need to meet this June Casagrande. Her name means Big House, and she writes about grammar. As someone whose last name will soon mean delicious pastries and loves to read about grammar, I think we’re destined to be best friends.


200 Really Easy Recipes – Now, if it had just been 200 Easy Recipes, I might not have been convinced. But the combination of really and easy? How can you resist?

Dominion
– According to his Twitter, Steven King “just fell in love” with this book. Even though I probably won’t read this, I just love reading the staff reviews!

On Such a Full Sea
and California – I don’t read much sci-fi, but these two books set in post-apocalyptic societies really grabbed my attention. (Fact #1: I will watch any and all movies having to do with the apocalypse. Fact #2: I have no idea where this strange fascination comes from.) I’m currently on the first few pages of On Such a Full Sea, but I’m excited to get into the meat of it. It’s so fun to get wrapped up in a story and randomly find yourself thinking about the characters throughout the day.

Have you read any of these? Any other book recommendations? I’d love to hear!

Last modified: January 10, 2019