@ Your Library
Welcome to summer! Make sure to take time to slow down and enjoy the days however best suits you and your family. Summer can also be a great time to build new habits like reading a bit every day. If you read just 15 minutes each day, you will read over 90 hours in a year, allowing you to complete a number of books or other reading material as desired. And reading helps keep the brain active and healthy, it builds empathy and can promote good sleep. So don’t be shy, visit your local library this summer and re-discover the joy of reading (or discover it for the first time).
Here are some classic beach reads (all titles published before the year 2000). Emma by Jane Austen is probably the oldest beach read ever and is the tale of Emma Woodhouse and her delight interfering in everyone else’s romantic lives. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster tells of Lucy and Charlotte and Mr. Emerson and his son George all staying at the Pension Pertolini in Florence, Italy. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby set in the roaring twenties of Long Island while Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie moves the roaring twenties to Egypt. The Talented Mr. Ripley is the first of five novels about the suave Tom Ripley, a young striver seeking to leave his orphan past behind.
Judy Blume wrote lots more than just Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? She also wrote Summer Sisters about Victoria and Caitlin who must confront the pitfalls of summer friendships as adults reuniting at a wedding on Martha’s Island. Of course, is there anything more classic as a beach read than The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. This tale set just post-war tells of enduring love and miracles. Let’s end our beach reads with a little different take on the definition with A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson as he adventures up the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.
Finally, some popular authors with new titles to read this summer. David Baldacci’s Calamity of Souls is getting some good buzz as he tells a tale set in 1968 southern Virginia. James Patterson almost always has something new and The 24th Hour is the latest in the Women’s Murder Club series. Toxic Prey by John Sandford is the latest in his ‘Prey’ series and John Grisham’s Camino Ghosts is the third book in his Camino Island series. Danielle Steel continues to write prolifically and Only the Brave is a moving tale of a young woman in Berlin at the start of World War II. Craig Johnson continues his series about Walt Longmire, a Wyoming sheriff, brought to life in “Longmire” a Netflix series that lasted six seasons, in First Frost.
And so many thrillers are available. Check out Sandra Brown, Daniel Silva, Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, Stephen King, CJ Box, William Kent Krueger, Stuart Woods, Harlan Coben, Linda Castillo and Jeffrey Deaver just to name a few.