SO WHAT'S FOR SUMMER? (06/2014)

Are books called Summer Reads or Beach Reads actually worth reading? In some cases they can be classified as mindless, which is not a bad thing...or they can be fabulous potential prize winners....also a good thing. Are they mostly read in the summer on the beach? Or do they translate well to another season or location? 

Here's a few suggestions that are "seasonless," suggested by Bookreporter.com.

You decide.....

WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart (Fiction)

I read WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart in four hours. For those four hours, I blocked out everything else that was going on. And since I read it in manuscript back in October, I have thought about it and looked forward to sharing it with readers. For those who like taut prose, you have it here.

Our narrator is Cadence Sinclair Eastman, who is 17. She is part of the Sinclair family, which has old money, not new. Their wealth and privilege were born to, not earned. They “summer” --- and yes, they are the kind of people who use that word as a verb --- on a private island off the coast of Massachusetts. Cady’s mom is one of three sisters, and their father, Cady’s grandfather, is treated like a financial patriarch. But as always, there are family secrets and lots of lies and in-fighting. And Cady sees their family for what it is.

BITTERSWEET by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore (Psychological Suspense) On scholarship at a prestigious East Coast college, ordinary Mabel Dagmar is surprised to befriend her roommate, Genevra Winslow. Ev invites Mabel to spend the summer at her Vermont cottage, Bittersweet, where her family has held court for more than a century. However, a terrible discovery leads to shocking violence and reveals what the Winslows may have done to keep their power intact. Mabel must choose to either expose the secret and be expelled from paradise, or make Ev's dark world her own. DELICIOUS by Ruth Reichl (Fiction) Soon after Billie Breslin takes a job at Delicious!, New York’s most iconic food magazine is abruptly shut down. Billie agrees to stay on in the empty office, maintaining the hotline for reader complaints in order to pay her bills. In a hidden room in the magazine’s library, Billie finds a cache of letters written during World War II. They provide her with a feeling of deep connection to the young writer whose courage in the face of hardship inspires her to come to terms with her fears. Reminder: Shop directly from this blog. Click on the Amazon Search Box in the Sidebar. All proceeds go to charity.