Diane LaRue, special to The Citizen
Summer is going by much too fast, and it’s time again to refill your beach reads. I’ve got some wonderful suggestions for you to toss in your beach bag as you head out on vacation or just to your front porch.
Kate Quinn’s World War II historical novels are popular (“The Alice Network," “The Rose Code”). Her new novel “The Briar Club” takes place during the Cold War. Set in a boarding house in Washington, D.C., run by an unpleasant widow and her teenage son, the story begins with two dead bodies in the house.
We flash back and forth in time as the story is told by the women who rent rooms in the house. Each of the women have secrets they don’t want known, and each of their stories are intriguing. Quinn does a remarkable job keeping each woman’s voice distinct as they band together through the dramatic climax. Quinn is in top form here.
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Liz Moore’s new mystery novel “The God of the Woods” also tells a story from differing points of view. When 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar goes missing from her Adirondack summer camp, people fear that it is a repeat of an incident from 14 years ago — her 9-year-old brother disappeared from the same area, never to be found.
Like Kate Quinn’s book, the story shifts back and forth in times, and Moore does a masterful job keeping everything straight in the reader’s mind with chapter headings that indicate the timeline. The story is propulsive, and the reader feels dropped right into the Adirondack camp. Although this book is almost 500 pages, you’ll fly through it as you wait to discover what happened to Barbara — and her brother.
For something on the lighter side, take a trip to Italy in Steven Rowley’s “The Guncle Abroad." Five years later we meet with our friends from the delightful “The Guncle." Patrick’s resumed his acting career, and he is charged with accompanying his young niece and nephew to Italy, where their widowed father is marrying a wealthy heiress.
The children want Patrick to convince their father not to get married, and Patrick is stuck in the middle — and unhappy that the children have taken a shine to their oh-so-cool future step-aunt. Once again the humor and love shine in this delightful story, and it had me laughing out loud at Patrick’s caustic comments.
Kirsten Miller’s “Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books” also has humor at its core, albeit a more satirical type. Lula Dean is determined to make a name for herself by starting a campaign to rid her small Southern town of “inappropriate” books from the public library. (The fact that the town’s librarian, Beverly, is her archenemy has nothing to do with it.)
Lula opens a little library in her front yard and fills it with wholesome books from her own library for people to read. Unbeknownst to her, Beverly’s daughter has been swapping out Lula’s books for books on the “banned list," but putting the covers from Lula’s books on the banned books. Now when people choose one of Lula’s books, they are getting something very different.
Lula is thrilled with the popularity of her little library, and the people of the town are changed in profound and delightful ways as they read books that expand their minds and souls. This one is a funny and timely read.
For nonfiction fans, Sloane Crosley’s memoir “Grief is for People” tells the story of two events that changed Sloane deeply. First, she returns to her New York City apartment to discover that someone has broken in and stolen her jewelry. Sloane becomes obsessed with trying to discover who stole her jewelry, going to extreme lengths to get answers.
One month later, her former boss, mentor and good friend goes into his barn and hangs himself. Sloane is devastated by this, and shares the story of her relationship with her friend over the years, looking for answers as to what happened to him.
Her writing is piercing and moving, and she makes us feel like we knew her friend almost as well as she did, sharing his idiosyncrasies in vivid style.
Fans of yacht rock music will enjoy Michael McDonald’s memoir “What a Fool Believes," co-written with his friend and actor Paul Reiser. McDonald is best known for being an integral member of the Doobie Brothers, but his journey through the music scene of the '70s and '80s is so much more, and a terrific and sometimes terrifying ride to take with him.
Enjoy the rest of summer, may it slow down.
Diane LaRue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and blogs about books at http://bookchickdi.blogspot.com. She is president of the Friends of Webster Library and manages the Book Cellar, a nonprofit used bookstore that benefits branch libraries of the New York Public Library in New York City.
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