BookOpinion

Book reviewers, librarians and others are coming out with their suggestions for some light, summer reads at the beach. Check out these selections and find something right for you.

The Seattle Times offers up a list of books for the summer:

…Last week, we offered up some stellar light fiction in the “chick lit” vein; this week, it’s a more general compilation of books in a wider assortment of genres that still fit into that vague “beach reads” category: Books that are heavy enough to weigh down your beach towel, but not heavy enough to weigh down your spirits. We rate them here with one to four beach umbrellas — four being the best.

“Sparkles,” by Louise Bagshawe (Plume, $14), Three umbrellas: British bestseller Louise Bagshawe scores with this glittery saga about an heiress to one of Europe’s great jewelry firms. Mild-mannered Sophie Massot, whose charismatic husband, Pierre, left on a trip seven years previously and has never returned, is taking steps to have him declared dead, and surprise everyone around her by taking control of the moribund jewelry business. But has Pierre really expired? Bagshawe throws some surprising twists into a story full of glitz and glamour.

“The Year of Fog,” by Michelle Richmond (Delacorte Press, $20), Four umbrellas: If you read this one at the beach, you’re going to remain within arm’s length of your youngsters. It’s a harrowing, beautifully written story of a photographer and soon-to-be stepmom whose momentary lapse in attention results in the disappearance of her fiancé’s little girl on a foggy beach in San Francisco. What happened to 6-year-old Emma? The answer, and its implications, will keep you on the edge of your beach chair.

“The Witch of Portobello,” by Paulo Coelho (HarperCollins, $24.95), Three-and-a-half umbrellas: The Brazilian-born author of “The Alchemist” returns with this masterly novel about Athena, the illegitimate daughter of a Transylvanian gypsy adopted by well-to-do Lebanese parents.

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The Salt Lake Tribune gives an extensive list of their choices for Summer reading:

…These titles, almost all published within the past six months, cover genres and subject matter for a variety of tastes. Most are under 350 pages; you won’t pull a muscle carrying them to your hammock. In their own way, they’re all page-turners, offering propulsive narratives about love, or murder, or natural disasters, or high school. Several explore the shattering effects of 9/11. A few are best-sellers, but others are books you may not have heard of. Yet.
Here they are. Hope you find something you like.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Harcourt, $22).
This slender novel is the tale of Changez, a young, Princeton-educated Pakistani who enjoys the high life of a New York City banker until Sept. 11, when he suddenly discovers that America isn’t so welcoming toward a dark-skinned Muslim with a beard. As Changez finds himself under increased scrutiny and subject to physical threats, he grows bitter and resentful of his adopted country. By its end this story, narrated to a nameless American over dinner at a cafe in Pakistan, reads like an all-too-timely thriller.

Silent In The Grave (STP - Mira) by Deanna Raybourn (Mira, $21.95).
“To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband’s dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.” So begins Raybourn’s clever debut, a Victorian mystery about a London widow investigating the murder of her husband while finding surprising romance with a private detective. Mary Moore of the Davis County Library calls the novel “the librarians’ favorite book this month - the one we recommend to each other.”

The White Cascade by Gary Krist (Henry Holt, $26).
Krist is a novelist who brings his storytelling skills to this nonfiction account of a 1910 avalanche that buried two stranded passenger trains in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. The disaster came two years before the …

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Here’s another 15 book recommendations by the Naperville Sun:

…In a sort-of-similar way, there’s reading and then there’s summer reading. The volumes we reach for when it comes time to head for the beach might not inspire our deepest intellectual maneuvers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t make for darn fine reading. Known by the experts at the Naperville Public Library as “beach reads,” these works can include both fiction and nonfiction, but the idea is that they not drain the brain too completely.

Here for your consideration, at the suggestion of the library’s staff and the people at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, are assorted titles to consider for tucking into your beach bag alongside the shades and sunscreen.

Fiction
“The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield
Reclusive, factually elusive author Vida Winter hires an unknown and seemingly unqualified Margaret Lea to write her biography. Both women have closets inhabited by ghosts, some of which are revealed as the tale unfolds.

“Natural Born Charmer” by Susan Elizabeth Phillips The Naperville novelist’s newest work describes the encounter between a Chicago football player benched with an injury and the plucky heroine, and the road trip the unlikely pair takes together in the jock’s spunky sports car.

“Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette” by Sara Jeter Naslund
The musings of the famed young queen and her days in the court are surmised in fictionalized autobiographical style.

“Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen
A gritty, lavish account of an orphaned young man who runs off and joins the circus…

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