Chapter 21 - Summer Reading

I was going to write that summer is my favorite time to read but really every season now could earn that title. Certainly when I was growing up that was true. My sister and I use to get reading lists at the end of every school year and would have to write book reports to turn in the next year. I was in heaven as I always read the required number of books and created my book reports way before the end of the summer. Then I would be free to read whatever I wanted for the rest of our break. Funny but I guess those book reports were a precursor to my blog!

When I got older, my friend Claudia and I used to walk to our local library and sit and read for hours at the library. Then we would come home and sit in her mimosa tree and read there. We'd often get the same book so we could talk about what we read. I guess we were ahead of our time with our book club of two. We'd gravitate (just as I do now) to the new book section in the library and our summers would be filled with stories.

This summer there are a lot of books on my wish list and most of them are by authors I have enjoyed in the past. Here is my summer reading list along with the dates they will be released.

Shelterwood: A Novel by Lisa Wingate (June 4) - Wingate is best known for her book Before We Were Yours which tells the story of children who were stolen from their parents and sold as orphans to childless couples by the Tennessee Children's Home Society in the 1930's. Her latest book takes place in 1909 Oklahoma. Olive Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather has plans for two Choctaw sisters who have been placed with her family. When one of them disappears, Ollie follows with the younger sister and ends up going to a part of Oklahoma known for outlaws and treasure hunters. Flash forward to 1990 when a young law enforcement ranger is stationed at Horsethief Trail National Park. Instead of the quiet job she has hoped for immediately she has to deal with a missing teenage girl and the burial site of three children found in the park.

The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine (June 18) - Liv Constantine is the name of two authors (sisters) who write together. This novel is a continuation of the The Last Mrs. Parrish. In this follow-up the two Mrs. Parrishes are thrust back into each other's lives. While the newest Mrs. Parrish has made a life for herself after her husband was arrested for tax evasion, it seems he is soon to be released from prison and wants to reclaim all he lost. The first Mrs. Parrish has been hiding her children from her ex-husband when the oldest runs off to find her father, the women must work together to protect each other.

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (June 25) - Chris Whitaker became known by his debut novel We Begin at the End, a really good mystery. His latest is a missing person mystery about the daughter of a wealthy family and an unlikely hero. According to the publisher's blurb the hero and his family "soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another."

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn (July 9) - Kate Quinn has written a number of excellent World War II books but her newest one takes place during another difficult time period in America - the McCarthy era.

DC in 1950 hosts The Briarwood House, a run down boarding house for single women. When a new boarder, the lovely and mysterious widow Grace March moves in and starts to host dinner parties in her attic room, she hides secrets which end up effecting all the women.

A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva (July 9) - Gabriel Allon goes to London to attend a gallery reception celebrating the return of a stolen self-portrait of Van Gogh. While there, he is approached by a friend from Devon and Cornwall police to help solve a murder case. The victim was a celebrated professor of art history from Oxford and it seems she was trying to track down a looted Picasso. As the plot thickens it appears that there was more to the murder than it first appears.

What's on your summer reading list? Let me know.