I LOVED What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown and bored everyone I could by telling them they needed to read it. I kept thinking it was a memoir, but it was just a good story. Amazon: “Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s, Jane knows only the world that she and her father live in: the woodstove that heats their home, the vegetable garden where they try to eke out a subsistence, the books of nineteenth-century philosophy that her father gives her to read in lieu of going to school. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident, the crash propelling him to move Jane off the grid to raise her in a Waldenesque utopia. As Jane becomes a teenager she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world. She begs to accompany her father on his occasional trips away from the cabin. But when Jane realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past, and her mother’s death: San Francisco. It is a city in the midst of a seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with both the possibilities and the perils of the fledgling internet, and where she will come to question everything she values.” There was the unexpected and intrigue, and overall, it was just a well-told tale. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend. (So does the NYT).

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong was an OK read, but, unlike Oprah, I didn’t love it. “One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink. Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing—formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.” (Amazon) This book felt too slow in the middle and, while it had an excellent start and a good ending, I couldn’t help but feel bogged down and hoping to get to the end.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy was one of my summer picks. It was a great beach read. Amazon: “Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore. Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.” I really enjoyed this book and, if not for the ending, would have given it 5-stars!

Richard Russo is always good for a solid read and Chances Are…was no exception. I listened to this one on audio. “One beautiful September day, three men in their late sixties convene on Martha’s Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college in the sixties. They couldn’t have been more different then, or even today—Lincoln’s a commercial real estate broker, Teddy a tiny-press publisher, and Mickey is a musician beyond his rockin’ age. But each man holds his own secrets, in addition to the monumental mystery that none of them has ever stopped puzzling over since a Memorial Day weekend right here on the Vineyard in 1971. Now, forty-five years later, three lives and that of a significant other are put on display while the distant past confounds the present in a relentless squall of surprise and discovery. Shot through with Russo’s trademark comedy and humanity, Chances Are . . . introduces a new level of suspense and menace that will quicken the reader’s heartbeat throughout this absorbing saga.” It was a good story, but I think some of it was lost by listening to it on audio. It might be better as a read.

Isola by Allegra Goodman had a really slow start and, if it hadn’t been one of my summer reading picks, I might have abandoned it. However, I am glad I stuck with it, as it turned out to be a really good read. While somewhat implausible, apparently this one was based on a true story. Amazon: “Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. That journey takes a unexpected turn when Marguerite, accused of betrayal, is brutally punished and abandoned on a small island. Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.” This is an excellent beach bag choice and a good island adventure tale. Recommend.

I really enjoyed Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh (summer reading is off to a good start). The story was interesting and different, but there was something too aloof about the writing to make it a five-star choice for me. Amazon: “Four years after their bitter divorce, Claire and Aaron Litvak get a phone call no parent is prepared for: their 22-year-old daughter Lindsey, teaching English in China during a college gap year, has been critically injured in a hit and run accident. At a Shanghai hospital they wait at her bedside, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. The accident unearths a deeper fissure in the family: the shocking event that ended the Litvaks’ marriage and turned Lindsey against them. Estranged from her parents, she has confided only in her younger sister, Grace, adopted as an infant from China. As Claire and Aaron struggle to get their bearings in bustling, cosmopolitan Shanghai, the newly prosperous ‘miracle city,’ they face troubling questions about Lindsey’s life there, in which nothing is quite as it seems. With Jennifer Haigh’s trademark psychological acuity, Rabbit Moon is a taut, suspenseful story about the ties of marriage that no divorce can sever, and the fabled red thread that pulls two sisters together across time and space. Haigh proves yet again that she is ‘an expertly nuanced storyteller…her work is gripping, real, and totally immersive’ (New York Times).” It probably didn’t help matters that the author spelling Lindsay wrong, but…I do recommend this one, but not as enthusiastically as some.

Heartwood by Amity Gage has been everywhere lately. As sometimes happens, I was so excited to get my hands on it and read it in a day. And, while I liked it and I can understand the hype, it wasn’t as incredible as I hoped it would be. It was a good start to my summer reading though. “In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping. At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental. Heartwood is a ‘gem of a thousand facets—suspenseful, transporting, tender, and ultimately soul-mending,’ (Megan Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning) that tells the story of a lost hiker’s odyssey and is a moving rendering of each character’s interior journey. The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found. At its core, Heartwood is a redemptive novel, written with both enormous literary ambition and love.” (Amazon) While it’s a good summer choice for sure, it wasn’t a top read for me.

Wouldn’t you grab this selection for the title alone?! Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk was a short, but satisfying read. Not Nobel to me, but who can account for taste? Amazon: “In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . .A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?” I recommend if you are looking for a good story with a short burn.

Happy Memorial Day – the weekend I publish my summer reading recommendations and my own list for summer reading.

I have already posted my choices for good summer reads that I have vetted. This post covers those I am looking forward to biting off myself.

Let me know if you have read and enjoyed or hated any of them. They will be packed in my beach bag…

As I do each year, I have listed here my favorites for the first six months of the year so you can easily find them to take to the beach. 2025 has brought only three 5-star books and five 4.5-star choices.

I will post another list of those I am reading this summer – who knows if they are going to be good or not…happy summer, everyone!

5-star
The Last Lifeboat
The Paris Novel
What You are Looking for is in the Library

4.5-star
The Last Apothecary
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
Dinners with Ruth
Fourth Wing
By Any Other Name

Links to read my past summer blog posts below.

2024’s summer books are here.
2023’s summer books are here.
2022’s summer books are here.
2021’s summer books are here.
2020’s summer books are here.
2019’s summer books are here.
2018’s summer books are here.
2017’s summer books are here.