Summer Reading: Some Fun Choices

Just for Fun:

Some Summer Reading Suggestions

(This is from an article I wrote for our agency newsletter.)

 

 

 

Summer Reading Picks:  A Few Suggestions

 

Consider these picks for your vacation enjoyment.

 

Start with a Beach Read: 

Just in time for the 4th of July is The Summer Girls  by Mary Alice Monroe.  As the promo material puts it:  Three granddaughters. Three months. One summer house. I have to admit a bias here because Monroe is a Southern writer who lives in the low country of South Carolina.  Although I'm most surely a North Carolina girl by background, I did have the pleasure of falling in love one April among the freshly blooming roses of Charleston, South Carolina.  He was a sailor who would later be assigned to the waters off Cuba when the missile scare happened, and I never saw him again. Alas, I do love the romantic novels of the South. 

The Summer Girls is a story set among the live oaks and palmettos that mark the islands and frame the landscape of the grandmother's historic summer home where the girls come to stay as they learn the secrets of their past and move toward their futures.  Part of a triology, The Summer Girls might whet your appetitle for more of Monroe, who has written over ten books about strong Southern women.  In paper and electronic format.

 

More Serious Read:  Medicine Used as a View into Humanity and Identity

On a more serious note, I've started reading Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone (2010).  Written by a master storyteller who is also a doctor, Verghese's weaves together a tale of medical adventures and the search for identity for the two sons of a nun and a surgeon brought together by shared passion and devotion to healing in the political upheavals of Ethiopia.  Almost 700 pages long, this book could entertain you all summer and can be read electronically or on paper. 

 

Or How about Mystery?

Or perhaps you prefer more excitement.  What would summer be without a good mystery?  Stephen King has a new one:  Joyland and is also working on a new book in the tradition of The Shining that is due out in late September.  Called  Doctor Sleep, the previews promise it to be extra scary. 

 

Florence Nightingale:  Starting with the Sources

And finally, did you know that you can read Florence Nightingale's works in new editions?  I had no idea but was intrigued.  The reviews are excellent.  Happy Summer; Happy Reading.