Monday, July 11, 2011

Summer Reading

by Joan

As a writer, one of the laborious tasks (i.e. perks) of my job is reading. I love the feel of books (read: don't yet own an ereader, though I covet one badly). But I download books through Audible.com on my iPhone to listen while I'm at the gym or working around the house. Yesterday I started Amanda Hodgkinson's 22 Britannia Road and immediately became hooked.

As a contributor to this blog, I've been lucky enough to meet online other writers and readers who share the same tastes in books. Last night perk and luck came together when I posted a FB comment about my current reading obsession. Within moments, I had two more recommendations from Erika Robuck (who by the way will stop by in two weeks for a guest post. Hopefully she'll fill us in on the news about her upcoming novel, Hemingway's Girl, soon to be on everyone's list).

We began sharing novel titles with similar themes and Erika suggested these:

The Soldier's Wife, by Margaret Leroy

Letters From Home, by Kristina McMorris (see Kim's interview with Kristina here)

Scanning the book blurbs brought others to mind and I thought I'd share them here, for those like me who sometimes go a few years back for summer reading.

So, if you love novels with a backdrop of WWII and themes of love, loss, forgiveness and secrets, try these:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Sarah Blake's The Postmistress (WWW Q&A here)

Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Elizabeth Berg's Dream When You're Feeling Blue

Joanna Trollope's The Brass Dolphin

Anyone else have others I've missed?

4 comments:

  1. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett was just released in hardback June 7, 2011... It is enthralling. I highly recommend it!

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  2. Carol Woods14 July, 2011

    Joan, just for you: The Ninth Wife, by Amy Stolis. Bess Gray is a single 30-something living in D.C. Since her mother was adopted, she knows nothing of her real lineage, but is close to her Jewish grandparents. Strong writing, characters that come off the page, apt dialog (I can hear her grandparents bickering turn into a major battle), a quirky love interest...I haven't finished reading it yet, but know that there are some surprises down the road--one really big one!

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  3. Anonymous19 July, 2011

    One of my favorite things about The Guernsey Book was when they said that reading one great book leads you to another, and another... Thanks for the mention and for the great recommendations!

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  4. Carol-you're right, The Ninth Wife sounds like my kind of book. Thanks for the recommendation!

    Erika--I finished 22 Britannia Road last night and it didn't disappoint. Hope to write a review soon. I think you would like it very much.

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