Whether you’re slathering on sun block and heading for the shores or just flopping down in a sunbeam on the floor of your studio apartment, you’re probably wondering what to read this summer. Here are some suggestions, based on questions to the Tribune’s Books section:
Q: I need a really good, big book to keep me busy on the beach and keep my mind off work. What do you recommend?
A: There are really good, big books by renowned authors Russell Banks (“Cloudsplitter”), John Casey (“The Half-Life of Happiness”), Don DeLillo (“Underworld”), Jane Hamilton (“The Short History of a Prince”), John Irving (“A Widow for One Year”) and Robert Stone (“Damascus Gate”), all at least 500 pages. (Although Jane Smiley’s “The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton” has the longest title among current big books , the novel is a mere 452 pages.) The only work to keep in mind is carrying them home.
Q: How do I occupy the kids on trips down those long, Midwestern highways?
A: Young, restless readers (ages 4-8) will relate to “Tulip Sees America,” written by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Lisa DeSimini, the whimsical story of a young man and his dog, Tulip, who travel from Ohio to Oregon in a green VW Bug. Popular titles among slightly older readers are Shelley Jackson’s “The Old Woman and the Wave” and Stephen Krensky’s “Lionel in the Summer.”
If your car has a CD or cassette player, don’t overlook the audiobook. “Alien Voices Presents,” with John de Lancie and Leonard Nimoy of “Star Trek,” imaginatively presents classics of science fiction suitable for all ages; the latest release is H.G. Wells’ “The Invisible Man”
Q: Godzilla” is not my kind of film, but I still miss going to the movies when I go camping. Any books with a Hollywood connection worth checking out?
A: Peter Biskind’s “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” is a full-tilt, gossip-filled account of Tinseltown’s excesses in the ’70s, a time when a new breed of directors emerged to make the kind of movies you probably do enjoy and miss nowadays–whether you are at the beach or not. John Gregory Dunne published “The Studio,” a tell-all about Twentieth Century Fox, 30 years ago, but it more than holds its own as a companion to “Monster,” Dunne’s recent memoir about the travails of a scriptwriter.
And Richard Price’s novel “Clockers” was turned into a hit movie. No doubt the same fate awaits his new novel, “Freedomland,” so read it to get a sneak peek.
Q. For Father’s Day books, I usually can’t do any better than celebrity biographies of sports or business figures. What can I offer Dad besides Lee Iacocca or Yogi Berra?
A. Dads who read but don’t golf will be fine this Father’s Day; British travel and memoir writer Bill Bryson just released “A Walk in the Woods,” a witty and scenic account of a walk he and an out-of-shape buddy took through the 14 states and 2,100 miles of the Appalachian Trail.
For the father who enjoys suspense (other than guessing where his teenager has taken the car), try “The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy,” by Barbara Vine, pseudonym of mystery writer Ruth Rendell. Here a grieving daughter researches a biography of her late novelist father and ends up discovering more about her family than she expected.
Q. I just finished “Into Thin Air” and want another disaster book, but not a Titanic tome.
A. If you are not averse to the sea, Sebastian Junger’s “A Perfect Storm” recreates what probably happened to six men aboard the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat that sailed out of Gloucester, Mass., in 1991 and never returned. And don’t forget Gary Kinder’s nonfiction “Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea: The History and Discovery of the World’s Richest Shipwreck.”
Back on dry land, Norman MacLean’s “Young Men and Fire” describes Montana’s Mann Gulch disaster, which claimed the lives of 13 smokejumpers (firefighters who parachute from airplanes) in 1949. Thorton Wilder won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” a classic disaster novel. And “Into Thin Air” author Jon Krakauer first made his name with “Into the Wild,” which follows a misguided young man to his death in Alaska.
Q. I’m partial to magazines. Know any books that will read like one?
A. You bet. “No Time to Die,” the autobiography of Liz Tilberis, former editor of British Vogue and editor of Harper’s Bazaar, not only reads like a terrific magazine piece, it also talks about the business.
Q. What should I take, besides my new Italian bikini, to look cool on the beach?
A. The British arrive in the nick of time to accessorize your new suit. Nick Hornby’s “About a Boy” and Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary” are the two titles you must be seen reading this summer.
Q. My husband caught the Civil War bug after reading Charles Frazier’s “Cold Mountain.” What should I give him before he heads south on me?
A. Tony Horwitz’s “Confederates in the Attic” is a remarkable travelogue around Civil War sites that should keep your husband happily at home. Mark Perry’s “Conceived in Liberty” is a biography of two men, a Northerner and a Southerner, whose paths cross at the fateful Battle of Little Round Top. And Shelby Foote, the wise man with that mellifluous voice made famous by Ken Burns’ PBS series, wrote an elegant three-volume history of the Civil War. For a sample, try “Stars in their Courses,” a 300-page stand-alone excerpt published by the Modern Library. It’s about the pivotal Gettysburg Campaign.
Q. What can I bring for my brother, a political junkie, when I visit him next month?
A. Even junkies have standards, so do your brother a favor: Skip the cheap stuff and bring him quality goods. Gail Collins’ “Scorpion Tongues” is a superb history of vicious Washington scandal; Howard Kurtz’s “Spin Cycle” displays the Clinton White House’s dirty laundry. Ward Just’s latest political novel, “Echo House,” is now out in paperback; Edwin O’Connor’s urban drama, “The Last Hurrah,” has been reissued recently. Desperate junkies will delight in Douglas Brinkley’s “The Unfinished Presidency,” a detailed update on what global do-gooder Jimmy Carter has done lately.
Q. Yes, I admit I actually miss my kids when they go off to camp. What can I read that will remind me of them?
A. Two novels featuring young narrators should do the trick. In “The Everlasting Story of Nory,” Nicholson Baker applies his pointillistic style to the tale of a 9-year-old girl living in England. And Peter Hedges charts the ups and downs of 7-year-old Scotty Ocean in “An Ocean in Iowa.”
Q. I devoured all of John Grisham’s legal thrillers as soon as they came out and would like more of the same. Any suggestions?
A. “Legal Briefs,” edited by William Bernhardt, is a collection of stories by 20 of the best-known authors of legal thrillers (e.g., Grisham, Richard North Patterson, Lisa Scottoline) writing today. But perhaps it is time for a change. Charles Dickens published “Bleak House” more than 150 years ago, and it is still the best book available about the law.
Q. My daughter is considering a trip to Antarctica later in the year, when it is summer down there. What should she be reading to prepare?
A. As Sara Wheeler points out in her fascinating account of her trip to Antarctica, “Terra Incognita,” summer isn’t the same there: “What no one ever quite gets used to is the brutalizing effect of the wind.” In “I May Be Some Time,” Francis Spufford explains why adventurers wanted to go. Beryl Bainbridge’s “The Birthday Boys” is a moving fictional portrait of the doomed Scott expedition. And “Lonely Planet Antarctica,” a recent addition to the travel guide series, gives an intimate look at a very lonely place–though you wouldn’t know it from the cuddly penguins on the cover.
Q. Every summer my father tackles a different historical subject, and this time he chose the civil rights era. Can you provide a reading list of recent books for him?
A. Your father chose a banner year for books about the civil rights era. Taylor Branch’s “Pillar of Fire” is the second volume of his magisterial trilogy. In “The Children,” David Halberstam goes back to his roots as a cub reporter covering the young members of the movement and brings their stories to the present. Gerald Posner’s “Killing the Dream” explores and debunks conspiracy theories about the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. And “Dreamers” is National Book Award winner Charles Johnson’s powerful new novel based on King’s life.
Q. I’d like to buy a mystery book for my wife, who has no problem reading about murder and intrigue while on vacation. Any ideas?
A. Two mysteries just appeared in bookstores. Sue Grafton continues to make her way through the alphabet with “N Is for Noose,” and Detective Caroline Reese makes her first appearance in Heather Lewis’ “The Second Suspect.” Or do some sleuthing and see if you find Dorothy Sayers’ new “Thrones, Dominations” on your wife’s bookshelf. Yes, Sayers died in 1957, but she left behind an incomplete manuscript. With help from co-author Jill Paton Walsh, Lord Peter Wimsey is back on the case.
Q. I’m visiting friends on the coast and want to bring a gift. What’s the best beach book out there?
A. “The Beach,” by Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker, is an engaging geological-cultural history that begins by the hometown shores of Lake Michigan and backtracks 4 billion years. The alluring cover makes it a great gift book, and there’s a select list of the best beaches near the back. With “The Beach,” everybody can experience everything about the beach except the sun, the sand and the water. If your hosts are like my mother, who used to say she liked everything about the beach “except the sun, the sand and the water,” they wouldn’t want it any other way.
