a little Summer Reading

My favorite feature in magazines this time of year is the summer beach reads section which is always bigger than the monthly list, and I'm usually able to find a few page-turners. Here's my recommendations:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

If you haven’t read this by now, and why haven’t you? Didn’t your high school make this mandatory reading? Anyway, I can almost guarantee you’ll like this. First of all, it’s not that long, so it’s not like it will take you all summer to read, and secondly, the ending makes it well worth it!!! Actually, I shouldn’t sound so excited because it’s a bit of a mixed ending, but if you follow current events, it’s certainly a very believable outcome. Harper Lee was years before her time there, and probably wouldn’t be surprised by how little has changed since she wrote it.

Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart

Since it’s been a few years since I’ve read this, I will rely on the summary on the back cover to tell you what it’s about: “In this glorious once-upon-a-time fairy tale come true, two beautiful college debs (debutantes) from Iowa make it to New York City, and end up working at Tiffany’s and living the dream of every career girl of the 1940s.”  It’s a little “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” mixed with “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” with a little “Sex in the City” thrown in (though watered down quite a lot due to the time period). Have I intrigued you yet?

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

Judy Blume proved once again she hasn’t lost her knack for writing for all age groups when she wrote this novel. It had been quite a long time (we’re talking decades here) since I read her young adult novels, so this was a nice surprise when I was gifted it by my mom, probably 15 or so years ago now.

The plot revolves around the lives of two teen friends, Victoria and Caitlin, who are best of friends even though they come from completely different backgrounds and hardly share the same morals. Victoria, “Vix” comes from a pretty typical middle class background, while Caitlin is from a wealthy family who have a summer house on Martha’s Vineyard. Caitlin invited Vix to spend summers with her there, so they grow closer every year, but a rift in their friendship means they go their separate ways after high school.

Here’s what Amazon.com says about the book, “Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin begs Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go—because she wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend—her summer sister—still has the power to break her heart.”

The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein

This one is a bit complicated to explain as there’s a bit of time travel in the plot, in the form of cryogenic freezing for long periods of time. Once again, I’ll let Amazon better explain, “Brilliant engineer Dan Davis finds himself hoodwinked by his greedy business partners and forced to take the Long Sleep… placing him in suspended animation for 30 years. But his partners never anticipated the existence of time travel, enabling Dan to exact his revenge and alter his own future…”

The reference to ‘door into summer’ comes from the explanation the character Dan Davis gives for why his cat often wants to be let out the back door (after the front door first) because it’s convinced the weather is different out that door. I was much relieved to read that because that’s the same theory our cat has at times.

My husband and I listened to the audio book and found it fascinating while on our travels somewhere, so that’s another option if you don’t fancy just sitting in an armchair reading it.

All Summer Long by Bob Greene

Next to Summer Sisters, this one is probably my favorite and has been reread several times. First of all, Bob Greene is from the nearby suburb of Bexley, disguised as Bristol in the book, and the plot revolves around three best friends who decide to take a summer road trip with their wealthy friend (Ronnie). I think the end destination was to visit Ronnie's father who was dying in the hospital. Bob Greene writes himself into the story as a journalist (Ben) on a summer sabbatical, and the other friend is a school teacher (Michael), who, of course, has the summer off, but is definitely on more of a budget than his two friends (which can be a sore spot at times). Ben often reminisces about their childhood, so you definitely get a good sense of the strength of their friendship. They discuss their adulthood sometimes questioning their life choices (especially Ben and Ronnie who haven’t had successful marriages).

On some level I think we can all relate to this, and I often wonder what it would be like if my two best friends and I hit the road. Maybe someday I’ll write that book, but for now, I can definitely recommend Bob Greene’s version.