Summertime Reading at the Library

By Margaret Green, Library Committee
Originally published in the August 2022 issue of the 1666 Coffman Newsletter

Looking for beach books? Lake books? Page turners? New York Times best sellers?

Warm breezy weather and my thoughts turn to easy reading, a comfortable chair outside, and a cool beverage. I always like to take a look at the New York Times (NYT) Best Seller lists, a good source for, as some pundit said “best sellers, not best reviewed.”

​The NYT Best Sellers lists, eleven weekly and five monthly, try to reflect individual purchases from tens of thousands of stores of all sizes and types. Most best-selling books will be on a list for an average of three to five weeks. The Century Club, for books on a list for 100 weeks or more, is a select group with positive word of mouth and sustained sales. These books are great reads and terrific conversation starters. Some examples in the Coffman Library are:

• ​Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens, 168+ weeks. A coming-of-age story about a young girl raised in the backwoods of coastal Carolina. Lyrical descriptions of the flora and fauna of the coast. Movie just released. Shelved in the Recent and Relevant section.
• All the Light We Can Not See, by Anthony Doerr, 200+ weeks. A unique WWII novel with emphasis on war’s impact on two young people, one a Nazi German boy and the other a blind French girl, one fascinated with science and technology and the other with nature. Won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and Andrew Carnegie Medal. Netflix series currently being filmed. I generally do not read WWII fiction, but loved this one. Shelved in the Fiction section.
• Educated, by Tara Westover, 132 weeks. A must-read memoir for anyone interested in the inspirational power of education. Shelved in the Biography section.

And of course, who can forget mysteries and thrillers, a Times Best Seller mainstay? The following are all shelved in Mysteries, except for the newest.

• Louise Penny has had many of her mysteries debut as #1 on a Times list. Coffman has thirty of her titles, including her latest, Madness of Crowds, and the one written with Hillary Clinton, State of Terror.
• James Patterson has been on a Times list 408+ times. We have nine of his books, including the two he wrote with Bill Clinton, The President’s Daughter and The President Is Missing.
• John Sanford has written forty thrillers, mostly set in Minnesota, all on a Times Best Seller list. The Library owns nine, including the latest, The Investigator. In this one, the protagonist shifts to Letty Davenport, Lucas Davenport’s adopted daughter. The theme is domestic terrorism, and I thought this was one of his better recent ones. Shelved with Recent and Relevant.

And finally, a personal favorite: A Gentleman From Moscow by Amor Towles, on the list for fifty-two weeks. A sweeping social and political history of twentieth century Soviet Union told through the eyes of an aristocrat sentenced to decades of house arrest in the grand hotel Metropol. The scene where he plans the seating chart of a Khruschev-era Politburo dinner party is one of the funniest things I have ever read. Shelved in Fiction.  Happy reading!