What I’m Reading This Summer

By Victoria Tirrel

When the mercury hits 90 or the rain falls, you’ll find my nose in a book. This summer I’ve read my way through some of my old favorites and a few new ones courtesy of the Coffman Library.

I recently finished Miller’s Way by Anna Quindlen, a novel about a young girl growing up in a valley named for her family that is under threat of being drown by a new water diversion project. The book spans her life from grade school until adulthood, the dynamics of a well-drawn family of diverse characters, against the backdrop of the ’60s to today. It’s a novel for people who love place and family.

Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad kept me reading eagerly. Winner of both the Pulitzer Price and the National Book Award, it’s the story of an escaping slave named Cora. Whitehead doesn’t stint on the brutality, but the subtlety he adds to the portrayal of slave life and escape keeps the book a page turner. Highly recommended!

I’m now about a third of the way through Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach, which tells the story of the daughter of a man with mafia connections as she works in the Brooklyn Naval Yard during WWII. So far it’s rich with history and possibility…can’t wait to find out what happens. Egan won the Pulitizer Prize for her earlier book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, so you know the writing is excellent!

I hope you’ll check out these novels and the myriad other wonderful books waiting on the shelves of your library. Happy summer reading!