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Great Summer Reads
by monique t
Fiction / June 12, 2006
Are you looking for good books to read this summer? Here's my summer reading list recommendations.
New Fiction
BETWEEN THE BRIDGE AND THE RIVER by Craig Ferguson (Chronicle, 0-8118-5375-6, $29.95 cloth)
Ferguson is best-known as host of The Late Late Show, and moviegoers may recognize him as the Glasgow hairdresser in The Big Tease and the pot-puffing lead in Saving Grace. His strange, funny, profane, surreal, and surprisingly moving first novel is about friends, religion and the entertainment industry.
THE WHISTLING SEASON by Ivan Doig (Harcourt, 0-15-101237-7, $32.95 cloth)
“Can't cook but doesn't bite.” So begins the newspaper ad for “A-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition” that draws the attention of widower Oliver Milliron in fall 1909. And so begins the unforgettably funny season that brings the non-cooking, non-biting, ever-whistling Rose Llewellyn to small-town Montana.
New in Paperback
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THE HIGHEST TIDE by Jim Lynch (Bloomsbury USA, 1-58234-629-1, $17.95 paper)
Thirteen-year-old Miles O'Malley lives on Puget Sound and knows everything there is to know about the sea and its creatures. When he becomes the first person to sight a live giant squid he is hailed as some sort of prophet. It's one freakish summer for Miles.
Listen to the podcast: http://raincoast.com/highest-tide/
THE MYSTERIOUS FLAME OF QUEEN LOANA by Umberto Eco (Harcourt, 0-15-603043-8, $18.95 paper)
Yambo, a sixtyish rare-book dealer who lives in Milan, has suffered a memory loss--he can remember the plot of every book he has read, but he no longer knows his own name. He searches through his family home for old newspapers, comics, photos and diaries, reliving the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon.
Non-Fiction Summer Reads
RIVER IN THE DESERT by Paul William Roberts (Raincoast, 1-55192-963-5, $24.95 paper)
Paul William Roberts explores ancient and modern Egypt, encountering magicians, politicians, monks and archaeologists. He spends a terrifying night in the central chamber of the Great Pyramid and is smuggled into the clandestine gathering of a sufi tariqa. He is carried by boat to the great temple of Isis and reads Death on the Nile while sleeping in Agatha Christie's bed. Over several visits, Roberts discovers and reveals a country that is as rich and enduring as the Nile itself.
HIPPO EATS DWARF by Alex Boese (Harcourt, 0-15-603083-7, $18.95 paper)
Hippo Eats Dwarf demystifies hoaxes, urban legends, fake news, fake photos and fake bodies--and presents the rules for navigating the world of b.s. This is the entertaining, illuminating and essential field guide to reality.
An Otto Penzler Mystery
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LEARNING TO KILL: Stories by Ed McBain (Harcourt, 0-15-101222-9, $32.95 cloth)
Kids in trouble and women in jeopardy. Gangs and private eyes. Loose cannons and innocent bystanders. Cops and robbers. These stories prepared Evan Hunter to become Ed McBain and to write the beloved 87th Precinct novels. In individual introductions, McBain tells how and why he wrote the stories that started his legendary career.
RED LEAVES by Thomas H. Cook (Harcourt, 0-15-603234-1, $17.95 paper)
Eric Moore has a prosperous business and a stable family life in a quiet town. Then his teenage son babysits Amy Giordano, the eight-year-old daughter of a neighbouring family. The next morning Amy is missing, and Eric isn't sure his son is innocent.
2006 World Urban Forum (June 19-23, Vancouver)
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THE CITIES BOOK by Lonely Planet (1-74104-731-5, $62.50 cloth)
A Journey through the best cities in the world, The Cities Book is a pictorial coffee-table book that ventures into the top 200 cities in the world, as voted by Lonely Planet travellers, authors and staff.
CODE GREEN: Trips of a Lifetime That Won't Cost the Earth by Kerry Lorimer (Lonely Planet, 1-74104-791-9, $25.95 paper)
Sustainable travel and responsible tourism are practices that are gaining popularity around the world as people recognize the fragility, as well as the wonders, of our planet. Code Green offers a guide for people who are looking for unique and culturally authentic travel experiences that protect and preserve the ecological and cultural environment.
The above titles were also featured in Raincoast's June Title Wave Newsletter. The Title Wave Newsletter is a monthly email newsletter about new fiction and nonfiction titles. Each newsletter includes a contest draw for a featured title. To sign up for the Raincoast newsletter visit, Raincoast.com/newsletters/