Tuesday, May 24, 2011

In Search of the Perfect Summer Read

Many people believe that winter is the best time for reading.  Curling up on the couch with a blanket and spending the afternoon savoring a book is a fabulous way to spend those dark winter months.  But for me, the perfect season for reading is summer.  Memories of being stretched out on my bed as a girl, reading book after book; as a teen, discovering a new author just in time for days at the pool or a week at the beach; and long afternoons in the public library: that's what summer meant to me.

That hasn't changed.  With the slower pace of life that summer provides, my stack of books is calling to me. There is a lot on my virtual bookshelf right now, but what I want right now is not just any book - I want the elusive "perfect summer read."

There's a lot that goes into the criteria for the perfect book, and each person's list is different.  On my list of criteria is that the book must be enjoyable but not necessarily deep, preferably fiction, long enough to sink my teeth into, and most of all, "unputdownable."  You know what I mean - the kind of book where you look up and two hours have gone by, the kids are tugging at you asking "where's lunch?" and you find yourself daydreaming about it when you're NOT reading.  That kind of book.

My search continues.  There is a new Lisa See book due out (a sequel to Shanghai Girls, which I really enjoyed), a new Ann Patchett, and a few books which have just come into paperback, including The Passage by Joseph Cronin.  When I find that perfect book I will let you know, but I hope you will be looking too - because everyone has their very own summer read just waiting to be devoured.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Flavia de Luce: Nancy Drew, She's Not

Like every other girl I knew growing up, I was a huge Nancy Drew fan.  Nancy Drew seemed to have it all - spunk, loyalty, a quick mind, and above all, fearlessness.  She was everyone's favorite girl detective.  Now, some 60 years later, Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew needs to make room for a different kind of sleuth - Flavia de Luce.

Flavia de Luce is the star of Alan Bradley's mystery series, which began in 2009 with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Flavia does share many of Nancy Drew's characteristics - she's spunky, she's bright, and she doesn't mind sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong.  Most of the similarities end there.  As the youngest of three girls, Flavia spends a great deal of time tormenting her sisters, developing potions and poisons in her private laboratory and causing her sisters great discomfort.   Bradley's series is set in the English countryside in the years following World War One, but Flavia's adventures have a certain timelessness about them that could take place in any period.  With her trusty bicycle Gladys, Flavia tools around town solving mysteries and generally causing mayhem with the local police.  In the most recent novel, Flavia meets a traveling band of gypsies, and between solving old crimes and new ones, manages to outsmart the killer, the police, and her own family.

Of Bradley's series, my favorite is Flavia's first novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, but each of his  novels has their charm, and Red Herring is a highly enjoyable read. The mystery is fun, the violence is present but not gory, and Flavia's adventures never grow old.  Ideally, Flavia's books should be read in order, but each book stands alone.  I hope you will enjoy getting to know Flavia as I have, for she is one of the most charming detectives of the literary world today.