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.

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.

Swamplandia!, Part 2

Swamplandia! update: I finished this fabulous book earlier in the week, and it was well worth it.  I did not have to sleep with the lights on, but remember when I said it was dark?  Oh, I hadn't even gotten to the darkest part yet. Ava's journey, both metaphorical and literal, is breathtaking.  I can't reveal any more without ruining a few plot twists, but Ava's trip will leave her (and you, the reader) changed.

A word of warning - those of you who like a big, fat bow at the end will be disappointed.  The book does wrap up most of the loose ends, but questions remain unanswered.  That being said, Swamplandia! is worth every squirming moment.  Swamplandia! is an ideal candidate for me to slip into book letdown, but Kate Atkinson's newest, Started Early, Took My Dog is calling out for me to dive in!

Swamplandia! Part 1

Every year I wait with great anticipation for Steven King's "Best Books of the Year" article in Entertainment Weekly.  Karen Russell's book Swamplandia! made the cut for 2010, and since Mr. King hasn't steered me wrong yet, I was eager to read it. The advance praise on Swamplandia! described it as both quirky and dark.  The quirky part I got - Swamplandia! is about a family-run wildlife park in Florida where the main act includes wrestling alligators.  But I was about halfway through before I started to see the dark side.  And it is dark, my friends - very dark.

The Bigtree family's matriarch has died of cancer, and the surviving family - father (Chief), son Kiwi, and daughters Ossie and Ava - are left to pick up the pieces and get the park back on track.  With few visitors, the park is forced to close.  The family becomes completely unraveled when Kiwi leaves for the mainland, where he gets a job as a janitor at Swamplandia's largest and nearest competitor, the creepy "World of Darkness" park that features the rings of Hell.  Ossie begins using a Ouija board to start dating ghosts, and goes into a trance on a daily basis. Chief leaves to go find financing to help get the park out of debt. Things take an even darker turn when Ossie begins sneaking out nightly to meet her ghostly date, and 13-year-old Ava must take matters into her own hands.

You know that feeling when you are reading a book and you know whatever comes next is going to be really bad?  I have had that feeling of dread for about 30 pages now in Swamplandia!, and it's only going to get worse.   Russell's descriptions of the primordial swamp where the Bigtree family lives, the malevolent buzzards that reappear throughout  the book, and the World of Darkness park are so vivid, it makes you feel as if you are there yourself.  It all adds up to one really disturbing story.

But how can I stop?  Even though I am literally squirming with anticipation, I have to keep reading - how else will I know what happens to Ava, and the fate of Swamplandia! and the entire Bigtree family?  Stay tuned and  I'll let you know how it all turns out - and how many nights I had to sleep with the light on.  Happy reading!

Spellbound

I have been under the spell of a good book these last two weeks.  Laundry has gone undone, food has gone uncooked (until people loudly protested!) and errands have fallen to the wayside.  Much like the main protagonist in A Discovery of Witches, I have been spellbound.

A Discovery of Witches is another in a long line of books with supernatural characters, but what sets Witches apart is the storytelling.  It is part Romeo and Juliet and part Grimm's Fairy Tales, and written in such an easy, comfortable manner that you find yourself lost in the story.  Set in the current time, we meet Dr. Diana Bishop, an accomplished scientist who also happens to be a witch.  Diana's family tree includes generations of witches leading all the way back to the Salem Witch Trials, so it was expected that Diana not only accept but embrace her birthright.  Instead, Diana has turned her back on her heritage and focused her energies on the history of alchemy.  All that changes when Diana discovers a centuries' old alchemical book that contains the mystery of eternal life for supernatural creatures, all of whom wish to get their "otherworldly" hands on it.

What kind of fairy tale would this be without a prince?  Quickly after discovering the text, known as Ashmole 782, Diana meets Matthew Clairmont, an ancient and powerful vampire.  In Harkness' supernatural world, there are three types of creatures: witches, daemons, and vampires, and never shall those types intermingle.  Diana and Matthew find themselves drawn closer together as they ward off creatures willing to do whatever it takes to retrieve the book and unlock its secrets, and despite the forbidden nature of their relationship, fall in love.

The mysteries that unfold make this book worth reading, but it is Diana's magical abilities and how they are revealed that sets it apart from others in the genre.  By now you know my feelings on spoilers, so to reveal too much more would ruin the book for you.  I will say that by the final chapter, you will be turning the pages as quickly as you can, only to realize that this is just the beginning of Matthew and Diana's story, and to learn the end, you must wait for the sequel.

Now that A Discovery of Witches' spell has been broken, I will wade back through the mountains of clothes that never seem to clean themselves (if only I had a spell for that!), go back to the grocery store, and return to the land of the living. But though my life may go back to the mundane, the images of Diana and all her powers will remain.