Some Summer Reading Suggestions

It’s hot outside, gas costs a fortune, as does everything else and vacations are either too short or non-existent. There is a solution and it’s free, portable and can be fit into the most demanding of schedules--the mini-vacation that you get when you escape into a great story. So whether you are looking for something for the beach bag or to while away the long commute now that the bus has become a favorite mode of transportation, here are some suggestions.

Louise Erdrich has long been an author that tells a great tale and that’s what you get in The Master Butcher’s Singing Club. Set in North Dakota this is an unusual story that has elements of mystery, an unsolved murder, romance and familial relationships. The author builds a story that gives a good sense of the early 1900s and small town America.

Leaping from the Midwest to far-off India, Thrity Umrigar’s The Space Between Us paints a vivid picture of the lives of two families, one upper class and the other the domestics that serve them. Told from the point of view of the women of each family the story explores the relationship between the families, the constraints imposed on them by their culture as well as issues of loyalty. Well-drawn characters combined with an exotic locale make this one a good escape for a summer’s day.

MORE FROM THE BEACH BAG

Louise Erdrich has written two very poetic novels guaranteed to transport the reader (all without the aid of a travel agent) to another place and time. These two titles, while neither could be considered a sequel, do follow the twists and turns of a group of Ojibwe Indians and their lives on and off the reservation at a time right before and after the First World War. The author tells stories of passion, revenge, redemption, compassion and of the tenacity to survive difficult times in alternating voices, sometimes from a male perspective and at others a feminine one. The Library owns copies of this author’s books including her critically acclaimed Love Medicine, Beet Queen and her recent The Master Butchers Singing Club any of which would also be a great way to while away a summer day.