Six Sizzling Summer Reads on Studio Six

While most of the nation swelters, we in the Pacific Northwest are still waiting for summer.  I thought, well, hey, if I do a segment on KOIN Studio 6 on summer reads, then summer has to appear sometime.  Soon.  We hope.   In any case, I’ve come up with six sizzling summer reads.  Here’s the link to the show Studio 6 which aired Tuesday, July 19th.

• ADRENALINE by Jeff Abbott
  • This is a thriller – and it couldn’t have a more appropriate title
  • It’s about a young married CIA agent, Sam, whose wife is pregnant.  One day at the office, she calls him and commands him to get out of the building – which explodes.  Turns out his surviving CIA bosses think he planted the bomb – or maybe his wife did.  Either he’s a traitor or a fool.
  • Sam is imprisoned by the CIA, but he escapes, partly through his gift at parkour.  He heads to Europe – he’s trying to find his wife, whom he saw kidnapped.
  • A thrilling book, that is fueled by so many twists and turns.

• WITCHES OF EAST END by Melissa de la Cruz
  • Two witch-sisters and their witch-mother have been instructed to not use their powers again – or else.  But, after centuries of restraint, they loosen up.  And, it’s a bit too easy to do just a little magical love potion here, and a bringing-back-to-life there, and before they know it darker forces are unleashed
  • Melissa de la Cruz sets this book in a quiet section of Long Island, and it’s an adult book – after the author’s success writing YA books
    
  • It’s magical and gripping!
    

• IT LOOKED DIFFERENT ON THE MODEL by Laurie Notaro
  • I always feel so embarrassed reading her books.  These things never happen to me, but they could!  And, that’s the problem – like a car wreck, it’s impossible to turn away.
  • Some of her essays: seeing herself as the young woman she used to be in a much smaller size trying on a way-too-small top, and biting her nails as she does.  A character called Ambien Laurie who does naughty things late at night, and doesn’t remember them.  A stand-off at the tiny satellite post office in Eugene with the post office lady who doesn’t want to sell her four hundred two-cent stamps.
  • Yes, the stories are funny and embarrassing.

• THE SILENT GIRL by Tess Gerritsen
  •  I would read any of Tess’ books – she’s a former MD, and her plots are stunning and incisive
  • this book is about continuing characters M-E Dr Maura Isles and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli – there’s a TV series on TNT, but I haven’t seen it yet
  • a beautiful victim is found – her hand, that was holding a gun, is severed, and found in an alley where a tour of Chinatown is going on – and her body, neck slit, is found on the rooftop above.
  • The clues point to an old Chinese legend, a deity called the Monkey King
    
  • This thriller is ancient and current at once.
    

• INZANESVILLE by Jo Ann Beard
  • Zanesville is a Midwestern town – it’s about a 1970’s girlhood – a late-bloomer
    
  • Remember being fourteen?   Baby-sitting, cliques, best friends, then different friends? And, being a late-bloomer.  I hated being a late-bloomer…but then, maybe that’s why I turned into a reader.  Then a journalist.  Then an author-interviewer and book-reviewer.  See? Silver lining!
    
  • Literary and lovely.
• THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE by Helen Schulman
  • Ever hit “forward” on an email, and regret it? 
  • Fifteen-year old  Jake – who lives in a rarified upper-class Manhattan home – attends a party, and the 8^th grade girl who threw the party throws herself at him.  He brushes her off as too young. Jake’s dad is an executive at a large NY university. This girl Daisy is the daughter of a “label,” a guy like Calvin Klein.  And, the parents are not around for her, and definitely, not at the party. Then the next morning, there is a very seductive video of the girl, Daisy, in his inbox.  Jake freaks, and forwards it to his best friend.  And, it goes viral.  It’s called Daisy and the bat.
  •  Everything seems to get handled – but does it, really?

Enjoy your summer reading!  Oh, my favorite?  ADRENALINE!