A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

After swearing off buying any new books this summer, the cover of this novel sold me, but the interrelated chapters detailing the lives of musicians and spanning several decades made it a difficult novel to follow. The biggest surprise of the novel was the Powerpoint presentation style of one of the last chapters. The novel is clever, the portrayal of aging rock stars is entertaining and the satiric wit is sharp.

I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

I enjoyed Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know so much that I was thrilled to score a copy of this novel to review. Although I felt pretty creeped-out by the story of a middle-aged woman who is contacted from prison by the man who she sent there decades before, I turned the pages of this novel pretty quickly to see how the story would unfold. Protagonist Eliza Benedict is busy mothering her own young children when she receives a disturbing message from Walter Bowman, a man who is facing execution for molesting and murdering young women, as well as holding young Eliza hostage back in her teens. Flashbacks propel this psychological thriller.

The Lovers by Vendela Vida

This was one of my favorite books of the summer, perhaps because of the lovely descriptions of the coastline in Turkey where the main character, Yvonne, goes to try to recapture some of her honeymoon memories following the death of her husband. Although is begins as a story about travel, it quickly becomes a psychological character study and then abruptly turns into an examination of redemption after an accidental death helps Yvonne to reckon with her relationship with her own child. Vida is married to Dave Eggers, and as a literary couple, they are the ones to watch in the next decades.

One Day by David Nicholls

This novel follows the relationship of Dexter and Emma, beginning on the day they graduate from college in 1988 through 20 years of bad jobs, missed opportunities and love loss. Each chapter is set on July 15th of the next year, and their on and off again courtship made for an easy, entertaining summer read.

The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst

If you are looking for a book to read on the beach or plane tomorrow, pick up this literary mystery. Fictitious author Octavia Frost is on her way to drop off a manuscript at her publisher's office when she sees the television news story about her rock-star son being taken in as a suspect in his girlfriend's murder. The novel is enhanced by samples of Frost's own fiction - endings and alternate endings of her novels between the chapters that advance the storyline of the murder investigation. Apparently, Octavia has a hard time selecting the right ending for her books - no so for Parkhurst.

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton

A high school music teacher is caught having an affair with a student. I wish I thought that was a novel idea. What made this book interesting to me was the character of the saxaphone teacher who functions as a manipulative force in the coming together of several student's lives. I was reminded of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Eleanor Catton's prose makes this read worth your time.

The Tower, The Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart

I have finally found a way to score some advanced reader copies of books and this was the first to steal my attention this summer. What a wonderful little story. I had no idea that the Tower of London was used as a menagerie on several occasions throughout history. The novel focuses on the strain created in his marriage when one of the Beefeaters is approached to manage the tower zoo. My favorite part of the novel was the alternate story line concerning the Beefeater's disgruntled wife and her odd co-worker at the London Underground's Lost Properties Unit. Funny, warm and satisfying, this book will be available August 10 from Doubleday.

Old School by Tobias Wolfe

Our book club selection for June proved to be a quick read perfectly tailored for English teachers. Set at a male boarding school in the sixties, the book examines what it means to be a teacher and a writer. Robert Frost, Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemingway are each visiting authors slated to come visit the school. Prior to these visits, the boys write a contest piece that determines which of them will be selected to have a private interview with the visiting author. I will recommend this book to teacher friends - there should be a lot of book club discussion fodder here.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson

We went to see the Swedish subtitled movie of The GIrl with the Dragon Tattoo on Friday night, so I was anxious to finish this last installment in the trilogy. Wow!!!! Up really late turning pages at the end of Lisbeth's trial last night. I love these books!

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

My official first day of summer break following a week of grading AP English Literature and Composition essays in Louisville was spent reading Aimee Bender's new novel. I am a huge fan of Bender's quirky characters and this book did not disappoint. The main character in this work of magical realism is a little girl named Rose who can taste emotions in her food - from the sadness of her mother's lemon cake to the sterility of school cafeteria food. I devoured the book in one sunny day on the deck - no pun intended.

Elliot Allagash by Simon Rich

Light Boxes by Shane Jones

Tinkers by Paul Harding

AP Senior Tribute

Everything Matters by Ron Currie Jr.

I scrambled to order this book from the library when no bookstore around had a copy, then ran out of patience and ordered one from Amazon, which came the same day as the library copy. Was it worth it? For sure. Junior Thibodeau learns in utero that the world will end on June 15, 2010 at 3:44 pm. I had to read it quickly. Junior's family is a mess, his knowledge is pretty weighty and he squanders his youth, perhaps because he knows he will die at age 36. The novel alternates chapters titled with the names Junior's friends and family members with chapters that count backwards to his presumed last minute on earth narrated by the voice (is it God? - probably not) in his head. I got a little tired of the book in the middle section, but when I got the the final section, it kept me rapidly turning pages. If the book is a gimmick book, it was a gimmick that held me - and I think will have enough danger, drugs and derelict behavior to hold student readers as well.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

What's a vacation without a good audio book for the road? This one is a bit heavy on the melodrama, but a modern twist on a classical love story just the same. Ralph Pruitt's mail-order search for a reliable wife brings Catherine Land to his remote Wisconsin homestead. The mystery of her sensuous past and the deep seated remorse he carries over his past sins makes this almost a bodice-ripper. Almost. I can see this becoming a movie - soon.

Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber

I rounded out my Spring Break reading with this quirky story about a young man, Sid, who believes he is receiving postcards from Zoe, his old girlfriend, sent from all over the world. Since he is a telemarketer for adventure travel packages, Sid departs on a journey of his own and finally the reader learns the reasons for Sid's confusion about life. Also a quick read, I enjoyed Sid's self- deprecating narration.

Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger

I picked this up on cover image appeal needing a Spring Break travel book. A kayaker's love story. The novel opens with a tragic death and then flashes back to when Cobb and Mary met at a campsite along Maine's Allagash River. Whoever described it as Henry David Thoreau meets Nicholas Sparks had it right. Have a tissue ready for the end.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

I have only seen the trailer for the movie made recently from this novel. The book was an edge of your chair, page turner. Short chapters, mesmerizing characters and a fast paced mystery plot. I read it in two days and was not disappointed.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

I almost would have taken this long novel back to the library without reading it if it had not been for the full page advertisement in the New York Times Book Review last Sunday for its paperback release with glowing recommendations from John Irving. I read most of the 500 plus pages over this long Presidents Day weekend and wept this morning at the final scenes. Verghese is a medical doctor who also studied at Iowa Writers Workshop, and the novel is so full of accurately described medical procedures that I'm sure I missed a lot. However, it is the best book I have read in the last year. Set in Ethiopia and America, it is the story of love and loss between identical twin brothers and their famous, but estranged surgeon father. Get it in paperback and start reading today. It will be a long time before I stop talking about this book.

Starting Out in the Evening by Brian Morton

I found this gem of a book at one of our favorite Massachusetts bookstores, The Montague Book Mill, whose slogan is "Books you don't need in a place you can't find". I always find something browsing there and this time I brought home and immediately devoured Starting Out in the Evening. Heather Wolfe is a twenty-something graduate student who locates and pursues the somewhat reclusive seventy-something novelist Leonard Schiller. Her plan is to write a masters thesis on his work that will bring his older novels back into print. I cringed when it looked like it was going to be a smarmy love story, but the novel focuses in the end on Schiller's relationship with his adult daughter, Ariel and her struggles with love. It is a literary novel, with plenty of quotes, allusions and references to other writers and the craft of writing. When I found out a movie was made of this book, starring Frank Langella, and it had gotten good reviews, I couldn't wait to see it - and of course - was greatly disappointed. It did not include one of my favorite scenes in the book, when Frank returns to France to keep a promise to his deceased wife, and the comet scene in the end. Oh well. I should have known the book is ALWAYS better.

The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

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I have hit upon some great fiction for these cold winter Ohio nights. The Girl with Feet of Glass is a magical fairy tale on one level and complicated mystery on another. The fragile young heroine, Ida Maclaird, is a stranger in the icy bogland called St. Hauda's Land. She meets a local photographer, Midas Crooks, who struggles to help her when he learns that Ida is slowly turning to glass.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

A lovely read. Ford uses a split narrative to alternate between Henry Lee's childhood in 1942 when he meets Keiko Okabe and 1986, when the Panama Hotel's cache of treasures from interred Japanese families becomes public. Henry is forced by his father to wear an "I am Chinese" button and his growing affection for Japanese Kieko creates family tensions. The two young teens are separated by the war, Henry finds a Chinese bride, but the years do not dull his longings for what might have been. The book is more sweet than bitter.

Floodmarkers by Nic Brown

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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead