The Best Book You Never Read JUST IN TIME FOR SUMMER READING
Shelley Laurence, Main Point Books
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UMMER IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER. SO IT’S time to grab a book and a beach chair and get your summer read on! Need some inspiration? I asked my co-workers at Main Point Books to talk about some of their favorites that may have escaped your notice. They hype their favorites in their own words, below. The list includes something old, something new and hopefully something new to you! If you’re not ready to hit the road yet, shop owner Cathy Fiebach suggests doing it by the book with Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation. “Who would believe visiting the sites of American political murders could be funny? Yes, it’s also an instructive dive into our shady history, but the book is propelled by Vowell’s wit and irreverent sense of humor.” Cathy also recommends traveling the American West via The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. “This is when Kingsolver had a sense of humor. The story is centered on a rural Kentucky woman who wants to escape getting pregnant and winds up on the road with a three-year old Native American child. It’s charming and engaging and says a lot about love, friendship and how life brings you unexpected things.” 30
County Lines | June 2021 | CountyLinesMagazine.com
Anmyriam Budner’s first pick is The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti. “Samuel Hawley is the worst man you will ever root for. His life is Herculean and he wears the scars on his body. Yet, even as you watch him make a hash of things, you realize he’s a genuinely good father. How much of the bad he does is in the service of trying to make good? Even as this book entertains, it makes you think.” Her second choice is a book of essays about nature. “Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez made me look at the natural world differently and begin to question humanity’s desire to control the environment.” Nick Wardigo offers up fantasy and something from the master of horror, Stephen King. “Doctor Sleep is an unexpectedly touching novel from a guy known for scaring the bejesus out of his readers. It does that too (plenty of ghosts and monsters), but it’s the sympathetic depiction of an alcoholic trying his damnedest to be a better man that will cut you to the bone.” If fantasy is your jam, Nick recommends A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay. “This is the latest novel from a terrific fantasy writer at the top of his game. Kay’s fantasy world is loosely based upon the Byzantine Empire and its fall, and he populates that
