Summer Reading List
Well, I love whittling down the pile of books that collects on my nightstand in the summer. Here are a few of the books on my summer reading list. Please comment and let me know what is on yours!
I just finished reading Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. It was fantastic! I started it on the plane to Shanghai last month and, even though I knew I needed to sleep on the ride over, I didn’t want to put the book down! It was a quick read and, honestly, I didn’t want it to end. I promise you’ll love it!
This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.
For four years, from the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in November 1960 until after the election of Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Clint Hill was the Secret Service agent assigned to guard the glamorous and intensely private Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. During those four years, he went from being a reluctant guardian to a fiercely loyal watchdog and, in many ways, her closest friend.
Now, looking back fifty years, Clint Hill tells his story for the first time, offering a tender, enthralling, and tragic portrayal of how a Secret Service agent who started life in a North Dakota orphanage became the most trusted man in the life of the First Lady who captivated first the nation and then the world.
Filled with unforgettable details, startling revelations, and sparkling, intimate moments, this is the once-in-a-lifetime story of a man doing the most exciting job in the world, with a woman all the world loved, and the tragedy that ended it all too soon— a tragedy that haunted him for fifty years.
a stunning debut, an irresistible social satire that is also an unforgettable
meditation on the persistence of hope, the yearning for connection, and the
promise of enduring love.
retreat on the pristine New England island of Waskeke. Normally a haven of
calm, for the next three days this sanctuary will be overrun by tipsy revelers
as Winn prepares for the marriage of his daughter Daphne to the affable young
scion Greyson Duff. Winn’s wife, Biddy, has planned the wedding with
military precision, but arrangements are sideswept by a storm of salacious
misbehavior and intractable lust: Daphne’s sister, Livia, who has recently had
her heart broken by Teddy Fenn, the son of her father’s oldest rival, is an
eager target for the seductive wiles of Greyson’s best man; Winn, instead of
reveling in his patriarchal duties, is tormented by his long-standing crush on
Daphne’s beguiling bridesmaid Agatha; and the bride and groom find themselves
presiding over a spectacle of misplaced desire, marital infidelity, and
monumental loss of faith in the rituals of American life.
well written, Shipstead’s deceptively frothy first novel is a piercing
rumination on desire, on love and its obligations, and on the dangers of
leading an inauthentic life, heralding the debut of an exciting new literary
voice.
The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.
And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio’s back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.
What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion—along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow. Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.
*all bios courtesy of Amazon.com
These look great! I just added several to my amazon wish list!
Thanks for the great suggestions! I just added a few to my amazon cart!
I was wondering whether you would be happy to put up a link in my monthly series called “Books You Love”. The idea is for people to link up posts about a book they loved. It could be an old fave. I am hoping we will end up with a nice collection of books that can go on our reading lists. Here is the link Books You Loved July Edition
Hi Carole,
What a fun idea! We just linked up our Summer Reading List to your "Books We Love." Thanks for letting us know about it!
xo
KSW Team
Jessika – thanks for linking in to Books You Loved. Have a great week.
They all look so good…thanks.
NEW FOLLOWER…is there any way to subscribe by e-mail?
Elizabeth
Silver's Reviews
http://silversolara.blogspot.com
Great suggestions! I'm going to check out the Lisa See book right away.
I recommend, 'A Piece of my Heart' by Jane Green & 'Adrenaline' by Jeff Abbott… fast paced summer reads!
Great blog!