In the hopes that it's not too early (or too optimistic of me) to start thinking about summer reading – for fun, not work – I'll make a few suggestions below that people may be interested in picking up on a beach somewhere. I'd love to hear what books others would suggest for summer reading.
I've blogged previously about Supreme Courtship and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and would definitely recommend both of them.
I've also enjoyed discovering Carl Hiaasen – Nature Girl and Skinny Dip, amongst others.
Then, there's the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series. The first two books have been released in the U.S. and are great. I'm still awaiting release of the third book and haven't yet seen the movie which is also meant to be pretty good.
For those who like Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series (the genesis of HBO's True Blood TV series), there's apparently a new one of those coming out next month. I've also started reading one of Harris' other series – the Harper Connelly mysteries. Not as good as Sookie Stackhouse, but I've only read the first book so far so it may not be a fair comparison. (And, speaking of vampires, I finally did see "Let the Right One In" which I enjoyed in its own low-key gruesome way.)
Also speaking of vampires, I was once a fan of Anne Rice, but really found her newest book, Angel Time, to be pretty tedious.
For the girls amongst us (stop reading here, guys), pretty much anything written by Sophie Kinsella is a good holiday read. In a similar vein to the Bridget Jones books and very English. Kinsella writes the "Confessions of a Shopaholic" series along with a bunch of other similar books.
Back to murder mysteries, a "not bad" debut novel by Georgina Donovan set in Hawaii is "Reads Like Murder – in Honolulu".
I guess my spring reading list comprised a lot of vampire books and murder mysteries – so perhaps people can suggest other directions in which I could develop my pop culture pursuits over the summer…
Hiaasen's the best! But be sure to check out the earlier books, like "Tourist Season," "Big Whammy," "Native Tongue" (one of the laugh-out-loud funniest) and, of course, "Striptease." "Skin Tight" is good, but a little dark. And if you like Hiassen, you need to go back to John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series. MacDonald sort of invented the Florida caper novel genre. "The Deep Blue Goodbye" is the first of the series, and all of the Travis McGee novels have a color in the title. And if you can't get enough Florida caper novels, check out Randy Wayne White's Doc Ford series. Elmore Leonard's "Maximum Bob" is another classic, as is "Rum Punch."
Here are twenty (of the too many to mention) books on my list of "need to buy and read":
The Rembrandt Affair (Daniel Silva)
Prayers for Sale (Sandra Dallas)
The First Tycoon (T. J. Stiles)
Sworn to Silence (Linda Castillo)
The Devil’s Company (David Liss)
Bloodroot (Amy Greene)
Pulitzer (James McGrath Morris)
One Amazing Thing (Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni)
The Postmistress (Sarah Blake)
When Money Was In Fashion (June Breton Fisher)
Caught (Harlan Coben)
The Kitchen House (Kathleen Grissom)
The Surrendered (Chang-Rae Lee)
Heresy (S. J. Parris)
The Scent of Rain and Lightning (Nancy Pickard)
Roger Maris (Tom Clavin and Danny Peary)
False Mermaid (Erin Hart)
Willie Mays (James Hirsch)
Innocent (Scott Turow)
Moment of Glory: The Year Underdogs Ruled Golf (John Feinstein)
You don't actually have to wait for the third Dragon Tattoo book — just order it from amazon.co.uk and get the British version. This last one actually has some trial scenes, with more of Blomkvist's sister the lawyer.
I'm starting with Joseph O'Neill's Netherland and Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger. Also reading some classic adventure books (King Arthur, Robin Hood, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Lost World) aloud with my young son.