usadeepsouth.com
by Augusta R. Scattergood
Summer Reading Lists aren’t just for kids. Airplane Books, Beach Reads, Sinking-Back-Into-the-Hammock Books -- all share that easy reading, take me to another place quality. Call it escapism, these books really can be read in any season. It’s just that the guilty pleasure of reading under a ceiling fan or sitting under a beach umbrella makes certain books worth saving for the summer.If the kids in your life need a diversion this summer, look no farther than your local library’s children’s room, book store, or museum gift shop. For younger readers, pick up a copy of the Mississippi Museum of Art’s new picture book, The Four Dog Blues Band, or How Chester, Boy, Dog in the Fog, and Diva Took the Big City by Storm. Written by staffers at the Museum, this is one of the most attractive and fun to share books I’ve seen in a while. Based on actual pieces by Mississippi artists at the museum, the book can actually make kids think and learn, and you will want to rush on over and see the aforementioned dogs in person, or at least see them hanging on the museum’s walls.
South Carolina native Barbara O’Connor’s books sing with her Southern voice. If your child (or your inner child) has had the misfortune to move outside the South, pick up a paperback copy of O’Connor’s novel, Moonpie and Ivy, the poignant story of Pearl, a young girl who, though abandoned by her mother, has the good fortune to live with an aunt who helps her discover things about herself and about life. A perfect novel to tuck into the camp care package. Or better yet, save this one to read together. Pearl will steal your heart.
Don’t overlook grown-up books as you plan that vacation book list. Although she sets her stories in New York, Emily Giffin has the soul of a Southern storyteller. Her latest, Baby Proof, is Chick Lit at its most fun. When one partner decides to toss out the window the promises they made -- that babies would be admired from afar -- a perfect marriage is blindsided. The twists Giffin puts on her books give her stories heart, and her writing keeps you turning those pages. Her two previous novels are available in paperback if you’re limited for space in that carry-on. Emily Giffin lives in Atlanta, attended Wake Forest University, and writes with style. Fun reading for 20-somethings to 60-somethings.
I’m a huge fan of mystery books. The more complicated the better. They are my escape reading, my pot-stirring books (so good you can’t put them down, even when the gravy needs stirring). That’s why I’m eagerly anticipating Karin Slaughter’s next “Grant County” installment, Beyond Reach, due out in time for late summer reading. For now, I may just have to reread Faithless. Buried alive in the Georgia woods has a high creep factor, but Slaughter lets her readers in on enough family drama to make them really care about her characters, especially Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver, who delve into solving crimes with more enthusiasm than they put toward working out their complicated relationship.Each year I look forward to Algonquin Press’s latest collection of New Stories from the South. The 2006 edition is edited by Allan Gurganus, and the collection is worth buying for his introduction alone. My copy already has that well-loved look, right about where Nanci Kincaid’s story begins. Although I planned to save the book for summer, I couldn’t resist “The Currency of Love,” a short story by the author of As Hot As It Was You Ought To Thank Me, one of my favorite recent Southern novels. Although I skipped over stories by Tony Earley and Wendell Berry to get to Kincaid’s, I plan to read this year’s collection of stories from beginning to end. As soon as I flip my calendar to summer.
Spend some time reading under sunny skies; slather on the sunscreen and escape to a strange new world. Even if it rains, grab a paperback book, find a screened-in porch and show the family what reading for fun is all about. Books offer the chance to be transported into another world, to try on another life. Seize the opportunity.
Augusta Russel Scattergood, a native Mississippi Deltan and retired librarian, writes book reviews for USADEEPSOUTH and other publications. Read more of her reviews at USADEEPSOUTH by clicking here: USADS BOOKS
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