| By Thorndike Staff |
While southerners may already be sweltering, folks in the northern region are just now packing away their parkas! So yes, it’s time to shelve those TV series about lusty time-travelers and gilded socialites and plan your summer of binge reading. Whether your vibe is a mountain view, a cozy cottage, or your own backyard haven, we’ve got titles to tempt any reader. First up, a brilliant smash-up of fiction and fantasy about an environmental apocalypse. Then, a secretive ballerina story to keep you on your toes. Finally, two tales about bookstores with unlikely and imaginative characters. Happy summer reading!
Harrow by Joy Williams
9781432897413
Winner the Kirkus Prize for Fiction
Finalist for the 2022 Pen/Jean Stein Book Award
A 2022 L.A Times Book Prize Finalist
“An enigmatic, elegant meditation on the end of civilization — if end it truly is . . . As the clock ticks away, Williams seeds her story with allusions to Kafka, bits of Greek mythology, philosophical notes on the nature of tragedy, and gemlike description, and all along with subtly sardonic humor.” — starred, Kirkus Reviews
Khristen is a teenager who, her mother believes, was marked by greatness as a baby when she died for a moment and then came back to life. After Khristen’s failing boarding school for gifted teens closes its doors, and she finds that her mother has disappeared, she ranges across the dead landscape and washes up at a “resort” on the shores of a mysterious, putrid lake the elderly residents there call “Big Girl.” In a rotting honeycomb of rooms, these old ones plot actions to punish corporations and people they consider culpable in the destruction of the final scraps of nature’s beauty. What will Khristen learn from this “gabby seditious lot”?
The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
9781432898120
A #1 LibraryReads Pick
An Indie Next Pick
Named Most Anticipated by New York Times, Goodreads, Library Journal, Pure Wow, E!, BookRiot, and PopSugar
“Deliciously observed emotional tangles.” — Library Journal
Thirteen years ago, Delphine Léger abandoned her prestigious soloist spot at the Paris Opera Ballet for a new life in St. Petersburg — taking with her a secret that could upend the lives of her best friends, fellow dancers Lindsay and Margaux. Now 36 years old, Delphine has returned to her former home and to the legendary Palais Garnier Opera House, to choreograph the ballet that will kickstart the next phase of her career — and, she hopes, finally make things right with her former friends. But Delphine quickly discovers that things have changed while she’s been away, and some secrets can’t stay buried forever.
The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher
9781432896867
A BookBub Best Historical Fiction Book
A BookTrib Top Ten Historical Fiction Book of Spring
A SheReads’ Best Literary Historical Fiction
A Reader’s Digest’s Best Books for Women Written by Female Authors
A PopSugar Much-Anticipated Novel
When Sylvia Beach opens Shakespeare and Company in 1919, she has no idea that she and her new bookstore will change the course of . . . literature itself. It’s where some of the most important literary friendships of the 20th century are forged — none more so than the one between James Joyce and Sylvia herself. When Joyce’s controversial novel Ulysses is banned, Beach takes a risk and publishes it under the auspices of Shakespeare and Company. But the future of her store is threatened when Ulysses’ success brings other publishers to woo Joyce away. As she faces painful personal and financial crises, Sylvia must decide what Shakespeare and Company truly means to her.
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
9781432898144
A LibraryReads Pick
An Indie Next Pick
“Bibliophiles will dote on this charming import from Japan, smoothly translated by Louise Heal Kawai.” — Library Journal
Natsuki Books was a bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, everyone crammed full of books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather created. He spent many hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be a recluse. After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone. It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated, and betrayed them.
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