9 Great Books To Start Reading This Independence Day Weekend

People are wonderfully optimistic about their summer reading. Something about the longer days, and (eventual) sunshine seems to promise more time to sit back, crack open the pages of a new paperback, and dive into another world.  Whether or not they¹re looking for something perfectly frothy whose pages they won't mind staining with suntan lotion, or a thick, meaty tome they've been waiting years to tackle, people take their summer reading seriously.

While Memorial Day weekend normally signals the start of summer, this June with its April-in-Seattle weather was something of a false start.  So we're going to go ahead and count the Fourth of July as the official kick-off holiday of the season.  The summer reading season, that is. Below are some of Newtonville Books’ favorite suggestions for books to get you started over this long holiday weekend.

1- The Scenic Route by Binnie Kirshenbaum

 

“Here is the story of Henry and me. I wish it had a different end.” That’s how the book opens, but instead of offering a conventional narrative of a love affair, Kirshenbaum goes far deeper.  The novel is filled with vivid flashbacks, memories, and asides as Sylvia and Henry share their histories and fall in love, exploring the idea of family and truth, and the power of storytelling.

 

 

 

2- Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas

Thomas' straight-to-paperback debut made quite a splash last year after it received an impressive front page review in the New York Times Book Review.  The book takes place over a four day stretch of the narrator's life in New York City as he attempts to turn his life around; financially, personally, spiritually.  The inner monologues of the narrator reveal a man frustrated with his past (let down by both family and friends), reactions to his race, alcoholism, and his inability to follow through on his ambitions and dreams.  A fresh new voice in American literature.

 

 

 

3- A Gentleman’s Guide to Graceful Living by Michael Dahlie

 

The Fitzgeraldian narrator of Dahlie's novel is besieged by divorce, the dissolution of the family business, and a stolen heirloom, and wrestles with whether or not to 'show a little stick' in the face of his many trials. You can’t help rooting for this winsome, unique narrator to the very end.  Dryly funny, this book is perfect to read on warm summer nights while you sip your own well-made gin and tonic.

 

 

 

4- Nixonland by Rick Perlstein

 

Nixonland is political history at its best — colorful, bold, and immensely detailed without ever losing sight of its main narrative. Perlstein’s book captures all the ferment of the ’60s and early ’70s, from race riots to student radicals to the sinister Jowled One who translated simmering resentment into a political rebirth in the White House.  Aside from opening a new window into American history, it goes a long way in explaining much of the conflict and fierce partisanship in contemporary politics.

 

 

5- The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey

 

The author of Eva Moves the Furniture returns with her best novel to date. Told in four brilliantly intertwined narratives, the book circles around the lives—and loves—of two young women, Abigail and Dara, who live in different apartments in the same London house.  Livesey beautifully explores the inner-worlds of the main characters as they veer toward tragedy. I could not put this down.

 

 

 

6- American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

 

Alice is a reserved elementary school librarian from a modest background when she meets Charlie at a party. The son of a prominent Republican family, Charlie is ambitious, boisterous, and utterly charming. Years later, when Charlie is elected President, Alice finds herself questioning her marriage to a man whose beliefs are so different from hers. Based loosely on the life of Laura Bush, American Wife is an excellent choice for this summer.

 

 

7- Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

 

The expansive, green, sunny fields of a cricket match are a perfect setting for a summer vacation read, and O'Neill's beautiful, warm prose is wonderful to escape into.  Dutch banker Hans, his Trinidadian Gatsby-esque friend Chuck, and the rest of their cricket team challenge the reader to imagine a different New York City, and possibly a different America, that is seldom seen.

 

 

 

8- Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M.M. Blume

Cornelia is a young lonely bookish girl living in the shadow of her mother, the famous pianist Lucy Englehart. She hides behind her large vocabulary and retreats into her room until the wonderfully mysterious and fascinating Virginia Somerset moves in next door.

Virginia introduces a small feisty bulldog into Cornelia's life and fills her once dreary and lonely days with stories of exotic lands from her own childhood "escapades" with her two sisters. This book is a must read, one of the best middle grade novels I've encountered. Superbly written, wonderfully entertaining and endearing Blume takes her readers on a journey around the world and within the imagination.

9- The Fence by Dick Lehr

A Police Cover-Up Along Boston's Racial Divide. It is a riveting expose on police brutality on one of their own men in 1995. White Boston Police officers mistook Michael Cox, a black plainclothes officer. Following this incident was a blatant cover-up orchestrated by the BPD; in fact, news of Cox getting injured only appeared in The Boston Globe a full 10 days after the fact, and the information released was evasive and vague at best. Lehr shares an illuminating, fastidiously researched window into police loyalty and culture, the dynamics of race and politics, and the exceptionally long and hard journey to justice for one police officer. A fascinating read.

This list has been provided by the lovely people at Newtonville Books