What We’re Reading Right Now

A few Alamedans share their summer reading list, which includes The Book of Strange New Things and Let’s Pretend This Never Happened.

What’s on your summer reading list?

Josette King: I plan to read Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver and The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth Church. These books appeal to me as I know they are ideal summer reads that share nature and our natural world as a theme. Perfect for the beach.

Noah Lyons: I am so looking forward to reading The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber. I understand it to be a beautiful, haunting tale about a priest on an alien planet, love, loss, and language—a re-enchantment of the constellations above. Also on my list is Zero K by Don DeLillo, a sublime, ice-cold plunge into cryogenics, modern identity, and the convergence of the virtual (media) with the actual (art).

Larry Yeaw: There are a couple of new titles that I recommend for summer reading that I’ve read. First, The Travelers by Chris Pavone, for sure. Other thriller fans like me (and especially fans of John le Carré) will love this taut, complex tale of a travel journalist coerced into becoming a CIA operative. My other suggestion is Mothering Sunday: A Romance by Graham Swift. It is a short and beautifully written novel that will appeal to fans of Downton Abbey, and readers of Atonement and The Remains of the Day.

Elizabeth Jenkins: I’m planning on reading The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins. I look forward to following character Gregor as he discovers a whole world under Manhattan. Collins wrote this series before she wrote the The Hunger Games, and they are terrific. I will also be reading The Borrowers by Mary Norton. I’m so excited that all of the adventures of the Clock family are back. I will be traveling with them as they look for a place where very small people can make a home.

Jane Chisaki: Where to begin? I’m definitely going to read Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto. It is based on a true story about a Japanese-American family caught up by World War II. The parents are first-generation Japanese immigrants to the West Coast (Auburn, Washington), caught in all the Yellow Peril prejudice that preceded the war and the family is ultimately divided. It should be fascinating nonfiction. I’m also not going to pass up Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson. Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, is the author of one of the funniest blogs (if not the funniest blog) I read on the internet