Summer Reading

It’s time to start gathering your summer reading choices. First, pick up author Jael McHenry’s new novel The Kitchen Daughter. The protagonist, a woman with Asberger’s, discovers that cooking leads to family secrets. Why start with this particular novel? McHenry was raised in Janesville, and has agreed to visit this summer to kick off the Waterloo Public Library summer library program, and is also partially sponsored by the Cedar Falls Public Library.

Next, pick up Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos. The All Iowa Reads choice for 2011 is set in Nebraska, and interweaves family and love, sprinkled with irony. If you’re interested in a subdued but witty British love story that gives hope for those of us over the age of 50, check out Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson.

If you haven’t read Room by Emma Donoghue, make sure you have a block of time since you probably won’t be able to put it down. Told through 5-year-old Jack’s eyes, it’s the story of a young woman, and eventually her son, kidnapped and held hostage in a small room. To tell you more would be a spoiler. I found The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman to be another book I couldn’t put down. From the very first hardy settlers in a New England small town, a little Hoffman mysticism follows these family lines to the present.

Stephen King’s Full Dark, No Stars will keep you up nights for two reasons: the page turning novellas, and the subtle horror. Local author Dave Hoing’s fictionalized account of a family tragedy, set in the fictional town of Hammon Falls, will have you guessing just what bits of early Waterloo history he’s alluding to.

If you prefer your summer reading to stick to the facts, be sure you read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Even if you don’t like nonfiction and science, you will engage in this story of how the DNA of a poor African American woman has been the building block for fighting disease for the last fifty years. These books and many more are waiting to bring you a little summer escape, courtesy of the public library.