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A Midsummer's Reading List

You're panting, you're puddling; summer is here. It's time to lie down on the floor of the screened porch, drink lemonade and read until they call you for dinner. To that end, Richmond.com recommends…

Serious fiction -- because you are serious, too  

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

By Junot Diaz

$24.95 at the Fountain Bookstore*

Diaz's debut novel won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. It's a portrait of Dominicans and Dominican American émigrés, both groups in the grip of legendary dictator Rafael Trujillo.

 

Novel About My Wife

By Emily Perkins

$14.95 at the Fountain Bookstore

Englishman Tom Stone is obsessed with his dead wife, Ann, so much so he is writing a novel about her. But the creepiest part of this book may be how convincingly it portrays people in their late 30s still grasping after money and security (so not for faint of heart 20-somethings).

 

New Zealand author Emily Perkins is better known in the U.K. than in the U.S., but that may change when this title becomes available here.

 

Pop fiction -- there's no need for shame  

Infected

By Scott Sigler

$24.95 at the Fountain Bookstore

Zombie movie fans lament, "If only a new '28 Days' would come out every month instead of every couple of years…" Fortunately, there's Sigler Scott to get you through those too-long gaps. This is Scott's first print novel (he has previously released only audio books).

 

Love the One You're With

By Emily Giffin

$24.95 at the Fountain Bookstore

Ellen is happily married to Andy but wonders what might have been with her ex, Leo. The husband is cheerful; the ex is smoldering, of course. It's fun, but if you're a literature snob, don't forget to batter your inhibitions a bit before digging in. Chick lit is best served with spiked lemonade.

 

Nonfiction -- memoirs and medical mysteries  

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

By David Sedaris

$25.99 at the Fountain Bookstore

Sedaris' latest memoir features 20-odd essays.

 

The Family that Couldn't Sleep: a Medical Mystery

By D.T. Max

$15.95 at Barnes and Noble

D.T. Max is a well known literary journalist. In this entertaining account, he explains the prion, "a misfolded protein," which is responsible for all sorts of horrible diseases, including the fatal insomnia of one Italian family. While probably not the best choice for bedtime reading, it's a winner for anyone interested in cannibalism.

Classics -- tried, tested and available in cheap editions  

Lolita

By Vladimir Nabokov

$13.95 at the Fountain Bookstore

Dead childhood loves, hopeless desire, gorgeous prose… and it's incredibly funny, too. There's not much not to like about Nabokov's Lolita. The novel is plenty salacious but the real secret is how deeply moral it is.

 

Because he is the narrator, Humbert Humbert is free to describe himself as a suave-but-tortured madman and Lolita as an uncouth brat. But the glimpses readers get of the Lolita who exists beyond Humbert's representations make up some of the most moving passages.

 

To Kill a Mockingbird

By Harper Lee

$12.95 at Barnes and Noble

Set in fictional Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression, Harper Lee's only novel tells the story of a black man falsely accused of rape. This summer reading list staple will have you dragging your blanket through the house as you seek out your roommate/ spouse/ mother: "You won't believe what they did to poor Tom!"

 

*The Fountain Bookstore is located at 1312 E. Cary St., in Shockoe Slip.