amna: It's summertime and the
reading is easy.
At least, we hope you will get
the time to enjoy books during
vacation and travel.
Here to help: Jeffrey brown
speaks to two big-time readers
who offer some guidance.
It's part of our arts and
culture series, canvas.
Jeffrey: We look at some of the
many books out or soon out for
your summer reading pleasure
with Maureen Corrigan, book
critic for NPR's fresh air, and
Gilbert Cruz, books editor at
the New York Times.
It's nice to see both of you.
Gilbert, I'm going to start with
you.
A couple of summer books,
however you want to define
those.
Why don't you start us off?
Gilbert: So there are two books
I want to start off with.
The first is called the five
star weekend.
It's by an author named Ellen
Hildebrand, and she's a summer
staple.
This is a woman, an author who
has written almost 30 books,
most of which are set on
nantucket island.
She's a perennial bestseller.
This one involves a recently
widowed food blogger who brings
a bunch of friends together on
nantucket to sort of help her
heal.
I've read many of these books.
I've read one a summer for the
past many Summers, and they all
share similar themes and similar
dynamics, and they're quite
entertaining.
And I'm looking forward to
reading this one very much on my
vacation soon.
Another book I'm looking forward
to this summer is crook
manifesto by Colson whitehead.
Many of your viewers probably
know Colson whitehead's name.
He's a two time pulitzer winner.
He's won for very serious books
about the black experience in
America, underground railroad
and the nickel boys.
But he's worked across many
genres, and he has written a
heist novel.
And this is a sequel to that
heist novel, Harlem shuffle,
which came out a couple of years
ago.
That novel was set in 1960s
Harlem, and this one is set in
1970s Harlem.
And if you know anything about
New York in the 1970s, it was a
grimy place, a dangerous place,
but it was also a very exciting
place.
So I'm looking forward to seeing
how Colson whitehead sort of
tackles that time period.
Jeffrey: Ok.
Maureen Corrigan.
Maureen: One novel that that I
think really is perfect for
summer is Alberto Luis Urrea's
novel goodnight Irene.
Usually he's writing about
issues of the u.s.-mexican
border.
But here he's drawing on a story
that derives from his mother's
experiences during World War II.
She was a volunteer with the red
cross.
She was a so-called donut dolly.
She and another woman rode
around in a truck delivering
coffee and donuts to servicemen.
I had no idea -- my dad was in
World War II, and I had no idea
that these women did more than
just meet soldiers at the
railroad station.
His mother followed Patton's
army behind the lines in battle
of the bulge.
I mean, so we're we're kind of
getting a Herman wouk type big
history, but also with a lot of
twists and turns and very
affecting.
So goodnight Irene is one of my
recommendations.
And then, Lorrie Moore's I am
homeless if this is not my home.
Lorrie Moore, there's nobody
like her, the way she plays with
language, her kind of warm but
absurdist view of of life.
She's telling a double story
here.
One is a story set in the 19th
century, and it has something to
do with Abraham Lincoln.
So anybody who's read George
Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo,
this kind of has that feel to
it.
And then the other story she's
telling is very up to the minute
about a young man who's lost his
lover.
And it plays into that fantasy
of if only I had a few more
hours with this person I've
loved.
And they go on a road trip
together.
He and his dead lover.
[Laughter]
Jeffrey: Sounds very uplifting
for summer.
Gilbert.
Does your reading change during
the summer or do you turn to
other genres, other things that
you want -- give us a couple of
other picks.
Gilbert: I love the horror
genre.
And there's a young author, a
mexican-canadian author named
Silvia moreno-garcia, who has a
new book out this year called
silver nitrate.
She said some wonderful titles
the past couple of years.
The daughter of Dr. Moreau, a
very big one in 2020, was
Mexican gothic, and this one is
set in the 1990s Mexico City
film scene.
It stars a sound editor, her
best friend who is a soap opera
actor, and this cult horror
director that they come across
who believes he's been cursed by
a piece of film that a Nazi
occultist sort of handled.
It's it's spooky and it's scary,
but it's also set in Mexico
City.
So you have both the cool and
the hot.
It's something that I'm looking
forward to checking out this
summer.
Jeffrey: You know, Maureen,
you've both mentioned some big
name authors.
Colson whitehead.
We heard Lorrie Moore.
I noticed.
I don't know if this is
different, but there seem to be
a number of novels coming out by
some well-known names.
And Paszek, -- Ann Patchett,
Isabel Allende.
Any that you want to tell us
about?
Maureen: You know, I'm looking
forward -- who could not to and
Patchett's Tom lake in which she
kind of plays with chekhov's
three sisters.
These are three sisters who
isolate at a family cherry
orchard during the pandemic.
So there's.
There's that.
Richard Ford.
He's bringing his frank Bascombe
novels to a close with a fifth
novel called be mine.
What an achievement.
I love Richard Ford.
I love his writing.
And to think that he's sort of
saying farewell to this
character whose life has
followed his own through the
seasons of his own life is
really touching.
I'm also looking forward to
James Mcbride, the heaven and
Earth grocery store.
He too is so wonderful at
combining social commentary.
This novel is set in the 1970s
in pottstown, Pennsylvania, a
jewish and African-American
community.
But the body is found under the
floor of a building site.
So that's something I'm really
looking forward to.
It does seem as though more big
name authors like Colson
whitehead, too, are now
publishing in the summer.
Summary used to be -- summer
used to be more lighter fare,
but I'm happy to see that.
Jeffrey: Let me ask you with
both of you, one final thing.
A lot of us, a lot of people use
the summer to reread an old
favorite or perhaps a classic.
I don't know if either of you do
that.
Gilbert, is there anything that
you want to go back to?
Gilbert: I wish I could say that
there was.
In this job, I feel incredibly
guilty if I'm going back and
rereading books.
Jeffrey: Oh, you're not allowed
to anymore.
Gilbert: No, it's in the
contract.
But there are classics that I
have not read.
It embarrasses me to say so.
So is this the summer that I
finally get to bleak house by
Charles dickens?
Is this the summer when I
finally get to the house of
mirth?
I don't know.
You know, hope springs eternal.
I'm hoping this might be the
one.
Jeffrey: Maureen, you have one
or two?
Maureen: Yeah.
This is a big year for Willa
Cather.
We're celebrating the 150th
anniversary of her birth.
This year a lost lady celebrates
100 years of its publication
that was made into a film in the
thirties with Barbara stanwyck.
And Cather hated the film so
much she wrote a clause into her
will -- no more films of any of
my novels.
Jeffrey: I've heard that from
other novelists who don't like
what happened.
Maureen: But I've been rereading
Cather, one of ours, her novel
about World War one and a lost
lady.
And, you know, as a native new
Yorker, I came late to Cather.
But these novels of of the great
plains are really spectacular.
Jeffrey: That's great.
Some old books and some new
books.
Maureen Corrigan, Gilbert Cruz,
thank you both very much.
Amna: You can find the full list
of book recommendations online