This is the time of year when almost any newspaper or magazine that you pick up, or any website that you visit has a list of books to read this Summer. Personally, I think that there are two kinds of Summer reads. The first is the weightier tomes that require longer uninterrupted periods of time at the cottage or beach to get into the story so that you can follow all the twists and turns of the plot. The other kind is the book that you can just pick up and put down as you need to, in the moments between innings, or while keeping half an eye on the barbecue.
Summer can also be the time when you delve into that pile of books that has been growing for a few months, the first title in a new series, which is actually not that new anymore as you have seen that the second title is about to be published and you need to know whether you want to continue the series; titles you do have meant to read that have somehow slipped down the pile or that you just found under the seat in the car or that have fallen down behind the couch or under the bed. Anyway, if none of the above apply to you, especially as many of us have read down those piles over the last year, I do have a few suggestions. In keeping with what I myself am going to be doing for much of my summer, I thought I would focus on books that are about books.
There are many mysteries set in bookstores. Bookstores are a popular setting in the cosy mystery genre, Carolyn Hart’s series set in a South Carolina mystery bookstore run by Annie Darling, is probably one of the longest, as well as one of the first. But there are many others including Lorna Barrett’s Booktown series, Paige Shelton’s Scottish Bookshop series, Lauren Elliott’s Beyond the Page series, and Vicki Delany’s Sherlock Holmes Bookstore series. This is by no means an exhaustive list and I’m sorry if I have not included one of your favourites.
The cosy genre is not the only one to have a bookstore setting. The first title in Mark Pryor’s Hugo Marston series is called The Bookseller. This series is set in Paris, and Marston is Head of Security at the U.S. Embassy when several booksellers are kidnapped and murdered. Among the many recent titles published with WWII as a background in the past year or so is The Last Bookstore in London, set in London during the Blitz.
If you are a fantasy fan, The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix might be just up your street. The book is classified as Young Adult but despite its designation, I must admit I am enjoying it. The left-handed booksellers are the fighting booksellers and the right-handed booksellers are the intellectual booksellers. Their task is to prevent Olde World England which lies just below the surface from intruding into the modern world. Still in hardcover now, the trade paper will be out in September, 2021.
I cannot leave bookshops without mentioning Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. The book was originally published at the end of 2014 but has only just appeared in mass market. It is not precisely a mystery but it is a lovely book. I read it originally in the summer of 2015 when our daughter Hannah brought back a copy from New England, where the owner of a small bookshop, who knew we owned a shop ourselves, had pressed it on her saying ”Give this to your parents. They will love it”. And I did.
You cannot have bookstores without publishers, but there are fewer books set in publishing houses. One of my favourites is Judith Flanders’ Sam Clair series. Sam is an editor in a London publishing house. I have enjoyed the series since the publication of the first title A Murder of Magpies in 2014. This book fits exactly into my second category of summer read, one that you can pick up and put down and continue to enjoy. An excellent summer read choice. As this is a book that has been mentioned in these pages several times, it is likely that many of you probably have copies on your shelves. If you do it is worth taking it down and giving it and the other books in the series another read.
Judith Flanders was a book editor as was Zakiya Dalila Harris author of the new book The Other Black Girl, who was herself an editor at Knopf Doubleday. The prologue is a little unsettling, and the tone does not really fit with the opening pages but as the book proceeds all is explained. It is both social commentary and an enthralling thriller. I had not intended to read it in one go but I did as I became engrossed in the story and wanted to know where this very twisty plot would end up. While on one level the novel deals with the recognisable frictions and annoyances of any large office complex, this is overlaid with the issue of race and racial disparity. The questions and issues it raises stayed with me and I kept testing and rethinking my own positions. However, you should not be put off by this, as it is a really good read.