BookLovers: 5 books to add to your beach bag now
As promised, my BookLoving friends, I’m back with more suggestions for summer reading.
To make this easier for you, instead of giving you a list of 50 new summer books right now to read that you’ll skim over, I’ll keep offering bite-sized servings like I did last week.
Throughout this summer, we’ll launch an ongoing SouthCoast #FiveToAddToYourBag series: five books at a time, for a more digestible reading list.
If you missed the first helping last week, online readers, click here, or print readers, follow me on Facebook or Twitter (info at the end of this column) to keep up with the series.
And now, without further ado: here are #FiveToAddToYourBag.
“Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle,” by Jody Rosen.
SouthCoasters love cycling. I guarantee if you don’t cycle these roads, you know someone who does. But how did an 1817 invention turn into a culture biking, of speed cycling, the Tour de France? Into a machine, you can find in almost any country on this planet? Journalist Jody Rosen digs in with a book that’s at once a love letter and the history of the bike. According to the publisher’s synopsis:
Combining history, reportage, travelogue, and memoir, Rosen’s book sweeps across centuries and around the globe, unfolding the bicycle’s saga from its invention in 1817 to its present-day renaissance as a “green machine,” an emblem of sustainability in a world afflicted by pandemic and climate change. Meet unforgettable characters: feminist rebels who steered bikes to the barricades in the 1890s, a prospector who pedaled across the frozen Yukon to join the Klondike gold rush, a Bhutanese king who races mountain bikes in the Himalayas, a cycle-rickshaw driver who navigates the seething streets of the world’s fastest-growing megacity, astronauts who ride a floating bicycle in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station. #TwoGood
Another great non-fiction release: “Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs,” by Juli Berwald.
We all know coral reefs are massively important to the planet—but why exactly? Get ready to go scuba diving. According to the publisher’s synopsis:
Coral reefs are a microcosm of our planet: extraordinarily diverse, deeply interconnected, and full of wonders. They sustain ecosystems and protect coasts. Corals themselves are evolutionary marvels that build elaborate limestone formations from their collective skeletons, broker symbiotic relationships with algae, and manufacture their own fluorescent sunblock. And they’re dying off. Berwald fell in love with coral reefs as a marine biology student. She traveled the world to discover how to prevent their loss.
Eye-opening, even if you think you know.
“Cult Classic,” by Sloane Crosley. I love Crosley. Her sharp and witty non-fiction reminds me of a younger, female David Sedaris. Her buzzy second novel, with a dash of magical realism, is set in New York City's Chinatown. According to the publisher’s synopsis:
A woman is at a work reunion dinner with former colleagues when she excuses herself to buy a pack of cigarettes. On her way back, she runs into a former boyfriend. And then another… And another. Soon nothing is quite what it seems as the city becomes awash with ghosts of heartbreaks past… #GhostsofRomancePast
Ottessa Moshfegh fans, rejoice: Her latest, “Lapvona,” hits shelves on June 23. The Boston native made a name for herself with her 2015 novel, “Eileen,’ shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize. Her acclaimed 2018 New York Times bestseller, “My Year of Rest and Relaxation,” was a big Century Club book that year among SouthCoast readers. “Death in Her Hands” was also a New York Times Bestseller. Moshfegh is a supreme Massachusetts-grown talent. Her latest, set in medieval times, hits shelves June 21. SouthCoast book clubs, take note. A provoking tale of religion and power.
Ah! I’m out of room but will quickly mention: “The Twilight World,” by Werner Herzog.
Herzog is endlessly fascinating to me. Here, the character and filmmaker delivers his first novel: the story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who defended a small island in the Philippines for 29 years after the end of World War II. #BecauseWenerHerzog.
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: BookLovers: 5 books to add to your beach bag now
