cool off with sizzlin' summer reads
It's summertime, the perfect season to kick back, relax, and catch up on your reading. Summer calls for a great escape read, a chance to get away from the everyday and devote some time to enjoy being suspended from reality. Luckily, this summer is chock full of new releases from some of our favorite authors so get comfy and read on. Start with a little Mary Higgins Clark whose books have sold more than 80 million copies over the years and her newest novel promises to keep the tradition alive. Stir in some John Grisham, author of 23 bestsellers, whose new offering this summer is already at the top of bestseller lists everywhere. Add in a Pulitzer Prize winning author and a dash of the newest tale of political intrigue and you've got a recipe for the perfect summer read.
THE INNOCENT
By David Baldacci
(Grand Central $27.99)
#3 on the New York Times hardcover fiction best sellers list (5.6.12)
America has enemies–ruthless people that the police, the FBI, even the military can’t stop. That’s when the U.S. government calls on Will Robie, a stone-cold hit man who never questions orders and always nails his target. But Will may have just made the first–and last–mistake of his career.
It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn't seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to kill. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and must escape from his own people.
Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn't an ordinary runaway-her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can't walk away. He needs to help her.
Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he's convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents' deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power. Baldacci is at his best in this fast-moving story of corruption and greed.
CALICO JOE
By John Grisham
(Doubleday $24.95)
#3 on the New York Times hardcover fiction best sellers list (5.6.12)
In his new novel, Calico Joe, Grisham brings a surprising and moving tale of fathers and sons, forgiveness and redemption, set in the world of Major League Baseball.
In the summer of 1973 Joe Castle was the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone had ever seen. The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas dazzled Cub fans as he hit home run after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shattered all rookie records.
Calico Joe quickly became the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faced Calico Joe, Paul was in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his Dad. Then Warren threw a fastball that would change their lives forever…
In John Grisham's new novel the baseball is thrilling, but it's what happens off the field that makes CALICO JOE a classic.
THE LOST YEARS
by Mary Higgins Clark
#13 on the New York Times hardcover fiction best sellers list (5.20.12)
The Queen of Suspense is back with her most astonishing novel to date guaranteed to keep you turning the pages.
Biblical scholar Jonathan Lyons believes he has found the rarest of parchments—a letter that may have been written by Jesus Christ. Stolen from the Vatican Library in the 1500s, the letter was assumed to be lost forever.
Now, under the promise of secrecy, Jonathan is able to confirm his findings with several other experts. But he also confides in a family friend his suspicion that someone he once trusted wants to sell the parchment and cash in.
Within days Jonathan is found shot to death in his study. At the same time, his wife, Kathleen, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, is found hiding in the study closet, incoherent and clutching the murder weapon. Even in her dementia, Kathleen has known that her husband was carrying on a long-term affair. Did Kathleen kill her husband in a jealous rage, as the police contend? Or is his death tied to the larger question: Who has possession of the priceless parchment that has now gone missing?
It is up to their daughter, twenty-eight-year-old Mariah, to clear her mother of murder charges and unravel the real mystery behind her father's death. Mary Higgins Clark's The Lost Years is at once a breathless murder mystery and a hunt for what may be the most precious religious and archaeological treasure of all time.
When you've finished devouring the newest offerings from these favorite fiction authors we highly recommend you give this non-fiction winner a read.
LOTS OF CANDLES, PLENTY OF CAKE
By Anna Quindlen
(Random House $26.00)
#2 on the New York Times hardcover non-fiction best sellers list (5.6.12)
In this irresistible memoir, the New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Anna Quindlen, writes about looking back and ahead—and celebrating it all—as she considers marriage, girlfriends, our mothers, faith, loss, all the stuff in our closets, and more. As she did in her beloved New York Times columns, and in A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen says for us here what we may wish we could have said ourselves.
From childhood memories to manic motherhood to middle age, Quindlen uses the events of her own life to illuminate our own. Along with the downsides of age, she says, can come wisdom, a perspective on life that makes it satisfying and even joyful. Candid, funny, moving, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake is filled with the sharp insights and revealing observations that have long confirmed Quindlen's status as America's laureate of real life.
Hurry up and load that Kindle, fill up your Nook, or head to Barnes and Noble for good old-fashioned books you can hold in your hand. Pour the lemonade, hit the hammock, and put your feet up. Summer is here and the clock is ticking.