A man called Dave, a dog named Reny, and a book by Kate

It’s summertime, and that means reading. Even those of us who are in writer’s jail are finding time to pick up a book, and what a wide variety of things we’re reading. Here’s a sample:

Kate Flora: I’m reading Michael Lewis’s The Undoing Project, the fascinating story of Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky and their research into the psychology of decision-making. That’s on my kindle. Usually, I have at least three books going at once, so I’m also reading Bobbie Ann Mason’s The Girl in the Blue Beret, because we were in Normandy just before the D-Day commemorations, and so I’m reading World War II novels. I started Frederik Bachman’s Beartown, but have temporarily paused because it is not nearly so light-hearted and charming as A Man Called Ove or his other two books that I’ve read. I’ll probably go back and finish because I love his storytelling.

Lea Wait: In the past couple of months I’ve main being reading for research .. .but then took some binge time to read books I just enjoyed, and which weren’t set in New England! I’ve read several of Ed Ifkovic’s historical mysteries centered around the life of Edna Ferber, a fascinating writer I didn’t know nearly enough about.  Most recently – OLD NEWS, set in Chicago in 1923 about the secrets hidden in an immigrant Jewish community. Excellent! I also caught up with Margaret Maron’s DESIGNATED DAUGHTERS – every one of her mysteries is a treat, and takes me into southern culture. Right now I’m reading Sarah Maine’s THE HOUSE BETWEEN TIDES, a multi-generation gothic mystery set in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. Reading is my way of traveling ….

Dick Cass: Joan Didion   South and West (notebooks)

Howard Frank Mosher   On Kingdom Mountain

(“All the best stories are about love,” says Jane Hubbell Kinneson.)

Dana Stabenow Less Than A Treason

Very cooling . . .

John Clark: I just started reading Transcendent by Katelyn Detweiler, Viking, 2016. ISBN: 9780451469632  I’m 119 pages in after about an hour and a half. Imagine you’re a high school junior and not long after American terrorists bomb Disney World, killing more than 10,000, you discover that your birth wasn’t exactly normal and lots of people believe you might be the salvation to a world gone to hell.

I got it from another book swapper on Paperbackswap (one of six like new YA books from the same person). If I’m this far, this fast in a book, I’m pretty sure it’s a winner.

Bruce Robert Coffin: Currently reading Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger and Gone Girl by Gilliam Flynn.

Maureen Milliken: I am in the midst of reading 75 self-published books as a judge for the Writers Digest Self-Published Contest. I have an August 1 deadline so they take up most of my reading time. I don’t like to read mystery and crime fiction — my favorite genre — while I’m in the middle of writing, so for my break from the self-pubs, I have Joseph Wambaugh’s The Fire Lover, waiting. I CAN read true crime, my second-favorite genre while I’m writing, and I can’t wait to get to it.

Joseph Souza: NOBODY’S FOOL by Richard Russo. An old classic by a fellow Mainer.

BEARTOWN by Fredrick Backman. A sad hockey story set in the woods of Sweden.

THE GOOD GIRL by Mary Kubica. So-so thriller.

Barbara Ross: William Kent Krueger, Trickster’s Point. I started reading Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series last year when he was the Guest of Honor at the New England Crime Bake. I’m almost current.

Kathy Lynn Emerson: I’m alternating between reading a new cozy, Bad Housekeeping by Maia Chance and rereading one of Dorothy’s Ellie Haskell mysteries, The Trouble With Harriet, both on my iPad.

Vaughn C. Hardacker: I’m currently working my way through the first ten volumes of W. E. B. Griffin’s The Corps series.

Just received Paul Doiron’s KNIFE  CREEK. Looks like I’ll be taking an brief interlude away from W. E. B. Griffin.

Jen Blood: I’m just finishing up Death Dealer by our own Kate Flora, actually! Absolutely loving it, and can’t believe I haven’t read it sooner. I’m also reading A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die by Edith Maxwell – which I highly recommend if you need a break from Dark and Dire mysteries. It’s the first of her Local Foods cozy mysteries, and really is a great read.

And, finally, I’m listening to Sara Driscoll’s Lone Wolf, an FBI K-9 Novel – which is definitely Dark and Dire, but completely addictive and very well researched.