Try One of These Good Summer Books

The Queen’s Lover by Francine du Plessix Gray

This historical novel purports to be the journal of Swedish Count Axel von Fersen, which recounts the story of his romance with Marie Antoinette. It begins at a masquerade ball in Paris in 1774, when he first meets the mesmerizing nineteen-year-old dauphine, wife of the prince who will soon become Louis XVI. This electric encounter launches a love affair that brings Fersen into the intimate circle of the royal family through the course of the French Revolution. A well-researched and imagined story and account of this period of tumultuous transformation in European culture.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Set in a world where the earth’s rotation has begun to slow, day and night gradually becoming twice as long, this debut novel is narrated by 11-year-old Julia, who struggles to come of age as her family and society begins to fracture from differing choices made to cope with the global crisis. Balancing the day-to-day concerns of Julia’s adolescence with the public and private ramifications of the apocalyptic setting, this is a wonderful and eerie story.

Say Nice Things about Detroit by Scott Lasser

Following a divorce, the death of his son, and his mother’s mental decline, David Halpert returns to his native Detroit, which he had fled 25 years before. There, an old girlfriend and her half-brother are murdered in strange circumstances. As David tries to piece his life back together, he finds new relationships with family, old friends, and the city itself. A compelling urban portrait and a touching love story.

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

A trapper is found murdered in a settlement in Canada’s northern frontier.  When a neighbor discovers the crime scene, she also discovers that her own 17-year-old son, an acquaintance of the victim, has disappeared making him a suspect. Wanting to solve the murder, agents from the Hudson Bay Company begin a search for the boy. The boy’s mother begins her own investigative search and discovers things are not what they seem. Penney weaves a beautifully written (winner of the Costa Award) story of murder, revenge, love, and secrets.