Summer Reading For Kicking It At The Food Court And Other Strange Places
It’s summer. You’re lazing on the patio and you’re ready to escape to another world. But you haven’t gone to the bookstore for your summer reads. In fact, you’re not even sure what to buy. You just know your mind needs to take you really far away. Don’t worry, your summer reading list has arrived:
Action-Adventure: Back in the 1970s, reading “Jaws” (or watching the movie) kept your grandpa out of the water and in a paranoid fit. Look no further, the fourth installment of Steve Alten’s MEG series was recently released. We’re talking 76-foot sharks and a lost world of monsters tucked away beneath ocean plates. Turn on the grill but make someone else cook. “MEG: Hell’s Aquarium” is an addictive heart thumper. When I asked Alten to describe his book in a short sentence, he said: "The most frightening sea monsters in history...are no longer history." Yikes. 
BUY: MEG: Hell’s Aquarium
Pop Art: There have been a few books in recent years, both memoir and fiction, that depict the 1980s heyday of new wave and punk (when I was a teenager) but nothing like Lance Reynald’s “Pop Salvation.” He delves into that sometimes effeminate 1980s world of broken self-identity (and Rocky Horror) and takes readers through a transformative world of sexuality and art, including a trip through art museums in Washington, D.C. during the twilight years of Andy Warhol. While Reynald said people should thumb through his book while anywhere, he added, “It’s an essential read before you pack yourself off to art school or visit the Getty.” He provides a great song list at the end of the book in the interview section that includes some decent brit pop.
BUY: Pop Salvation (Delivers late June)
Asians And Strip Malls: Whether you’re Asian or not, there’s just enough sarcasm in Sung J. Woo’s “Everything Asian” to keep you near tears, slightly embarrassed and empathizing with the main character: a Korean kid working in his family’s gift shop in a New Jersey strip mall. Woo’s beautiful, witty sentences capture the immigrant experience in America and the transformative powers of families who go through hell when there are communication breakdowns at every turn. “The best place to read Everything Asian? The food court at your local mall. The world of retail plays a significant part in my novel, and being surrounded by all those shoppers would put you in the right frame of mind,” said Woo. He added, “A plate of General Tso's from Panda Express, an anvil of a Cinnabon, a few chapters from my book -- you just can't go wrong with that." On top of it all, Woo recently admitted to being a Star Trek fan in the witty article, “Star Trek Through The Years.” Talk about writing about other worlds.
BUY: Everything Asian
Gritty: D.R. Haney’s gritty debut novel “Banned For Life” captures realism, masculinity, and is an in-your-face diatribe of the 1990s Los Angeles underground. The story is about a man seeking answers to his own tumultuous life as well as seeking and finding a washed-up American punk rock icon. Haney says he sees his novel as “a subversive book in a bland, alienating, workaholic culture. So maybe it’s best read in a setting that reminds the reader of why rebellion still matters. You know, like a Starbucks, where everybody around you is talking about American Idol, or standing in a long line to see a movie that’s really aimed at twelve year olds, but you’ve been suckered into seeing it. Hopefully, ‘Banned’ will make you want to leave that line, and you'll actually do it.”
BUY: Banned For Life
Kid Adventures: Four books from Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s “Sisters 8” series have now been released. Greg (husband) and Jackie (daughter) both helped in creating the series. The premise is simple: Eight sisters each have a cat and each girl has a special gift or power. Their parents disappear and they desperately want to find them. Each book is an adventure revolving around one of the sisters. All four books released so far recently made Amazon Canada’s Summer Reading List for Kids. Not too shabby. Baratz-Logsted joked when asked who should be reading “Sisters 8” and where: “Everyone should be reading The ‘Sisters 8’ books and they should be reading them everywhere. Why? Because we -- not to mention the Eights! -- will settle for nothing less than world domination.”
BUY: Sisters 8
Self-Help: If there’s an encouraging writer out there who wants to empower you, it’s B.J. Gallagher. I especially like her chapter in “It’s Never Too Late To Be What You Might Have Been” on expressing creativity. She says that people need to expand their definition of what creative means to them. “It’s much more than music and fine art,” she writes. Think cooking, fashion, decorating your home, writing, gardening. She also says to let go of perfectionism when learning to create. But that’s not all. Gallagher provides a host of chapters of how to seize the day before it escapes you. And everybody knows that summertime is the perfect time for self-discovery. In a brief interview, Gallagher said, "it's the perfect book for those who want to know that life, love, creativity, and adventure don't end when you turn 40, or 50, or even 80!" She added, "You can read it at the beach, on the subway or in your carpool, on a plane or on a cruise, or in the evening before you go to sleep to dream about reinventing your future."
BUY: It’s Never Too Late To Be What You Might Have Been
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NICK BELARDES turned TV/online journalist after blogging his way to success. His articles and essays have since appeared on the homepage of CNN.com and other news sites across America. His book "Random Obsessions: Trivia You Need To Know" is due to hit stores in August 2009. His Twitter novel, “Small Places” is the first original literary novel on Twitter and has been featured in the Christian Science Monitor, Mashable.com, Metroactive.com, Bohemian.com, NPR and more. He has also written "Lords" about the Bakersfield urban myth Lords of Bakersfield. His new homepage at nickbelardes.com offers weird true stories and more.