Front of Book: Summer's Last Hurrah

The best—and worst—book picks of the month from our favorite magazines.

Summer is winding down, but time still remains to cram in a few, last good reads before your tan fades or you exchange novels for textbooks.

Oprah typically has a lot to say on the subject. This month’s issue of O has many promising, if not a little heavy, suggestions. On that score there’s Methland by Nick Reding, about a small town in Iowa where images of quiet Main Street and wide open fields are replaced by the horrors of a methamphetamine epidemic. Reding doesn’t shy away from any details about this very real tragedy, but he also doesn’t remove himself from compassion and empathy for those who are embroiled in it. On the lighter side is Thomas Pynchon’s latest, Inherent Vice. While I’m not an avid mystery reader, a detective story with an intriguing hero (“a blend of classic California noir hero and committed hippie stoner”), a gripping and intricate plot, and the evocation of years past—the novel is set in the ‘60s—is just the recipe for a last end of summer getaway that starts and ends on your front porch.

One pick I’m not quite sure about is The Magicians by Lev Grossman, which at first skim reads like Harry Potter, except that the protagonist and his entourage live in Manhattan, move past first base, and drop F-bombs rather than “you-know-who”'s. A modern fantasy novel meets coming of age story, this doesn’t look like the Pulitzer, but if you’re itching for something to fill the void that J.K. Rowling so callously left after book number seven, this might be a good bet.

Catching on to the latest "Mad Men" buzz, O also features John Hamm’s book picks. Among this suave and serious actor’s recommendations is The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene, a tome about string theory and the laws of the universe that has been sitting on my shelf for years. I swear I’ll get to it one day. Hamm also suggests Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys, the modern classic about an aging writer who just can’t find the words, sure to satisfy any bibliophile.

Over at Vanity Fair, the magazine’s Fanfair culture section takes us to elite beach clubs, dim sum, and dirty martinis before arriving at their short and sweet book feature. After reading an excerpt in The New York Times magazine, I’m right beside them in recommending food writer Frank Bruni’s memoir Born Round. Instead of imitating a foodie’s passion à la Meryl Streep, Bruni displays it with exuberance, along with humor, pathos, and a touch of David Sedaris-like self-deprecation, making this a read you’ll want to eat up in one bite. Less digestible but equally engaging is Love is a Four-Letter Word, a collection of short stories about break-ups. Don’t expect pints of Ben & Jerry’s and gallons of self-pity: the stories are sharp, poignant, and recounted with candor and wit. The collection also includes two mini graphic novels, by Emily Flake and Lynda Barry.

Elle gives us three books that won their Reader’s Prize 2009: Laura Moriarty’s While I’m Falling, Cathy Marie Buchanan’s The Day the Falls Stood Still, and Sarah Dunant’s Sacred Hearts. The first two are undeniably well-written, but the basic premise of female protagonists whose lives are falling to pieces—in Moriarty’s, a young woman in college and in Buchanan’s, a girl from a well-to-do but ailing family in Niagara Falls who falls inevitably in love—don’t pique my interest for a last summer page turner. I’m voting for Dunant’s Sacred Hearts, sucker as I am for period drama. The book takes place in an Italian convent where things are not as holy as they seem. Careful research and plot drama make things come to life behind this convent’s walls.

Here’s to summer’s last few rays.

--Allison Geller