Summer Post #1 - Book List for Grown Ups

As with every year, we take a summer posting break when schools get busy with end of year work. But summer break isn't hibernation - here's the first of our occasional summer posts. 

You know the first thing (reportedly) that Grace Greene did when she retired as Youth Services librarian? Read a book written for grown ups. It's true. And Helen's Mom (former Vermont school librarian) has read nothing but books written for grown ups during her own retirement. A pattern is emerging.

For every school librarian who is not content waiting for their chance to read outside the children's genre, who may be planning a radical reading departure this summer, we've got a few suggestions. Some new, some not new, all relatively fun (if you consider a post-Apocalyptic dystopia fun, which the readers of Station Eleven do). Links will take you to their descriptions.

The New Books Your Neighbors Are Most Likely to Have on Their Shelves:

• Vermont Waterfalls by Christy Butler & Russell Dunn
• Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

Good Grown Up Books Jane Has Read Recently:

• The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel  
• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters 
• Leaving Before the Rains Come by Alexandra Fuller 

And because she cannot help herself, the YA graphic novel This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki

Books From Helen's Ongoing (If Quixotic) Quest To Encourage Cookbook Reading:

• Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese
• Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison
• My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz

Books in Mystery Series that Aren't Written By Louise Penny:

• The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
• One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (don't watch the movie!)
• O' Artful Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
• Dying for Chocolate by Diane Mott Davidson
• Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

And in case you've missed her, Louise Penny has a new book coming out August 25th, The Nature of the Beast

Humor Writing:

• Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen
• Them by Jon Ronson (if you want to be more recent, his new book is So You've Been Publicly Shamed)
• Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley  
• How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely

Mavericks or Unusual Stuff that Actual People Actually Did:

• Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder 
• The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
• H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald 
• The Wright Brothers by David McCullough  
• Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

We'll keep you apprised of any new ideas that surface. Next up: Jane's kids & YA summer reading picks.