What are you reading this summer?

I just read The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan. The narrator is Grace, a 22 year old newlywed who is likely now a widow and is adrift in a lifeboat with 38 other survivors from the wreck of an ocean liner.  Here is what author Tim O'Brien (The Things They Carried) has to say on the book jacket: "The Lifeboat is a spellbinding and beautifully written novel, one that will keep readers turning pages late into the night.  This is storytelling at its best, and I was completely absorbed from beginning to end."

What are you reading?  Take a moment to comment on this post so we can share book recommendations.  Thank you!

Else Holmelund Minarik

The wonderful Else Minarik passed away at age 91.  She wrote the the Little Bear books in her simple, beautiful prose.  She first took her manuscript to Random House (in the 1950s), and an editor there suggested the bears should be humans.  Minarik refused the suggestion because children of all colors would be reading her book and she wanted everyone to be able to relate to the story.  You can read more about Minarik in this obituary from the New York Times.