Bookwyrm’s Hoard: Dive Into Summer!

From April through June, I have been pining for a little escape, that feeling I got at the start of summer as a kid whenever school let out. I found myself seeking out books this past month that would transport me, pull me out of the day to day grind, and let me have a mini-vacation through the printed word.

I planned to start with “Enchanted April” all the way back in April- but a cat with a hairball problem damaged our library copy and it had to be replaced. Thankfully the replacement came in June and I was able to read this delightful book about four women, strangers to each other, who come together to rent a castle in Italy for the month of April just after World War I. I will admit that reading this book got my mind spinning fantasies about talking to friends and acquaintances to convince them to go on a group vacation to some exotic place. The book isn’t just witty effervescent fun, it is also sweetly insightful. We often get overwhelmed by our lives and we misunderstand or lose track of the people around us, sometimes slowing down and looking at a person in a new context can open your life and your heart.

Another heart-warming escape I took was with the Durrell family in the book “My Family and Other Animals” this is the first book in a series of memoirs by Gerald Durrell about his family going to live in Greece on the island of Corfu. You may have seen the BBC series “The Durrells of Corfu” which was based off these books (and if you haven’t you should watch both the TV series and read the books, both of which are available at the library). Durrell captures his family’s quirks and endearing qualities while describing the beauties and wonders of Corfu. Gerald Durrell was a naturalist who loved animals ever since he was a child- in fact he was obsessed with them. All the members of his family had their own unique obsessions and putting up with each other while acclimating to a whole new country and culture makes for some laugh out loud moments thanks to Durrell’s descriptive, wittily dry, but loving prose. You feel like you’re on the beach with a young Gerald and his dog trying to catch a wily turtle or sailing the opalescent waters on the oddly shaped boat his brother made him. The book was so good it made me want to call my family and get us all together at some bucolic island resort.

The next two books I read I picked up because their subject matter appealed to me, but I was surprised to find that both take place in or near my home state of Michigan. When you mention Michigan to people, most talk about the Great Lakes, but that’s not where I grew up, I lived in the middle of the state and only got to see the Lakes on summer vacations with my parents. While I do miss the beauty of those lakes, I don’t miss the state itself, but it was nice to go back through my imagination thanks to these books. Both books took place on a lake, and I enjoyed some childhood memories while reading these two very different novels. “A Death in Door County” is the first book in a new mystery series by Annalise Ryan. The heroine is a Cryptozoologist aka- Monster Hunter, who is contacted by the police after several people die under suspicious circumstances on Lake Superior- prompting locals to wonder if they have their own Loch Ness-type monster stalking the lake. There are hair-raising attacks, possible sunken treasure, and a lot of fun facts about “cryptids” like Bigfoot and Nessie that make this a new series that I will be eager to follow on their next monster hunt.

The other novel that took place in Michigan was “Beach Read” by Emily Henry, which lives up to its title. A young woman feels her life is coming apart at the seams after her father dies and leaves her a beach house that she is very unhappy to inherit. She is a writer of romances who has become so disillusioned that she is suffering from a terrible case of writer’s block. It turns out her new neighbor is also a writer- of hard-hitting dark literature, who also happens to be struggling with writer’s block. The mismatched pair end up making a dare: that she writes a literary masterpiece and he writes a heart-warming romance by the end of the summer. They try to help each other with “research”, he takes her to meet the survivors of a cult and she tries to show him perfect rom-com situations. This is a very sweet and warm book, like lying on the beach in the sun. It made me want to throw together a bag with sunscreen, a good book, a towel, and my crocs and go sit by Beaver Lake and enjoy a lazy summer day.

Hopefully, your summer is still in full swing and this review gives you a few ideas for books to take with you on your next adventure.