I’m not sure I need to know the answer to that question, but in case I change my mind, Overlook’s publishing a book in July that will fill me in – Where Do Underpants Come From: From Checkout to Cotton Field – Travels Through the New China and into the New Global Economy by Joe Bennett.
Other summer books catching my eye at the moment are:
Do Not Deny Me: Stories by Jean Thompson published by Simon & Schuster (June)
12 stories that received a Publisher’s Weekly starred review stating “Thompson immerses readers in details and emotions so consuming and convincing that the inane vagaries of modern life can take on near mythic importance.”
City of Strangers by Ian MacKenzie published by Penguin (July)
The Publisher’s Weekly forecast got my attention: “A novel as grim as it is extraordinary, MacKenzie’s debut tells the story of two estranged brothers at odds on how to view their Nazi-sympathizer father….MacKenzie sets up a New York rampant with alienation and misunderstanding, and his visceral narrative, powered by taut prose and braced with sturdy philosophical and psychological underpinnings, is a winner.”
Late Edition: A Love Story by Bob Greene published by St. Martin’s Press (July)
Greene writes about his days working in the newspaper offices of the Columbus Citizen-Journal. It’s about the hometown, so gotta take a look. (My mother read the Citizen-Journal every morning with her cup of coffee.)
St. Martin’s website states, “With current-day developments in the American newspaper industry so grim and dreary, Late Edition is a Valentine to an era that was gleefully cocky and seemingly free from care, a wonderful story as bracing and welcome as the sound of a rolled-up paper thumping onto the front stoop just after dawn.”
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo published by Knopf (August)
I love Russo’s Bridge of Sighs (that sighs over my neglect, as it sits on my reading table). It’s the reason I’m interested in his new book (and want to hurry up and finish his previous novel).
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon published by Penguin (August)
I collect Pynchon’s books, only lacking the expensive 1963 novel V. I’d like to think I will read Inherent Vice, not just buy it for the collection.
The Longest Chapter 