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Summer Reads: Book Recommendations For The Season

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This is a rebroadcast of an earlier show (original air date June 1st); no calls will be taken.  

One of our most popular programs — what to read this summer! Our all-star cast will share the books they’ve read recently and are looking forward to reading. This summer also sees PBS' "Great American Read," an eight-part series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels, as chosen in a national survey.

Guests

  • Richard Russo, author of eight novels, including “Empire Falls,” which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. His new book is “The Destiny Thief – Essays on Writing, Writers and Life.”
  • Josh Bodwell, executive director of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, the series editor of a three-volume relaunch of the collected short stories and novellas of Andre Dubus. The first two volumes will be released on June 20. Richard Russo wrote the introduction to Vol. 2.
  • Kate Christensen, author of seven novels, including “The Great Man,”” which won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, and soon-to-be-released “The Last Cruise.”” She’s the author of two food-centric memoirs, “Blue Plate Special” and “How to Cook a Moose,” which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir.
  • Terri-Lynne DeFino (by phone), author of “The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses).”
  • Emily Connelly (by phone), editorial assistant with AudioFile Magazine.
Richard Russo's Picks

  • “Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer,” by Barbara Ehrenreich
  • “House of Broken Angels,” by Luis Alberto Urea
  • “The Last Cruise,” by Kate Christensen
  • "Sunburn," by Laura Lippman
  • "The Devil's Highway," by Luis Alberto Urrea
Kate Christensen's Picks

  • "Trajectory," by Richard Russo
  • “Moby Dick,” by Herman Melville
  • “Kudos,” by Rachel Cusk, the final book in her "Outline" trilogy.
  • “Sick,” by Porochista Khakpour
  • “My Ex-Life,” by Stephen McCauley
Josh Bodwell's Picks, By Category

  • In Honor Of Father’s Day, June 17: “When I First Held You: 22 Critically Acclaimed Writers Talk About the Triumphs, Challenges, and Transformative Experience of Fatherhood,” edited by Brian Gresko
  • The. Best. (So Far In 2018): “Anything Is Possible,” by Elizabeth Strout
  • Must-Reads For Writers: “Draft No. 4,” by John McPhee and “The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers, and Life,” by Richard Russo
  • Must-Read For Readers: “The Book: An Homage,” by Burkhard Spinnen
  • Read Before You See The Movie This Summer: “The Bookshop,” by Penelope Fitzgerald, “Wildlife,” by Richard Ford and “Lean on Pete,” by Willy Vlautin
  • In Celebration Of National Short Story Month, May: “Varieties of Exile” and “Paris Stories,” both by Mavis Gallant and “So Long: Stories 1987-1992” and “Where I Live Now: Stories 1993-1998,” both by Lucia Berlin
  • To-Be-Read This Summer: “The Last Cruise,” by Kate Christensen, “The Fact of a Body,” by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, “The Burning Girl,” by Claire Messud and “Little Fires Everywhere,” by Celeste Ng
Terri-Lynne DeFino's Picks

  • "All the Ever Afters," by Danielle Teller
  • "This Dark Road to Mercy" and "The Last Ballad," both by Wiley Cash
     
Emily Connelly's Audiobook Picks

  • AudioFile Sync summer audiobook program
  • "Lincoln in the Bardo," by George Saunders
  • "Children of Blood and Bone," by Tomi Adeyemi
  • "Give Me Some Truth," by Eric Gansworth
  • "The Hate You Give," by Angie Thomas
  • "Born a Crime," by Trevor Noah
  • "The Dublin Murder Squad Mysteries," by Tana French
  • "Circe," by Madeline Miller
Other Picks

  • Island Readers and Writers lists
  • Rockport Public Library book sale
  • George Guidall event at the Patten Free Library in Bath
  • "Florida," Lauren Groff
  • "Turtles All The Way Down," John Green
  • "Jabari Jumps," by Gaia Cornwall
  • "A Gentleman in Moscow," by Amor Towles
  • "Lost Empress," by Sergio De La Pava
  • "The Overstory," by Richard Powers
  • "The Fun Mover Chronicles," by Tim Fahey
  • "The Stand," by Stephen King
  • "Vacationland," by John Hodgman
  • "Stranded: A Story of Frontier Survival," by Matthew Mayo
  • "White Pine: American History and the Tree that Made a Nation," by Andrew Vietze
  • "Trap the Devil," by Ben Coes
  • "Voting Down the Rose: Florence Brooks Whitehouse and Maine's Fight for Woman Suffrage," by Anne B. Gass
  • "Beyond the Road," by Jt Curran
  • "The Believing Brain," by Michael Shermer
  • "Calypso," by David Sedaris
  • "The Swan Thieves," by Elizabeth Kostova
  • "Camulod Chronicles Series," by Jack Whyte
  • "Call Me American," by Abdi Nor Iftin
  • "When We Were the Kennedys," by Monica Wood
  • "Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro," by Rachel Slade
  • "Waking Lions," by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
  • Jen Blood's K-9 series

For more recommendations from our listeners, visit the Maine Calling Facebook page.

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