Summer Reads: Panelists and Listeners Share Best Book Recommendations

A perennial favorite. Our panel of Maine booksellers joins us to share which books are must-reads this summer, and listeners share their questions and suggestions for fiction and non-fiction favorites as well.

Meghan Hawkes, bookseller, Sherman's Maine Coast Book Shops in Damariscotta

Megan Frazer Blakemore, author,"Secrets of Truth and Beauty," a novel for young adults that received a starred Publishers Weekly and was on the ALA Rainbow list; elementary school librarian.

Kenny Brechner, owner, Devaney, Doak and Garrett Booksellers

Scott Von Doviak (by phone), author, "Charlesgate Confidential"

Gerry Boyle (by phone), author, crime and mystery novels

Meghan Hawkes' picks:

• "Golden Wolf" trilogy, Linnea Hartsuyker
• "Heartbeat of Wounded Knee," David Truer
• "Batavia's Graveyard," Mike Dash
• "How Long 'Til Black Future Month," "Broken Earth" trilogy, N.K. Jemisin
• "The Body Lies," Jo Baker
• "A Gentleman's Murder," Christopher Huang

Megan Frazer Blakemore's picks:

• "Midsummer’s Mayhem," Rajanni LaRocca
• "The Hero Next Door" short story collection, edited by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
• "Charlie and Mouse: Even Better," Laurel Snyder
• "Two Truths and a Lie: Forces of Nature," Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson
• "Diary of an Ice Princess: Snow Place Like Home," Christina Sootornvat
• "The Missing Season," Gillian French
• "The Great Indoors," "Two Dogs in a Trench Coat," "Two Dogs in a Trench Coat go on a Class," Julie Falatko, illustrated by Ruth Chan
• "This is MY Room: No Tigers Allowed," Jennifer Richard Jacobson

Kenny Brechner's picks:

• "Recursion," Blake Crouch
• "These Witches Don't Burn," Isabel Starling
• "Spinning Silver," Naomi Novik
• "Skullduggery Pleasant" series, Derek Landy
• "Smoke Thieves/Demon World," Sally Green
• "All The Nows I Can Get," Shana Youngdahl
• "Orphan X" series, Greg Hurwitz
• "The Fall," Neal Stephenson
• "Friday Black," Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
• "The History of Living Forever," Jake Wolff
• "Summer Book," Tove Jansson
• "Worst Journey in the World," Cherry Apsley Garrard

Other mentions on this show:

• Kwame Alexander
• Ellen Hopkins
• "Otherwise Known as Possum," Maria D. Laso
• "Smile," "Ghosts," Raina Telgemeier
• "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat," Emily Chenoweth and Johnny Marciano
• "The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher," Dana Alison Levy
• "The Penderwicks" series, Jeanne Birdsall
• "Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking," Erin Dionne
• "Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth," Sarah Smarsh
• "Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis," Patti Henry
• "A Gentleman in Moscow," Amor Towles
• "How to Love a Country: Poems," Richard Blanco
• "The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses): A Novel," Terri-Lynne DeFino
• "Orange World and Other Stories," "Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories," Karen Russell
• "The Dandelion Insurrection: Love and Revolution," "The Lost Heir," Rivera Sun
• "The Story Web," "Frankie Sparks, Third-Grade Inventor" series, Megan Frazer Blakemore
• "The Wave," Todd Strasser
• "North by Northeast: New Short Fiction by Writers from Maine and New England," Littoral Books
• "Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital," Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove
• "Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine," "A Sense of the Mysterious," Alan Lightman
• "Mindful of Race," Ruth King
• Ruth Moore
• James Hayman
• "Watership Down," "Shardik," Richard Adams
• "Maisie Dobbs" series, Jacqueline Winspear
• "Finchosaurus," Gail Donovan
• "Because of the Rabbit," Cynthia Lord
• "Lantern Hill Farm" series, Meadow Rue Merrill
• "The Mad Wolf’s Daughter," "The Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter," Diane Magras
• "The Martian," Andy Weir
• "Truman," David McCullough
• "Seveneves," Neal Stephenson
• "Preserving Old Barns," John Porter
• "Ten Days in the North Woods," Hope Rowan
• "Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend," Matthew Dicks