Hit the stack! Top 10 summer reads
"The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein
This is the Starbucks book pick of the summer, so you’ll see it by the counter whenever you stop to get your vente latte. Imagine if your dog wrote a tell-all about you — that gives you an idea of what kind of book this is. It’s a novel about a family told from the pooch’s perspective. The concept may sound cutesy, but it is actually a very gripping and well-written story. And it’s getting some heady praise from big-deal writers like my favorite, Wally Lamb.
"Skeletons at the Feast" by Chris Bohjalian
Bohjalian is another favorite author of mine. This is the perfect novel for a book club because there’s so much to discuss. The story is set in World War II and follows a group of German refugees as they flee their homeland. Normally, I’m not a big fan of historical fiction, but this book sucked me right in. It opens with a young girl who’s trying to get across a frozen river with her family, but enemy soldiers are bombing the ice to keep people from crossing. It’s vivid and heart-wrenching. One interesting sidenote: The author was inspired to write this book when someone gave him an unpublished diary of a Prussian woman who fled west in 1945.
"The Story of A Marriage" by Andrew Sean Greer
I love the first sentence of this novel: “We think we know the ones we love.” With an introduction like that you just know there’s some deep dark secrets in store. And that’s exactly what you get. It’s about a 1950s housewife who opens her door one day to find a stranger standing there. This stranger tells her some shocking things about her husband.
"Chasing Harry Winston" by Lauren Weisberger
Okay, now for the lighter reads. I don’t want to call these next couple of books trashy, but we’ll say they’re on the “fluffy” side. And there’s nothing wrong with that — especially in the summer. This one is by the author of "The Devil Wears Prada." It’s the story of three best friends — two of them make a pact to dramatically change their entire lives within the course of a year.
"Love the One You're With" by Emily Giffin
Another fun book that raises the question: How do you know if you’ve found “The One?” It’s about a woman who is happily married — or so she thinks — until she runs into an ex she never quite go over. He’s a real bad boy so the reader doesn’t want her to be tempted, but we can also understand why she is.
"Black Out" by Lisa Unger
I was a big fan of the author’s debut novel, "Beautiful Lies.” This time, she’s back with a novel about a woman leading a pretty comfy life in a Florida suburb until some dark memories from her past begin to surface. As she sets out to uncover the truth behind these memories, her world turns upside down. The book is full of twists and turns. A great read for anyone craving some suspense.
"Bringing Home the Birkin" by Michael Tonelo
You ladies must know what a Birkin bag is, but I had no idea until I read this book. They’re Hermes bags that are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Socialites and celebrities would pretty much kill for them. This is true story by a guy who went from having not much of a job to being one of the busiest Internet resellers of the coveted Birkin bags in the world. It’s a witty and wild ride.
"Wolf at the Table" by Augusten Burroughs
The author is best-known for his runaway bestseller “Running With Scissors.” This latest memoir is a much more serious look at his relationship with his father. It opens with the memory of his dad chasing him through the woods as a child. Once you start turning the pages, it’s hard to stop.
"Summer of Naked Swim Parties" by Jessica Anya Blau
This wins the prize for the best title of the list. It’s by a first-time author. You know, with the show Swingtown coming out this summer there’s been lots of talk about the ’70s and people having parents who did some wild things back in the day. Again, the title says it all!
"Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan
If you missed this one in hardcover, grab it in paperback. It’s a novel based on the true story of the love affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and a woman named Mamah Cheney; both of them left their family to be together, creating a Chicago scandal that eventually ended in violence.
via
MSNBC
The Punch
-- David believes that at heart, people are inherently rotten. Scott, his brother, believes that his life is going to fall apart, and that everyone he loves will leave him. Doris, their mother, believes that she has nothing to lose by revealing a 60-year-old family secret. This hysterically biting and ultimately redeeming novel by Noah Hawley proves them all right—and wrong—while answering some of life's biggest questions. Like, how did Scott end up with two wonderful wives simultaneously? And why can't David manage to keep even one dysfunctional relationship going? It all comes down to love and families and what you believe in—and, maybe, forgiveness. 
: At thirty-nine, movie critic Mary Pols knew she wanted to have a baby. But never—not in a million years—on her own. To take on the physical, emotional, and financial challenges of motherhood without a perfect soul mate/husband would be absurd, kind of like not bothering to use a condom during a one-night stand with an adorable but jobless guy ten years her junior.
: After years as a sweet, good-natured pushover, Annie Markham has had to face up to three hard truths:
- Fun title right?
:In an unnamed New York-based company, the employees are getting restless as everything around them unravels. There’s Pru, the former grad student turned spreadsheet drone; Laars, the hysteric whose work anxiety stalks him in his tooth-grinding dreams; and Jack II, who distributes unwanted backrubs–aka “jackrubs”–to his co-workers.
By age thirty-seven, Cathy Alter had made a mess of her life. With a failed marriage already under her belt, she was continuing down the path of poor decisions, one paved with a steady stream of junk food, unpaid bills, questionable friends, and highly inappropriate men. So she sat down and asked herself what she truly wanted. A decent guy. A nicer home. More protein. When she took a closer look at her wants, she noticed something that seemed very familiar -- with the addition of exclamation points, her list could easily be transformed into the cover lines on every women's magazine: Find the love you deserve! Paint to the rescue! Eggs-actly perfect meals! So Cathy gave over her life to the glossies for the next twelve months, resolving to follow their advice without question. By the end of her subscriptions, she would get rid of upper-arm jiggle, crawl out of debt, host the perfect dinner party, run a mile without puking, engage in better bathtub booty, ask for a raise, and rehaul her apartment.
His blog can be found 
When Catherine Morrow is admitted to the Esther Percy School for Girls, it's on the condition that she reform her ways. But that's before the charismatic and beautiful Skye Butterfield, daughter of the famous Senator Butterfield, chooses Catherine for her best friend. Skye is a young woman hell-bent on a trajectory of self-destruction, and she doesn't care who is taken down with her. No matter the transgression—a stolen credit card, a cocaine binge, an affair with a teacher, an accident that precipitates the end of Catherine's promising riding career—Catherine can neither resist Skye's spell nor stop her downward spiral.
was reccomended to me by Amazon. Here's the synopis: When Paul Miller’s pharmaceutical company goes public, making his family IPO millionaires, his wife, Janice, is sure this is the windfall she’s been waiting years for — until she learns, via messengered letter, that her husband is divorcing her (for her tennis partner!) and cutting her out of the new fortune. Meanwhile, four hundred miles south in Los Angeles, the Millers’ older daughter, Margaret, has been dumped by her newly famous actor boyfriend and left in the lurch by an investor who promised to revive her fledgling post-feminist magazine, Snatch. Sliding toward bankruptcy and dogged by creditors, she flees for home where her younger sister Lizzie, 14, is struggling with problems of her own. Formerly chubby, Lizzie has been enjoying her newfound popularity until some bathroom graffiti alerts her to the fact that she’s become the school slut.
: What would you do if your eighty-year-old father dragged you into his hell-bent hunt for new love? Bob Morris, a seriously single son, tells you all about it in this warm, witty, and wacky chronicle of a year of dating dangerously.
- a recent review from the NY Post: In Schilling's novel, set in the 1944 season, baseball maverick Bill Veeck buys the Philadelphia Athletics and, determined to field the best team, recruits ballplayers from the Negro League for his roster (he reportedly considered doing this in real life). Of course, the establishment - the cranky commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis and even J. Edgar Hoover - is aghast. But readers are sure to cheer both Veeck and players such as Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige in this alternate take on baseball history.
(not to be confused with 
which I have read and profiled previously). Here's the Amazon.com description: Annabelle has finally made peace with the loss of her beloved husband. Until she finds out he wasn’t alone when he died…
book!
Coldplay
- From Jackie O.'s pink suit to Mao's signature blue jacket with tidy collar, fashion has been a catalyst, a lightning rod, even a dominant player at many of the central events in history. While critics and moralists through the ages have raged against fashion's essential frivolity, many cultural and political leaders have intuitively understood its centrality to human concerns. Dressed to Kill puts style in its rightful place at the center of the historical stage {description from Amazon.com}
: The scandalous story of America’s first supermodel, sex goddess, and modern celebrity, Evelyn Nesbit, the temptress at the center of Stanford White’s famous murder, whose iconic life story reflected all the paradoxes of America’s Gilded Age. Known to millions before her sixteenth birthday in 1900, Evelyn Nesbit was the most photographed woman of her era, an iconic figure who set the standard for female beauty. Women wanted to be her. Men just wanted her. When her life of fantasy became all too real, and her jealous millionaire husband, Harry K. Thaw, killed her lover—celebrity architect Stanford White, builder of the Washington Square Arch and much of New York City—she found herself at the center of the “Crime of the Century” and the popular courtroom drama that followed—a scandal that signaled the beginning of a national obsession with youth, beauty, celebrity, and sex. The story of Evelyn Nesbit is one of glamour, money, romance, sex, madness, and murder, and Paula Uruburu weaves all of these elements into an elegant narrativethat reads like the best fiction — only it’s all true. American Eve goes far beyond just literary biography; it paints a picture of America as it crossed from the Victorian era into the modern, foreshadowing so much of our contemporary culture today. 
will be released on June 3rd and I can't wait. Below is from a recent interview in W Magazine:
-Available July 1st. 
on my way home from work the day before yesterday via Cosmo Radio (Cocktails with Patrick) and thought I would reccomend it to anyone that needs a little help. Personally, I don't need much help since I was actually stood up for a date (Yankees game) because I knew a little too much about baseball, but I think it's a great idea! I also loved their idea for a baseball lover's dating website, I've been looking for a Philadelphia Phillies fan forever!
- I am really psyched for the sequel to 
...here's the description: After bidding good-bye to New York's brightest star, Elizabeth Holland, rumors continue to fly about her untimely demise.
