Bookworks Presents Shelf Awareness for Readers: Beach Reads

This issue, focusing on books we'd consider to be Beach Reads, gives us an opportunity to think about fun books. Not that reading serious works can't be a pleasure, but we're talking about escapism here.

For many, a perfect place to escape to is a British village of a certain era. Look no farther than the Grantchester mystery series (Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death, ...the Perils of the Night, ...the Problem of Evil and 2015's Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins), published by Bloomsbury USA. James Runcie's atmospheric books begin in 1953, with cleric-detective Canon Sidney Chambers and his friend Inspector Geordie Keating involved in multiple mysteries per volume, à la Father Brown. The novels are delightful, with just enough darkness to give them a bite. And if you haven't discovered the PBS series Grantchester, with dishy James Norton as Chambers and Robson Green as Keating (and the canon's adorable dog, Dickens), get thee to Netflix.

A more sinister mystery, set in the wilds of the Falklands, is Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton: three unreliable narrators, and an ending that may have to read twice. Or thrice. Baseball fans will be enthralled by Jon Pessah's The Game: Inside the Secret World of Major League Baseball's Power Brokers, whether their sympathies lie with the owners or the players (and at 656 pages, it will last you a long summer season). Food writer Ruth Reichl's first novel, Delicious! (now in paperback), features a young woman named Billie Breslin who works for an ill-fated food magazine, reminiscent of the now-defunct Gourmet. James Beard (appearing in a cache of old letters), Billie's beloved sister and a soupçon of romance make this a satisfying souffle of a book. A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures with Bumblebees (also in paper) by Dave Goulson explains the lives and behaviors of the insects we owe so much to. They are of the tribe Bombini--a honey of a word to soothe when a bee buzzes too close for comfort. --Marilyn Dahl, editor, Shelf Awareness for Readers

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