This year is flying by, so I wanted to share some great summer reads for 2017 before we are raking leaves in the fall. These are some books that haven’t necessarily come out in the past year – I just happened to have have read them in the past year. Each one is light and/or fun making them perfect for summer reading.
Enjoy!
Where the Hell is Tesla?
by Rob Dircks
A guy, Chip, finds Nikola Tesla’s notebook with information on where to find an “Interdimensional Transfer Apparatus” he created. Chip convinces his best friend to go with him to find this “Interdimensional Transfer Apparatus” and they go through it into, well, and interdimensional transfer area. And the hilarity ensues. I laughed out loud so many times while I read this book.
Where the Hell is Tesla? is written in emails. Very long emails. At first I was concerned it was going to be awful, but it was awesome. The format worked well with the story.
I highly, highly recommend this book as a fun escape from reality. Be aware the curse words flow freely and there is plenty of junior-high-level humor in it. But it was inline with the characters, so it didn’t feel gratuitous.
The Year We Turned Forty
by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
A group of three best friends are celebrating their fiftieth birthdays together when they are offered a chance to go back and relive the year they turned forty. This happened to be a pivotal year for Jessie, Gabriela, and Claire with each of them facing the opportunity to change the outcome of life-changing events. Or at least trying to change the outcome. It was interesting seeing how each woman approached her life having the advantage of hindsight. There were some heavy aspects to this one, but overall it was a joy to read.
I had a chance to write an author profile for LiteraryMama.com on Liz and Lisa. They were fun to work with and their personalities come through in their writing. I also recently read Your Perfect Life
City Mouse
by Stacey Lender
This is the story of a woman, Jessica, who loves living in New York City. After having a second child and outgrowing their apartment, they end up moving to the suburbs. Jessica tries her best to fit in and manages to find a group of friends. But this group of friends isn’t quite what she was hoping for.
I usually read books with a paranormal/sci-fi/adventure element, so this wasn’t one I would normally pick up. I received a free copy of City Mouse from Stacey Lender’s publicist and I’m so glad I read it. Stacey writes well and the characters are interesting. Being a life-long suburbanite, I was concerned this would end up being a suburb-bashing story. Without spoiling anything, I am happy to say it was not.
The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician Series)
by Charlie N. Holmberg
Okay, to be honest, I recently read The Master Magician
The Paper Magician takes place in England in the early 1900s where magicians are trained and bonded to a certain element (paper, glass, plastic, etc.). After graduating from magician school, Ceony Twill goes on to be an apprentice with paper magician Emory Thane. She resents being bonded to paper at first, but starts to appreciate it the more she works with it. When Emory is attacked by a practitioner of dark magic, it is up to Ceony to save him.
Mercury Shrugs (Volume 5)
by Robert Kroese
This is the fifth and final book in the Mercury series and it can be read without reading the others. However, to fully appreciate it, start with Mercury Falls
I must confess to having a bit of a fictional character crush on Mercury and have since reading Mercury Falls. There. I said it. Now that we have that out of the way, Mercury Shrugs is about angels and demons stuck on earth with no way to contact any of the other planes of existence, which includes heaven. Things are starting to look bad for earth, when Mercury has the chance to save it by rewriting history. There is a lot of hopping between alternate universes and points in time, but the author does a good job of keeping everything clear.
As with Mercury Falls and the other books, Mercury Shrugs is freaking hilarious. You can’t go wrong with Robert Kroese.