As the summer reaches crescendo, Hampton Sheet offers its best picks of the season, from can’t-put-it-down fiction to inspiring nature writing to tales of global adventure, all guaranteed to pair well with sunshine and seersucker, and available fresh daily at your local independent bookseller. Herewith our Best of the Summer, wherever and however you spend it.
BEST BEACH READ: Spin by Robert Rave (St. Martin’s). When young Taylor Green stumbles into Manhattan without a friend, a clue, or the proper wardrobe, he lands in the lap and lair of the city’s most prominent PR powergirl. He soon finds himself deep behind the scenes of a celebrity spin machine, where placements in Page Six and trading in half-truths compete with friendship, loyalty and sanity. In his snapshot of Manhattan social gamesmanship, Rave doesn’t miss a beat, and his description of the tragic hipness of the young très riche will make you smile and shudder. Fans of The Devil Wears Prada and The Nanny Diaries will thrill at the insider’s take on Manhattan’s most notable (and don’t miss the shocking epilogue that holds the clue to the book’s inspiration). Warning: An engrossing hardcover, this book may cause sunburn. Keep a friend nearby reading something less riveting to remind you to roll over and reapply.
BEST LOUNGING-IN-CENTRAL PARK READ: Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (Little Brown). You’re unlikely to find a more elegant, insightful, and inspiring read for a summer spent outdoors. Taking the ubiquitous crow as her lens, Haupt works as a prophet and a wordsmith, teaching us to see a world that’s often too close to be noticed, and describing that world in language that will leave you wondering how you missed the miracles around you. You needn’t be an environmentalist to appreciate Haupt’s affection for the non-human, or her vision of the sacred places in our urban life that somehow straddle the fence between wild world and civilized city. Written in the tradition of Dillard, and the older tradition of Thoreau, Haupt’s volume might be our next environmental classic. And it fits nicely into a picnic basket.
BEST FAMILY WEEKEND READ: 360 Degrees Longitude: One Family’s Journey Around the World by John Higham (Alyson). Read of the Higham family’s year-long journey around the world, and suddenly your ten-day jaunt to Jamaica seems a little less impressive. After ten years of planning, John Higham led his wife and two kids to 28 countries and five continents in 52 weeks, gathering photographs and friendships as quickly as they shed American self-reliance and arrogance. If a book is as close as you’ll get to such a heroic journey, then be encouraged: this volume comes equipped with the first ever Google Earth tie-in, allowing readers to follow the Higham family across the globe in an interactive media experience as one-of-its-kind as the adventure it describes.
BEST AFTER-THE-AFTERPARTY READ: Pillhead: The Secret Life of a Painkiller Addict by Joshua Lyon (Hyperion). Five pages into Pillhead, and you’ll stop accusing Lyon of writing just another addiction memoir. Besides the riveting, hilarious, and heartbreaking storytelling, Lyon brings a journalist’s eye and a culture-critic’s vision to his personal habit, breaking it open and inviting other stories to mix with his. The result is more disquieting than that of an isolated addict’s tale: a portrait of a new generation of escape artists, who prefer Vicodin over Heroin, and whose addiction memoirs are probably forthcoming. A sobering read to be sure, but Lyon’s creation of himself as a character is done with an artfulness unusual in the now-ubiquitous addict’s tale.
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BEST SAILING-ON-THE-HARBOR READ: Old Girlfriends by David Updike (St. Martin’s). The cover art for the first collection of short stories from John Updike’s son David evokes his father’s New York, but the writing within shows a voice escaping the anxiety of such unavoidable influence. The elder Updike chose the grand mythology of Rabbit as his legacy; David has chosen short stories as his. There’s not much dialogue in these tales, but the voice of the storyteller is strong enough to hear, and each brief tale holds a great weight in melancholy and meaning—a satisfying collection best consumed in small bites.
BEST AIRPLANE READ: Don’t Pet the Daisy: Living, Loving and Losing Weight with the World’s Hungriest Dog by Bev West and Jason Bergund (Hyperion). Here’s a fine formula for a bestseller: take a heartwarming story about a beloved pet, add in an unorthodox Manhattan love story, and slip in some tips on weight loss. Marley and Me meets When Harry Met Sally meets Skinny Bitch in this undeniably original and hilariously quirky tale of a man and a woman and their beloved, overweight Chihuahua. Add the portly Daisy to your list of most lovable literary animals, and follow her struggle—and her owners’—to recover health and happiness in an uncertain and anxious world. A quick, happy, and surprisingly useful read for your quick flight down to Palm Beach. (Afterward, store book in kitchen for easy access to recipes.)
