Suggested beach reads for summer 2023

There’s no better time to curl up with a book than during a sunny summer day. Area librarians have put together their book recommendations from a variety of genres. They are:
 
Title: “The Loud Librarian”
Author: Erika Lynne Jones
Genre: Picture book
Description: Penelope is perfect for the job of student-librarian: friendly, helpful, and a book lover. There’s just one snag. Penelope is … loud. Bookcases may topple and the ground may quake at the sound of her voice, but Penelope is determined to prove she’s perfect for the job and stay true to herself.
Recommended by: Ingvild Herfindahl, library director of Dodge Center Public Library
 
Title: “Sunshine”
Author: Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Genre: Graphic novel memoir
Description: When Jarrett J. Krosoczka was in high school, he was part of a program that sent students to be counselors at a camp for seriously ill kids and their families. Not only was he subject to some of the usual rituals that come with being a camp counselor (wilderness challenges, spooky campfire stories, an extremely stinky mascot costume), but he also got a chance to meet some extraordinary kids facing extraordinary circumstances. He learned about the captivity of illness, for sure but he also learned about the freedom a safe space can bring.
Recommended by: Herfindahl
 
Title: “The Secret Summer Promise”
Author: Keah Brown
Genre: Young adult
Description: After spending all last summer recovering from surgery for her cerebral palsy, Andrea cannot wait to have the perfect summer. She even comes up with an epic list of things to take the summer over the top, but nothing beats her main objective: don’t let her best friend know that she’s secretly in love with her. What could possibly go wrong?
Recommended by: Herfindahl
 
Title: “Summer Reading”
Author: Jenn McKinlay
Genre: Romance
Description: Samantha Gale has never been a fan of reading, in part because having dyslexia makes it difficult, but she hopes to write a cookbook compiling her family recipes. Because she’s chaperoning her half-brother Tyler at a local robotics competition, she’s primarily spending her summer at the library. On meeting the library director Bennett Reynolds, her plans take an unexpected turn as she helps him search for his estranged father and pursues her culinary dreams.
Recommended by: Herfindahl
 
Title: “The White Lady”
Author: Jacqueline Winspear
Genre: Mystery
Description: Elinor White is a 41-year-old former spy living in a small English village in 1947. When her neighbors are threatened by a powerful gang, Elinor will have to call on all her training to protect her new life.
Recommended by: Herfindahl
 
Title: “Cross Down”
Author: James Patterson
Genre: Mystery
Description: The brilliant crime-solving duo of Washington, DC’s, Metro PD and the FBI has a proven MO: Detective Alex Cross makes his own rules. Detective John Sampson enforces them. When military-style attacks erupt, brutally sidelining Cross, Sampson is sent reeling. Now he alone must protect the Cross family and everyone else in DC.
Recommended by: Herfindahl
 
Title: “Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club”
Author: J. Ryan Stradal
Genre: Fiction
Description: In Minnesota author Stradal’s latest book, Ned and Mariel Prager lose almost everything they hold dear, and the hard-won victories their families hang in the balance. With their dreams dashed, can they find a way to rebuild despite their losses, and will the Lakeside Supper Club be their salvation?
Recommended by: Herfindahl
 
Title: “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity”
Author: Peter Attia
Genre: Nonfiction
Description: Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.
Recommended by: Herfindahl
 
Title: “Georgie, All Along”
Author: Kate Clayborn
Genre: Contemporary romance
Description: After losing her job as a personal assistant, Georgie Mulcahy realizes that she has no idea what she wants out of life. She moves back to her hometown and discovers her old diary filled with possibilities. Along the way she meets Levi Fanning — former troublemaker and current hermit — who helps her work through the ideas in her diary. Is her future written in the diary or is it by her side?
Recommended by: David Greenfield, circulation technician at the Kasson Public Library
 
Title: “Finlay Donovan is Killing It”
Author: Elle Cosimano
Genre: Mystery
Description: Finlay Donovan is a single mom and struggling author. When she is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet. Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart…
Recommended by: Greenfield
 
Title: “Well Traveled”
Author: Jen DeLuca
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Description: Attorney Lulu Malone needs to get away. Lulu’s cousin introduces her to the world of Renaissance Faires, and she decides to spend the summer traveling with one. There’s only one problem: Dex MacLean, suave guitarist for the Dueling Kilts. Lulu’s interest in Dex grows during their travels, but is this destined to just be a summer fling?
Recommended by: Greenfield
 
Title: “Spare”
Author: Prince Harry
Genre: Biography
Description: Most people’s knowledge of Prince Harry comes from what they read in the tabloids or see on TV. This is Prince Harry’s story in his own words. With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.
Recommended by: Greenfield
 
Title: “The Hotel Nantucket”
Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Genre: Domestic fiction
Description: After a tragic fire killed 19-year-old chambermaid Grace Hadley, The Hotel Nantucket descended from a gilded age gem to an abandoned eyesore. Now completely renovated, the staff face many challenges, including surviving the (mostly) harmless shenanigans of Grace Hadley herself — who won’t stop haunting the hotel until her murder is acknowledged.
Recommended by: Greenfield
 
Title: “Last Circle of Love”
Author: Lorna Landvik
Genre: Domestic fiction
Description: Newly installed pastor Mallory Peterson realizes that her struggling church is on the verge of sinking. With the help of five women from the Naomi Circle they embark on a recipe book — a book that heats up relationships rather than casseroles. As opposition to this “scandalous” project grows, these women must decide how hard to fight for the book and the powerful stories within.
Recommended by: Greenfield
 
Title: “American Mermaid”
Author: Julia Langbein
Genre: Humorous fiction
Description: English teacher Penelope Schleeman is as surprised as anyone when her novel American Mermaid becomes a bestseller. When a major studio offers her big money to turn the book into a movie, she quits her job and moves to L.A. But as the studio pressures her to change her main character from a fierce, androgynous eco-warrior to a teen sex object in a clamshell bra, strange things start to happen. Is Penelope losing her mind or has her mermaid come to life?
Recommended by: Greenfield
 
Title: “Exes & O’s”
Author: Amy Lea
Genre: Contemporary romance
Description: Tara Chen has had her heart broken ten times by ten different men — all of whom dumped her because of her “stage-five clinger” tendencies. She enlists the help of her roommate Trevor to reconnect with her exes, but will he end up being lucky number eleven?
Recommended by: Greenfield
 
Title: “The Boardwalk Bookshop”
Author: Susan Mallery
Genre: Contemporary romance
Description: Fate brings three women together to start the Boardwalk Bookshop — part bookstore, part gift shop, and part bakery. But while their business is thriving, their personal lives are… not. At sunset every Friday they share a champagne toast and challenge each other to become the best versions of themselves in this story of friendship, sisterhood, and the transformative power of love.
Recommended by: Greenfield
 
Title: “Things I Wish I Told My Mother”
Author: Susan Patterson and Susan DiLallo, with James Patterson
Genre: Domestic fiction
Description: Every daughter and every mother has her own distinctive voice, her inimitable style, and her secrets. Laurie is an artist who travels the world with a worn beige duffel bag. “Dr. Liz,” Laurie’s mother, is an elegant perfectionist who travels the world with a matched set of suitcases. When Laurie surprises her mother with a dream vacation, it brings an unexpected sparkle to her eyes.
Recommended by: Greenfield
 
Title: “Daisy Jones & the Six”
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Historical fiction
Description: Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and her beauty makes people do crazy things. Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
Recommended by: Greenfield
 
Title: “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue”
Author: V.E. Schwab
Genre: Fantasy
Description: France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever?and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
Recommended by: Greenfield