Best Summer Reads From Woodinville Library

Summer is almost here, June 21 is the official first day of that season eagerly anticipated by every school-aged kid. Those long days of summer are the perfect time to catch up on all those books you heard about but haven’t had the time to read. Jenna Zarzycki compiled a list of some of the best book picks for those lazy days in the sun.

• Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris.  The next installment of the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire mysteries is here!  A good time to re-read the books that inspired the HBO series Trueblood.  Start with Dead Until Dark.
• The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. Three sisters flee from their failures to their hometown under the pretense of caring for their cancer stricken mother and Shakespeare scholar father.
• World War Z by Max Brooks.  Brooks imagines himself as a reporter, gathering tales of survival after a vicious Zombie plague has swept the earth.  Surprisingly engrossing and realistic.
• Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modern Bestiary by David Sedaris.  A collection of humorous, animal themed short stories by comic/humor writer David Sedaris.
• Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith.  Leo Demidov is a devoted, conscientious officer in the Stalin era Russian State Security Force.   Leo comes across the work of what he believes to be a serial killer - a fact which his organization and the country officials vehemently deny.
• The Peach Keeper: a novel by Sarah Addison Allen.  Two women living in North Carolina uncover a skeleton in a local peach orchard and must delve into their family histories to discover how it got there.  Allen writes subtly magical stories that take place in the American south.

• Moby-duck : An Accidental Odyssey : The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Hugh Donovan.  The author goes in search of thousands of plastic toys lost into the sea when a cargo ship was wrecked during a storm.
• What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell.  A collection of essays, articles and other adventures written by the author for the New Yorker.   The articles explore everything from birth control to mustard flavors to the television dog trainer Cesar Milan.
• Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.  The bestselling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the science of humans in space.  What, for example, happens to the human body when you don’t walk for a year?
• The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum.  Once upon a time, long before CSI or Bones, doctors couldn't tell whether someone had been poisoned or died peacefully in their sleep. This is the true story of two scientists who pioneered forensic medicine and chased murderers during the prohibition years.
• American Rose : A Nation Laid Bare : The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee by Karen Abbott.  A biography of Gypsy Rose Lee.  Born Louise Hovick, Gypsy started life as a child singing and dancing on Vaudeville stages. She eventually broke free of her talented younger sister and her overbearing stage mother to perform in what would become an extremely popular - and famous - one woman burlesque show.
• Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors.  Working during the summers as a fire lookout, Connors details moments with interesting people, animals and the stunning natural environment of New Mexico's Gila National Forest.

• Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu.  Sunny, an American born girl living in Nigeria, discovers that she is a leopard person – a witch by inheritance.  Sunny must use her newfound powers to defeat a powerful wizard masquerading as a vicious killer.
• The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan.  The last book in Flanagan’s popular Ranger’s Apprentice series has come out just in time for summer.  If you haven’t read the series, start back at the beginning with The Ruins of Gorlan to follow a cast of young warriors learning their trade and defending their Kingdom.  Battles and adventure abound!
• Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier.  An epic argument between two great authors is decided in this collection of short stories.  Zombies vs. Unicorns – which is cooler?  A great way to find a wide selection of new, interesting authors.
• Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork.  In order to continue going to private school, Marcelo (a high functioning autistic boy) must work for his father at a corporate law firm for one summer.
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.  Two teenage boys – one straight and one gay – discover they share the same name and form a bond.

• The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood.  After 15-year-old Miss Penelope Lumley graduates from the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females she is hired to care for three very unusual children.
• Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn by Hergé.  Read this classic comic about a young reporter named Tintin before you see the movie (slated to be released December 2011).  Be aware the comics were written in the 1930-40s and reflect the attitudes of the time.
• Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman and Rick Allen.  The lives and habits of nocturnal creatures are explored through poetry in this book.  Look for gorgeous illustrations and scientific explanations in the margins of each page.
• City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems.  Willems pens this wonderful story about the friendship between a dog and a frog through the changing seasons.
• H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education by Mark Walden.  Otto, a thirteen year old genius, is inducted into an elite school intended to educate the world’s next class of super villains.  Originally published in the UK, more of the series should reach the United States this summer.
• The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future by Dav Pilkey.  From the creator of Captain Underpants comes another crazy adventure of two cavemen who travel to the future to learn Kung-Fu and then return to the past to fight an evil corporation.