Off My Rocker:

Recommendations from a Book Nut

Good Summertime Reading
(June 2007)

"Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a"…book. O.K. that last bit is mine but the first part is, as you will recognize, from Walden, by Thoreau. My ending is better...anyway, below are some books about summer and set during summer. I wish for you that you, too, may be enrapt in a good book this summer!

ACCELERATION, by Graham McNamee

At the end of the summer before, Duncan had to stand by and a watch a girl drown, unable to intervene. Because he is young man of conscience and heart, he is troubled by his perceived failure.

This summer Duncan has a job in the lost-and-found of the Transit Commission sorting through the bizarre detritus left behind by the passengers. As he sorts, he comes across a diary which details a serial murderer's progress, if progress it can be called, from the torture of animals to arson to stalking women.

Duncan can't get the police take an interest so, haunted by events of the previous summer, he and his buddies begin to stalk the stalker.

This novel is both funny and horribly chilling…great for a hot summer.

SUMMERTIME, by Raffaella Barker

Think E. M. Delafield in the 21^st century. Our heroine, Venetia Summers is as disorganized and has as many financial difficulties as the Provincial Lady with the further complications of being divorced, having three children over whom she exercises little authority, and having a live-in boyfriend who has decamped for a job in South America.

The reader feels by turns sympathetic and exasperated, sometimes both together as Venetia is, while undoubtedly creative (she earns extra money by creating kitchy clothes for an expensive London boutique), also immature and completely feckless, screaming at her children when she isn't cooing over them and depending on a man to bring order to her life.

If the reader can bear with Venetia's quirks, this is a charming and humorous read.

SUMMER MOONSHINE, by P.G. Wodehouse

Dear me, where to begin!?

Joe loves Imogene, A.K.A. Jane, who loves Adrian Peake who has engaged himself to marry both Jane and Joe's wealthy stepmother, the Princess Dwornitzchek, whoever ends up the richer.

Sir Buckstone, Jane's impoverished father, wants to sell his Victorian monstrosity of a family seat and Joe's stepmother wants to buy it.

Jane's mother is a former American showgirl whose brother, Bulpitt is a process server who agrees to do one last job for old time's sake and shows up at the aforementioned Victorian monstrosity at just the wrong time.

Miss Whittaker, Sir Buckstone's secretary, loves Tubby, Joe's brother. When his affections seem to be on the wane, she sues him for breach of promise, the papers to be served by none other than Jane's American uncle. And so it goes in this laugh-out-loud comedy of British manners. One caveat – it is a novel of its time and contains a phrase which even Wodehouse admitted is offensive to contemporary sensibilities.