There is something to be said for being able to kick off your shoes and relax in your own blog. So here I am back at it after guest-hosting the Book Maven’s blog over at Publishers Weekly. While she traipsed all over the Cape — note to Maven: where’s MY blueberry ice cream, hmm? — I got to play in a different sandbox for a couple weeks. Her usual blog suspects were very nice to strangers (read: no flaming) so here’s to hoping to more encounters soon. 

I’ve been blessed with an unusually good reading summer this year. The past year had been marked by a pretty decent dry spell for books. I just couldn’t seem to find anything that wasn’t either overhyped or underwhelming. It was like trying to buy a swimsuit when you’re five pounds overweight. You know nothing’s going to fit and it has as much to do with you as with the limits of the garments you’re trying on. 

But finally, the pounds came off and the books came pouring in. Happily, I was able to share the trove of good reads with Nanette, the sweet chic friend who’s leaving town but first wanted a list of books she needs to read once she’s settled in from her move. Here’s to hoping it’s not months later as it was here in Wormette’s home. But this summer was ripe. Herewith the list of great reads — some of which have been mentioned here before: 

* ‘Child 44‘ – Author Tom Rob Smith looks like a hardier Chris Martin and writes like a grizzled vet at the spy game. No ordinary thriller, ‘Child’ got an early round of buzz that never quite materialized into blockbuster sales. I bet that will change once the movie gets made. Openly cinematic (without the obvious casting hints of a ‘Da Vinci Code’), it tells the tale of a Russian MGB officer in the post-WWII Soviet regime. A crisis of conscious lands him in a remote outpost but also causes him to realize that a serial killer is targeting children. Smith mixes tightly paced scenes with observations that will have Sting prominently featured on the soundtrack: Russians love their children too. 

* ‘The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society‘ – The little book that could by the little women, Aunt Mary Ann Shaffer and Niece Annie Barrows, who did. This one has charm to spare from its quirky title to its quirkier characters and its beautifully spun tale told in letters exchanged in post-WWII (are we all feeling nostalgic?) Britain, this time. A journalist stumbles into the subject of her next book — and truly the story of her life — when she begins corresponding with the inhabitants of Guernsey, the only part of the UK occupied by the Nazis. Even the hand-held size of this gem of a book delights.

* ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’ – OK, so I missed Junot Diaz’s brilliant book when it won the Pulitzer but now that it’s out in paperback I can happily declare it’s even better than I hoped. A fat, geeky, Dominicano teenager, is the protagonist but the book itself tells the story of life in, out and ruled by the Dominican Republic. Hyped up and jammed with a funky street song feel, dead-on slang and mish-mash of Spanglish, it’s John Barth cross-bred with David Foster Wallace (more about him shortly) and with Diaz’s own soulful look at curses, love, booty and plantanos. 

* ‘Basic Black‘ – Cathie Black, the president of Hearst Publications (the company behind Cosmo, Oprah and Smart Money to name a very few), has a lot to say. But that doesn’t mean she wastes a word on drivel in this business memoir/guide. Becoming the first woman publisher of a national magazine might have been the easy part as she relates the trials she faced and the advice she learned along the way. Some of it could be construed as basic, yes. But knowing the value of the basics, she reminds us, is something one learns over and over again in life and in business. 

* ‘American Wife‘ – Have I read Curtis Sittenfeld’s new book? No. Was I dying to read it when I first heard it was a fictional interpretation of Laura’s Bush’s life? Yes. Was I burning to read it since getting completely sucked into the insanity that is this election cycle. YES-squared. There’s only so much nonfiction political coverage one can suck out of a 24/7 news cycle each day. For that reason alone, I have had to feed my habit elsewhere. Do not think for one single second, this won’t be the next book on my nightstand.

So this should give you plenty to chew on, Nanette. Here’s to a great new life in your new (old) city!