On Book: Summer Sizzlers (5 Picks for August)
Old people behaving badly. Best in Show meets beat journalism. A mortifying workplace mishap. Gay superhero stunt romance. Fables for grouchy Millennials.
When your attention span won’t keep up with your reading aspirations, here are five smart, fast, and fun new books to enjoy in the waning days of summer. Plus, some great author visits around Seattle this month.
In Town
There are loads of author events at the usual suspects (Elliott Bay Book Company on Capitol Hill and all three locations of Third Place Books are leaders in that department), but here are a few of special note.
This Week
August 5: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, author of the fantastic debut novel Catalina (released last month) and her earlier memoir-tinged journalistic endeavor The Undocumented Americans, talks with Carolyn Pinedo-Turnovsky at Elliott Bay on Capitol Hill.
Read about that and Elliott Bay’s other near-daily events here.
August 6: Jack Straw Cultural Center’s annual residency reading, hosted by curator Nisi Shawl, features readings by Catherine DeNardo, Josh Griffin, Becca Rose Hall, Gabriel Mosely, and Mary Pan, also at Elliott Bay. And for thriller lovers, local prolific writer Cherie Priest visits Third Place Books in Ravenna to talk about her new one, The Drowning House, released last month.
Read about that and other events at Third Place Books’ three locations here.
August 7: Two established Pacific Northwest authors make their debuts in the psychological thriller space. Vashon Island author Maia Chance looks at buried secrets among the well-off up in the San Juans in her brand-new novel, The Body Next Door; she’ll visit King County Library’s Vashon location to talk about the book in celebration of this week’s release. And at Elliott Bay, Elisabeth Eaves talks about her new book, The Outlier, with mystery writer Jamie Harrison (author of the Jules Clement novels, including her new one, The River View).
Later This Month
Romance fans can look forward to Bookstore Romance Day on August 17, with festivities at bookstores all over, including the three Third Place locations (offering big discounts and curated selections); the celebration at Tangletown’s Wise Owl Books & Music promises a raffle and free “Blind Date with a Book: Romance Day Style.” And on August 13, Anna E. Collins, author of the new release Worst in Show, talks with Jo Segura at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park.
Seattle music fans should keep an eye out for the debut book from local DJ and rocker Eva Walker (The Black Tones) and her husband, writer Jake Uitti. They’ll visit Third Place Books in Seward Park on August 29 to talk about their book, The Sound of Seattle: 101 Songs that Shaped a City, out later this month.
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Great Reads for August
We Could Be Heroes
Philip Ellis
Supermarket sushi. Honestly, Will. You need to want more for yourself.
Funny, sweet, and raunchy in all the right places. But you’d never expect a story about a superhero movie star to feel so … relatable.
That’s how drag artist/bookseller Will feels too, when out-of-town movie star Patrick shows up first at the gay bar where he works, and then at the bookstore with a special mission. Will pretty quickly senses there’s something special in the air: first, when he learns Patrick is gay (closeted more from the “morality clause” in his contract than from an actual desire to hide it); then as the two find their opposite insecurities make them more complementary than expected.
On top of great writing, what stands out about We Could Be Heroes is the sincerity of it: families (drag and chosen) who are warm, familiar, and catty as hell; a palpable struggle of wants and expectations; the realness of observations from jaded teenagers and close friends, without airs. Woven throughout are cheesy bits of superhero storyboards and historical segues, all pieced together in what feels like a real search for an origin story. Like the superhuman figure bolting through the skies aglow in “strange vermilion light,” Ellis’ sharp and sweet chapters fly by before you know it.
Release date: 6/4/2024, from Putnam (Penguin Random House); 384 pages. See book info here.
How to Age Disgracefully
Clare Pooley
You haven’t mentioned the stealing, the deception, and my recent near-arrest.
No. Those are the things I like about you.
Too bad An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good was already taken, because that’s all I could think the more I learned about the mysterious, controlling, clearly-hiding-something Daphne, the central force in this motley social club for seniors.
Then again, it’s the multi-generational nature of the melee that makes this crew’s tricks, virtually all opposite of what’s expected from them, so much fun to follow. Pooley’s novel delights in turning assumptions — about older folks, women, teenagers — on their head. Hearts soften. Resolves stiffen. Plots solidify and thicken.
With a ridiculous amount of excitement in a sleepy town, this comedy-mystery takes a bunch of boxed-in, overlooked characters and makes heroes out of them. The developers, drug lords, and (occasionally) detectives will never know what hit ’em. As Daphne imparts: “Haven’t you worked out by now that if they’re going to stereotype us, we might as well use their lazy preconceptions to our advantage?” Pooley does, with gusto.
Release date: 6/11/2024, from Pamela Dorman Books/Viking (Penguin Random House); 352 pages. Book info here.
Dogland
Tommy Tomlinson
French bulldogs were created to do absolutely nothing. And they are so damn good at it.
Not quite as ridiculous as the cult-classic film Best in Show, nor as polished as the deliverables seen on TV. No, the real dog show experience lies somewhere in between.
Tomlinson takes us behind the ring, following a particularly accomplished contestant named Striker, and into the stands, where booze-emboldened onlookers boo a froufrou poodle’s selection at the expense of an audience favorite.
The saga is both informative and sweet. History buffs and info sponges will like the foray into dog shows past, the issues with breeding, the uses of various breeds across time and place. Me, I’m just there for the dogs. And after detailing statuesque exemplars of canine perfection, Tomlinson’s segue into his own dog’s tale (“Fred was not a show dog” is a delightful understatement) is a useful contextual reminder: the perfect dog is rarely the one in the ring.
Release date: 4/23/2024, from Avid Reader Press (Simon & Schuster); 256 pages. Book info here.
Better Left Unsent
Lia Louis
Try writing an email, and just don’t send it to the fucker.
Oops.
Timid, get-along corporate receptionist Millie has been keeping a diary of sorts, writing occasionally hyperbolic but generally true replies and leaving them unsent in her drafts folder. Until some overnight glitch blasts them all out, to co-workers, love interests, family, and friends alike. Now she’s stuck dealing with stares from coworkers, the explosive fallout from an ex-friend, confusion from relatives, and (of course) the deep-red blush from her paragraphs-long, all-office confession of true love.
Forced out of her comfort zone, Millie has some changes to make. Top among them are being real with the people important to her, making nice-enough in some self-preservation moves at work, and (all-too-relatable) finding respite with a bold leap back to a Nokia brick phone. Was everything better off sent after all?
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more embarrassing workplace mistake, but Louis’ telling flips mortification on its head as Millie is forced to move from good-enough stasis to a brave new face. She just has to power through the mess first.
Release date: 5/21/2024, from Emily Bestler Books/Atria (Simon & Schuster); 384 pages. Book info here.
Glory Days
Simon Rich
I know we won’t be reunited. You’re in Los Angeles and I’m in a landfill, buried under four hundred tons of WOW potato chips.
Turning 40 this year and creaking under years of questionable choices? Me too, Mario, me too.
Call it an Elder Millennial Storybook. This collection of short stories has a slightly cynical backwind, a natural fit for the demographic it seems geared toward.
As the iconic 8-bit, brick-busting plumber mooches off his overlooked, newly well-heeled, gay brother Luigi, and finally breaks off his decidedly unfulfilling, one-sided relationship with the Princess, Rich takes us on new journeys with other familiar characters. The Nigerian prince who’s been seeking us out since the day we got an AOL account? He finally finds his match. God and an angel take a different look at Creation. The much-maligned participation trophy has words for its recipient. Pop songs bring a timely salvation. And perhaps the sweetest tale in the book: two exasperated parents find an unexpected truce somewhere between gaslighting and avoidance, wedged between the train cars.
With complete tales delivered in bytes and pieces, it’s the perfect witty companion for your solo night out, a new twist on an old fashioned (clink).
Release date: 7/23/2024, from Little, Brown and Company (Hachette); 224 pages. Book info here.
Chase D. Anderson is Editor & Producer of NWTheatre.org.