Drew's Summer Picks
There is something that calls us to the road when the weather warms and New American Road Trip Mix Tape exemplifies what a road trip can offer us, perspective. Brendan is a single 32 year old who decides to take to the road to find answers in an America that is still recovering (relatable). Along the road he encounters small towns with big dreams and some of what he has been looking for in his life.
When I think of Road Trips I always think of Blue Highways the story of a man’s journey through small town America. However that book describes an America that really doesn’t exist anymore, or does it? In The Lost Continent Bill Bryson examines small town America in the 21st century and challenges us to change our perspectives and open our minds. Part travelogue part treatise on Americana I cannot recommend this book enough!
Did you watch the League Of Extraordinary Gentleman and wish that it was better? And that it featured the daughters of those heroes of the 19th century? Then you want the Case Of The Alchemist’s Daughter! In this story the daughters of Dr. Jekyl, Dr. Moreau, Dr. Frankenstein, and Mr. Hyde’s daughter team up with Sherlock Holmes to battle a cabal of immortality obsessed scientists! This is a spectacular adventure that I highly recommend!
(This book cannot be returned.)
The Flatshare is a fun story about falling in love with someone that you live with….and technically have never met! When Tiffy has a bad breakup she needs to find a place to live and FAST. Enter Leon who works the night shift and needs a roommate to help afford his flat. Since the two work on opposite schedules they start leave notes for eachother and what starts off as to-do lists turn into love letters!
When Detroit detective Alex McKnight lost in his partners and nearly his life while apprehending a killer he decided it was time to retire. He has left the city and moved to a small town in northern Michigan and is content with a quiet life in his cabin. However when a body turns up with the telltale marks of the other victims of the killer McKnight put away he has to solve the mystery before he’s next!
Every summer people from all over Michigan head north and this summer is no different but this year’s tourists have brought something different with them this year, gang violence. With police chief Ray Elkins caught in the middle between angry wealthy tourists and locals that he lives with year round he has to navigate the politics of the situation while trying to figure out what actually happened. A great mystery about divided loyalties and the ultimate tourists VS townies tale!
Barracoon: The Last Black Cargo is one of the most incredible books that I have ever read. Back in the 1930’s Zora Neale Hurston interviewed Cudjo Lewis and his compatriots, what makes them so fascinating is that they were some of the last people alive to have been kidnapped as part of the Atlantic Slave Triangle. This book is their story and a firsthand account of the people whose lives were stolen and the nature of slavery as it was experienced by the men and women who lived it.
In Reincarnation Blues Milo has died, he was eaten by a shark. Milo isn’t too worried about it though since he has died before, 9997 times before to be precise. He is worried about the fact that he has only got 3 lives left to get it right or he ceases to exist FOREVER. Reincarnation Blues is the story of Milo’s last three lives as he asks the question we all do, what is the point of life? Funny and hard at times this book is simply put beautiful.