Joelle Ryan-Cook
Love them or hate them there’s something about South Carolina summers (or wherever you go to escape them) that make you look forward to losing yourself in a fabulous book or two, or four, or five.
For me (Cindi), the world has been a bit too much lately and I’m craving the escape and pretend power that comes with magical realism and fantasy. I want to lose myself in a world that allows me to twitch my nose and make all those NRA lobbyists and the politicians who take their money turn into the cockroaches they really are. So, I’ll be reading the 4th in Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series, published late in 2021, The Book of Magic.
Practical Magic, the first book on which the 1998 movie starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman was based was published in 1995 and was so much better than the film. (So, if you loved the film, you’ll flip over the book!) The other books in the series fully develop the history of the Owens sisters and the magic they possess. This last volume ties all the loose ends together and I can’t wait!
I asked several of my friends to tell me what they were either looking forward to reading this summer or what they would recommend for summer reading. Here are the goodies they shared --
“I’m looking forward to reading The Art of OOO by Chris McDonnell. This is a coffee table sized art book about the creation of the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time. The book is filled with process art and sketches used to invent a visual universe and creative characters from scratch and I’m excited to see how they did it!
That is when Mary the Dog is through with it!”
- Marius Valdes
“I loved the Netflix series Heartstopper--so sweet!--so I just ordered all four graphic novels. One of my students had recommended it. Maybe I'll get a chance to teach it next spring!”
- Ed Madden
“I love sharing books I’ve read! My two favorites are below!
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Fabulous story told by a woman who walks around NY City on New Year’s Eve and remembers her life through the people she meets - Jazz Age to current times. Fiction but based on actual person.
Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult - love everything by her!
A “present-day” story with a mystery element and an unlikely team of investigators including a discredited psych – this book tells the story of Alice in her childhood and college years and her decision to go to Africa to study elephants. Lots of fabulous info about elephants – Picoult did her research!”
- Dolly Patton
“Oooh...I love this...
“I’m looking forward to reading, actually listening to (truth be told, I prefer audiobooks these days) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. May not be "summer read" material for some, but I just listened to his "The Nickel Boys" and my two teenagers were entranced. Hoping they'll feel the same on summer road trips with this book as well!
- Melanie Huggins
“I like crime and heavier stuff. If you haven’t read the Patricia Cornwell Scarpetta novels, start. Postmortem is the first. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is one of my favorite characters and Cornwell’s forensic knowledge keeps you enlightened and turning every page as you learn the gruesome details as well as her well written characters.
- Kristin Cobb
“For me, the slower pace of summer is something I look forward to as I like to spend time discovering new recipes and cooking for friends all season. This year I have been thinking about my mother’s Italian family and how much their zest for life is expressed through gatherings around the table with great food and wine. I am going to take a deep dive into that heritage through the classic 1992 cookbook The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food by Lynne Rossetto Kasper.
Reading cookbooks full of stories, history, glossaries, and technique is a summertime joy.”
- Joelle Ryan -Cook
“This summer, I’ll be spending a lot of time with Alice Childress’ play Wedding Band, because I’ll be editing it for inclusion in South Carolina Onstage, a 200-year history of Palmetto State drama. That bit of officiousness notwithstanding, it’s a terrific read at a time when marriage rights are still being debated and dinosaurs still stalk the land. It’s set in Charleston and explores the sociopolitical complexities of interracial marriage during a flu epidemic—I mean how topical can you get? It opened at New York’s Public Theatre in 1972 and has remounted around the world many hundreds of times.”
- Jon Tuttle
“I’m looking forward to reading, Hopes and Impediments by Chinua Achebe because he's one of my favorite authors and that's one of the only books in his collection I haven't read yet.
I have been obsessed by Thomas Freidman's Thank you for Being Late because while it does do a great job of making you rethink being "late", it incredibly breaks down how far behind technology human adaptability is and how critical it is that we update all of our societal systems: education, criminal justice, transportation, social, city development, etc. - to be able to adapt to our new tech-driven world.”
- Sherard "Shekeese" Duvall