All this month we’re featuring a selection of fantastic summer reading selected by the experts at O, the Oprah Magazine. See more topics here.
Start with the basics: bad guys and gals trying to make good. Sprinkle in a detective here and a paranoid schizophrenic there. Set deft fiction side by side with harrowing real-life stories, then fold in heaping helpings of moral complexity. Sweeten with a touch of redemption, and devour.
Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley (Doubleday)
It’s never easy being Easy Rawlins, especially when his main squeeze, Bonnie, cuts and runs just when he’s ready to pop the question. Next thing he knows, murder and intrigue are afoot, and we’re cruising the City of Angels in ’68, chock-full of degenerates, a few backsliding do-gooders, and everything in between. This is the 14th installment of Mosley’s celebrated mystery series. We say keep ‘em coming. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
The Hospital Always Wins by Issa Ibrahim (Chicago Review Press)
Madness led Ibrahim to believe his mother was possessed and then kill her during an exorcism. His subsequent 20-year struggle to regain his sanity as a patient in a Cuckoo’s Nest-esque asylum roars to a searing, poignant climax. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
The Cook Up by D. Watkins (Grand Central)
After his older brother is murdered, the author quits college to run the family drug business. An East Baltimore bildungsroman memoir about hope, hustle, and getting out while you can. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
Walking the Dog by Elizabeth Swados (Feminist Press)
Following a lengthy prison term, Carleen lands a job as a dog walker in Manhattan, hoping to reconnect with her estranged daughter. Brilliant and layered, Swados’s posthumous novel asks searching questions about the delicate nature of atonement. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
The Second Life of Nick Mason by Steve Hamilton (Putnam)
I
n this edgy, noir thriller from a crime fiction maestro, an ex-con struggles with unexpected freedom, falteringly rebuilding his life while a depraved puppet master still behind bars pulls his strings. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
The Crow Girl, by Erik Axl Sund (Knopf)
What is it about Sweden that produces such deliciously, darkly off-kilter thrillers, featuring fascinatingly idiosyncratic complex characters such as Lisbeth Salander (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and now Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg? As Kihlberg investigates a killer who targets immigrant children, she must deal with xenophobia, extreme right-wing politics, and other hot button issues that only deepen our morbid fascination. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
Looking for more inspirations for your summer reading? Explore more of The Best Books of Summer from the editors of O: The Oprah Magazine, in the B&N Review or in the pages of this month’s issue of O: The Oprah Magazine.
The Barnes & Noble Review http://ift.tt/29k3JY1
Sig Nordal 