The summer flurry of paperbacks continues! Here's a half-dozen, for your next reading-on-the-porch afternoon. (I don't have a porch myself, but it sure sounds nice.)
"Love and Other Consolation Prizes" by Jamie Ford (Random House, $17). From the author of "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" comes another gentle tale set in historic Seattle, in which a Chinese immigrant grows up in Pioneer Square's red-light district. The story is bookended by two Seattle World's Fairs: in 1909 and 1962.
"The Rooster Bar" by John Grisham (Random House, $9.99). The king of legal thrillers (whose works scream "summer reading" to many) is back, with a best-selling tale of three law students who discover that their school is owned by a shady hedge-fund operator. Can they survive the Great Law School Scam?
"The Rules of Magic" by Alice Hoffman (Simon & Schuster, $16). A prequel _ 23 years later _ to her popular "Practical Magic" (which became a Sandra Bullock/Nicole Kidman movie in 1998), Hoffman's latest novel provides a backstory for sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, a pair of sister witches from a magical Massachusetts family.
"Do Not Become Alarmed" by Maile Meloy (Penguin, $16). Last summer I couldn't put down Meloy's novel, a page-turner about two families on a luxury cruise whose children inexplicably go missing on a shore excursion. Just the right sort of summer reading, especially if you don't need to get up early (you WILL need to finish it).
"Everybody's Son" by Thrity Umrigar (HarperCollins, $15.99). Umrigar, author of "Bombay Time" and "The Space Between Us," here tells a story of race, class, privilege and power. A 10-year-old black boy, abandoned by his crack-addicted mother, becomes the foster son of a wealthy white senator; growing up, he must learn to understand his past.
"Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean" by Jonathan White (Trinity University Press, $18.95). White, a local author and marine conservationist, has spent his life fascinated by the sea; this book, reviewed last year by Michael Upchurch, is "a grand mix of science history, ocean lore and literary travel writing."
