The Two-Cent Revue: Summer Reads

Ah, summer. The season in which we customarily choose books by virtue of their cover art or their ability to fit neatly into a beach bag. But just because it's summer doesn't mean you have to succumb to the brain-dead, mass-market "Summer Fun" table at B&N. Here are a few harder-hitting, thoughtful, and  enjoyable reads to take the guilt out of your summer book consumption: consider these the egg-white omelette to go with your side of bacon.

INCENDIARY by Chris Cleave 

 Chris Cleave's debut novel about a terrorist attack in London made headlines when it was set to be published on the very day London was attacked by suicide bombers on July 7, 2005. Neither a prophet nor a terrorist himself, Cleave has expressed how this bit of troubling coincidence may very well have crippled his writing career. Anyone who reads INCENDIARY will immediately know this not to be true. A truly heartbreaking story of a mother who loses her young son and her husband to a London terror attack, this incredibly inventive novel conjures a society on perpetual alert -- and forever bordering on frenzied and fearful -- that is not wholly unlike ours. With a strikingly unique voice and a skillful knack for dark humor, Cleave gives us a book as important to our times (and as eminently enjoyable) as any other.

FAMINE, by Todd Komarknicki

An abstractly crafted thriller about a preternaturally connected New York City couple, FAMINE is crafted with such a unique and ominous style that its sentiment has lingered with me for years. Though it took another in-depth perusal to remember at all what happens in this story -- what with its meta-fictional, interweaving narratives and shadowy ghost characters -- what makes Kormanicki's tale worth the read is his postmodern interpretation of the classic noir mystery. The word spellbinding comes to mind.

FIREWORKS, by Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop

Drinking, spying, infidelity; a dead son and a wayfaring wife -- these are the makings of a good summer read. But add to that a dash of wit, a thoughtful narrative voice, and the degrees to warm a Polar Bear's ass (summa cum laude, Harvard; UC Irvine MFA), and you've got Elizabeth Winthrop's FIREWORKS. Screw your white-picket fence: Winthrop's tale of suburban malaise pours salt on the rosebeds of Smalltown, USA, and reminds us that no one is perfect, and no one is safe.

RUST AND BONE, stories by Craig Davidson

Harrowing, nihilistic, disturbing, and crafted with breathtaking brilliance, Davidson's stories feel like the work of a literary tradition long lost, of when men ruled the earth. But RUST AND BONE is not of decades past: the young scholar-author has created here a collection pertinent to our overly sensitive times, smashing in the teeth of our queasy, FCC-regulated way of life. With a mythical, almost supernatural quality, men bare-knuckle box to shed awful memories, dogs claw mercilessly at each other's throats, tormented magicians disappear into thin air, and sharks gnaw off the legs of their SeaWorld trainers. Darkly humorous and pitiless on the victims (see: protagonists) of his stories, Davidson follows in the tradition of Bret Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk, and is undoubtedly a literary force to be reckoned with.