Critics share their picks for this summer’s most anticipated reads
Gilbert Cruz, Books Editor, The New York Times:
So there are two books I want to start off with.
The first is called "The Five-Star Weekend." It's by an author named Elin Hilderbrand, and she's a summer staple. This is a woman, an author who has written almost 30 books, most of which are set on Nantucket Island. She's a perennial bestseller.
This one involves a recently widowed food blogger who brings a bunch of friends together on Nantucket to sort of help her heal. I have read many of these books. I have read one a summer for the past many summers, and they all share similar themes and similar dynamics, and they're quite entertaining. And I'm looking forward to reading this one very much on my vacation soon.
Another book I'm looking forward to this summer is "Crook Manifesto" by Colson Whitehead. Many of your viewers probably know Colson Whitehead's name. He's a two-time Pulitzer winner. He's won for very serious books about the Black experience in America, "Underground Railroad" and "The Nickel Boys."
But he's worked across many genres, and he has written a heist novel. And this is a sequel to that heist novel "Harlem Shuffle," which came out a couple of years ago. That novel was set in 1960s Harlem, and this one is set in 1970s Harlem.
And if you know anything about New York in the 1970s, it was a grimy place, a dangerous place, but it was also a very exciting place. So I'm looking forward to seeing how Colson Whitehead sort of tackles that time period.
Source: PBS NewsHour
