Beach Reads
By Julie Rasicot
Bethesda-area authors say they’re always up for a good read—when they’re not busy plotting or researching their own books. Here are some of their recommendations to take along to the beach this summer:
John Feinstein: The journalist and commentator from Potomac often turns to fiction when he has time to read, including the latest thrillers by Jack Higgins and the espionage novels of D.C. author Daniel Silva. Feinstein also enjoys nonfiction, though (he should—that’s what he writes). He recently bought U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s autobiography, My Beloved World (Knopf, 2013); Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective (Crown Archetype, 2013) by legendary women’s college basketball coach Pat Summitt and Washington Post sports writer Sally Jenkins; and Detroit: An American Autopsy (Penguin Press, 2013) by Charlie LeDuff.
Laura Hillenbrand: The Bethesda native, who penned the best-sellers Unbroken (Random House, 2010) and Seabiscuit: An American Legend (Random House, 2001), suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and says vertigo prohibits her from reading an entire book. But it hasn’t stopped her from enjoying audio books. Her recommendations: The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs (Bantam, 2012) by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle, which she says “transcends its genre, becoming a moving exploration of ethical conflict and the emotional price of living a lie”; Summer (Charles Scribner and Sons, 1917), a coming-of-age story that Hillenbrand considers to be Edith Wharton’s “most brilliant creation”; and Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour (Random House, 2010) by Lynne Olson.
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor: The Gaithersburg resident and award-winning author of children’s and young adult books says she usually reads half a dozen books simultaneously. Among her recent selections: Wind, Sand and Stars (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1992) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life (Henry Holt and Co., 2011) by Charles J. Shields; Washington Goes to War (Knopf, 1988) by David Brinkley; and Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief (Knopf, 2013) by Lawrence Wright. “I like having books of all types ready and waiting for whatever mood I’m in,” she says.
Sally MacKenzie: Looking for something a bit steamier while you’re baking at the beach? The Rockville romance novelist, author of Surprising Lord Jack (Zebra, 2013), recommends historical romances to pump up the heat this summer. Her picks: Kensington author Kristen Callihan’s Firelight and Moonglow (Forever, 2012), both part of a paranormal Victorian series; and When She Was Wicked (Forever, 2013), author Anne Barton’s debut novel about a blackmailing British seamstress set in the Regency period.
Martha Grimes: The award-winning Bethesda author, who spends her days plotting murder and mayhem, often turns to her own genre for a good read. She’s fond of anything by Robert Wilson, including his latest, Capital Punishment (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). “He’s a great thriller writer,” she says.
Manil Suri: The Silver Spring author, whose latest novel is The City of Devi (W.W. Norton & Co., 2013), raves about Harvest (Nan A. Talese, 2013) by Jim Crace, one of his favorite authors. It’s about an agrarian society beset by violent change, and “as usual, Crace’s sentences are wry and exquisitely poetic,” Suri says. He also recommends Rajesh Parameswaran’s I Am an Executioner: Love Stories (Knopf, 2012), which he describes as “inventive, unsettling and always wicked.” Suri’s favorite story? The one about “a hapless tiger with a noble heart, who inadvertently kills (and sometimes eats) those he loves.”
Deborah Kalb: The Chevy Chase resident, who co-wrote Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama (Brookings Institution Press, 2011) with her father, Marvin Kalb, finds author Elinor Lipman’s novels “hilarious.” Lipman, who recently wrote The View from Penthouse B and a collection of essays titled I Can’t Complain (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), has been described as “a modern Jane Austen,” says Kalb, who interviews authors for her website, deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com. Kalb also recommends Potomac author Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan (Simon & Schuster, 2012), “a compelling novel based on her childhood in Cambodia during the time of the Khmer Rouge,” and the “fascinating” American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama (Amistad, 2012) by Rachel L. Swarns.
Alan Gregerman: The Silver Spring author—who wrote the award-winning Surrounded by Geniuses: Unlocking the Brilliance in Yourself, Your Colleagues and Your Organization (Sourcebooks, 2007)—tends to read nonfiction. He recommends Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Random House, 2012) by former Washington Post writer Katherine Boo. She “challenges us to appreciate the great dignity, resourcefulness and potential to be found in all of the world’s people,” Gregerman says, “and to question how the pace of global change and progress could leave so many behind.”
