Are you looking for a couple of good books to dig into this summer while burying those toes in the sand? Ask your neighbors for recommendations. That’s what we did. Below are the titles that area retailers, residents and authors will be reading, and most are available at local bookstores.
• Sheila Daley, owner of Barrett Bookstore in Darien, is excited about the July 24 release of the debut novel by British author Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. It’s the story of a retiree’s odyssey across the English countryside.
• Charles Gasparino, Fox Business Network senior correspondent and Rowayton resident, is paging through The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas by Jonah Goldberg. “He’s getting at something very real—most reporters mask their left-of-center agenda through the guise of moderation.” He is also reading Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy Seal Team Six Operator Adam Brown, which tells the story of one of the Seals who sacrificed his life as part of Team Six, the unit that took down Osama Bin Laden.
• Grant McCracken, author of Culturematic, suggests Alan Furst’s Mission To Paris. “Furst is the reigning master of spy fiction,” says the Rowayton resident. He also recommends Christopher Hitchens’ Hitch-22 and Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare.
• Darien-born Rosecrans Baldwin, author of Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down, is reading HHhH by Laurent Binet. “It’s a French novel about two Czech patriots who parachuted into Prague to kill Reinhard Heydrich during WWII.” He also got his hands on an advance copy of My Heart Is an Idiot by Davy Rothbart, coming out in the fall. “It’s a spectacular collection by This American Life contributor Rothbart. Funny, gripping and very strange.”