Are you looking for an interesting summertime read? The New York Time Best Sellers List is a good way to get a recommendation on what others consider good books. On the most recent fiction list, the top four listed books appeal to a wide variety of reading moods. One is a light-hearted romp, a second is a mystery-suspense, a third is an action adventure and the last is a serious read.
The book in the number one position is "Lean Mean Thirteen" by Janet Evanovich. This is actually the thirteenth book in Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. If you haven't tried her books before, you might want to start with the first in the series, "One For the Money." There you will be introduced to Stephanie Plum, a laid-off lingerie buyer turned bounty hunter. As a new bounty hunter, Stephanie has little trouble finding her man, but how to catch him and what to do with him then is the problem. Oh, and did I mention that her fist assignment was to catch Joe Morelli, a cop accused of murder and who just happens to be an ex-boyfriend? The enigmatic Ranger teaches her bounty hunter basics and deranged Grandma Mazur is also full of advice on all aspects of life. These are just a few of the unusual characters who wreak havoc in Stephanie's life.
The number two book is "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini's first book was the highly acclaimed "Kite Runner", a novel of war-torn Afghanistan which was on the New York Times Best Sellers list for 103 weeks. His second novel is also set in an Afghanistan full of turbulence and the tyranny of the Taliban. It is a personal look at the lives of two women in a patriarchal society where their social status depends of their ability to bear male children. Hosseini's novel is a heart-wrenching depiction of the plight of Afghani women.
The third book on the New York Times Best Sellers List, "Double Take" by Catherine Coulter, appeals to mystery lovers. This is Coulter's eleventh FBI suspense novel. Special Agent Cheny Stone sees an assailant throw a woman off San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf and goes to her rescue. The woman, Julia Ransom, is considered a suspect in the savage murder of her husband, August, a celebrity psychic. A secondary storyline brings Virginia Sheriff "Dix" Noble to San Francisco in search of his missing wife. What do the three cases have in common? Popular author Catherine Coulter weaves a tangled tale in "Double Take."
Book number four is "Navigator" by the prolific Clive Cussler. More than seventeen of Cussler's novels have made the New York Times Best Sellers List and his books have been published in more than forty languages. Cussler's best known character is Dirk Pitt, a member of NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency), who was played by Matthew McConaughey in the movie "Sahara." Recently Cussler has branched out into the NUMA series featuring Kurt Austin and some of the other characters from the Dirk Pitt books. In his latest offering, Austin and his Special Assignments Team are hunting for icebergs when they stumble upon a pirate raid designed to steal an ancient Phoenician statue called the Navigator. Throw in a foiled hijacking, a secret project, and a beautiful woman and you have a typical high octane Cussler thriller.
These are just a few of the books featured on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Perhaps one of these appeals to you as a good summer read – if not, remember the Library has over 90,000 books from which to choose. Hope to see you soon at the Greensburg-Decatur County Public Library.