UMP's Summer Reading

While summer is known for vacations, barbecues, beach outings, and long, sunny days, it is also the time when people start looking for good books to add to their reading lists. Whether it's a light-hearted romance, a page-turning thriller, or a challenging 1,000-page classic you've been meaning to tackle for years, a great summer read offers the perfect way to enjoy the sultry days of summer.

Summer reading lists seem to pop up everywhere and here at UMP we've collected some recommended reading from our staff.

1. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

"Hilarious and sexy, meandering and melancholy, full of inside jokes about Latin American literati that you don't have to understand to enjoy, The Savage Detectives is a companionable and complicated road trip through Mexico City, Barcelona, Israel, Liberia, and finally the desert of northern Mexico." - from Amazon

2. Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway

"Set on the Côte d'Azur in the 1920s, it is the story of a young American writer, David Bourne, his glamorous wife, Catherine, and the dangerous, erotic game they play when they fall in love with the same woman" -from Amazon

3. The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure

"Obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House books about an 1880s pioneer family, children's book editor and memoirist McClure (I'm Not the New Me) attempts to recapture her childhood vision of "Laura World." - from Publishers Weekly

4. The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen

"A charming yet sober tale of two girls struggling to grow up amid family turmoil and poverty." - from Booklist

5. Juno's Daughters by Lise Saffran

"... A summer Shakespeare production brings new life, love, and drama to the sleepy Pacific Northwest island of San Juan." - from Publishers Weekly

6. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

"Even readers who don't normally enjoy Arthurian legends will love this version, a retelling from the point of view of the women behind the throne." - from Amazon

7. In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories by Delmore Schwartz

"In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories collects eight of Delmore Schwartz's finest delineations of New York intellectuals in the 1930s and 1940s."- from GoodReads