Reading Ahead: June 2016, part 3

Now that the sun is finally back, it feels like it might be time to start thinking a little harder about books worthy of toting along with you to the beach or on vacation this summer. Here are a few titles that just might fit the bill.

Vinegar Girl, by Anne Tyler. In this modern retelling of Taming of the Shrew from Pulitzer Prize winner Tyler (Breathing Lessons), Kate feels stuck, between running the house for her eccentric scientist father and uppity younger sister and always being in trouble at work (her preschoolers adore her, but their parents tend to object to some of Kate's methods). Her father, Dr. Battista, is in a quandary of his own--his lab technician, Pyotr, is about to be deported. Unless, that is, he marries someone for his greencard. Someone like Kate? Tyler is among America's fiction elite for a reason, and this one sounds like an awful lot of fun, too.

Here’s To Us, by Elin Hilderbrand. Hilderbrand's name has become synonymous with summer, and here she does it again. Celebrity chef Deacon Thorpe has always been a force of nature with an insatiable appetite for life. But after that appetite contributes to Deacon's shocking death in his favorite place on earth, a ramshackle Nantucket summer cottage, his (messy, complicated) family is reeling. Now Deacon's three wives, his children, and his best friend gather on the island he loved to say farewell. The three very different women have long been bitter rivals, each wanting to claim the primary place in Deacon's life and his heart. But as they slowly let go of the resentments they've held onto for years and remember the good times, secrets are revealed, confidences are shared, and improbable bonds are formed as this unlikely family says goodbye to the man who brought them all together, for better or worse--and the women he loved find new ways to love again. Also available in Large Print.

The Cavendon Luck, by Barbara Taylor Bradford. Following previous installments Cavendon Hall (2014) and The Cavendon Women (2015), this epic saga of courage and honor continuesthe story of the aristocratic Inghams and the loyal Swann family who have served them for centuries. It is 1938 in England, and Miles and Cecily Ingham have lead the family in bringing the Cavendon estate back from the brink of disaster. But now, with the arrival of World War II, Cavendon Hall will face its biggest challenge yet. It is a challenge that will push the Inghams and Swanns to protect each other and the villagers, and reveal their true capacity for survival and rebirth.