The NYT’s Guilty Pleasure Summer Preview
Many summer book previews encourage readers to go against the tide and try weightier fare on the beach. Not so, Janet Maslin, who declares that calling something a “beach book” gives you an excuse for being seen with it (are people really that judgmental? Isn’t carrying a book just a good thing in itself?)
Despite its focus on more commercial fare, Maslin’s beach reads include some titles that haven’t appear on other lists, opening with Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth.
Don’t think of Mr. Farnsworth’s debut thriller as the umpteenth vampire knockoff on the market. Think of it as the inventive one in which a brave young White House staff member asks, “You really expect me to believe we’ve got a vampire on a leash, and we can just send him after terrorists and spies whenever we want?”
Meanwhile, the big commercial thriller featuring vampires, Justin Cronin’s The Passage is missing from her list.
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Penguin Audio; UNABR; 9 CDs; 9780142427743; $39.95
Blackstone Audio; UNABR
9 CDs; 1441739520; $54.50
1 MP3CD; 1441739551; $14.98
1 Playaway; 1441739582; $45.49
8 Tapes; 1441739513; $39.98
WMA Audiobook; MP3 Audiobook available from Overdrive.
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Dave Barry’s new book is on many other lists, including Maslin’s. She says,
…this isn’t a book to take on vacation; it is a vacation. Simply consider that the entire Twilight series seems to have been written for the express purpose of giving Mr. Barry the chance to make fun of lousy writing.
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Penguin Audio,; UNABR; 4 CD’s; 9780142427774; $24.95
Books on Tape; UNABR; 4 CD’s; 9780307737762; $29.95
WMA Audiobook; MP3 Audiobook from OverDrive
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She spends several paragraphs making the “boisterous memoir,” Me, the Mob, and the Music, sound like great fun, even though, as a February publication, it’s not technically a summer title.
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Tantor Audio:
7 Audio CDs Retail Unikeep Pkg; 9781400116324; $23.99
7 Audio CDs; Library Binder Pkg; 9781400146321; $47.99
1 Mp3-CD; Retail Pkg; 97814001663; $15.00