Summer Arrives ... and Summer Reading

Sorry to have been rather silent this week, but as usual, it's because I struck a large pile of books that I wanted to read. Reviews coming this weekend, starting tonight.

Meanwhile, a quick mention: I enjoyed Olen Steinhauer's last book, THE TOURIST, and the new one, THE NEAREST EXIT, showed up in last weekend's New York Times Book Reviews -- not in Marilyn Stasio's "Crime" column but facing it, in a review written by Joshua Hammer. Now here it is again in a piece by Janet Maslin, recommending the vision of "beach reading" as a way to approach the stack of books with a light heart. Maslin's list for the summer is:

BLOOD OATH by Christopher Farnsworth.
THE NEAREST EXIT by Olen Steinhauer. 
THEODORE BOONE: KID LAWYER by John Grisham.
I’LL MATURE WHEN I’M DEAD by Dave Barry.
STAR ISLAND by Carl Hiassen.
ME, THE MOB, AND THE MUSIC by Tommy James, with Martin Fitzpatrick. 
WHEN I STOP TALKING, YOU’LL KNOW I’M DEAD by Jerry Weintraub with Rich Cohen. 
SHE AIN’T HEAVY, SHE’S MY MOTHER by Bryan Batt. 
CHELSEA CHELSEA BANG BANG by Chelsea Handler. 
TELL-ALL by Chuck Palahniuk. 
ARM CANDY by Jill Kargman.
SEVEN YEAR SWITCH by Claire Cook. 
HANNAH’S LIST by Debbie Macomber.