Best Summer Books

10 must-read summer books include dark fantasy, quirky history and a grouchy cat

When people described Book Expo America to me in the past, I imagined a cross between fashion week, an industry trade show and ComicCon. Experiencing the event in New York City earlier this month made me realize a more apt analogy would be book Mardi Gras.

The annual early-summer trade fair is where publishing houses, authors, booksellers and educators come together to harvest and sell the year’s book crop, but that doesn’t accurately describe the sometime figurative, sometimes literal drunken free-for-all that occurs when the book industry throws mounds of books and authors at each other.

After sorting through my Book Gras loot, I’ve put together a summer-read list of some of the most buzzed about titles. There seems to be a definite trend in dark tales this year, but that might be just the cool treat we need to get through the sizzling Texas days.

Mythical and Supernatural

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman(out now)

It was standing room only for the novelist, television writer and twitter king at Book Expo. Calling his first adult novel since 2005 a “particular, dark little book,” about magic and memory, Gaiman confessed it’s also an accidental book that started as a short story based on a forgotten piece of childhood history and the tragic suicide of his family’s lodger.

The Returned by Jason Mott (out Aug. 28)

Though The Returned revolves around the fantastic conceit that the dead are being returned to the living exactly as they were before they died, Mott says he tried to treat the subject matter as realistically as possible.

The inspiration came from a haunting dream Mott had of coming home from work one day to find his deceased mother waiting for him at the kitchen table ready to hear about the years of his life she had missed. ABC has already adapted the book for television.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon(out Aug. 30)

If you grew up on Harry Potter or A Song of Ice and Fire and think a seven novel series is just the right length, this might be the summer sensation for you. Both fantastic and futuristic, this debut novel is set in an alternate future dystopian Britain, where psychics and clairvoyants are a persecuted minority.

The 21-year-old Shannon created her “voyant” hero Paige Mahoney while working on an English degree at Oxford. She’s managed to stay in school while completing the novel and mapping out the next six. She already signed a movie deal.

Yeah, I kind of hate her too, but this series looks like it could become addictive.

Sometimes the Best Stories Are True

Two nonfiction books titles won me over before I even turned the first page.

The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese by Michael Paterniti (out July 30)

Traveling through Spain the author visits a “telling room” — a room built inside a cave where wine and cheese were counted before being stored for winter. Within this counting room that over centuries also served as a storytelling room, Paterniti meets a cheese maker who recounts a tale of mystery, murder and magical cheese.

He had me at magical cheese.

Topsy: The Startling Story of the Crooked Tailed Elephant, P.T. Barnum, and the American Wizard, Thomas Edison by Michael Daly(out July 2)

I’m always fascinated when disparate historical figures bump into each other in books, and this chronicle of P.T. Barnum, Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, Nikola Tesla, the War of Currents and an electrocuted elephant seems to be a lost, true story of early 20th century American history we all should know.

Literary and historical

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann (out now)

The National Book Award winner’s new novel spans three countries and many time periods, focusing on U.S. to Ireland and back Atlantic crossings. Read now, then meet the author when Inprint brings McCann to Houston in November as part of their 2013-2014 season.

The Son by Philipp Meyer(out now)

I heard a lot of local buzz for this century-spanning, Texas-set novel, especially from the Brazos Bookstore guys. While regional excitement might be biased because Meyer just completed four Texas stops on his book tour, even The New York Times is saying The Son should be raised to the ranks of the greatest historical novels.

If you missed out on meeting Meyer, check out Kent Wascom’s debut novel The Blood of Heaven. The 26-year-old New Orleans native reads from his dark, violent depiction of early 19th century Gulf Coast settlers and revolutionaries at Brazos on June 28.

A different kind of memoir

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward (out Sept. 1)

I’m playing favorites because I recently interviewed this National Book Award winner. Her passion to tell the true stories of the lives and deaths of five young African-American men from her small Mississippi town sold me on this book before I ever saw it.

Dark Crime

Alex by Pierre Lemaitre (out Sept. 3)

The book, already a best-seller in France, is being compared to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. After seeing so many editors and publicists in a perpetual state of forced excitement about their books at Book Expo, hearing the Random House rep happily tell a room of librarians that Alex was “very, very sick” was so refreshing and hilarious, I wanted to check out this thriller immediately.

Celebrity Books

Celebrity books are as as prevalent as celebrity fragrances, but the latest trend is the celebrity penned children’s book. Jessica Lange, Julianne Moore and Jim Carrey all made Book Expo appearances. Octavia Spencer's Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective especially looks like a fun romp for kids. But if the Book Expo signing line length is an indication, the hottest celebrity book this summer will be. . .

Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book (out July 23)

Internet domination wasn’t enough, so Grumpy Cat has pawed a photo-heavy book filled with grumpy games and activities.

Sure it’s a crass, cash-in on an Internet meme, but after all that magical, historical and literary darkness, a grouch cat just might bring some sun to your summer.

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

unspecified

Movie Review

Houston native Wes Anderson shows off comedic side in The Phoenician Scheme

Photo courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features

Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton, and Michael Cera in The Phoenician Scheme.

If you were to do a poll of the best comedy filmmakers of the 21st century, writer/director Wes Anderson is not the obvious choice to come out on top, but there’s an argument to be made for him. His quirky style doesn’t yield the guffaws that more broad comedies do, but the absurd situations he creates in his films are often more consistently funny than anything else.

Anderson’s inimitable approach is once again on full display in The Phoenician Scheme. At its center is Zsa-Zsa Gorda (Benicio Del Toro), a much-hated businessman who’s looking to complete a number of big projects in the fictional country of Phoenicia. As he seems to be the target of multiple assassination attempts, he appoints his daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), as his heir to try to ensure his legacy.

Both she and his new assistant, Bjorn (Michael Cera), accompany him around the country as he tries to enact a scheme to have others cover the bulk of the cost for the various projects. Those he attempts to convince include Phoenician Prince Farouk (Riz Ahmed), brothers Leland (Tom Hanks) and Reagan (Bryan Cranston), fellow businessman Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric), ship captain Marty (Jeffrey Wright), his Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson), and Uncle Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Put in Andersonian terms, the film is a mix between the madcap antics from The Grand Budapest Hotel and the impenetrable storytelling of Asteroid City. If you were to try to understand every detail of what’s going on in the story of The Phoenician Scheme, it might take three or more viewings to do so. But the film is still highly entertaining because Anderson fills its frames with his typical visual delights, great wordplay, and his particular version of slapstick.

Much of the comedy of the film derives from Anderson inserting moments that initially come as a surprise and then utilizing them as running jokes. The film features more blood than usual for the filmmaker, but each time a character gets wounded (or worse), it gets funnier. The assassination attempts get broader as the film goes along, and the matter-of-fact way in which they’re treated by Gorda and others is also hilarious.

Of course, Anderson is the cinephile’s comedy director, so the film is also full of high-brow things like allusions to paintings, tributes to other filmmakers, and classical music. Each time Gorda has an attempt on his life, he briefly finds himself in a version of limbo, depicted in black-and-white by Anderson. The cast of characters Gorda finds there - including Bill Murray as God - could come straight out of a 1950s Ingmar Bergman movie.

Del Toro has delivered some great performances over the years, but this one is near the top for him. This is his second Anderson film (following The French Dispatch) and he nails the deadpan method. Also great is Cera, who uses a ridiculous accent to make a big impression. Threapleton, the daughter of Kate Winslet, makes the most of her first big film role. The list of supporting actors is too deep to properly laud everyone, but they all fit in seamlessly.

Opinions will differ, but for this critic’s money, Anderson is at his best when he fully leans into the comedy of his films. He does just that in The Phoenician Scheme, to the point that it doesn’t matter that the story is overly complex. The combination of his eye for visual detail, a witty script, and committed performances make it a success.

---

The Phoenician Scheme is now playing in theaters.

movies film