SNEAK PEEK: Put these books on your summer wishlist

We're putting together the summer issue of the Indie Reader (our quarterly Kepler's newsletter), and Frank Sanchez, our head buyer and book tastemaker, has put together a list of his top picks for spring and summer titles. These are the books you're going to want to read while enjoying the sun.

The Indie won't be out for a few more weeks, but you can check out part one of Frank's list now.

BUYER'S CHOICE

(part one)

Our very own Aggie Z. wrote a spectacular review for this novel, which is available now: "Remembering is sometimes like 'juggling a hundred thousand crystal balls all at once.' This beautifully written book is, at the same time, an elegant, elegiac novel; a brutal, honest memoir; and the longest and most tender love letter in the world. Say Her Name is a gift of love for the author's beautiful young wife, Aura Estrada, who died after an accident in the waves at Mezunte Beach in Mexico. I don't believe in the spirit world, yet when Francisco stops to hug and kiss Aura's favorite tree, a hale silver maple at the end of his block, I, too, felt Aura's presence. And if that's not enough, the last pages will take your breath away."

This is the sixth and final book in Jean M. Auel's spectacularly popular Earth's Children series. The previous books in the epic saga, set in Europe 30,000 years ago, have sold more than 45 million copies and been translated into over 30 languages. 

The Land of Painted Caves was released at the end of March, and is no doubt making its way into the hands of many people who have been waiting to know how Ayla's story ends since The Clan of the Cave Bear came out in 1980

The Savage City tackles a decade of fear, racial violence, and turmoil in New York City. In 1963, the murders of two young white women sent a wave of fear through a city that was mired in racial tension, corruption in law enforcement, and enormous political and social change.

You can see T. J. English be interviewed by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show here. 

In 2008, the literary world lost one of its most spectacular and blazingly unique talents. David Foster Wallace, the author of Infinite Jest, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Consider the Lobster, and other wide-ranging, astonishingly original novels, short stories, and essays, left behind an unfinished manuscript when he committed suicide. The Pale King is that unfinished manuscript, excavated and pieced together by Wallace's editor, Michael Pietsch. 

Lev Grossman, of Time Magazine, wrote a fascinating review of The Pale King. He says:

"All of Kafka's novels were unpublished when he died, and he left instructions that they should be burned. They were also unfinished; the order of the chapters in The Trial is still just guesswork. But I for one would not be prepared to give The Trial back. I wouldn't give The Pale King back either."