Best Summer Reads for Grown-Ups from Rainy Day Paperbacks

As part of a series on the best summer reads from Bethel bookstores, we recently brought you Rainy Day Paperback Exchange's best books for kids. Here's a look at their picks for grown-ups, courtesy of owner Nora O'Neil:

FICTION

The Last of the Breed, Louis L’Amour

A Native American test pilot is downed in Russia. He escapes from a Siberia prison camp and must use all his traditional survival skills to make it out of the USSR.

Minion, LA. Banks

Starts the Vampire Huntress Legends series. A young woman is a chosen warrior of the Light, destined to fight vampires and other creatures of the dark. Her fight is not just in the physical realm but also winning hearts and souls with music. 

Martha’s Vineyard Mystery series, Philip R. Craig

Cop turned fisherman J.W. Jackson solves murders on Martha’s Vineyard.  A constant stream of tourists means there’s always new people to have die in baffling ways! 

Up Island, Anne Rivers Siddons

A different take on Martha’s Vineyard.  After the death of her mother, Molly is at loose ends ‘til she stays the summer with a friend on the Vineyard.  But will staying through the winter help her join a new family?

Full series, Janet Evanovich & Charlotte Hughes

Welcome to the wacky world of Beaumont South Carolina where all the people are a bit off kilter, but in all the right ways.  This is a series of screwball comedies where opposites attract and everybody gossips about everyone else’s wacky ways.

Mitford Series, Jan Karon

Like Lake Wobegon, Mitford, North Carolina is full of warm people with problems that can be solved with gentle humor and the help of the local rector.

Firefly Summer, Maeve Binchy

Kate and John have a small pub in Ireland and two great kids, but when a millionaire starts to redevelop the town, it seems like all the old traditions are melting away. Will this be the last summer in the town they love? 

NONFICTION

Kon-Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl

Adventurer Thor Heyerdahl builds a raft using traditional Peruvian methods and materials to try and sail to Easter Island. While anthropologists now think the Pacific was entirely settled by the Polynesians, not South Americans, this attempt to recreate traditional ships helped spur interest in “experimental archaeology” where scientists recreated full scale versions of ancient artifacts to figure out their full capabilities.  If you love things like Mythbusters or NOVA, this voyage helped pave the way for that type of investigation by building.

Touching: The Human Significance of Skin, Ashley Montagu