SUMMER READING LIST

With summer in full swing, we asked Park Road Books owner Sally Brewster to share her top picks for the best books to read now. (Click here to check out her husband and fellow book lover Frazer Dobson's favorites in the Men's section.)

Here are Sally's favorites: 

Last Cruise by Kate Christensen (Doubleday Books, $26.95). "The vintage ocean liner Queen Isabella is making it’s final run on a two week retro cruise from Long Beach to Hawaii and what happens is a fantastic read for those us landlubbers. A great book that straddles the line between a beach read and literary fiction."

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (Grove Press, $20). "A unique, compelling read about a Japanese woman who starts working in a convenience store in college and still works there eighteen years later. Learn why it sold 600,000 copies in Japan."

Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (Berkley, $15). "Stella is smart enough to come up with algorithms to predict customer behavior but she has problems in the dating department. Being extremely logical, she decides to get professional help and hires an escort. Light and fun."

Calypso by David Sedaris (Little Brown, $28) "Who else can make essays about mortality and middle age funny but David Sedaris? Poignant but funny works of art about his family and the vacation home he buys on the Carolina coast."

Sally also recommends these two great sequels:

When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger (Simon & Schuster, $26.95) follows up on her bestselling The Devil Wears Prada by catching up with one of the characters 10 years later. 

How Hard Can it Be by Allison Pearson (St. Martin’s Press, $27.99) continues from her bestseller I Don’t Know How She Does It, but this time her protagonist is going through menopause.