Posted on: Wednesday, July 7, 2004

Books ripe for summer picking

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Book Critic

This is what I've been reading lately — and can recommend for summer enjoyment:

Historical fiction: "Autumn Bridge" by Takashi Matsuoka (Delacorte, hardback, $25). This sequel to O'ahu resident Matsuoka's "Cloud of Sparrows" is in bookstores Aug. 3; I've been devouring an advance edition. Matsuoka's novel zings back and forth over a period of 500 years, and you may need to read "Cloud of Sparrows" first (a new paperback edition is being released). This is engaging, sensuous and sanguine fare, the best thing since "Shogun" and "Memoirs of a Geisha."

Historical romance: "The Queen's Fool" by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone, paper, $15). The author of "The Other Boleyn Girl" again offers an insider view of an English court, the courts of Mary and Elizabeth I, through the eyes of a young woman who is hired as the court fool but is forced to act as a spy— and also keeps a secret of her own. Enjoyable, with just enough of a twist to add interest to old territory.

Character-driven contemporary fiction: "A Night As Clear As Day" by R. J. Rosenblum (NAL Accent, paper, $12.95). This book begins with another wife-as-victim drama but soon transforms into a warmhearted, real-world love story about a veterinarian making a new start. The love interest, a blind musician, is attractive, and animal lovers will appreciate the dogs who are key characters.

Mystery/occult: "Incantation" by Steven M. Greenberg (Streamside, hardback, $24.95). Greenberg's second novel, about an awkward professor who finds a manuscript with mysterious powers, introduces unusual characters and powerful world-building: We believe in this scholar, his bitchy ex-girlfriend, his rap-talking student, even the medieval figure whose story seems to be directing theirs.

Contemporary literature: "Hidden" by Paul Jaskunas (Free Press, hardback, $23). This mystery is actually much less about who attacked and nearly killed the intriguing protagonist Maggie Wilson than it is about love and lies, identity and madness. Jaskunas, a man writing in first person as a woman, gets a grip on your sleeve from the first line.

Suspense: "Bone Harvest" by Mary Logue (Ballantine, hardback, $23.95). Particularly powerful here is the sense of place — a small farming town in Pepin County, Wis., where a young, single-mom sheriff's investigator is an oddity, seemingly the last who'll be able to solve a series of crimes that is somehow connected to a generations-old tragedy. There's a nice contemporary romance here, too, that doesn't end as you'd expect.

Nonfiction: "Ben Hogan, an American Life" by James Dodson (Doubleday, hardback, $27.50). Authorized but unflinching, this biography of one of golf's greats delves into the psyche of a very private and somewhat tormented man who, after all he accomplished, never felt he'd done enough. Dodson does a masterful job of stripping away the romance without denying the subject's dignity.

Contemporary romance: "The Things We Do for Love" by Kristin Hannah (Ballantine, hardback, $23.95). An enjoyable and unconventional love story about a woman who retreats from a childless marriage and finds herself befriending a single mother despite her family's pleas and the risk the relationship presents to her own love life. There are characters you care about and a believable resolution. (Hannah is in town for book signings: 2 p.m. Saturday, Borders, Ward Centre; noon Sunday, Borders, Lihu'e.)

Reach Wanda Adams at 535-2412 or wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.