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Summer Books & Summer Reading 2012: Cool Reads For Hot Days Summer is glorious and too short to waste on the wrong book. Let the NPR critics you know and trust help you find the year's best fiction, memoirs, mysteries, historical fiction, science fiction and more.

2012 Summer Books

Cool reads for hot days

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Your Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels

Harriet Russell

Your Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels

August 7, 2012 • More than 75,000 of you voted for your favorite young-adult fiction. Now, after all the nominating, sorting and counting, the final results are in. Here are the 100 best teen novels, chosen by the NPR audience.

Laughing Matters: Five Funny Books With Substance

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Laughing Matters: Five Funny Books With Substance

July 17, 2012 • Who says humor books can't be serious? Critic Heller McAlpin recommends some light but not weightless reads on mostly modern dilemmas: the pitfalls of class snobbery, what to do with those expensive higher degrees, the challenges of long marriages, and why otherwise rational women wear high heels.

A World On The Page: Five Great Travel Memoirs

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

A World On The Page: Five Great Travel Memoirs

July 31, 2012 • This summer, don't be a tourist — take a journey with these travel memoirs instead. Open these five books and meet a future First Lady, a one-booted hiker on the Pacific Crest Trail and a young Angela Davis. You'll encounter beauty, bravery, and chilling strangeness — without ever leaving the couch.

Lit, Illustrated: Five Fantastic Graphic Novels

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Lit, Illustrated: Five Fantastic Graphic Novels

August 15, 2012 • These panels are filled more with extraordinary storytelling than with standard-issue superheroes. Each book is created by a singular writer/artist, and offers a wholly unique point of view in both narrative and illustration.

Monsters In Black Tie: A World Of Cliques And Class

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Monsters In Black Tie: A World Of Cliques And Class

August 6, 2012 • The five interconnected Patrick Melrose novels may first seem like vapid tales of the wildly rich, but to author Mark Saunders they're also harsh dramas about the excesses of the British upper crust. What's your favorite story of the upper class? Tell us in the comments.

Best-Ever Teen Novels? Vote For Your Favorites

Harriet Russell

Books

Best-Ever Teen Novels? Vote For Your Favorites

July 24, 2012 • To add a little drama to your summer, NPR is assembling a list of the best young adult novels ever written. Let the voting begin!

What's The Big Idea? 5 Books To Inspire Innovation

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

What's The Big Idea? 5 Books To Inspire Innovation

July 10, 2012 • Where do ideas come from and how can we have more of them? Science writer Jonah Lehrer recommends five books that explore the mysteries of the creative mind, and document the strange and beautiful world that our ideas have helped create.

Lesser-Known Lit: Seeking Summer's Hidden Gems

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Lesser-Known Lit: Seeking Summer's Hidden Gems

July 3, 2012 • Passing along a book that no one has heard of is like telling a really good secret. NPR's Barrie Hardymon recommends a hot Southern thriller, a scathing evisceration of the newspaper biz, a slightly ridiculous, totally gratifying romance, and one extra gem that's been hiding in plain sight.

Reading Romance Between (And Under) The Covers

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Reading Romance Between (And Under) The Covers

June 26, 2012 • Love knows no bounds, and in these five books, passion leaps from the page. You'll be swept off your feet by three novels and two memoirs that take up the mischievous matters of the heart.

Rich Reads: Historical Fiction Fit For A Queen

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Rich Reads: Historical Fiction Fit For A Queen

June 23, 2012 • These five books will give you literary jet lag — a yearning to linger in the world of the author's imagination, and a reluctance to return to your own. The research is so deep it becomes invisible, and these writers are trusted guides, gently nudging and leading you through each tale.

Rich Reads: Historical Fiction Fit For A Queen

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Summer's Best Sci-Fi: Planets, Politics, Apocalypse

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Summer's Best Sci-Fi: Planets, Politics, Apocalypse

June 19, 2012 • These five books will suck you into strange worlds, but leave you full of questions about our own. These page turners have pleasingly complicated political and social subtexts, morphing space battles into philosophical debates and zombie hordes into political satire.

The Best Young Adult Novels? You Tell Us

Harriet Russell

The Best Young Adult Novels? You Tell Us

June 18, 2012 • To add a little drama to your summer, NPR Books is focusing our annual summer readers' poll on young adult fiction. Share your favorite YA titles: Your nominations will decide the books that make our top-100 list of the best YA fiction ever written.

Want A Winner? These Books Made The Critics' Cut

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Want A Winner? These Books Made The Critics' Cut

June 17, 2012 • Lynn Neary talks to three critics about books you shouldn't miss. One critic says it's a particularly rich literary summer because in election years, publishers release the juiciest books before fall.

Want A Winner? These Books Made The Critics' Cut

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Sail Into Summer With Novel Picks From Alan Cheuse

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Sail Into Summer With Novel Picks From Alan Cheuse

June 14, 2012 • Hang on tight. These five new works of fiction will take you on an exhilarating ride. Brace yourself for a noir he-said-she-said, an R-rated version of Marie Antoinette's life and death, a haunting tale from a back-to-nature commune and Toni Morrison's lush Home.

Sail Into Summer With Novel Picks From Alan Cheuse

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Book Party For One: A Loner's Summer Survival Guide

Harriet Russell

Review

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Book Party For One: A Loner's Summer Survival Guide

Fresh Air

June 11, 2012 • Summer is a trying time for introverts, what with the barbecues and the graduations and the picnics by the pool. If you'd always choose a good book over a good party, critic Maureen Corrigan has a list for you.

Book Party For One: A Loner's Summer Survival Guide

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5 New Mysteries Return To The Scene Of The Crime

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

5 New Mysteries Return To The Scene Of The Crime

May 31, 2012 • Critic Maureen Corrigan's list includes the latest installments in long-running series by mystery genre veterans. She says coming back to familiar plots and characters is as rewarding as returning to a favorite vacation spot each summer.

15 Summer Reads Handpicked By Indie Booksellers

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

15 Summer Reads Handpicked By Indie Booksellers

May 25, 2012 • Not sure what to read? NPR's Susan Stamberg asked three booksellers to share their top five picks for the books you shouldn't miss — tales of con artists, grade-school spies, refugees and ranchers.

15 Summer Reads Handpicked By Indie Booksellers

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Literary Look Ahead: 13 Great Books On The Horizon

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Literary Look Ahead: 13 Great Books On The Horizon

May 24, 2012 • Critic Michael Schaub offers a sneak peek at some of the most hotly anticipated books of the summer: An Obama bio. A sparkling debut. Thrillers of both the fictional and body-science kind. Even Lincoln is reborn in this season of sun, sand, renewal — and reading.

Plant Eater's Paradise: 2012's Best Summer Cookbooks

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Plant Eater's Paradise: 2012's Best Summer Cookbooks

May 23, 2012 • These cookbooks take fruits and vegetables fresh from the field and the farm stand to delectable extremes. Writer T. Susan Chang has gleaned 10 top cookbooks that will make even the most devoted carnivore slip into accidental vegetarianism.

Nancy Pearl Unearths Great Summer Reads

Harriet Russell

Critics' Lists: Summer 2012

Nancy Pearl Unearths Great Summer Reads

May 21, 2012 • For Nancy Pearl, beach reading doesn't mean light reading. NPR's go-to librarian has dug up a diverse mix of titles old and new — a selection of mystery, memoir and more.

Nancy Pearl Unearths Great Summer Reads

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