美国国家公共电台 NPR Minnesota Bookseller Recommends 3 Summer Porch Reads

Minnesota Bookseller Recommends 3 Summer Porch Reads

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Summer, check - cicadas roaring, check - books for reading - we've got you covered with our summer reading series Pack These Pages.

(SOUNDBITE OF SEAGULLS CAWING, POP TOP POPPING)

CORNISH: Booksellers from across the U.S. are sharing their favorites. The challenge for summer reading in Minnesota - dodging mosquitoes.

SUE ZUMBERG: They're huge. They are Minnesota's state bird, and they invade our lives. So people really plan their lives around them.

CORNISH: That's Sue Zumberg of Subtext Books. She recommends a screened in porch for summer reading in St. Paul. And once the lemonade is poured, she says to start off reading David McCullough's "The Wright Brothers."

ZUMBERG: I don't even care about the Wright brothers, and I found this book to be wonderful. He takes you right into that time, and he makes you understand the people he's writing about. And plus, if I had not read this, I wouldn't have known about the sister who was really amazing. Without her, these guys would have probably gone to fly their plane the first time and left it be at that. She was the one who pushed them. She was the only one of the family that had a college degree. She was endlessly fascinating - Catherine.

Then after that I would read "Destiny Of The Republic," which is about the assassination of James Garfield. Most especially I loved the story of Alexander Graham Bell, who just had a real affection for this president. And he tried to come up with an early prototype of a sonogram so they could find the bullet. He was never able to find it, and ultimately Garfield died. But Candice Millard brings this all together with such reality. I found myself crying when James Garfield finally passed away.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

ZUMBERG: Don't you want to know about my kids book? It's, like, my favorite. It's called "Wake Up, Island," and it's by Mary Casanova. And it is a truly Minnesota book because it is being up north on an island in a lake, and it's waking the island up with all the animals. I can read it a million times, and I won't get sick of it. And it doesn't pander. So that's "Wake Up, Island." It's gorgeous.

CORNISH: And that was Sue Zumberg, owner of Subtext Books in St. Paul, Minn. For more from our summer reading selection Pack These Pages, head to npr.org.