When June is here–what art have we to sing / The whiteness of the lilies midst the green / Of noon-tranced lawns? Or flash of roses seen / Like redbirds’ wings? ~ James Whitcomb Riley


I’m not really one for your typical “beach read” but I do think summertime give us time devote to reading in a way that we don’t get to most of the year – vacations, camping, longer days, a slower pace of life in general. It’s a good time to dive into a brick of a classic, tackle a series or try a nonfiction in a new topic.


Apollo 8 by Jeffrey Kluger

from the publisher: In August 1968, NASA made a bold decision: in just sixteen weeks, the United States would launch humankind’s first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy’s promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed sure to be broken. But when Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders were summoned to a secret meeting and told of the dangerous mission, they instantly signed on.

By Jeffrey Kluger
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (May 16, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1627798323
ISBN-13: 978-1627798327
via NetGalley


The Allingham Casebook by Margery Allingham

from the publisher: Eighteen succulent mysteries from the Queen of Crime, guaranteed to baffle the most ingenious of armchair detectives – and even, at times, the imperturbable Albert Campion himself.

Enjoy Margery Allingham at her witty best as she spins delicious tales of high risk heists and domestic deceptions in this exquisite short story collection.

By Margery Allingham
File Size: 973 KB
Print Length: 214 pages
Publisher: Ipso Books (May 19, 2017)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
via NetGalley


Gaslight: Lantern Slides from the Nineteenth Century

from the publisher: In Gaslight, Joachim Kalka delves into the mythos of the nineteenth century, exploring our fascination with its “auratic gaslight,” its mingling of romanticism and modernity, enlightenment and darkness. Here we find the roots of our contemporary preoccupations: gender roles and sexuality, terrorism and technology, mad scientists and serial killers, kitsch and commodification. Mustering a wealth of cultural references, Kalka draws illuminating connections between Balzac and Billy Wilder, Mickey Mouse and the arms race, the cake fights of Laurel and Hardy and Madame Bovary’s wedding cake. He brings the nineteenth century to life with all its contradictions, aspirations, and absurdities, inviting us to reexamine that era and our own, and the stories we tell ourselves about history.

By Joachim Kalka and Isabel Fargo Cole
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: New York Review Books; Main edition (June 6, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1681371189
ISBN-13: 978-1681371184
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
via NetGalley


The Yellow Diamond

from the publisher: Detective Superintendent George Quinn – Mayfair resident and dandy with a razor-sharp brain – has set up a new police unit, dedicated to investigating the super-rich. When he is shot in mysterious circumstances, DI Blake Reynolds is charged with taking over. But Reynolds hadn’t bargained for Quinn’s personal assistant – the flinty Victoria Clifford – who knows more than she’s prepared to reveal…

The trail left by Quinn leads to a jewellery theft, a murderous conspiracy among some of the most glamorous (and richest) Russians in London – and the beautiful Anna, who challenges Reynolds’ professional integrity. Reynolds and Clifford must learn to work together fast – or risk Quinn’s fate.

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Faber & Faber; Reprint edition (June 13, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0571288219
ISBN-13: 978-0571288212
Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5 x 7.8 inches
via NetGalley