Like These Authors? Here's What to Read This Summer

There’s no doubt this year’s Summer Reading Program is already looking very different than previous ones. But if there’s one thing MGPL patrons have proved, it’s that they love their Library from home as well as in person.

For all of our dedicated readers, here are some summer reading suggestions based on the books that are popular with Morton Grove readers.

If you like Sara Paretsky

Sara Paretsky’s newest V.I. Warshawski novel Dead Land came out in April 2020, and she’s got a short story collection (including a new V.I. Warshawski adventure) due out in June called Love & Other Crimes. While you’re waiting for your copy to arrive, try picking up the Chicago Mysteries by Tracy P. Clark, starting with Broken Places.

If you like reading mysteries about tough, female P.I.s set in the familiar location of Chicago’s diverse South Side, look no further than Tracy P. Clark. She’s a local African American author whose series about cop-turned-P.I. Cass Raines makes for a compelling read with richly developed characters and intricate mystery plots that any seasoned Paretsky reader will enjoy.

If you like John Grisham

Grisham’s latest, Camino Winds, is currently topping the charts of MGPL holds. Known for his legal thrillers, Grisham moves the action in his latest novel to a resort island in Florida populated by mystery writers. If you enjoy the metafiction of this idea—a mystery writer writing a mystery in a resort of mystery writers—you will surely enjoy Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz.

Like Grisham, Horowitz has fun playing with meta storylines. In Magpie Murders, the publisher of a popular mystery writer inherits the unfinished manuscript of her client’s latest work when the author unexpectedly passes away. Did her mystery writer die of natural causes, or was he himself murdered? And how does the unfinished manuscript fit into his sudden death? Pick up a copy of Magpie Murders and enjoy Horowitz’s mystery within a mystery novel to find out.

If you like Samantha Irby

Humorist and blogger Samantha Irby’s latest essay collection Wow, No Thank You was released in March and has consistently topped NYT Bestseller charts and MGPL hold lists. If you’ve already read your way through her previous two books—Meaty and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life—don’t worry, MGPL has many options for riotously funny and candid explorations of life, race, and 21st century adulthood. Try Everything’s Trash But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson or F*ck Your Diet: And Other Things My Thighs Tell Me by Chloe Hilliard.

Contact us for more reading suggestions!

Rebecca Hayes is an Adult Services Librarian at Morton Grove Public Library.