Oklahomans thirsty for entertainment this summer are diving into hot reads from the metro's indie booksellers.
The hottest? At Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, and Best of Books, 1313 E. Danforth in Edmond, the most requested read of the summer is reads, plural: Stieg Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy." According to Dana Meister, event coordinator at Full Circle, the series about a tattooed misfit hacker and an investigative journalist has seen the highest sales.
The series includes "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest." The first novel has already been made into a film in Sweden, where the books were written, and is currently being adapted for the screen in the United States.
Kathleen Kinasewitz, a bookseller at Best of Books, agrees that the hottest genres are thrillers, mysteries and suspense. She added that young-adult readers are still into vampires, with Stephenie Meyer's unstoppable "Twilight" series leading the undead pack. Meyer's spin-off novella, "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner," is the latest addition to the franchise, and selling well, of course.
"The Hunger Games" trilogy by Suzanne Collins, about a futuristic world that finds the U.S. in collapse and a reality television show that pits contestants in a game for survival, is also burning up the cash register for young adults. That's expected to continue with the final book in the series, "Mockingjay," coming out Aug. 24.
Vamps aren't just for the young. Edmond mom Whitney Fleming is reading Susan Hubbard's "Ethical Vampire" series, beginning with "The Society of S." El Reno insurance agent Geoff Eaton said he "knocked out Seth Grahame-Smith's 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' while on a beach in the Florida Gulf Coast."
Thanks to its 50th anniversary, the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee, is being recommended at Full Circle. At Best of Books, the story of a young, white journalist in the 1960s writing about black maids in the South, "The Help," by Kathryn Stockett, is still a popular seller, as is the race memoir by Ron Hall, "Same Kind of Different as Me."
Looking for a light beach read? Full Circle suggests "Lowcountry Summer," by Dorothea Benton Frank; "Summer People," by Elin Hilderbrand; and "Bloodroot," by Amy Greene.
Lauri Rottmayer, executive director of the Mrs. Oklahoma pageant, said her favorite book of the summer is the Southern novel "Saving CeeCee Honeycutt," by debut author Beth Hoffman.
Best of Books recommends light paperback novels for vacation, travel and beach reads, such as "Eat, Pray, Love," by Elizabeth Gilbert, which finds its way to the big screen with Julia Roberts at the helm next month. Also recommended are the Stephanie Plum mystery novels, 16 to date, by Janet Evanovich, and "Cutting for Stone," by Abraham Verghese.
Publishers Weekly called "Stone" a "magnificent, sweeping novel that moves from India to Ethiopia to an inner-city hospital in New York City over decades and generations."
Heather Lytle, an Edmond marketing specialist, called the crime story "Undone," by Karin Slaughter, "perfect for a rainy lake weekend," while Laura Kriegel, promoter at the Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the memoir "Talking to Girls About Duran Duran," by Rob Sheffield, is "great poolside reading."
