Here are a few recommendations for summer reads that are off the beaten path. This is a collection of titles that I have grown to love over the past few years and highly recommend if you haven't picked up a book for your summer vacay or downtime on your couch.
1. "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne.
This novel discusses a variety of subjects revolving around the Comanche Nation in the mid to late 1800s, including the Parker family and the kidnapping of the young Cynthia Ann Parker, her son Quanah and the formation and early days of the Texas Rangers. I've been seeing this novel being recommended everywhere recently, and for good reason. This true story is an interesting part of America's history with a strong and vivid narration (sometimes too vivid – this book can get gory).
2. "Yes Please" by Amy Poehler.
This is the book that got me out of my reading slump this past Christmas break. Poehler talks about her life with humor and wisdom. She talks about her childhood, her days on "SNL" and "Parks and Recreation" and motherhood. I legitimately laughed out loud while reading this book. God bless Amy Poehler. If you need a light beach read, this is it.
"The Devil's Detective" by Simon Kurt Unsworth.
I stumbled upon this book at Book People in Austin (side note: if you haven't been, you have got to go). The premise is that Hell is no longer the traditional "fire and brimstone." Instead, it's a dystopian city run by a bureaucracy of demons where human souls are assigned jobs and have to fill their roles within a caste system where humans are little more than chattel. Our main character Thomas Fool serves as an "Information Man" (basically a detective) who's never actually had to fully solve a case until a human is found brutally murdered in a lake. Fool is instructed to find the murderer, and this sets off a series of events that turns Hell slightly askew. The landscape that this novel is set in is so well developed, described, and, in my opinion, unique. If you have a strong stomach for horror and gore (and I mean strong because this book can be disturbing), I highly recommend it.
"The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollen
This book had been sitting on my bookshelf for well over a year before I finally decided to start reading it last week. Pollen explores the relationships between humans and four different kinds of plants throughout their domestication, and how and why they were domesticated in the first place. To give you an example, in school we're taught that Johnny Appleseed went around planting apple trees for settlers to eat. In reality, he built an enterprise of selling young apple trees to settlers so they could fulfill their end of the bargain with the government for land out west by planting trees – and then the apples were usually turned into hard cider. The more you know.
