NEED TO READ: MAY 2019

Written By: Tim Ehrenberg | Photography By: Tim Ehrenberg

N’s resident bookworm Tim Ehrenberg shares six of his favorite Spring reads.

THE CURRENT BY TIM JOHNSTON
Perfect for an evening by the fire, The Current absolutely whisked me away to a cold Minnesota town. This wonderfully written mystery flows as intensely as the title suggests, diving into the indelible impact two crimes have on the innocent and the guilty and everyone in between.

LEADING MEN BY CHRISTOPHER CASTELLANI
Christopher Castellani pulls you into the glamorous literary and film circles of 1950s Italy in telling the intimate story of Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover Frank Merlo. Book clubs will enjoy unpacking Leading Men’s themes of desire, artistic ambition, fidelity, fame and all of the emotions that come with a great love.

DAISY JONES & THE SIX BY TAYLOR JENKINS REID
My bookshelf was rockin’ and rollin’ thanks to Daisy Jones & The Six. Read one page and you’ll be trying to buy this fictional band’s top hits. While The Six does not exist, they are wonderfully alive and jamming out in this new novel—written in the style of an “as-told-to” rock autobiography—that transports us to the seventies music scene.

THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN BY LISA SEE
I was delightfully lost from the very first sentence of The Island of Sea Women, swimming in its vivid prose: “An old woman sits on the beach, a cushion strapped to her bottom, sorting algae that’s washed ashore.” What follows is a story of female divers on the island of Jeju who are known for their independent spirit and iron will. This novel illuminates a unique and unforgettable culture where the women are in charge and engaging in dangerous physical work.

FALL AND RISE: THE STORY OF 9/11 BY MITCHELL ZUCKOFF (APRIL 30TH)
September 11th is a watershed moment in modern history, forever dividing time into pre- and post-9/11. Fall and Rise, years in the making by a talented journalist, is a definitive, minute-by-minute account of that day, told by the people who lived it and giving voice to those who lost their lives to it.

FURIOUS HOURS: MURDER, FRAUD, AND THE LAST TRIAL OF HARPER LEE BY CASEY CEP
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is many people’s favorite book ever. However, have you ever heard of the true crime book that Harper Lee worked on obsessively in the years after her award-winning novel, but never published? In Furious Hours, we learn of the shocking crimes by Reverend Willie Maxwell in 1970s Alabama, the courtroom drama at his trial and Harper Lee’s struggle with fame, success and the mystery of artistic creativity. What happened to this true crime story she researched and wrote? You’ll have to read to find out.

Support your Island Independent Bookstores! All books available at Mitchell’s Book Corner & Nantucket Bookworks.

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