Summer Reading: Philadelphia Edition

A fast-paced entertaining read! When Lauren comes home from a night out with the girls to find her husband waiting for her, she’s surprised – because she isn’t married. And yet there is most definitely a husband in the house! And then when she learns she can easily exchange husbands by sending them up to the attic, the fun begins. You’d think the concept might get stale quickly, but Gramazio keeps it moving with unanticipated twists and turns. Only one problem with this book: it ended!

If you don’t know, Reichl was once feared by every restaurant in NYC during her tenure as the restaurant critic for The New York Times. She then served as editor of Gourmet magazine for ten years. Needless to say, she knows about food, and her memoir Tender at the Bone is beautiful and moving. Now for her fun new novel: when Stella’s mom dies and leaves her a money with the catch being that she has to go to Paris to spend it, Stella sets off unwillingly, loath to leave her orderly life in New York behind. But Paris awaits, girl… food, culture, love, family… interspersed with cameos by real chefs and other famous figures (James Baldwin, for example), and including gorgeous writing about food, this is a summer must-read.

I love how Serle plays with time and uses magical elements so easily. This one is about – what else? – a woman in search of real romance. And her journey takes us through a loving portrait of Los Angeles as you haven’t seen it before. Last summer I enjoyed One Italian Summer. What a joy to have a new Serle this summer!

Travel to Sicily with Sara, aka Serafina, whose life is falling apart and who also gets an inheritance from a relative, this one with the directive to go to Sicily and research an old family mystery. Lively prose and a great story that flips easily back and forth from present to past.

Three college friends come together for their 25th college reunion, which has been delayed one year due to COVID, each with their own agendas. Once back at their beloved alma mater, each is forced to confront memories they had pushed away, and to question whether they achieved their youthful visions of their future selves.