I judge all pageturners against Shogun by James Clavell. Swashbuckling and a history lesson in 1200 pages and not one word too many.

Sent by Jon Ellenbogen | 2:16 PM ET | 05-28-2007

Wow it is a children's but the book is so unique an illustrated novel even a historical fiction.
Gotta read it!

Sent by Sally Mays | 2:17 PM ET | 05-28-2007

If you are a parent or a teacher of teenagers I'd recommend, "Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School"

Sent by Megan Sheppard | 2:34 PM ET | 05-28-2007

Kurt Vonnegut -- easy to read, interesting ideas, usually quite funny.

Sent by Richard Seymour | 2:38 PM ET | 05-28-2007

For the summer I think Kerouac. Dharma Bums or On The Road, either way it's the right time to get into that state of mind.

Sent by Mike Munzenrider | 2:39 PM ET | 05-28-2007

One of my fave summer books -- In Beauty May She Walk, by Leslie Mass. She spent her summer hiking the Appalachian Trail when she was 60 years old, and wow, was I inspired to do something active and fun and outdoors instead of sitting around listening to the air conditioner kick on!

Sent by Alice Platt | 2:40 PM ET | 05-28-2007

Another good book to read when the A/C is out is The Terror by Dan Simmons. Simmons adds an element of horror to the story of the Franklin Expedition, but faint-hearted readers shouldn't let that stop them. The book is really an homage to explorers. Simmons gives each character a face and a voice. Riveting.

Sent by Pam Gearhart | 3:16 PM ET | 05-28-2007

Any of the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich would be a good summer read. They're easy-reading and laugh-out-loud funny - the adventures of a female bail bond hunter in Tenton New Jersey.

Sent by J R Williamson | 3:17 PM ET | 05-28-2007

I turned on the radio near the end of the show, just as one of the panel was lauding a book that a listener had suggested, a mystery set in Spain, described as "high end summer reading". Does anyone have the title and/or author?

Sent by Joe Lindsay | 3:23 PM ET | 05-28-2007

We are hosting a couples book discussion the end of June to meet the author and to discuss BONES THAT FLOAT, a memoir about adoption of a child and of a country, Cambodia. The author is Kari Grady Grossman. It's a wonderful read for the summer

Sent by Barbara Gose | 3:35 PM ET | 05-28-2007

Alan Moore's Watchmen. Yeah, yeah, it's a "funny book." But it's a REALLY GOOD "funny book." Life, politics, war, media manipulation, Nixon's still President(!), god-like power- and the screw-ups and control-freaks who wield it. Nixon's still President(!)

Also not to be overlooked are the "interviews" with the various "superheroes" and "Tales of the Black Freighter," an EC Comics style Pirate adventure that offers an allegory on what's taking place in the "real" world.
Multi-layered and multi-faceted, at 460-odd pages, it's probably one of the best out-and-out novels in quite a few years. The pictures ain't bad, either.

Sent by A. Peters | 4:04 PM ET | 05-28-2007

The book set in Spain was, The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I read this for book group. Very good, but at 505 pages a commitment.

Sent by Leesa Cooper | 6:31 PM ET | 05-28-2007

I want to re-read the 5 part Hitchhiker's Trilogy by Douglas Adams. I find myself wondering if there is a parrallel between the dolphins saying so long and thanks for all the fish and our real world bees disappearing...

Sent by Nicholas Ivan Ladendorf | 9:14 PM ET | 05-28-2007

I went through a few years of reading Hemingway's "The Garden of Eden" every summer. It's supposedly unfinished, but I think it ends just as it should. The book drips with summer.

Sent by Matthew Tiffany | 11:16 PM ET | 05-28-2007

I highly recommend Michael Ondaatje's Divisadero.. it's full of beautiful, poetic images, and is a page turning story as well. He's an exquisite writer.

Sent by Carla | 11:23 PM ET | 05-28-2007

If you want funny try "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. A beach read is "Minotaur" by Barbara Vine aka Ruth Rendell.

Sent by sandra Sandoval | 7:58 AM ET | 05-29-2007

Magic Time, Doug Marlette's latest novel, has all the requisites of the perfect summer read -- my only regret is having read it when it was released last autumn, rather than saving it to savor during the languorous months of summer.

Sent by S. Holland | 9:34 AM ET | 05-29-2007

I just read Ellen Burstyn's memoir, Lessons in Becoming Myself. She's had an interesting life, and it's written engagingly, honestly.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl is a good summer pageturner. An intellectual mystery, it reminded me a little of The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Sent by Lori McCoy | 12:24 PM ET | 05-29-2007

How about Catcher in the Rye?

Sent by Mark Goodfelt | 1:40 PM ET | 05-29-2007

Did anyone catch the title/author of the novel about the German occupation of Paris during WW2 -- the one you can't put down?

Sent by Joe Fisher | 4:02 PM ET | 05-29-2007

About "chick lit"--

My sister told me that the difference between romance novels and chick lit, is that romance novels center on the hero, and culminate with the hero getting the girl. In chick lit, the central character is the heroine, and the love interest is a little more peripheral to the story, and she may or many not end up getting the guy.

Sent by Liz Mason | 4:32 PM ET | 05-29-2007

One of the best reads to come out of our now defunct, girls-night-out book club is The Eight, by Katharine Neville. It's a mystical thriller that includes a few historical figures and events, with a strong heroine and great page-turning writing.

Sent by Melinda Simpson | 4:56 PM ET | 05-29-2007

A terrific non-fiction book is The Mind at Work by Mike Rose, who is kind of a mix between Studs Terkel and Antonio Damasio, the guy who wrote Descartes' Error. Rose writes about all the intelligence it takes to do blue-collar and service jobs like being a waitress or welder. His book is also a tribute to his own family's blue collar labor history. I thought the chapter on his mother, a career waitress, was beautiful and moving.

Sent by Deborah Hicks | 5:00 PM ET | 05-29-2007

The Paris WWII book is Suite Francaise by Irene Nemerovsky --spelling of last name almost certainly wrong. This is an interesting book, not the least because it is unfinished. The author, a Jew, was transported and died in Auschwitz before she could complete it.

Sent by Jeanne Kaiser | 5:13 PM ET | 05-29-2007

We've put together a list of most of the books mentioned on the show Monday. It's all here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10497458

Sent by Scott Cameron | 5:45 PM ET | 05-29-2007

Definitely my favorite books are by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Although her more mainstream book, The Mists of Avalon, is long and can lean toward being tedious, her other Avalon books are great. I would definitely recommend one of her older books, The Fall of Atlantis (an omnibus edition) which I love so much and got so attached to the characters.

Sent by Aeya | 8:51 PM ET | 05-29-2007

A great summer read is "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. I have had trouble getting others to read this book because it centers around the history of a vampire, but it is not a horror story or fantasy. It is an exquisitely well written and researched page-turner that would appeal to anyone who enjoys a compelling story.

Sent by Gina | 3:26 PM ET | 05-30-2007

I really enjoy reading Christopher Moore. His "Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's childhood friend" is hilarious, irreverent, and well written. "A Dirty Job" is another one of his books that will keep you reading.

Sent by Wendy | 11:11 PM ET | 06-01-2007