What to Read this Summer?

Summer reading means some tough decisions: the mystery or memoir? "Chick lit" or literary fiction? With help from some experts, it's time to craft your summer reading list.

Laura Miller, book critic for Salon.com

Maud Newton, literary blogger at maudnewton.com

ZZ Packer, author of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, a collection of eight stories

Recommended Reading:

Laura Miller's Suggestions:

Book of Air & Shadows, by Michael Gruber

Grave Tattoo, by Val McDermid

Nerve Damage, by Peter Abraham

What the Dead Know, by Laura Lippman

Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann

The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh, by David Damrosch

Privilege and Scandal: The Remarkable Life of Harriet Spencer, Sister of Georgiana, by Janet Gleeson

Maud Newton's Recommendations:

In the Drink, by Kate Christensen

Jeremy Thrane, by Kate Christensen

The Epicure's Lament, by Kate Christensen

The Great Man, by Kate Christensen

The Moon and Sixpence, by W. Somerset Maugham

Cakes and Ale, by W. Somerset Maugham

Free Food for Millionaires, by Min Jin Lee

The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolano

Magic or Madness, by Justine Larbelestier

The End of Mr. Y, by Scarlett Thomas

The Ministry of Special Cases, by Nathan Englander

ZZ Packer's Recommendations:

The Mistress' Daughter, by A.M. Homes

The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon

The True History of the Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey

The Space Between the Stars, by Deborah Santana

Recommended By Listeners:

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carl Ruiz Zafron

Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen

Falling Man, by Don DeLillo

The Bullfighter Checks her Makeup, by Susan Orlean

Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky

I, Claudius, by Robert Graves

A Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin

Swann's Way, by Marcel Proust

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, by ZZ Packer

Books For Kids:

The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman

Henry's Freedom Box, by Ellen Levine and Kadir Nelson

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

The "Ramona" books by Beverly Clearly