Booksellers' Picks for the Beach — or the Backyard NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg polls three independent booksellers for recommendations on fresh new reads — and old favorites — worth making time for this summer.

Booksellers' Picks for the Beach — or the Backyard

Booksellers' Picks for the Beach — or the Backyard

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/10804366/10812640" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Rainy Day Books, in Kansas City, Kan., is one of three independent bookstores we polled for summer-reading picks. hide caption

toggle caption

The Complete List

Get a printable list of all our summer 2007 book picks.

If your idea of packing for vacation is a suitcase full of books and two bathing suits, you've come to the right spot. We've gathered suggestions from three independent booksellers about hot-weather reads to go on your packing list.

The moods range from mystery to giddy romp, the topics from life behind the veil to wedding-night anxiety to superhero angst — and the literary modes from sprawling apocalyptic novel to what might be called a puzzle-master's experiment with form. Read on to meet our bookseller friends and discover their recommendations — including several not heard in the radio broadcast — about what the well-read traveler will be carrying this summer.