Summer Reading Suggestions

I forgot to cross post this the other day! http://puttputtproductions.com/blogetary/2012/07/04/summer-reading-suggestions/

4th of July: Grills have been pulled out across the U.S., scraped off and hopefully were christened with the first barbecue back in May. School is out (mostly), and people are going on vacations, staycations, or just taking long weekends to enjoy time at the beach, poolside, at the park, up in the mountains, or wherever summer calls them. Of the many things people pack along on their treks over hill, dale, dune and chaise-lounge, one of them is the great and glorious summer reading novel.

Everyone has their opinion of what makes good summer reading material. Some want nothing but fluff: Romance, English cozy mysteries or comic fantasies. Others want something meaty to dig into such as family epics, science thrillers, contemplative poetry, or true crime. Whatever it is, whether you carry it along as a battered-up paperback or upload it onto your ereader, you’ve gotta know there’s plenty out there for you to try this summer. Since there is so much out there, why not use this as a summer to try authors who are not all on the New York Times Bestseller list (after all, it needs a vacation, too). Below are a list of authors and their books (including me), in both hardcopy and ecopy, that you may want to add to your summer reading list.

Norman Bogner – New York Times Bestselling author with a long list of books (not all of them on this list) that range from Family Epics like Arena to thrillers such as The Deadliest Art.

Pamela Dumond - Author of the romantic paranormal comedy murder mystery, “Cupcakes, Lies and Dead Guys,” as well as “The Messenger’s Handbook,” a YA time-travel thriller.

J. Alan Erwine – scifi writer of a plethora of short stories, novels and novellas/novellettes. His stories are available in both hardcopy and ecopy format. A good place to start is his Amazon Author Page, after that check out Sam’s Dot Publishing or Smashwords.com.

Debby Feo – Writes poetry and scifi/fantasy. You can check out her collection of poems, “Grandpa’s Chair” on Amazon. Or go to Sam’s Dot Publishing to check out some of her stories.

Charles Gramlich – Writer of poetry, high fantasy, horror and dark fantasy, and who knows what else. One of his most recent books is a memoir, Days of Beer, or start with Swords of Talera books.

Ryan Harvey – A Writers of the Future Award Winner and author of “Farewell to Tyrn.”
Angela Consolo Mankiewicz – Poet, author of “An Eye,” “Wired” “As If,” and “Cancer Poems.” Winner of the AMELIA 1st Prize Broadside, TRELLIS Grand Prize Sestina, JERSEYWORKS 2nd prize in Annual Poetry Competition, and a Pushcart nominee.

Will Molinar – Actor, personal trainer, comedian, writer of dark adventure fantasy. Take a look at what he has at SynergEBooks for ebooks or go to Amazon to check out Blasphemous, Book 1 in his Torment Series.

Rachel V. Olivier – Poetry, short stories and novellas, mostly of the scifi/fantasy persuasion. You can find a couple of them on Lulu.com, or go to Putt Putt Productions for a more extensive list. Look for her new novella, “Needs Must When the Devil Drives,” coming out in August 2012.

C. Leigh Purtill – Author of “Fat Girls in L.A.” (formerly All About Vee), “Jennifer Aniston is My Best Friend” (formerly Love, Meeg) and “Chasing the Falls,” as well as several short stories. Check out her Author’s Page on Amazon.

Gil Roscoe – Author of “The Company of Thieves,” and hopefully you’ll read more by him as soon as agents and editors realize what a good storyteller he is.

George Rumanes – Screenwriter and author of World War II novel, “The Man with the Black Worry Beads.”

Robert Szeles – Musician and author of speculative fiction and erotica. Wondering where to go after reading The Fifty Shades of Grey? Try Jack and Dora Do L.A. 

Well, that’s the list. It’s probably longer than you thought it should be, but not nearly as long as it could have been. It should get you started. Hope you have a great summer of good reading.