Awesome Summer Reads

For some of us, there’s nothing better than laying on the beach while reading a great book. But with so many other things vying for our attention, the book has to be terrific. 

Here are five of my new and old favorites—and most of them are collections of short stories to captivate your attention in-between hitting the water!

1. Writers of the Future Volume 42–This anthology has a variety of engaging and thought-provoking stories.  The ability to stop time in a small space, time travel, fantasy stories with dragons and fairies, AI stories and demon dogs. I’ll talk about just one of my favorites.  

We’ve all read time travel stories, but in this one, a group goes back in time to cover up and “logically” explain anomalies created by other time-travelers. The author has some wonderfully quotable lines such as:  

It would be spectacularly stupid to disband the project. But then, spectacular stupidity has always been one of humanity’s most reliably renewable resources.  

How could you not want to read a story with that line? 

2. The Best of Joe R. Lansdale―This author is skilled in numerous genres with an abundance of awards. His most famous books are the Hap and Leonard series, consisting of 15 novels and a 3-season Sundance TV crime drama. The Best of is a series of short stories that run the gamut from Godzilla, to a soul-sucking mummy, to zombies, along with several more-normal, equally weird stories.  “Bubba Ho-Tep” is included which was made into a horror-comedy movie. My favorite in this collection has to be “Godzilla’s Twelve Step Program,” where by day the titular monster works at a foundry and tries to curb his impulse to destroy with an AA-similar program, along with several other familiar monsters.

3. Holy Ghost by John Sandford–the only novel in this list. For John Sandford, the Prey series at 36 novels and counting, is usually my all-time favorite. His Virgil Flowers spin-off character has 12 books of his own and Holy Ghost is the absolute best of them. This book will have you reading until the end to figure out who the killer is. 

4. Night Shift by Stephen King–Some people say that Stephen King writes much better short stories than his novels which sometimes have disappointing endings. Night Shift is so great I can see why people believe he is the master at this form. “Jerusalem’s Lot,” “Battleground,” “Quitters, Inc.” and “Children of the Corn” have stayed with me for years as absolutely fantastic stories.  And these are just four of the twenty included in this collection. “Quitters, Inc.” has the mob branching out into services to help people stop their bad habits—all of us have some weakness that probably isn’t the best for our long-term health, and this story will have you wondering if maybe this service could be just what you need! 

5. I Fish; Therefore, I Am (And Other Observations) by Patrick F. McManus–If you’ve never read Patrick McManus, get ready to have a new source for humor that will have you rolling on the floor with laughter.  This is a collection of three of his earlier collected-works books!  In “Poof—No Eyebrows,” the young-boy main character and his friend build a small cannon and set it off to disastrous results.  As they are recovering behind a shed, a deputy drives up looking for the cause of the explosion he heard.   

“Now, what I want to know,” the deputy went on, “is why are you two boys sitting out here behind this shed smoking?”

“Shucks,” I said, “if you’d been a little earlier, you’d have seen us while we were still on fire!”

…

The canon pretty well quelled our enthusiasm for building our own muzzleloaders from scratch. Not only had it made a big impression on us; it had made numerous small impressions.  

I hope these five recommendations make it on your must-read summer reading list.  

You won’t be disappointed!

John Carey

BIO: Born and raised in Texas, John Carey loves both the big cities and country life. He always knew he needed a good job to pay the bills so pursued engineering degrees. He shoved his writing and artistic endeavors to the evenings and weekends. John has written over 1.5 million words in short stories, poems and books, both fiction and non-fiction. In 2011, John won Honorable Mention in L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future contest for his science fiction entry, "A Cast of Millions." In 2017, he again won an Honorable Mention in the same contest for "The Changing of the Veil."  His latest fiction book on Amazon "Not Worthy of the Air You Breathe" is set in a 2305 dystopian future.