wildly curious
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

2015 Summer Reading

Photo by Julie Falk, CC via Flickr

Thursday, it’s time for our bi-annual round up of book suggestions from local experts Catherine Weller (Weller Book Works), Ken Sanders (Ken Sanders Rare Books) and Betsy Burton (The King’s English). No matter how you consume your books - audio, electronic, or the tried and true paper version - you’re probably thinking about what you’ll read this summer. We’ve got our usual abundance of titles for kids and adults, with something for every taste.

Adult Books: Catherine WellerBetsy Burton, Ken Sanders
Children's Books: KenSandersCatherine Weller, Betsy Burton

**********************************

Catherine Weller's Books for Adults, Weller Book Works

Adult Non-Fiction

  • All the Wild that Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner and the American West by David Gessner, W. W. Norton, hardcover, $26.95
  • All the Wrong Places: A Life Lost and Found by Philip Connors, W. W. Norton, hardcover, $25.95
  • Better Homes and Gardens Complete Canning Guide: Freezing, Preserving, Drying by Better Homes and Gardens, looseleaf, $29.99
  • Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris, W.W. Norton, hardcover, $24.95
  • Cat High: The Yearbook by Terry Deroy Gruber, Chronicle Books, paperback, $15.95
  • Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson, Crown Publishing, hardcover, $28.00
  • Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated a Nation by Dean Jobb, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, hardcover, $27.95
  • Girl in a Band: A Memoir by Kim Gordon, Dey Street Books, hardcover, $27.99
  • I am Sorry to Think I have Raised a Timid Son: Essays by Kent Russell, Knopf Publishing Group, hardcover, $24.95
  • Loitering: New and Collected Essays by Charles D’Ambrosio, Tin House Books, paperback, $15.95
  • Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest by Dave Roberts, W. W. Norton, $27.95
  • Mo; Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove by Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Grand Central Publishing, paperback, $16.00
  • Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck, Simon & Schuster, hardcover, $28.00
  • Words without Music: A Memoir by Philip Glass, Liveright Publishing Corporation, hardcover, $29.95

Adult Fiction

  • Annihilation/Acceptance/Authority by Jeff VanderMeer, Farrar Straus Giroux, paperback, $13.00 each or Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy, hardcover, $35.00
  • Barefoot Dogs: Stories by Antonio Ruiz-Comacho, Scribner, hardcover, $23.00
  • Buried Giant by Kazuro Ishiguro, Knopf, hardcover, $26.95
  • Ghost Network by Catie Disabato, Mellville House Publishing, paperback, $16.95
  • Rock With Wings by Anne Hillerman, Harper Collins, hardcover, $27.99
  • Sage of Waterloo: A Tale by Leona Francombe, W.W. Norton & Co., hardcover, $22.95
  • Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, William Morrow & Co., hardcover, $35.00
  • Sunken Cathedral by Kate Walbert, Scribner Book Company, hardcover, $25.00

Return to Top

Betsy Burton's Books for Adults,The King's English

Fiction

  • Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf, Knopf, hardcover, $24.00
  • The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard, Knopf, hardcover, $22.95
  • The Sunken Cathedral by Kate Walbert, Scribner, hardcover, $25.00
  • Muse by Jonathan Galassi, Knopf, hardcover, $24.95
  • The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, Knopf, hardcover, $26.95
  • The Festival of Insignificance by Milan Kundera, Harper, hardcover, $23.95
  • Barefoot Dogs: Stories by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho, Scribner, hardcover, $23.00

Fiction Paperback

  • The Children Act by Ian McEwan, Anchor, paperback, $15.00
  • Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher, Anchor, paperback, $14.95
  • Nora Webster by Colm Toibin, Scribner, paperback, $16.00
  • The Plover by Brian Doyle, Picador, Paperback, $15.00
  • We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride, paperback, $15.00
  • Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Vintage, paperback, $15.95
  • Fives and Twenty-Fives by Michel Pitre, Bloomsbury, paperback, $17.00

Mystery

  • Night Life by David Taylor, Forge, hardcover, $25.95
  • Falling in Love by Donna Leon, Atlantic Monthly Press, hardcover, $26.00
  • The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Grove Press, hardcover, $26.00
  • I Saw a Man by Owen Sheers, Nan Talese, hardcover, $25.95
  • All Involved by Ryan Gattis, ECCO, hardcover, $27.99
  • World Gone By by Dennis Lehane, William Morrow, hardcover, $27.99

Nonfiction

  • The Oregon Trail: An American Journey by Rinker Buck, Simon & Schuster, hardcover $30.00
  • H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, Grove, hardcover $26.00
  • Dead Wake by Erik Larson, Crown hardcover, $28.00
  • Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast, Bloomsbury, hardcover, $28.00
  • The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander, Grand Central, hardcover $26.00
  • Our Only World by Wendell Berry, Counterpoint, hardcover, $24.00

Nonfiction paper

  • Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Spiegel & Grau, paperback (August) $16.00
  • The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore, Vintage, paperback, $16.95
  • The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses by Kevin Birmingham, Penguin, paperback, $18.00
  • A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre, Broadway, paperback, $16.00

Return to Top

Ken Sanders' Books for Adults,Ken Sanders Rare Books

Utah, The Mormons, Western Americana

  • All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West by David Gessner, hardcover, W.W. Norton, $26.95
  • Hiking the Wasatch (Third Edition) by John Veranth, paperback, University of Utah Press, $16.95
  • Ken Sleight’s Allies & Accomplices by Martha Ham & Ken Sleight, paperback, $50.00
  • We Remember, We Celebrate, We Believe: Latinos in Utah by Armando Solorzano, paperback, University of Utah Press, $19.95
  • A Land of Hard Edges: Serving the Front Lines of the Border by Peg Bowden, paperback, Peer Publishing, $14.95
  • How the World Moves: The Odyssey of an American Indian Family by Peter Nabokov, hardcover, Viking, $32.95 (release date September 22, 2015)
  • Downwind: A People's History of the Nuclear West by Sarah Alisabeth Fox, hardcover, University of Nebraska Press, $29.95
  • The Council of Fifty: A Documentary History by Jedediah S. Rogers (Editor), hardcover, Signature Books, $49.95
  • Mormonism Unvailed by Eber D. Howe (with critical comments by Dan Vogel), hardcover, Signature Books, $37.95
  • American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church by Alex Beam, hardcover, Public Affairs, $26.99
  • How Desolate Our Home Bereft Of Thee: James Tillman Sanford Allred and the Circleville Massacre by Sue Jensen Weeks, paperback, $20.00
  • Arizona Stereographs 1865-1930 by Jeremy Rowe, hardcover, Carl Mautz Publishing, $50.00

Local Authors and Publications

  • Saltfront: Studies In Human Habit(at) Issue #3, paperback, Saltfront, $12.00
  • Buffalo vs. Train by Triggers & Slips, CD Album, $10.00
  • Some Love by Alex Caldiero, paperback, Signature Books, $17.95 (release date in June 2015)
  • Fate Is A Hairy Rodent: A Story About Love and Rats by Trent Harris, paperback, Trent Harris, $15.00
  • How To Unfeel the Dead: New and Selected Fictions by Lance Olsen, paperback, Teksteditions, $22.95
  • The Logan Notebooks by Rebecca Lindenberg, paperback, Mountain West Poetry Series/Center for Literary Publishing, $16.95
  • The Year of Living Virtuously: Weekends Off by Teresa Jordan, hardcover, Counterpoint, $23.00
  • Collected Poems by Mark Strand, hardcover, Knopf, $30.00
  • The Great Salt Lake Mime Saga and Amsterdam’s Festival of Fools: Memoir and Memorabilia by Michael R. Evans, paperback, Any Book Press/American Book Center, $17.95
  • The Fifth Goal 1998-2003: Transcendental Graffiti Zine by Travis Low, Adam Davis, Kate Schaeffer, and Laura Hamblin, paperback, Division Leap and Hierophant, $25.00
  • Sugar House Review #10: An Independent Poetry Magazine (5-year anniversary), paperback, Sugar House Review, $12.00

Joe Hill

  • The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon by William M. Adler, paperback, Bloomsbury, $18.00
  • Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture (Second Edition) by Franklin Rosemont, paperback, PM Press, $29.95 (release date in November 2015)
  • Joe Hill: A Biographical Novel by Wallace Stegner, paperback, Penguin, $17.00
  • Joe Hill by Gibbs M. Smith, paperback, Gibbs Smith, $15.95
  • Pie in the Sky: How Joe Hill’s Lawyers Lost His Case, Got Him Shot, and Were Disbarred by Kenneth Lougee, paperback, iUniverse, $14.95
  • Starlight on the Rails by U. Utah Phillips, paperback, Dream Garden Press, $30.00

Fiction and Poetry

  • The Dying Grass by William T. Vollmann, hardcover, Viking, $55.00 (release date July 28, 2015)
  • The Familiar (Volume 1): One Rainy Day in May by Mark Z. Danielewski, paperback, $25.00
  • The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits, hardcover, Doubleday, $26.95
  • The Musical Brain by Cesar Aira, hardcover, New Directions, $29.95
  • The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth, hardcover, Unbound Press, $27.50
  • E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962 by E.E. Cummings, hardcover, Liveright, $50.00
  • Endangered by C.J. Box, hardcover, Putnam, $26.95

Comics and Graphic Novels

  • Spawn of Mars and Other Stories Illustrated by Wallace Wood (Written by Al Feldstein, Harry Harrison, and Wallace Wood), hardcover, Fantagraphics Books, $29.99
  • Providence by Alan Moore, monthly comic book series (this is Alan Moore’s new series; his take on the cthulhu mythos and horrifying universe of H.P. Lovecraft), Avatar Press, $3.99/issue (12 issues planned, monthly) 
  • Hansel and Gretel by Neil Gaiman & Lorenzo Mattotti, hardcover, Toon Graphics, $16.95
  • Fatherland: A Family History by Nina Bunjevac, hardcover, Liveright, $22.95

Non-Fiction

  • The Chimp and the River: How AIDS Emerged from an African Forest by David Quammen, paperback, W.W. Norton, $13.95
  • The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them by Joseph Stiglitz, hardcover, W.W. Norton, $28.95
  • Separate and Dominate: Feminism and Racism After The War On Terror by Christine Delphy, paperback, Verso, $23.95
  • Four Fields by Tim Dee, hardcover, Vintage, $19.99
  • Urban Acupuncture by Jaime Lerner, hardcover, Island Press, $19.99
  • In Search of Sir Thomas Browne: The Life and Afterlife of the Seventeenth Century’s Most Inquiring Mind by Hugh Aldersey-Williams, hardcover, W.W. Norton $26.95
  • Words Without Music: A Memoir by Philip Glass, hardcover, Liveright, $29.95
  • Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor In America by Bill Schelly (Foreword by Terry Gilliam), hardcover, Fantagraphics Books, $34.99
  • You Can’t Win by Jack Black (Illustrations by Joe Coleman, Foreword by W.S. Burroughs), paperback, Feral House, $17.95

Ken Sanders’ Books for Children,KenSanders Rare Books

  • Ann and Nan Are Anagrams: A Mixed-Up Word Dilemma by Mark Shulman & Adam McCauley, hardcover, Chronicle Books, $16.99
  • The Kurdles by Robert Goodin, hardcover, Fantagraphics Books, $24.99
  • Donald Duck “The Pixilated Parrot” by Carl Barks, hardcover, Fantagraphics Books, $29.99
  • Mickey Mouse “March of the Zombies” (Mickey Mouse Series #7) by Floyd Gottfredson, hardcover, Fantagraphics Books, $34.99

Return to Top

Catherine Weller's Books for Children,Weller Book Works

  • Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, hardcover, $17.00
  • Chicken Followed Me Home!: Questions and Answers About a Familiar Fowl by Robin Page, Beach Lane Books, hardcover, $17.99
  • Imaginary by A.F. Harrold illustrated by Emily Gravett, Bloomsbury Childrens Books, hardcover, $16.99
  • Pool by Lee Jihyeon, Chronicle Books, hardcover, $16.99
  • Rad American Women A to Z by Katie Schatz, illustrated by Miriam Klein Stahl, City Lights, hardcover, $14.95
  • Return to Augie Hobble by Lane Smith, Roaring Brook Press, hardcover, $16.99
  • Through the Town by Craig Shuttlewood, Little Bee Books, board book, $6.99
  • Where Bear? by Sophy Henn, Philomel Books, hardcover, $16.99
  • Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman illustrated by Zachariah O’Hara, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, hardcover, $17.00

Return to Top

Betsy Burton's Books for Children,The King's English

Children’s Picture Books

  • Snick by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Juana Medina, Viking, hardcover, $16.99
  • Home by Carson Ellis, Candlewick, Hardcover, $16.99
  • Tad and Dad by David Ezra Stein Nancy Paulsen Books, hardcover, $16.99
  • How to Surprise a Dad by Jean Reagan, illustrated by Lee Wildish, Knopf, hardcover, $16.99
  • Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal, Chronicle, hardcover, $16.99

Children’s Chapter Books

  • Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan, Scholastic, hardcover, $19.99
  • Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, Henry Holt, hardcover, $16.99
  • Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley, Dial, hardcover, $17.99
  • I Am Princess by Cherie Priest, Arthur A. Levine Scholastic, hardcover, $18.99
  • An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, Razorbill, hardcover, $19.95

Nonfiction Children’s Books

  • The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose, Farrar Straus Giroux, hardcover, $19.99
  • Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom by Lunda Blackmon Lowry, Dial, hardcover, $19.99
  • Big Top Burning by Laura Woollett, Chicago Review Press, hardcover, $18.95
  • Why’d They Wear That? by Sarah Albec, National Geographic hardcover,$19.99

Return to Top

Doug Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER News since 1987, and became News Director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of KUER's RadioWest, a one hour conversation/call-in show on KUER 90.1 in Salt Lake City. He has gained a reputation for his thoughtful style. He has interviewed everyone from Isabel Allende to the Dalai Lama, and from Madeleine Albright to Desmond Tutu. His interview skills landed him a spot as a guest host of the national NPR program, "Talk of the Nation." He has won numerous awards for his reporting and for his work with RadioWest and KUED's Utah NOW from such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Broadcasters Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Related Content