Rock and roll, Faeries, and more are found in Emma Bull’s urban punk novel (originally published waaay back in 1987, reprinted in 2001), War for the Oaks.  Who knew that under Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis lives a thriving Faerie community?  When rock singer Edie stumbles across this fantasy world, she is assigned a “phouka” – a guard of sorts, and discovers she’s been chosen as a pawn in an age-old war between good and evil.  Library student Bethany Bates has put together a fan webpage featuring the book, check it out at https://sites.google.com/site/warfortheoaksproject/home.  She considers it “a classic of the now burgeoning genre of urban fantasy, and doesn’t get the recognition it should.”

Thank you David Nicholls! I’ve been struggling to recommend a much-buzzed about summer title that will appeal to my many “light literary” readers. Mostly women, these are my bread and butter patrons. They read some genre fiction, but also want to read what’s hot.  So now, thanks to Mr. Nicholls’ lovely When-Harry-Met-Sally-ish new novel, I don’t have to pitch The Passage (post-apocalyptic vampire novel) or Mr. Peanut (man gets wish of wanting wife dead novel). Here are some other smart relationship novels that may please your horror-weary readers:

The Food of Love by Anthony Capella
In this Cyrano-inspired culinary romance, Italian chef Bruno lets his handsome friend Tomasso pass off his entrees as his own in order to woo a beautiful American tourist.

Beginner’s Greek by James Collins
On a flight from New York to LA, Holly and Peter meet and discover that they are soul mates. Unfortunately, a lost phone number keeps them apart until Holly reappears engaged to Peter’s best friend.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Thirty-five-year-old record store owner  Rob tries to make sense of his recent breakup by rehashing his top-five most memorable relationship killers.

Watermelon by Marian Keyes
The woman a repentant James finds back home in Dublin has changed a lot since he walked out of their London apartment after she gave birth to their child..

Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch
Unfulfilled suburban wife and mother Jillian wakes up in her ex-boyfriend’s bed seven years in the past. Is the universe giving her a second chance at getting it right?

And, of course, the Rom-Com goddess: Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding

Want to sound like book-loving smarty pants but don’t have time to do all the tedious reading? Just subscribe to Maud Newton’s blog or follow her on Twitter. Her posts concern debates within the writing world as much as the actual writing. You’ll find great links to buzz-worthy articles, thoughts on a recent author reading, or a picture of the evangelical tract someone handed her outside her office. A writer herself, Newton lives in New York City with a day job as an editor and writer for Thomson Reuters. She’s funny and smart. Check her out.

British author Isabel Woolf returns to being published in the US this summer with a great new novel, A Vintage Affair. In her first chick-lit novel, Making Minty Malone (originally titled The Making of Minty Malone) (1999), Araminta “Minty” Malone is jilted at the altar by a creep. She takes off for her Paris honeymoon anyway, bridesmaid in tow, and re-evaluates her life. She ends up deciding to be less less of a doormat, and falls for handsome writer. Wacky and entertaining.

Fans of Bravo’s deliciously over-the-top “Real Housewives of…” franchise can keep their vicarious thrill-seeking and gossip-dishing alive this summer with these naughty  neighborhood novels.

The Woman Next Door by Barbara Delinsky
The picture-perfect marriages in a Connecticut cul-de-sac begin to show their cracks when an attractive, widowed neighbor becomes pregnant.

Compromising Positions by Susan Isaacs
Long Island housewife Judith Singer discovers that murdered periodontist Dr. Bruce Fleckstein was drilling more than her neighbors’ teeth.

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
Joanna Eberhart thinks she and her family are living the dream when they move to leafy Stepford. But what’s up with her cookie-baking neighbors? Seems a little too perfect.

Little Children by Tom Perrotta
The anxious and unhappy parents in a quiet suburb walk out of their glass houses and direct their disappointments at a recently released pedophile who has moved into the neighborhood.

The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives by Sarah Strohmeyer
Marti Denton is the queen bee of her suburban trophy wife set, until former reporter Claire Stark marries Marti’s secret crush and moves into the neighborhood.

Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner
Uprooted New Yorker Kate Klein finds her child-free Connecticut afternoons more fulfilling once she starts investigating a wealthy neighbor’s murder.

I have a new Web Crush that I’m totally swooning over.  Every single post makes me laugh.  It’s books i done read, the brainchild of Raych from Canada, and she reads all kinds of books – new, older, YA, genres, just about everything.  She then posts snarky, witty reviews of them.

Check her out at http://booksidoneread.blogspot.com/.

I swear, I’m not just being lazy here – I’ve had it in my head to do a Sookie Stackhouse post, but the wonderful Becky Spratford of RA For All beat me to it! I’m certainly not going to reinvent the wheel, especially when she’s put together such a fab list!

So head on over to her blog for “If You Like Sookie Stackhouse, Try…” for some great readalikes for Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series.

Full disclosure. My mom’s from Cleveland. I still get Christmas presents in recycled Halle’s and Higbee’s boxes and no trip to visit my grandparents was complete without a trip to Malleys’ for ice cream and a look at the indoor carousel. In Crooked River Burning, Winegardner uses “the mistake on the Lake” to show the rapid changes to mid-twentieth century Middle America. In 1952, blue-collar west-sider David Zielinsky falls for privileged Shaker Heights girl Anne O’Connor. As David pursues a career in politics and Anne becomes a TV reporter, their lives continue to intersect. Coming of age in the “birthplace of rock and roll,” David and Anne are influenced by  iconic events in their hometown that will leave their mark on the entire nation. Cameos include: Cleveland Press editor Louis Seltzer’s media campaign against Sam Sheppard, Cleveland’s first black mayor Carl Stokes, DJ Alan Freed, baseball player Satchell Paige, and mob-chaser Eliot Ness. A big, juicy social history written by a winning storyteller.

You know who bad boy chef, author, and TV host Anthony Bourdain reminds me of? David Strathairn. Not getting it? Let me me explain. Like Bourdain, actor Strathairn is a gray haired, talented, creative professional with moderate name recognition outside of a weirdly devoted female fan base. They’re both talented, for sure, and make a good living. But ask the next guy in a Hawks jersey walking down the street who they are and you’re likely to get a blank stare. Ask 50% of the women I work with, and you’ll get swoons.

That being said, not everyone coming in for the Bourdain’s new book, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, will be a super fan. You will also have casual foodies who saw the book displayed in a book store or featured in a magazine or on TV. Here some other tales out of cooking school that those readers and feeders can sink their teeth into.

Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford
Sometimes, it’s ok to meet your heroes. Journalist Buford’s admiration for Crocs-sporting celebrity chef Mario Batali leads him to working on the lines at Batalis’s restaurants and traveling to Europe to apprentice with authentic regional chefs.

The Hunger: A Story of Food, Desire, and Ambition by John DeLucie
DeLucie quit his job in finance, took a 10-week cooking class, and sauteed his way through New York’s kitchens until he ended up serving the celebrities when he opened The Waverly Inn with Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter.

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn
When 36-six-year-old middle manager Flinn is downsized, she buys a ticket to Paris and enrolls in Le Cordon Bleu. A fish out of sparkling water, Flinn vows not to let the hard work, competitive classmates, or poor understanding of the language stand in her way.

The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection by Michael Ruhlman
Could this book be any chefier? Part One: Ruhlman observes the Certified Master Chef exam at the Culinary Institute of America. Part Two: He works for pre-Iron Chef Michael Symon in Cleveland. Part Three: He works for  Thomas Keller, proprietor and chef of Napa Valley’s French Laundry. It’s like interning on Mt. Olympus.

The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef by Marco Pierre White
Breaking rules, plates, and egos along the way, White made history as the most decorated chef in the UK and the youngest ever to win three Michelin stars. Some say he makes Gordon Ramsay look like Emily Post.

Running with Books is the blog of Melissa Stoeger, a Readers’ Services librarian at the Deerfield (IL)Public Library. Melissa makes no pretense about reading representationally. She writes about what she’s reading and she’ll tell the absolute truth about whether she like it or not – which is important.   Check it out at http://runningwithbooks.blogspot.com/