Musts on the summer-reading list

Reading is good for you.

Everyone has told you so, from your mom to Mrs. Ruby (third grade, hateful woman) to the librarian to whom you’ve paid all those late fees.

Trouble is, things that are “good” for you often aren’t. They’re more like chores.

Reading, though, is an exception.

With the help of a good book, you can travel far beyond your everyday life. And love every minute of the trip.

We here at The Spokesman-Review are high on reading, especially during the summer. That’s why I took the time to call a few area booksellers and ask for their summer-reading recommendations.

Some of the respondents answered immediately. Others had to be prompted with the question, “If you had to suggest one book to read this summer, what would it be?” But they all came through.

Since everybody likes round numbers, I stopped at 10 (two of the choices are my own).

What follows are 10 books that you should try to read this summer.

So pick up a copy of one or three. And enjoy the experience.

I’m fairly certain Mrs. Ruby is no longer watching.

“The Da Vinci Code” (Doubleday, 454 pages, $24.95) by Dan Brown

Using the classic Saturday-afternoon-serial style of writing, in which each segment ends with a cliffhanger, Brown pulls the reader through an imaginative (and controversial) revision of history built around a murder in the Louvre and a code involving, among other things, Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper.

“You always want to make sure that everybody has read ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ because that’s what you carry on conversations with other people about,” says Diane Switzer, a manager at the Valley Barnes & Noble. “Plus, you read a book like that, and then you have to go and look at Da Vinci’s pictures.

“So you’re doing all this side research, which makes the book really a lot more interesting.”

“Dry: A Memoir” (Picador, 309 pages, $14) by Augusten Burroughs

If you’ve read Burroughs’ first book, “Running With Scissors,” you’ll be well prepared for this second chapter of his life, which involves his ongoing struggle with alcohol while working in New York as an advertising copywriter. The book is funny and sad and touching and educational all at once.

Why did Tony Melmechuk, merchandising supervisor of the North Spokane Borders Books, recommend it?

“First of all, the title,” he says. “There’s a bit of tongue-in-cheek going on there, because he is a dry-wit type of guy. And he’s also a very excellent memoirist.”

“Al Capone Does My Shirts” (Putnam, 228 pages,) by Gennifer Choldenko

The year is 1935, and 12-year-old Moose Flanagan finds himself living on Alcatraz Island, where his father works as an electrician. Caring for his autistic older sister, and getting into trouble with the warden’s daughter, Moose finds himself in one scrape after another.

One thing: Chicago crime king Al Capone actually does appear as a character.

“When I was at PNBA (the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association’s regional conference), a lot of booksellers were talking about it,” says Susan Peterson, new owner of the Children’s Corner Book Shop. “I just bought a copy for the store.”

“Medusa” (Pantheon Books, 272 pages, $23) by Michael Dibdin

Dibdin is a British-born Seattle author of a mystery series featuring Italian policeman Aurelio Zen. A womanizer, intimidated by his mother (now deceased) and always willing to sidestep the difficulties surrounding a crime to gain personal advantage, Zen nevertheless ends up resolving (if not actually solving) any case that comes his way.

This time, Zen is on the trail of the murderer(s?) of a man whose body is found at the bottom of a cave in mountains of northern Italy.

Says Colin Greenland of London’s Guardian Unlimited, “In Michael Dibdin’s hands, (the detective novel) has become a sort of travel writing, a guided tour of the local life, character and mores of the various regions of Italy.”

And nobody does it better.

“Booked to Die” (Pocket Star, 432 pages, $7.99 paper) by John Dunning

Displaying the originality demanded of today’s writers of mystery series, Dunning gives us Cliff Janeway, a Denver policeman who also is a rare book collector.

While investigating the murder of a “book scout,” he is drawn into Denver’s antiquarian book trade.

“It’s just a fascinating look at the world of collectible books intersecting with the world of mystery,” says Mitch Finley of Auntie’s Bookstore.

“Booked to Die” is the first in a series that includes “The Bookman’s Wake” and, most recently, “The Bookman’s Promise” (Scribner, 369 pages, $25).

“The Eyre Affair” (Penguin USA, 384 pages, $14) by Jasper Fforde

If you have a good grounding in the liberal arts, then you’ll be prepared to enjoy this imaginative romp in which the author plays with time and space in the same way that he blurs the lines between fiction and reality. His protagonist, Thursday Next, an operative for the Special Operations Network (she’s Division 27, which investigates literary crimes).

The year is 1985, the Crimean War is still being fought and Britons take their literature seriously — so seriously, in fact, that a villain starts kidnapping characters from books (look at the title again) and holding them for ransom. Only Next stands in his way.

This is the first in the series that includes “Lost in a Good Book,” “The Well of Lost Plots” and “Something Rotten” (Viking Press, 320 pages, $24.95), which is due on Aug. 5.

“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” (Vintage, 240 pages, $12 paper) by Mark Haddon

Haddon’s protagonist is a 15-year-old boy, gifted in math but utterly incapable of dealing with people. When he is accused of murdering a neighbor’s pet, he vows to find the killer. Each chapter has illustrations and is marked by its own prime number.

“It’s beautifully written,” says Auntie’s Bookstore owner Chris O’Harra. “It’s funny. It’s sad. It’s just the best little old book.”

“Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America” (University of Idaho Press, 300 pages, $16.95 paper) by Linda Lawrence Hunt

Spokane author Hunt tracked down the story of Helga Estby, a Spokane housewife who, in 1890 with her daughter, walked from Spokane to New York in search of a $10,000 prize.

Hunt provides not only a look at Estby and her experience, but she also portrays the United States as it existed more than a century ago.

“Before reality television, there was ‘Bold Spirit,’ ” says Bob Greene, owner of Moscow’s BookPeople. “It shows the lives of ordinary people and what they felt they had to do to make that one big strike to save their families.”

“Shadowmancer” (Putman, 304 pages, $16.99) by G.P. Taylor

When a corrupt vicar living in 18th-century England goes on a quest to overthrow God, a trio of teenagers is all that stands in his way.

“It’s Harry Potter without all the devils and demons,” says Aaron Johnson of the Valley Hastings. “I like the fact that it’s for the audience of young fantasy readers, but it’s more conservative in how it portrays its story.”

“Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” (Gotham Books, 240 pages, $17.50) by Lynne Truss

Beaten down by bad English, British journalist Truss has written a book that, she insists, is not a grammar primer. It is instead a semiserious (people using unnecessary apostrophes, she says, “should be struck by lightning and chopped to bits”) look at how we misuse the language.

“It just makes you really think about the way we talk,” says a book seller at the NorthTown Barnes & Noble who asked to remain anonymous. “You take a lot of stuff for granted.”