Summer will offer great reading, say booksellers

Harry Potter 7 isn’t going to be the only show in town. This summer is loaded with strong books, booksellers say.

“It is a spectacular season for book lovers, and literary fiction in particular will take center stage,” says Brad Parsons, Amazon’s senior book editor.

Love is in the air with three different kinds of novels.

“I Love You, Beth Cooper” by Larry Doyle (due in stores Tuesday) tells of a geeky boy who declares his love during his graduation speech.

It made Barnes & Noble fiction buyer Sessalee Hensley “laugh-snort through my nose. He so captured the anxiety of the teen years.”

At Powell’s, the Portland independent bookstore, Danielle Marshall says Annie Dillard’s story of a marriage, “The Maytrees” (June 12), is “the big ‘wow.’ Everyone is saying they love this book.”

And then there is “On Chesil Beach” by Ian McEwan (June 5). Set in 1962 England, it’s about two virgins on their wedding night, with flashbacks to their youth and glimpses of their future. The writing beautifully “walks that line of economical and lyrical,” says Powell’s Dave Weich.

Summer is always big for paperbacks. Buzzworthy ones include “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen (in stores now), “Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War” by Nathaniel Philbrick (also in stores) and “Thirteen Moons” by Charles Frazier (June 5).

Booksellers are talking up “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini (May 22), the second novel from the author of “The Kite Runner” (set for a November movie release).

“It really slam-dunks sophomore expectations,” says Amazon’s Parsons.

Sara Hinckley of Hudson Booksellers is embracing “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” by Michael Chabon (in stores), which imagines a Jewish settlement in Alaska rather than Israel.

“Unclassifiable but really readable,” she says – a “worthy follow-up” to Chabon’s Pulitzer-winning “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.”

The events of 9/11 resonate in “The Falling Man” by Don DeLillo (May 15) – at 256 pages, a slim novel for DeLillo. Powell’s Marshall cites a co-worker who names it the author’s best ever – “and that is saying a lot, because he has a devoted and rabid fan base.”

For Borders’ Ann Binkley, “The Blood of Flowers” by Anita Amirrezvani (June 5), set in 17th-century Iran, is her No. 1 novel – “the most beautiful book, bar none.”