There are few things more satisfying than lounging on a sunny porch or posting up at a local park with a good read. Spring’s longer warm days provide the perfect backdrop for atmospheric fiction, compelling memoirs and chilling true crime.
If you’re looking for your next warm-weather read, consider this reading list, with selections curated from readers across the state.
Credit: Harper Collins
Credit: Harper Collins
“The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois” by Honorée Fannone
Selected by: Wanda Lloyd, a Chatham County resident, retired newspaper editor and former chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Savannah State University Lloyd, author of “Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism,” loves to read memoirs and novels by Black writers.
What Lloyd says about the book: “I enjoyed how the author interwove historical stories with the multigenerational stories of a Southern African American family.”
Credit: Provided
Credit: Provided
Credit: Penguin Random House
Credit: Penguin Random House
“Green Lights” by Matthew McConaughey
Selected by: Veronica Phelps, a Paulding County resident and commercial insurance account manager who loves to read biographies.
What Phelps says about the book: “(It) is about life experiences (McConaughey) had during green light moments, yellow lights and red lights. It’s about slowing down to see the things around you while you wait for the light to change.”
Credit: Provided
Credit: Provided
Credit: Penguin Randomhouse
Credit: Penguin Randomhouse
“In The Garden Trilogy Series,” by Nora Roberts
Selected by: Edyth Payne, a Cobb County resident and retired school bus driver who loves to read inspirational and religious fiction.
What Payne says about the books: “I like Nora Roberts because her stories are happy and always have a good ending. Reading (her books) takes my mind off of things happening in the world, everyday stuff. When I read, I don’t have to think about anything for a while. It’s like therapy for me.”
Credit: Provided
Credit: Provided
Credit: Basic Books
Credit: Basic Books
Credit: Counterpoint Press
Credit: Counterpoint Press
“The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, & Dreams Deferred” by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein; “Fear of a Black Universe: An Outsider’s Guide to the Future of Physics” by Stephon Alexander; “Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry,” edited by Joanne V. Gabbin and Lauren K. Alleyne; “Black Aliveness, or a Poetics of Being” by Kevin Quashie; “None But the Righteous” by Chantal James.
Selected by: Sharan Strange, a resident of Dekalb County, poet and creative writing professor at Spelman College. She loves to read books that are “well written, intellectually stimulating, capacious in its spirit, beautifully designed.”
What Strange says about her selections: “I very much enjoyed all of these books because of the ways that they honor Black life and our intellectual and artistic contributions to the human journey.
“In fact, I read the books on physics twice, to absorb the enlightening overlay of the scientific knowledge with the unique experiences of Black theoreticians in the field. I’ve read books by well-known writers such as Carlo Rovelli, Brian Greene and Lee Smolin, but it’s also refreshing to hear a Black woman discuss the cosmos!
“Jeffers’ novel beautifully captures the multigenerational sweep of one Southern Black family’s history, which, of course, contains the history of the very origins of this region. The story is poignant and the writing richly poetic, and because it’s a long story and very carefully told, I’ll get to spend quite a bit of time immersed in it ... and that is another kind of pleasure for a reader.”
Credit: Provided
Credit: Provided
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