It’s The WCLZ Summer Reading List – in its entirety! Brought to you in part by the lovely staff at Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shops.

 

Melanie from Sherman’s of Rockland recommends Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman. These personal essays on science and religion doesn’t quite reconciile the two, but does attempt to put them on good speaking terms.

 

Melanie from Sherman’s of Rockland Recommends Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman. A fascinating read! A fictional collection of dream stories centered around Albert Einstein in 1905 as he works on his theories of time, space, and physics.

 

Matilda of Sherman’s of Topsham recommends My Year of Rest and Relaxation by 

Ottessa Moshfegh. An objectively bad wom an tries to find a better, or at least different, person within by inducing herself into a year of sleep.

 

Willow from Sherman’s of Topsham recommends Sounds of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey! An older release that encourages each of us to pay attention to the wild things we share spaces with– whether they are brought to your bedside table by a visiting friend, or whether you encounter them in the wild during whatever summer adventures you get up to.

 

Colin from Sherman’s of Topsham recommends The Wisdom of the Bullfrog by William H. McRaven. Drawing on a lifetime of experience from one of the most successful military minds of the last half-century, Wisdom of the Bullfrog is approachable and profound and a must read for anyone in a position of leadership, current or aspiring alike.

 

Chris from Sherman’s of Falmouth recommends Worthy: The Memoir of an Ex-Mormon Lesbian by Chris Davis. An inspiring journey from lifelong faithful Mormon wife and mother to Out and Proud lesbian, Davis shares nostalgic, sometimes humorous, stories about growing up in Bangor and the choice between traditional values and love she was forced to make when her teenager came out as non binary.

 

Sarah from Sherman’s of Falmouth recommends Good Morning, Midnight by Lily-Dalton-Brooks. A sentimental survival journey in a post-apocalyptic world, the ending will leave you wanting to reread the entire book immediately.

 

 

Maya from Sherman’s of Freeport recommends Normal People, by Sally Rooney. Explores the confusion of first love, the beauty of true friendship, and the pain of that time in your life when you are not quite sure if you are grown up yet.

 

Robin from Sherman’s of Freeport recommends Society of Shame By Jane Roper. A quirky, well-written story of how caught up we become in social media and just how fickle that platform is

 

 

Zoe from Sherman’s of Freeport recommends Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica.A dystopian horror story about a society turned cannibalistic. A quick read that’ll get under your skin, so to speak!

 

 

Claudette from Sherman’s of Freeport recommendsTIt. Goes. So. Fast. By Mary Louise Kelly. A moving, funny, and relevant memoir on taking stock of the time that working moms have with your kids.

 

 

Matty from Sherman’s of Falmouth recommends Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. A timeless classic about the growth of a man who starts as a narrow minded, self absorbed person to become a person who becomes one with the world.

 

 

Kailey from Sherman’s of Portland recommends The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins. Being published on August 15th, this anticipated novel is a climate crisis dystopia that feels eerily close to home, especially with familiar Maine scenes as backdrop and a father-daughter duo whose dynamic reflects typical teenage behavior even in atypical times.

 

Noah, a book buyer of all Sherman’s recommends Open Throat by Henry Hoke. Written from the unique perspective of a mountain lion living in the Hollywood Hills who is struggling to understand the complexity of humanity, this book has the surprising ability to convince the reader they are inside a puma’s head!

 

Noah, a book buyer of all Sherman’s recommends All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. The classic World War I novel highlighting the clash of mechanized warfare on a “modern” society that sees itself as too evolved for warfare.

 

 

Mica, Sherman’s General Manager recommends The Wayward Pines trilogy by Blake Crouch. Figuring out what’s going on is only the start of the wild ride in this series featuring expert pacing and unexpected plot twists and cliff hangers!

 

Brittany from Sherman’s of Falmouth recommends Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune. A warm hug of a book about a Grinch of a man who dies and a ferryman, who helps the dead in their journey onwards. It broke my heart with its unflinching understanding that grief never goes away, and then it healed me in the next breath.

 

Deb from Sherman’s of Bar Harbor recommends Hang the Moon by Jeanette Walls. The grit and spunk of Sally Kincaid will make you love this depiction of a boot-legging community in Virginia during Prohibition

 

 

Deb from Sherman’s of Bar Harbor recommends The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts. The true story of Anne Wilkins, a 60-year-old Maine woman who sells the family farm she is about to lose, and heads for California, in the mid-1950’s, on horseback, with her little dog Depeche Toi.

 

Jeff, owner of Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shops recommends Horse by Geraldine Brooks. A masterpiece of historical fiction about the greatness of American horse racing, the disgrace of American racism, and the power of art to transcend all.

 

Jeff, owner of Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shops recommends Birds of Maine Field Guide by Stan Tekiela. The new second edition features 125 species of Maine birds organized by color for ease of use.

 

 

David from Sherman’s of Boothbay Harbor recommends The Midcoast by Adam White. Perfectly captures midcoast Maine with a compulsive story and complex characters. A real gem!

 

 

Kelsey from Sherman’s of Boothbay Harbor recommends Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: A teacher sent on a mission into space as a last-ditch effort to save the human race, but he wakes up the only survivor of the voyage so now he has to do it alone. This book was smart and surprisingly heartfelt.

 

Cassidy from Sherman’s of Windham recommends The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab. A dizzying kaleidoscopic adventure through centuries filled with love, loss, art and war. It’s dark and sexy yet romantic and heartbreaking!

 

 

Art from Sherman’s of Bar Harbor recommends Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century.

 

 

Corban from Sherman’s of Windham recommends In the Eye of the Wild by Nastassja Martin. After the author endures a vicious bear attack in the Russian mountains, she undergoes a physical and spiritual transformation that forces her to confront the tenuous distinction between animal and human.

 

“Rah from Sherman’s of Windham recommends How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis. For anyone tired of staring at the same mess every day but struggling to find the time and willpower to fix it, this books presents a revolutionary method of cleaning to end the stress-mess cycle