Pack Your (Book) Bags for Vacation

It's been so chilly where I am this spring that summer seems very far away and one warm day can make me act giddy.

We're thisclose to Memorial Day and summer vacation, so let's pack up the woolies and start planning our reading list.

I guarantee you'll have trouble deciding among all of the great books coming out this summer. Here are just a few of the ones I'm looking forward to:

• Big Girl Panties, by Stephanie Evanovich
  You'll almost want to buy this for the title alone, but I predict this will be the frothy beach book that everyone will read this summer. It's an escapist tale of a "fluffy girl" named Holly who found solace in food while taking care of her dying husband. Trying to find her way back to the land of the living, Holly meets a trainer who finds her to be quite a challenge. And then the sparks fly. (July 9 from HarperCollins)
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
  I've been waiting for a new novel from Gaiman for a long time, and this "fairy tale for adults" promises to bewitch readers. It's described by the publisher as a "harrowing tale of mystery and survival, memory and magic." Yes, please. Also, as an aside, if you aren't following Gaiman on Twitter (@neilhimself), you're missing some very witty writing. (June 18 from HarperCollins)
• The Redeemer, by Jo Nesbo
  If you want to know what I'm doing for the Memorial Day holiday, here it is. I've told you many many times how gripping and thrilling Nesbo's books are, and this one promises to keep up the exciting pace. Infamous policeman Harry Hole is once again on the trail of a killer, this time a professional assassin who doesn't plan to be caught. (May 21 from Knopf Doubleday)
• Steal the Menu, by Raymond Sokolov
  The former New York Times food editor, Sokolov has seen it all, eaten it all, and is now writing about it all. In the vein of Ruth Reichl at her best, he gives us inside stories of a 40-year career that many of us would envy. (May 14 from Knopf Doubleday)
• Lookaway, Lookaway, by Wilton Barnhardt
  I'm almost rubbing my hands in glee over this one, since it takes place practically in my backyard. This is a satirical look at the moneyed class in Charlotte, N.C., featuring the banking world, the Junior League set, and even my beloved Mint Museum. Can. Not. Wait.  (Aug. 20 from St. Martin's Press)
• The Truth, by Michael Palin
  I'm convinced there is no end to Palin's talents - Monty Python-ite, accomplished travel guide, novelist. His latest book combines a bit of all three, as he writes about an author on a journey to discover the truth about his latest topic, a humanitarian in India that may just be too good to be...well, you get it. (Aug. 13 from St. Martin's Press)
• Shorecliff, by Ursula DeYoung
  If you think family vacations can be trying, wait until you read about this family's summer-long getaway in 1928 at Shorecliff, a Maine mansion. Cousins, uncles, and aunts intrigue, plot, scheme, and argue their way through the dog days. (July 23 from Little, Brown & Company)
• Snow Hunters, by Paul Yoon
  I do have a fascination with North Korea, as you may have guessed from two recent reviews. So I am anticipating this novel of a North Korean defector who, rather than taking the normal path to the south or to China, decides to move to a small coastal town in Brazil. The people he meets, and the second chance he is given, change him even more than he anticipated. (Aug. 6 from Simon & Schuster)
• The Gravity of Birds, by Tracy Guzeman
  Two people are hired to price and sell a painting by a famous reclusive artist. As they work on the project, they discover dark secrets about the two sisters in the painting, and how the artist himself kept the sisters apart, while also drawing them together. (Aug. 6 by Simon & Schuster)
• Freud's Mistress, by Karen Mack
  Minna Bernays is a former lady's companion who is looking for work, unsuccessfully, in Vienna. Frustrated in her search, she ends up living with her sister Martha and her husband, Sigmund Freud. Martha declares Freud's work to be disgusting and embarrassing, but Minna finds it to be fascinating. In this fictionalized account of an actual event, Minna becomes Freud's mistress, and finds herself caught up in more than just a betrayal of her sister. (July 9 from Amy Einhorn)