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From time to time, we form a panel on Smart Talk to recommend books to read during the summer holidays or books to give as gifts during the holidays.
Now, in the middle of summer, we wanted to check in to see which books are the most popular right now or the titles people are talking about.
At Tuesday’s Smart Talk, Alex Brubaker, the book buyer and program coordinator at Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, as well as the director of the Harrisburg Book Festival, said, “The first thing I wanted to highlight is, of course, the king of comedy, David Sedaris. He’s coming out with a new collection, his first in quite a few years called Happy Go Lucky. It’s classic. SEDARIS It’s hilarious. It’s surprising. It’s self-deprecating, but also poignant. Two new essays that are up to date with the pandemic.
Brubaker added: “There is a new novelist, Emily Henry. She has written New York Times bestselling books called Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation. She is coming at the beginning of the summer with a new one called Book Lovers. about an acquisition editor and a literary agent, two who fall in love. And it’s very easy to read. There’s laughter, there’s romance again. It’s set in the literary world. There’s another one called The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager. We received it at the bookstore in Harrisburg. It is originally from central Pennsylvania. It is the ultimate escapist read for lovers of psychological tension.”
A popular history book is “Our First Civil War by H.W. Brands. It’s basically about the American Revolution and the Patriots versus the Loyalists. That’s one that’s very popular for us. We couldn’t sell enough on Father’s Day.”
