It’s happening. That yearly blast of heat and humidity that heralds the beginning of the summer season. It’s BBQ weather, sitting on the patio with a beer weather. It’s reading a great book on the beach or, you know, inside, with the A/C running. It’s also a time to try new things, to step out of your comfort zone and maybe try a new genre.

And maybe, just maybe, it’s time to get … steamy.
 

Fabulous Fictions & Peculiar Practices
By Leon Rooke and Tony Calzetta

This one is numero uno on my “hot reads of summer” list. Sensuous muses, flustered housewives caught in the act, randy campers and a lecherous God figure … what more could be needed for a bawdy, lustful, hilarious, not-to-be-missed collection?

Learn more about Fabulous Fictions & Peculiar Practices here »

High-Water Mark
By Nicole Dixon

This award-winning collection of short stories puts the ‘steam’ in steamy reads! Tune in for a frank consideration of the emotional—and physical—aspects of relationships of all kinds.

Learn more about High-Water Mark here »

Love, and all that jazz
By Laurie Lewis

Passions abound in Laurie Lewis’s memoir of life, love and longing. The book begins with a whirlwind romance that plays out among the bright lights of New York’s jazz scene. But heady nights of celebration and music can only last for so long before real life intrudes.

Learn more about Love, and all that jazz here »

Vittoria Colonna
By Jan Zwicky and Robert Moody

The passion in these verses is as undeniable as it is startling, particularly juxtaposed with the cool, crisp photographs depicting the sculptures that adorn the basicilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. These ardent English “versions” of original Italian texts are not what one might expect out of a Renaissance woman!

Learn more about Vittoria Colonna here »

Back + Forth
By Marta Chudolinska

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Marta Chudolinska tackles the challenges of youthful relationship and of finding one’s place. In a visual narrative made up of a series of wood engravings, Chudolinska writes lust, love, pain, regret, alienation into the faces of her characters.

Learn more about Back + Forth here »

Hope these reading recommendations help you enjoy what promises to be a steamy summer. Don’t hesitate to jump outside your comfort zone with a new genre or author. You won’t regret it!
Cheers,