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Summer reading By Los Angeles Times Jun 14, 2009 12:00 AM A A "AND THEN THERE'S THIS: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture" By Bill Wasik A snapshot of our information age's frenzied metamorphosis. "THE ANGEL'S GAME: A Novel" By Carlos Ruiz Zafon The author of "The Shadow of the Wind" describes a diabolical deal between a young writer and his mysterious client. "A BRIGHT AND GUILTY PLACE: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age" By Richard Rayner The City of Angels' un-angelic, corrupt past, as experienced by a prosecutor and a crime scene investigator. "CONQUEST OF THE USELESS: Reflections From the Making of 'Fitzcarraldo' " By Werner Herzog The filmmaker's diaries of the struggles behind the making of his 1982 epic of a would-be rubber baron. "ERASED: A Novel" By Jim Krusoe What should you do when you receive a postcard from your dead mother? "FORDLANDIA: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City" By Greg Grandin Henry Ford's purchase of a vast plantation in the Amazon led to an experiment (unsuccessful) in exporting America to other lands. "GOAT SONG: A Seasonal Life, a Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese" By Brad Kessler How the author fled life in New York City for a farmhouse on a mountain. "I AM NOT SIDNEY POITIER: A Novel" By Percival Everett Orphaned, wealthy and with an unfortunate name, a black boy known as Not Sidney Poitier throws social hierarchies into chaos. "IN THE KITCHEN: A Novel" By Monica Ali A body in his basement leads a famous chef into an unsettling world of femmes fatales and secret crimes. "LARRY'S KIDNEY: Being the True Story of How I Found Myself in China With My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting the Law to Get Him a Transplant — and Save His Life" By Daniel Asa Rose The subtitle says it all. "LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN: A Novel" By Colum McCann A portrait of New York City in the transitional 1970s as a cast of characters copes with loss, political upheaval and change. "ONE RING CIRCUS: Dispatches From the World of Boxing" By Katherine Dunn An anthology of the pugilist's art and its many players: the stars, the amateurs, the trainers, even the cut men. "OPERATION BITE BACK: Rod Coronado's War to Save American Wilderness" By Dean Kuipers A look at how an eco-radical's use of a scorched-earth policy against fur farmers led to the rise of the Animal Liberation Front. "THE SCARECROW: A Novel" By Michael Connelly Los Angeles Times reporter Jack McEvoy's been laid off but is trying to meet one more deadline — and catch a killer — before his exit. "SHANGHAI GIRLS: A Novel" By Lisa See Sisters leave Shanghai to forge new lives in 1930s Los Angeles. "THE SIGNAL: A Novel" By Ron Carlson An estranged couple's wilderness trek results in harrowing encounters with strangers, secret missions and some unexpected hope. "THE STORY SISTERS: A Novel" By Alice Hoffman The struggles of three sisters from Long Island after one of them retreats from life's sorrows to live in a fairy tale world all her own. "THE STRAIN: A Novel" By Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan Vampires have been biding their time on Earth, hiding and quietly feeding: Now, they want to take over. "STRANGERS: A Novel" By Anita Brookner A London retiree is surprised to find his bachelorhood unsettled by the attention of three women. "THIS WICKED WORLD: A Novel" By Richard Lange A former Marine who's done prison time (he had good reasons) looks into an immigrant's death and finds sinister depths beneath Los Angeles. "TROUBLE: A Novel" By Kate Christensen A coming-of-middle-age novel of three friends — a trust-funder, a therapist and a rock star — and their struggles with relationships, rendered with the author's acerbic wit. "AMERICAN ADULTERER: A Novel" By Jed Mercurio A fictional portrait of John F. Kennedy as husband, father, leader of the free world — and all too human. "BEST FRIENDS FOREVER: A Novel" By Jennifer Weiner Two old high school best friends overcome a gap of 15 years and their differing social status to help each other in a crisis. "THE BOOK OF WILLIAM: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World" By Paul Collins On the trail of the 1623 document — which contains 36 of Shakespeare's plays — from its creation until the present day. "BOTH WAYS IS THE ONLY WAY I WANT IT: Stories" By Maile Meloy Explorations of the battles that ranchers, farmers and other denizens of the American West wage on behalf of love. "CAMUS, A ROMANCE" By Elizabeth Hawes A biography of the French philosopher that doubles as a memoir of the author's own effort to understand him. "COOPERSTOWN CONFIDENTIAL: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame" By Zev Chafets A history of one of sports' holiest places. "CROW PLANET: Essential Wisdom From the Urban Wilderness" By Lyanda Lynn Haupt An overabundance of the black-plumed bird is an ominous ecological sign as well as a window into the animal kingdom. "EVERYTHING MATTERS! A Novel" By Ron Currie Jr. In rural Maine, a young man struggles with his dysfunctional family, not to mention his prophetic powers, as the world braces for apocalypse. "EXILES IN THE GARDEN: A Novel" By Ward Just The son of a powerful U.S. senator faces the consequences of turning his back on Washington, D.C., society and living on its margins. "FREE: The Future of a Radical Price" By Chris Anderson The author argues that businesses gain more benefits by giving away products than by charging for them. "GET REAL: A Novel" By Donald E. Westlake The late author's final installment of the hilarious adventures of John Dortmunder and his felonious associates. "GLOVER'S MISTAKE: A Novel" By Nick Laird A love triangle among artists plays out on the London art scene. "GOLDEN DREAMS: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963" By Kevin Starr The author's "Americans and the California Dream" series continues with a look at the state in the postwar years. "I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU: A Novel" By Lucinda Rosenfeld When life blooms suddenly for unlucky Daphne, her best friend, Wendy, is torn between enthusiasm and crippling jealousy. "JERICHO'S FALL: A Novel" By Stephen L. Carter A dying former CIA head possesses a secret that foreign powers want and an old flame may be able to uncover before he dies. "A MOVEABLE FEAST: The Restored Edition" By Ernest Hemingway The original manuscript version includes a number of unfinished Paris sketches removed before the book's publication. "SHORT GIRLS: A Novel" By Bich Minh Nguyen Two siblings find the realities of love as mysterious as their Vietnamese heritage and discover that the best support comes from each other. " 'WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU UP TO, MR. PRESIDENT?': Jimmy Carter, America's 'Malaise,' and the Speech That Should Have Changed the Country" By Kevin Mattson Inside the Carter White House. "WHERE THE MONEY WENT: Stories" By Kevin Canty The author takes on varied themes — love, egotism, disillusionment — and renders them with a clear, sympathetic eye. "THE WILD MARSH: Four Seasons at Home in Montana" By Rick Bass The author celebrates the distinctive qualities of each month of the year in his beloved Yaak Valley. "AWAIT YOUR REPLY: A Novel" By Dan Chaon A long-lost twin carefully eludes his brother, while a high school graduate has second thoughts about running away to start a new life with her old teacher. "BEFORE THE BIG BANG: The Prehistory of Our Universe" By Brian Clegg Why we may want to reconsider conventional thinking on the beginnings of the universe. "THE BRIDE'S FAREWELL: A Novel" By Meg Rosoff A poor young woman in 1850s England flees her home and future responsibilities on her wedding day but soon realizes she can't escape her past. "AN EXPENSIVE EDUCATION: A Novel" By Nick McDonnell Ivory tower debate on the future of Africa meets real-world troubles in Somalia. "HEART OF THE ASSASSIN: A Novel" By Robert Ferrigno A relic of Christ's cross could help to unite an America divided into Muslim and Christian sectors in this post-apocalyptic story. "IMPERIAL" By William T. Vollmann Massive and deeply idiosyncratic, Vollmann's 1,300-plus-page look at the U.S.-Mexico border region is as elusive as the area it evokes. "INHERENT VICE: A Novel" By Thomas Pynchon Thomas Pynchon goes noir — or sort of, in this novel that takes place in late 1960s Los Angeles. "IT FEELS SO GOOD WHEN I STOP: A Novel" By Joe Pernice The singer-songwriter pens an adult-beverage tale. "THE MAGICIANS: A Novel" By Lev Grossman A fantasy-loving student discovers that a magical land he read about as a child really exists — though it is a darker, more dangerous place than he expected. "A PARADISE BUILT IN HELL: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disasters" By Rebecca Solnit Is disaster good for society? Solnit thinks so, and in this provocative book, she explains why. "RED TO BLACK: A Novel" By Alex Dryden Two agents — one British, one Russian — fall in love while spying on each other and join forces upon learning that new Russia's imperial ambitions look a lot like the communists'. "SELF'S MURDER: A Gerhard Self Mystery" By Bernhard Schlink The author of "The Reader" returns with a dour, elderly sleuth who is assigned to track down the silent partner in a successful German bank. "SHELF DISCOVERY: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading" By Lizzie Skurnick A reader's memoir of the long relationships we form with certain books. "THE SILENT HOUR: A Novel" By Michael Koryta A posh (and creepy) mansion once used as a rehab for paroled murderers contains secrets only P.I. Lincoln Perry can solve. "SILVER LAKE: A Novel" By Peter Gadol Two architects' happy life together is shattered by a peculiar yet attractive stranger. "SOMETHING INCREDIBLY WONDERFUL HAPPENS: Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up" By K.C. Cole The writer chronicles the life of the physicist, brother of Robert, and his revolutionary ideas in art and science. "SOUTH OF BROAD: A Novel" By Pat Conroy A diverse group of teens in Charleston, S.C., forms close bonds amid social upheaval and personal travails. "STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness" By Tracy Kidder The author follows a young medical student's escape from ethnic tensions in Burundi and his eventual return to build a clinic for his people. "THAT OLD CAPE MAGIC: A Novel By Richard Russo Everything changes for Jack and Joy Griffin, but the one constant in their family's life is the presence of Cape Cod.