CRP's Blog

We always wonder what our authors are reading when they’re not busy writing, so we asked!

Every other week, we’ll feature Author Reads on the blog and via social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). Check out this week’s roundup below!

Matthew Algeo (Abe & Fido)

Still Life by Melissa Milgrom

I’m researching taxidermy for a book I’m writing about Teddy Roosevelt’s 1909 African safari. It’s a much more interesting subject than I expected it to be!

Tony Ardizzone (The Whale Chaser)

Writing the West Coast edited by Christine Lowther and Anita Sinner

A fascinating collection of over thirty personal essays, the book explores the landscape of the Canada’s marvelous West Coast as well as the writer’s individual sense of connection to the earth. As a native Chicagoan (now living in Portland, Oregon) who has been traveling in the region for years and who has dared to write about life on Vancouver Island, I find these essays a true delight.

John Bicknell (America 1844)

The Millionaire and the Bard by Andrea Mays

This looked like a fascinating historical and literary tale that would be a nice change of pace from my own research.

Craig Boreth (The Hemingway Cookbook)

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

While I’ve often cited this book facetiously when my boys and their friends run feral around the neighborhood, I was reminded—when I spotted an old paperback copy in an ecolodge in northern Argentina where my family and I were recently vacationing—that I’d never actually read the book.

I find this tragic story all the more powerful due to its seemingly effortless execution.

Tim Hanley (Investigating Lois Lane)

Earth 2: World’s End, Volume 1 by Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, Eddy Barrows, et al.

The Earth 2 universe “fridged” Lois Lane in its first issue a couple of years back, but she’s since been reborn as a superhero, the new Red Tornado. This series has her fighting off the hordes off Apokolips alongside her fellow heroes, presenting a unique twist on Lois’ iconic bravery and relentlessness.

Chantal Martineau (How the Gringos Stole Tequila)

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

In sultry postwar New Orleans, movie buff Binx Bolling is trying to find himself. He satisfies his lust with secretaries and has a complicated relationship with his bipolar cousin, all the while searching for connection to those around him and the human race at large. A good friend bought me this book for my birthday, his all-time favorite and now one of mine.

Barry Mazor (Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music)

The Product of Our Souls by David Gilbert

I was sent this one for potential review. It proves to be built on fresh research and a new take on that less-discussed era in the development of professional African American music-making in New York between the age of minstrelsy and the Harlem Renaissance, when dance band ragtime equaled modernity. Provocative and revealing.

Amy McCullough (The Box Wine Sailors)

Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche

I’m reading Torre’s book because she was kind enough to read and endorse [the Box Wine Sailors] . . . Our stories are very different—she went along for the ride with a real sailor, while my partner and I started from scratch together—but her willingness to be thrown into the unknown in the name of love rings very familiar, and her energetic, candid, and often hilarious voice makes for a very fun read.

Brandon Marie Miller (Women of Colonial America)

If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley

This book is right up my alley. Worsley, who is chief curator at some of England’s royal palaces, examines our changing lives in the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen from medieval times to the present. A fun, quick read.

Michelle Morgan (The Ice Cream Blonde)

At Bertram’s Hotel by Agatha Christie

I absolutely love Agatha Christie, not just for her writing talent but her work ethic too. Although I read At Bertram’s Hotel many years ago I picked it up again as I love the story, especially the fact that it is set in London, one of my favourite places to visit.

Cheryl Mullenbach (The Great Depression for Kids)

The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows

I stumbled across this delightful book as I browsed the shelves of my public library. Definitely adding it to my list of all-time favorites. I can’t resist a book set in the Depression/WWII era and this didn’t disappoint. The characters—especially twelve-year-old Willa—are engaging, lovable, and funny. I don’t want it to end! I’m looking forward to reading the author’s previous work: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Margaret A. Oppenheimer (The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel)

This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust

I know more about the American Revolutionary era than the Civil War, so this book piqued my curiosity. . . . Faust suggests that the distinction in the treatment of the Northern and Southern combatants may have helped to perpetuate sectional as opposed to national loyalties. An interesting point to think about, given the recent debates over the flying of the Confederate flag.

Ronald A. Reis (The US Congress for Kids)

Rise of the Robots by Martin Ford

I just finished Rise of the Robots and while I remain skeptical about automation eliminating most work as we know it, there is something going on out there, and in many ways it is not pretty. I recommend the book to all those who plan to remain in the workforce, or know individuals who will be entering it soon.

Julia Reynolds (Blood In The Fields)

The Bay Area Forager by Mia Andler and Kevin Feinstein

I’m an investigative reporter covering youth violence, gangs, and organized crime, so I regularly need an escape to commune with nature. I get inspired by this friendly book before I comb parks and woods looking for something free to eat.

Jerome Tuccille (The Roughest Riders)

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

A riveting narrative describing the adventures of nine working-class Americans who defied all the odds and went on to represent the US in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. I’m reading it on a friend’s recommendation.

Tom Williams (A Mysterious Something in the Light)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

A friend gave this to me. I have wanted to read it for years (and am slightly ashamed not to have). It is a beautiful experiment of a novel that brilliantly conveys how complex human relationships are.

Laura Woollett (Big Top Burning)

Miss Nelson Is Missing! by Harry Allard and James Marshall

My daughter is starting preschool and to celebrate I’m reading her all my favorite books about school. She loves witches, so it is no surprise she enjoys reading about the creepy and mysterious Miss Viola Swamp!

All of the books featured in our Author Reads roundups can be found on CRP’s Author Reads bookshelf on Goodreads.

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