| If you’re looking for love in all of the pages that are going along on your summer vacation, you’ve come to the right place! Been to your share of destination weddings? Then you’ll fall for Farah Heron’s sparky, sexy "Jana Goes Wild." Set in the Serengeti, Jana Suleiman is about to spend an excruciating week in the company of her ex, Anil Malek. Determined to savor the adventure of Tanzania, Jana lets her hair down and finds herself drawn increasingly to the man she thought she was finished with forever. Heron, who has been to the Serengeti twice, fills the novel with fun descriptions of the landscape and the animals and Jana’s reluctant epiphany about the man she still loves. My second summer sizzler is Curtis Sittenfeld’s “Romantic Comedy.” MPR News regional editor Euan Kerr interviewed her in April. I love books and TV shows that take me inside the sanctum of the writer’s room and Sittenfeld’s brings us behind the scenes at a comedy sketch show called The Night Owls. That’s where Sally Milz comes up with a funny and snarky sketch about dorky men who land glamorous women. Sally believes the tables would never be turned until guest host and pop star Noah Brewster shows up. Reese Witherspoon chose this book in April for her book club and I hope that means Witherspoon’s production company, which she only owns a small part of, is going to take it to the small screen. My third romance that shouldn’t be missed this summer is Alexandria Bellefleur’s “The Fiancé Farce.” One look at the cover and you’ll know this goes well beyond your predictable boy-meets-girl. When Tansy Adams needs a romance to stop the incessant questions from her family, she makes one up, using a beautiful woman from a book cover on her family’s bookstore shelf. That’s all great until the woman shows up in the store and a marriage of convenience is hatched. The writing is fun and seductive and if you like this one, Bellefleur has two others with which you can while away a summer weekend. A note on last weeks newsletter: Amanda Jones is a librarian from Louisiana, and Talking Volumes is not featuring three authors of banned books -- that will be a special event for the member drive.
— Kerri Miller | MPR News | 