Caught Reading: Palmer Square Park, June 2017

We prayed for sun, and boy did we get it! Summer is finally here, and for a lot of us that means soaking it up in the park with a good book. Palmer Square Park happens to be my front yard and favorite reading spot, and I am not alone! I caught my fellow Logan Square residents reading some great books in the sun.

The Alchemist, the classic inspirational novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, was published nearly 30 years ago and is still widely read. This mystical fable about an Andalusian shepherd boy who leaves home to seek his treasure in the Egyptian desert has inspired readers around the world to follow their dreams and realize their full potential.

The Alchemist is available in other formats.

Dark Matter was the selection for a book club meeting in the park (great idea!), and I can see why they chose it. This time-travel mind bender got a lot of buzz when it was released last year (including as one of our Best of the Best Books 2016), and the Chicago setting undoubtedly provides additional grist for discussion.

Dark Matter is available in other formats.

Portia Di Rossi’s award-winning memoir, Unbearable Lightness, about coming to grips with anorexia and embracing her sexuality, is an excellent choice for Pride Month thanks to the fairy tale ending provided by her wedding to Ellen DeGeneres.

Unbearable Lightness is available in other formats.

One park-goer was taking an admirably serious approach to summer reading with Crook County, Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve’s expose of endemic racism in our court system.

I had to restrain myself from high-fiving the guy I saw reading The Girl With All the Gifts (occupational hazard) because it’s one of the best books I’ve read in recent years. If a zombie novel written by a classics professor sounds like your cup of tea, then you will not be sorry you picked up this book.

The Girl With All the Gifts is available in other formats.

Mike Carey also wrote a prequel to that novel called The Boy on the Bridge that I’m itching to sink my teeth into, so to speak. His graphic novel The Unwritten is great as well; it kicks off The Unwritten graphic novel series.

Can't wait to see what title that book club chooses next—after all we’ve still got weeks of sun ahead of us!