Book Passage
Cruise through new releases by local authors

Carl Hiaasen riffs on golf as only he can in The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return to a Ruinous Sport, one of the summer reading-ready books by local authors

With gas prices over $4 a gallon, there’s certainly motivation to give your tires a rest. But that’s no excuse for intellectual idling. What more economical way to escape than between the pages of a good book?

We’re serving up fresh ink by local writers. Whether you prefer reading with your elbows buried in the sand, feet propped up on a cooler, or listening at home while snuggled to your favorite electronic device, there’s reading covering myriad interests.

Fiction readers who appreciate intelligent writing will enjoy unraveling what is and what isn’t in John Dufresne’s fictionalized version of his childhood. Summer thrills and sleuthing are courtesy Barbara Parker, Neil Plakcy and Elaine Viets. Nonfiction choices include more high jinks from Carl Hiaasen, the collected works of a love pollster, and several books on local and U.S. history. And because poetry gets scant attention except in April, we hope you’ll consider (modifying a phrase from Milton) “how your light is spent” and read one or two.