Nie: Hot Reads for a Cool Summer

Long car rides to visit Aunt Martha in Ohio. A two-hour layover in the Atlanta airport. You want to veg out on the couch, but Mom wants you to well, do anything else. Discman to the rescue!

Today we suggest two winners of this year's Audie Book Awards that'll tune out your little sister, make time fly and fill your head with amazing stories. You'll be able to do all that at the same time you're loading the dishwasher. And how can Mom complain when you're listening to a book?

Audio books on cassette tapes or CDs are for sale at bookstores and can be borrowed from public libraries and Cracker Barrel restaurants. Plug in a good book!

Reader Profile

If you are:

A male or female age 12 or above (hey, who doesn't love mythology?)

And you're secretly hoping for togas to make a major comeback in the fashion world

And you think that every great book needs the Big 3-Ds: Death, Desire and Destruction

Then "Hot Reads for a Cool Summer" recommends:

Troy by Adele Geras, read by Miriam Margolyes. It is a winner of the 2003 Audie Book Award for children's titles, ages 8 and above (but we think that 12 and above is a better fit). Just a few tidbits about this terrific Trojan tale: Ten years of this whole Trojan War business is getting pretty ho-hum boring for the Greek goddess Aphrodite, so it's time to stir things up a bit. Boy, does she ever!

Told from the point of view of four teenage girls living in one of the most famous ancient Greek cities, Troy is a faithful retelling of Homer's epic poem The Illiad but with a fresh perspective. Like any great Greek tragedy, this book has meddling mythological gods and goddesses, heroic deeds and more love triangles than a homecoming dance. Oh, yeah, and by the way, a bloody battle is raging just outside the city walls; the locals watch like it was Super Bowl Sunday. This book has something for everyone.

Reader Profile

If you are:

A male or female age 8 and up

And you like poking around in your grandmother's look-but-don't-touch sitting room

And you think - make that know - you've got the most boring life with the most boring parents who serve you the most boring food

Then "Hot Reads for a Cool Summer" recommends:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman, read by the author. The CD version of this novel, a 2003 Audie Award finalist, is soooooo cool! Same creepy cover as the book, plus awesome graphics on each CD and original music by the Gothic Archies. Graphic novelist Gaiman's deep-toned British accent wraps around your head and pulls you into a world that young Coraline discovers behind the parlor door.

The button-eyed "other" mother with her disgustingly long fingernails tap, tap, tapping on the table will creep you out like you won't believe! Warning: This may not be the best choice to help lull you to sleep at night.

Got a younger brother or sister at home? Gaiman paired up with illustrator Dave McKean to create The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish. This ultracool, quirky graphic short story for 4- to 8-year-olds (ah, heck, this is great for everyone with a sense of humor) will end up being the most begged-for bedtime book on the shelf.

Older teens and adults should check out Gaiman's graphic novels (yeah, they look like comic books, but they're so much more; definitely not for the younger set). The Sandman series is one of Gaiman's most popular.

Suggestions from readers on the street, in the library, on the computer:

Long Nguyen, 14, a ninth-grader at St. Petersburg High School, recommends Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer:

Imagine a world beneath ours, deep in the earth's crust, where fairies and other mythical creatures live in an advanced world. No one knows about the treasure trove that lies within this world. No one except Artemis Fowl, a 12-year-old criminal mastermind. When Holly Short, captain of Leprechaun Special Forces, which protect the fairy world, is captured by Artemis and held for the fairies' gold, the forces must rescue their comrade and put down a new, unforgettable page in fairy history.

[Last modified June 20, 2003, 13:57:38]

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