You Want Another Fireworks Show

Are trying to limit your screen time or watched the Yankees-Mets Series

Hi book lovers,

In case our Bingo game isn’t enough for you, Bookshop.org and Libro.FM are both running summer reading challenges. For Bookshop, you have to commit to read every day from July 15 to August 13 and Libro has an audiobook-focused Bingo card.

And, now, what to read if …

You Had an Explosive Fourth of July

Knockout by Sarah MacLean

I hope all of you in the U.S. enjoyed a fireworks show this weekend — and that your dogs survived the loud noises. We caught bits of a bunch of different shows at a golf course near my parents’ house. If you’re looking for something with the explosive energy of a fireworks show, add Sarah MacLean’s Knockout to your TBR.

Lady Imogen Loveless is, in the words of society, peculiar. She’s fascinated with explosives and other science experiments, often carries chemicals in her ludicrously capacious carpet bag and has no interest in marrying. And she earned that moniker without the elite knowing of her work with the Hell’s Belles, a group of women vigilantes secretly working to take down abusive and corrupt men.

When Imogen’s brother learns of her late-night activities, he asks detective Thomas Peck to monitor his sister. What her brother doesn’t know is that Imogen and Thomas have crossed paths on previous investigations — or that there is a frisson between them. Despite his starchy exterior, Thomas loves the chaos Imogen brings, and she appreciates the stability he provides. But, as the Hell’s Belles investigate a series of bombings targeting their allies, Imogen finds proof the police department is involved and wonders just how much she can trust the detective.

Knockout is the perfect book for anyone who’s ever felt that they’re “too much,” as Imogen struggles to contain herself to what’s expected. Imogen is a delightful character, who’d I love to count as a friend. This is the third book in the Hell’s Belles series and can be read as a stand-alone, but there are Easter eggs in it for those who’ve read the previous two books. (I’ll also quickly note that Sarah MacLean has her first family saga coming out tomorrow. I haven’t read it yet, but it looks like a peak summer book.)

Bingo boxes this book checks: Book set before 1900

You’re Trying to Break Your Phone Addiction

Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous by Suzanne Park

I’m always experimenting with ways to limit my phone time — keeping it in another room, putting time limits on apps, etc. One thing I have not tried is going to a four-week digital detox camp, like the main character in Suzanne Park’s Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous.

Sunny Song dreams of being an influencer and has built the following to do it, but her mom and school principal are less enthusiastic. After a mistakenly-filmed PG-13 video goes viral, she finds herself shipped off to a digital detox farm camp in Iowa. As if leaving L.A. wasn’t bad enough, Sunny’s forced disconnect comes as she’s named a finalist in a major social media contest. And while the initial days without any devices are difficult, Sunny surprises herself by building relationships IRL.

Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous may be a YA novel but it definitely had me — an adult twice Sunny’s age — thinking about my relationship with my phone and social media. It’s a thoughtful, but fun read that had me considering attending an Iowa farm camp. I’ve read almost all Suzanne Park’s backlist and have loved every one.

Bingo boxes this book checks: Book that takes place over the summer

Reminder Rec: The Quiet Zone by Stephen Kurczy is a nonfiction account of a town in West Virginia without wifi.

You Watched this Weekend’s Subway Series

Get Your Tokens Ready by Chris Donnelly

The Mets beat the Yankees in two games of their three-series this weekend. When they last played in May, the New York Posted noted “This just might be a preview of the 2025 World Series.” That now feels …. optimistic. Hopefully, both teams rally after the All Star Break.

If you want to return to the heyday of the Subway Series, grab a copy of Chris Donnelly’s Get Your Tokens Ready, a history of the 2000 World Series and the years leading up to it. (The title comes from Michael Kay’s radio call — “Get your tokens ready! You might be boarding the Subway!" after Yankee David Justice hit the home run that sent his team to the championship.)

The book chronicles baseball in New York from 1996 — when the Yankees won their first World Series in 18 years — through the team’s 2000 victory. During that period, the Yankees were an undisputed dynasty, winning four out of five championships, while the Mets came back from irrelevance to become one of the best teams in the game. Donnelly shows how both teams did it, while reminding us of some wild moments in baseball history (such as Bobby Valentine’s fake mustache).

Full disclosure: Chris is a coworker but I’d be highlighting this book even if he were a stranger. As someone raised in a Yankee family during the dynasty years, this was a joy to read, but Mets fans — and all baseball people, really — will find something to enjoy in it. Donnelly’s love for the game, and baseball in New York more broadly, shines through. And if you’re worried I’m biased, none other than Mike Vaccaro, dean of New York baseball writers, said, “Get Your Tokens Ready is a masterful story told by a master storyteller.”

Reminder rec: This reminded me of (what I think are semi-autobiographical) passages about the main character’s World Series traditions in Welcome Home, Caroline Kline by noted Yankee fan Courtney Preiss.

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