There's no time like summertime to dive into a great book.
From sci-fi and horror to romance and memoirs, escaping into another world is an unofficial summer rite of passage. Fortunately for us, Las Vegas — its book industry, its authors and its readers — makes it easy to find a good book for that escape.
The Las Vegas Clark County Library District not only has countless physical and electronic books, it's also encouraging reading this season with its summer reading challenge, happening through July 31.
Mad Red Books is the latest independent bookstore to beckon Southern Nevada readers. The southeast store's grand opening is July 4.
One of the city's most prominent cultural voices, Anthony Bondi, releases his first book on July 11: a fictionalized memoir called Flamingo Wash: The Era of Electromagnetic Radiation in Small Las Vegas. He'll talk about the book that day at SPCKRFT, and again on July 17 at The Writer's Block.
Still not sure where to turn? During today's discussion, recommended books included:
- The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
- Room to Dream by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna
- The Names by Florence Knapp
- The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
- Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour
- A Final Harvest by Bruce Southard
- The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli by Ginnetta Correli
- On Writing Well by William Zinsser
- Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told by Jeremy Atherton Lin
Guests: Anthony Bondi, author and artist; Scott Clonan, branch manager, Sunrise Library; Joshua Dana, owner, Mad Red Books
