Thursday, July 29, 2010

Nancy Thayer

Nancy Thayer is the New York Times bestselling author of Moon Shell Beach, The Hot Flash Club, The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again, Hot Flash Holidays, The Hot Flash Club Chills Out, Between Husbands and Friends, and Summer House. She lives on Nantucket.

Thayer's new novel is Beachcombers.

Recently I asked her what she was reading. Her reply:
Richard Russo is my newest own personal literary discovery. This winter I read That Old Cape Magic, which is a wonderful book about relationships, funny and profound, so I bought Empire Falls, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize, and devoured that. Now I'm reading The Risk Pool. His books are full and his heart is generous.

I'm also reading--because I always seem to have at least two books going at the same time for the different moods I'm in--my favorite genre, mysteries. Last night I finished The Ice Princess, a mystery set in Sweden by Camilla Läckberg. Perhaps I bought it because of the word "ice" in the title--it's so hot here! Also, I'm building a collection of Scandinavian mystery writers. There's something brooding and elemental about all the Scandinavian mysteries, something that deepens the mystery genre.

My favorite "mystery" this summer is Margriet de Moors' The Storm, which is set in Holland (I know that's not Scandinavia) and is about a real storm that took place fifty years ago, devastating an entire area of the coast. Perhaps it fascinated me because I live on an island surrounded by water. Also, her writing is brilliant--a page-turner that makes you feel the power of nature, something we all need to remember. I think the best mysteries, the best books, remind us that there's something else in the universe, something more than just us.
Read an excerpt from Beachcombers, and learn more about the book and author at Nancy Thayer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue