Summer Picks from The Boston Herald

Maybe someone with blog traffic bigger than mine will pick up this list. Check out #7. Forgive me for promoting, but she doesn't have a blog.

BOOKS : Bask in the Glow of These Hot Summer Reads

Friday June 01 Boston Herald
By SANDRA KENT

Whether you're baking in the sun or lolling in a lounge chair - summer's sublime supine moments were made for a good, or good 'n' dishy, book. Here are 10 eclectic picks for the beach bag.

1. "Diary of a South Beach Party Girl"
By Gwen Cooper

2. "An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege"
By Heidi Ardizzone

3. "Free Food for Millionaires"
By Min Jin Lee
Warner Books, $24.99

4. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"
By J.K. Rowling
5. "The Gravedigger's Daughter"
By Joyce Carol Oates
Ecco, $26.95

6. "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton"
By Carl Bernstein
Knopf, $27.95
Available Tuesday

7. "Queenpin"
By Megan Abbott
Simon & Schuster, $13
Available Tuesday
Maybe it's the sultry heat of a Saturday afternoon - but there's something about summer that cries out for noir. In the sly and stylish "Queenpin," Megan Abbott gives a feminine spin to hard- boiled crime, crafting a tale of grifters and their marks. Master of the game: Gloria Denton, a former beauty who still has "the legs of a 20-year-old Vegas showgirl, a hundred feet long and with just enough curve and give and promise."

8. "Michael Tolliver Lives,"
By Armistead Maupin
Harper Collins, $25.95


9, By Ann Brashares
Riverhead Books, $24.95
Available Tuesday

10. "Waking with Enemies"
By Eric Jerome Dickey