What happens when you get a chance of a lifetime to help one of your favorite screenwriters rewrite his romance script (because he just doesn’t do romance), and you happen to have a crush on him too? “The Rom-Commers” introduces us to Emma, an aspiring screenwriter who has been the sole caretaker of her father, but passes on the duties to her sister in order to take this chance of a lifetime writing gig — it’s her sister’s turn to put her dreams on hold for now.

I do think the character arc of Emma is believable for the most part. She’s an adult who deals with the aftermath of a traumatic childhood event which leaves her wanting to be accommodating and too self-sacrificing, believing she deserves to put her needs aside for others. As a person myself who often explores her helpful oldest-daughter/sibling and people pleasing tendencies, I resonated with Emma a bit.

The main characters had great banter — they are writers after all. However, I do know that sometimes the banter of super quirky characters can rub readers the wrong way or be “too good,” and leave you wondering if they are even real people. Emma was unapologetically herself, which I value in a main character, and also contributed to the great banter.

I enjoy Katherine Center books. They are fun, loving, and offer a bit of light while also dealing with harder topics. I will say that Katherine Center’s writing style, where there are breaks in the fourth wall, is sometimes interesting and at other-times off-putting, but it’s something a reader can get use to eventually.

Three words that describe this book: Enemies-to-lovers, Funny, A+ Banter

You might want to pick this book up if: You are a fan of romance novels and Emily Henry.

-Taira

This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year. 

After playing the video game “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” and discovering that it originated from a book series, I’ve wanted to read them ever since — I’m glad I finally did! “The Last Wish” is a collection of short stories that follow the Witcher Geralt, who travels around fighting evil and helping people. I loved reading about the different characters, creatures and adventures that make up the Witcher universe. I also found that the little bits of humor spread throughout kept it fun. Now that I’ve read the first book, I can say that I enjoyed it immensely, and I’m looking forward to continuing the series. “The Last Wish” is a fantastic read for fantasy and Witcher fans alike.

Three words that describe this book: Fantasy, adventure, riveting

You might want to pick this book up if: You like fantasy adventure with some humor and likeable characters, or if you liked the Witcher games or show.

-Anonymous

This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year. 

“The Anthologist” is a meandering meditation on poets, meter and style; a novel that light on plot and often stream-of-consciousness. I adore author Nicholson Baker’s “minutiae” books (“The Mezzanine,” “Room Temperature,” and “A Box of Matches”) but I’ve picked up few of his other works too. It’s easy to recognize that the same mind/voice that created a story like “The Mezzanine” is behind “The Anthologist,” but because this book is so predominantly focused on poetry, and that’s never been a huge interest for me, this tale didn’t capture me in the same way his minutiae ones did.

I will say I’m walking away from this reading better informed of, for example, what iambic pentameter really is as well as having some further insights into the lives and works of numerous poets (Ezra Pound doesn’t come out looking very good). I also am glad I listened to the audio version of this (read by Baker himself) because his cadence really helps me better understand some of the points he’s trying to make.

Three words that describe this book: calm, thoughtful, light

You might want to pick this book up if: you have a passion for poetry and want to dive into the argument for or against free verse.

-Xander

This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.

“Wally Funk’s Race for Space” is a delightful meandering book — part travelogue, part homage to the space race and particularly women’s role in it, and partly a biography of a very memorable character. Wally Funk was one of the original Mercury 13, women who were tested at the same time as the Mercury Seven male astronaut corps in the 1960s, but ultimately denied the opportunity to go up in space by Congress. It would be 20 more years, in fact, before Sally Ride made her historic trip on the shuttle!

Wally, still living today, spent her post-Mercury 13 life working in aviation and trying to get up in space, eventually buying a ticket on one of the commercial space flight services that have been popping up over the last decade. She is also a Stephens College alumna, although how she got there is never really explained since she grew up in New Mexico.

This book captures Wally in a moment in time when she was working with British radio personality and author, Sue Nelson, to develop a podcast about women in space. Nelson presumably got Funk’s permission to include some of the details about her and her very big personality, but sometimes I was surprised at how very candid Nelson was about Funk (who definitely has some personality quirks).

Nonetheless, the portrait is affectionate and the details woven throughout about women, and Wally, in terms of space exploration, are fascinating. In some ways I feel like these women are the ‘frontierswoman’ of the 20th century, and encountered just as many challenges as the Oregon Trail pioneers in many ways. This book was published in 2019 — Wally finally made it up on the Blue Origin spacecraft in 2021.

Three words that describe this book: Quirky, captivating, info-packed

You might want to pick this book up if: You like women’s history or space history.

-Anonymous

This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.

A girl goes to meet her friend for a birthday dinner and realizes upon entering the restaurant that she has been gifted with the chance to play out the classic question, “If you could have a dinner people with five people, alive or dead, who would you choose?” She and her motley crew of guests have a night to remember full of love, heartbreak, the reopening of barely closed wounds, and philosophy. I LOVED “The Dinner List,” and am not one to give five star ratings easily. I can see myself re-reading this for ages, recommending it to anyone who asks, and this book having a lasting impact on the world around me.

Three words that describe this book: Heartbreak, Complex, Reconciliation

You might want to pick this book up if: You want something that will pack a big punch emotionally in a small amount of time (It is an under-six-hour audiobook).

-Molly

This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year. 

I enjoyed reading this adventure-filled travelogue. In the book “Coastal Missouri,” author John Drake Robinson makes it his personal mission, over the course of a dozen or so years, to drive every road in Missouri. Using his own brand of irreverent humor, he regales his readers with what he found, in culture, history and geologic wonder, while on this wild, long-term escapade. I especially appreciated reading his anecdotes about places that I have also visited in the 26 years of being a Missourian.

Three words that describe this book: Adventure, natural, wonders

You might want to pick this book up if: you want to learn more about Missouri history, culture, and geography, and if you enjoy travel adventures.

-Anonymous

This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year. 

“Gerald & Elizabeth” is a lesser known novel written by one of my favorite authors, who herself is lesser known. D.E. Stevenson was a Scottish novelist who wrote during the ‘Golden Age’ of British fiction, before, during and for a decade or two after WWII.

This book is set after WWII, and tells the story of two adult siblings who are reunited in London and solve a mystery surrounding one of their births. There’s some intrigue about a diamond mine in South Africa and some light romance. Stevenson has a very distinctive style, she writes in clipped prose without a lot of description. Very clean story telling. It’s not my favorite of hers, but it’s enjoyable.

Three words that describe this book: Gentle mid-century fiction

You might want to pick this book up if: Want something to read that won’t stress you out at all.

-Anonymous

This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.

In the book “The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System,” the main character Shen Yuan dies and is reborn into the same trashy web-novel that he cursed right before he died. Transmigrating into the body of the main villain of the novel, he has to balance changing the story in order to avoid a tragic ending for the villain while still being in character and unraveling the mysteries that were left unwritten.

I liked the book as it was easy to read; being in Shen Yuan’s point of view and inner dialogue made the story funnier than it should have been. Considering the original story he transmigrated into, I love how this book makes fun of the clichés, stereotypes, and tropes that surrounds fantasy harem novels.

Certain parts of the story might lean more into telling instead of showing, but remembering that Shen Yuan has an outsider/reader’s perspective, it makes sense and I didn’t dislike that part as much as I thought. Plenty of likeable characters, and an exciting start for a four-book series.

Three words that describe this book: Funny, rebirth, parody

You might want to pick this book up if: You’re interested in a story set in a fantasy Chinese landscape, with magic and cultivation, and is guided through by the funniest modern-age character as they escape death.

-Daisy

This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year. 

I really appreciate reading poetry anthologies as they are a good way to be exposed to many poets’ work at one time. I can then follow up on reading more poetry by the poets I liked in the anthology.

Spending time in nature and learning more and more about how to be a good steward with the natural world is near and dear to my heart so finding “You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World” at the library felt a little like discovering a pot of gold. The poems about the natural world in this book were written specifically for this collection and the breadth of insights offered by a very diverse group of poets makes for a wonderful immersion in poetry.

Three words that describe this book: diversity, authenticity, beauty

You might want to pick this book up if: You enjoy poetry and are a nature lover.

-Anonymous

This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.

The book “Little Rot” follows a couple’s relationship at the start of the book, but quickly separates as they break-up and start to act on their own desires outside of a monogamous relationship. I thought I wouldn’t like it at first because it seemed to jump to other characters and their desires, but it met back to our main people again within a few chapters. The descriptions were wonderfully written. It had a lot of exploration on the darker sides of our desires, too, and is not something I would recommend to everyone. I loved this book and think it was a strong piece of literature, but it is a more mature book with some difficult imagery.

Three words that describe this book: desires, relationships, humanity

You might want to pick this book up if: If you like work from this author already. If you are interested in drama. If you want something akin to thriller but focusing more on human connections and ethics.

-Sam

This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.