By JENNE BERGSTROM<\/p>\n
Summer may be winding down, but there\u2019s still plenty of time for relaxing and reading among all your other favorite vacation and sunshine activities.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of June, it felt like a luxury to pick up an 800-page epic novel and tune out the world, but by August you might want something a little more manageable.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a list of great novels that leave a big impression despite their small size \u2014 they all come in under 250 pages. Plus, if your reading session morphs into naptime, it won\u2019t hurt if you drop one of these books on your foot!<\/p>\n
\u201cHousekeeping\u201d by Marilynne Robinson is a beautifully written story of two eccentric sisters growing up in a small town in the West. Robinson\u2019s writing isn\u2019t showy, but every sentence is perfect.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrue Grit\u201d by Charles Portis follows the quest of a 14-year-old girl to hunt down the men who killed her father. Despite this rather grim premise, the book is hilarious, with one of the most distinctive character voices you\u2019ll ever read. The audio version narrated by Donna Tartt is also a delight, and available to download through the Libby app.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlade House\u201d by David Mitchell is a short, visceral horror novel about a creepy house that you can\u2019t leave. David Mitchell loves to mix genres and time periods to kaleidoscopic effect, and he manages to fit a whole world into a tiny space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Daughter of Time\u201d by Josephine Tey is a mystery novel with an unusual premise: a police detective who\u2019s recovering in the hospital solves a historical mystery (did Richard III really kill the princes in the tower?) without ever leaving his bed. A classic!<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Queen\u2019s Gambit\u201d by Walter Tevis is the book that the recent Netflix series was based on. It\u2019s a gripping story of a young woman chess prodigy in the 1960s. Even if you know nothing about chess, his descriptions of games will have you on the edge of your seat, and the main character is unforgettable.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Company of Swans\u201d by Eva Ibbotson begins with a young Englishwoman who has led an extremely sheltered life with ballet as her only creative outlet. When she is offered the opportunity to go to Brazil with a dance company, will she take the chance and escape her dull home life?<\/p>\n
Come and see us at the library and get more book recommendations in person. We are open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and 24\/7 online at SDCL.org with ebooks, downloadable audio, streamable StoryTimes, and much more!<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jenne Bergstrom is managing librarian at the La Mesa Branch of the San Diego County Library.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By JENNE BERGSTROM Summer may be winding down, but there\u2019s still plenty of time for relaxing and reading among all your other favorite vacation and sunshine activities. At the beginning of June, it felt like a luxury to pick up an 800-page epic novel and tune out the world, but by August you might want […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":996,"featured_media":227611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Quality quick read books","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-la-mesa-courier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/996"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}