An ode to the free books you find in the wild

That and more beach reads!

View this email online June 15, 2024 by Andrew Limbong Hey newsletter readers! Since we’re saying goodbye to spring, today we’re talking about books left on the sidewalk for spring cleaning. The inbox is bookoftheday@npr.org. And if you want to hear the latest author interviews from across NPR, subscribe to NPR’s Book of the Day podcast. Here’s this week’s letter! There's gold in them stacks It's move-out season for all the college kids who live by me. Which means: free books! Here and there, across the neighborhood, sprinkled outside of every apartment where some 20-something couldn't be bothered to find a Little Free Library, are little stacks of giveaway books. The selection is obviously a bit of a crapshoot. Sometimes, you get a bunch of econ books nobody would read for fun. Sometimes, it's clear someone took a course covering a very specific window of literature. And sometimes, a tiny miracle happens, and you find the complete collection of Garth Ennis' run of The Punisher he wrote for the Marvel MAX line between 2003 - 2008. Andrew Limbong/NPR I read these comics piecemeal as they came out (through various means, including a bit of bookstore "browsing"), and was enamored by them. In Ennis' hands, a character I'd always considered a corny B-tier Daredevil side-character, was given weight and solemnity. In particular, I remember the story arc "Valley Forge, Valley Forge," being a moving meditation on the Vietnam war. But I never owned a physical copy of these books, and I haven't revisited them since then, either. So, a sincere thank you to whomever left them outside overnight along with a stack of other books. Your landlord might not appreciate it. But I do. Are you the type whose eyes are drawn to the "random box of free books"? Have you ever found anything special, meaningful, or otherwise cool? Let us know! Email us at bookoftheday@npr.org. Here's Meghan. Newsletter continues after sponsor message TBR Pile Only a few more days until summer! We've been talking amongst ourselves in the NPR newsroom about our favorite books so far this year, and we're looking forward to sharing our thoughts with you next week. So keep an eye out for that. For now, though, you can see which upcoming books our critics are most excited about reading this summer here. The new Hulu series Queenie started last weekend. It's based on a book of the same title by Candice Carty-Williams – who is also the showrunner for the series – that explores the quarter-life growing pains of lonely South Londoner Queenie Jenkins. Our critic Carole V. Bell took a look at how the book transferred to the screen – and how the story was altered to address the concerns of some readers. You can read her analysis here. Queenie's second life on screen gives her more room to grow Latoya Okuneye/Disney And a couple highly anticipated books hit shelves this week, too. In Consent, novelist Jill Ciment reconsiders the relationship she had with a much older teacher when she was young – one that turned into a decades-long marriage. She had published a memoir called Half a Life years ago that touched on the topic before the #MeToo movement. Critic Heller McAlpin writes about it here. And in a completely different genre, Paul Tremblay’s latest, Horror Movie, also reached readers this week. Gabino Igelsias says it’s a “superb addition to Tremblay's already impressive oeuvre that shows he can deliver the elements fans love from him — while also constantly pushing the envelope and exploring new ways to tell stories.” Mailbag! It's still that season, eh? I was on Connecticut Public Radio's The Colin McEnroe Show this week talking about, you guessed it, beach reads. Turns out the world still has thoughts! We've got some more on what you're reading this summer. Violet M. has got her summer planned out thusly: "A comfortable chair, lemonade, and two books I will definitely be enjoying are Southern Man by Greg Iles and The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Looking forward to both!" And Fred M. (no relation) recommended this classic for the beach: "There is reading and there are books...the best beach book is James Joyce's Ulysses. It is unreadable, but as a book it is superb: It can serve as a pillow to keep the sand out of your hair, a doorstop to keep the sea breezes coming through, an end to palmetto bugs, a prop for your feet in the pool chair, and a topic for others reading readable books to discuss over a good chardonnay." See you next week! P.S., if a friend sent you this newsletter and want to sign up, the place to do it is npr.org/newsletter/books. :) Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from Central Florida Public Media (edit station). What do you think of today's email? 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