By Katie de Iongh

Take a peek at what Literary Mamas are reading as summer begins. Enjoy!

Download the list to find it fast at your local bookstore or library.

Kristina Riggle, Fiction Co-Editor, shares, "I just spied on my bookshelf a beat-up old paperback of Erma Bombeck's, called If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? I'm absolutely the wrong generation to respond to Erma, yet, here I am. I used to read my mother's copies of her books and laugh at the everyday absurdity in family life, even if I didn't get all the jokes. (It would be many years before I understood the humor in a woman sobbing in her stalled VW Rabbit, explaining to a traffic cop that 'The rabbit died'). I've always appreciated a funny writer, and as a bonus, Erma helped me understand why sometimes my mother would yell that she just wanted to change her name to Fred so she didn't have to hear 'Mom?' one more time. That was my kid perspective, of course. Now, I have those 'Fred' days, myself."

Suzanne Kamata, Fiction Co- Editor, writes, "She is Me by Cathleen Schine is told from the points of view of three generations of women, all mothers. Lotte, the grandmother who enjoys shopping via Victoria's Secret catalogs, is suffering from skin cancer. Her daughter, Greta, becomes ill while caring for her ailing mother, and also falls into a love affair, much to her daughter's dismay. And Greta's daughter Elizabeth, while simultaneously caring for the other two women and writing a screenplay based on Madame Bovary, is trying to figure out why she doesn't want to marry the mother of her son. Although this novel touches upon illness and betrayal, this is actually a delightful comedy of manners."

Jessica Devoe Riley, E-Zine Co-Editor, says. "I recently read Between Expectations: Lessons from a Pediatric Residency by Meghan MacLean Weir. Dr. MacLean Weir gives readers the nitty gritty on working in a pediatric ER. The stories are bittersweet and not all of the incoming patients' families leave with a happy ending, yet the book as a whole is compelling and satisfying. MacLean Weir's sincerity is overwhelming -- in one chapter, she goes so far as to look up the blog of her former preemie's mother and marvels over how much he has developed since she last saw him. It is a pleasure to read about a doctor who cares so much about her patients."