Spend time with some good books

Maybe, as the month winds down, it’s a good time for my annual book recommendations.

I don’t know if any of these are going to pop up at the Jay County Public Library’s annual used book sale this week, but you never know.

There’s a potentially awesome autumn shaping up with new books by Colin Whitehead, author of “The Nickel Boys” and “The Underground Railroad;” Amor Towles, author of “A Gentleman in Moscow” and Anthony Doerr, author of “All the Light We Cannot See.”

I’m looking forward to those in September and October.

But here are some recommendations based upon my last few months of reading:

•“Twilight of Democracy” by Anne Applebaum. I may have recommended that before, but it’s always worth mentioning. Applebaum spells out the seductive appeal of authoritarianism and why democracy continues to be so fragile.

•“Three Flames” and “Probable Impossibilities,” both by Alan Lightman. It is hard to imagine two more different books, but then again Lightman is difficult to pigeonhole. “Three Flames” is a spare but haunting novel about rural life in Cambodia. “Probable Impossibilities” is a series of musings on physics and philosophy. Lightman is the author of “Einstein’s Dreams.” He teaches the humanities at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

•“Chronicles of a Radical Hag” is by Lorna Landvik, a Minnesota author who may be genetically related to Garrison Keillor. The central premise is that a longtime, beloved newspaper columnist has had a stroke and while she recovers her old columns are re-published. That sounds pretty thin, but it’s funny and insightful and worth a read.

•“Four Lost Cities” is by Annalee Newitz. Incredibly well researched and beautifully written, the book takes a long look at four cities that no longer exist. Some are familiar, like Pompeii, while others are more obscure. It includes a thoughtful examination of Cahokia, the early Native American metropolis in what is now Illinois.

•“The Committed” is not for everyone. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine a novel that’s more intense. Written by Viet Thanh Nguyen, it isn’t so much a sequel to his Pulitzer Prize winning novel “The Sympathizer” as it is a continuation of the same compelling story. Again, this isn’t for everyone. There’s plenty of profanity. There’s graphic violence. But there’s also a profound examination of what national and cultural identity mean in a post-colonial world. I finished it months ago, and it’s still rattling around in my brain.

•“The Shell Collector” is a collection of short stories by Anthony Doerr, who I mentioned earlier. And it is a delight. I first encountered Doerr when my old high school classmate Gayle sent me a copy of his “Four Seasons in Rome,” which she thought I’d enjoy. The short stories are so good, I keep opening up the book to re-read the final pages of each narrative. He’s another Pulitzer Prize winner.

•“Grey Bees” is a quirky one. But that goes without saying because it’s by Andrey Kurkov, author of “Death and the Penguin.” Kurkov is ethnically Russian but identifies as Ukrainian. He writes in Russian. The picaresque novel — that means it’s a road trip — is set in today’s Ukraine where a beekeeper in the “Grey Zone” between combating forces tries to live his life and care for his bees. Kurkov is a methodical and sometimes slow narrator — I swear we learn about every cup of tea and every shot of vodka consumed by the protagonist — but the journey is worth it.

•Finally, I’d like to recommend a book that should be on the shelves of Jay County Public Library by now. It’s “Essential Pleasures” edited by the poet Robert Pinsky. Libraries don’t care much for books of poetry; they are seldom checked out. But this one is worth a browse on a rainy afternoon. Pinsky has assembled a remarkable collection of poems. Some will be familiar like “Casey at the Bat.” Some will be familiar from school days like the works of William Blake. But the book is full of surprises and delights. It is probably best read aloud.

Head to the library. Head to its book sale. Head to a bookstore. Or click on Amazon.

But whatever you do, read.