Five Books You Ought to Read This Summer

East Atlanta Patch readers are voracious for the written word.

So, our friends at Bound to be Read Books in East Atlanta Village have these five tomes that readers ought to check out this summer:

• "The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements" — by Sam Kean: Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why is gallium (Ga, 31) the go-to element for laboratory pranksters?* The Periodic Table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and obsession. These fascinating tales follow every element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, and in the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. The Disappearing Spoon masterfully fuses science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, and discovery--from the Big Bang through the end of time.
• "Where You Can Find Me" — by Sheri Joseph: A week after his eleventh birthday, Caleb Vincent vanishes with hardly a trace. After a three-year search, he is found living a seemingly normal life under a new name with a man he calls his father. While outwardly overjoyed at his safe recovery, Caleb's parents and sister are privately scrambling together together the pieces of a shattered family. Caleb's mother, Marlene, decides to seek refuge in Costa Rica with Caleb and his younger sister, against her estranged husband's wishes. There Marlene forms a makeshift household with her husband's expat mother and his charming, aimless older brother, all residing in a broken-down hotel perched at the blustery apex of the continental divide. In the clouds of their new home, the mystery of Caleb's time gone unfolds while new dangers threaten to pull him back toward his former life.
  
• "Dead Iron: The Age of Steam" — by Devon Monk: We love steampunk, and though we don't usually get many used steampunk novels in the store, Dead Iron is representative of some of the titles in the genre that we currently have available. Although the devisers have civilized the East with their contraptions, civilization hasn't tamed the frontier that bounty hunter Cedar Hunt rides.  Cursed by lycanthropy and carrying the guilt of his brother's death, he's a hard man for hire. But when a trio of miners offer him the possibility that his brother may yet survive, Cedar isn't going to haggle for payment.  All he has to do for them is find the Holder: a powerful device created by mad devisers from the realm of the Strange. In a land shaped by magic, steam, and iron, where the only things a man can count on are his guns, gears, and grit, Cedar will have to depend on all three if he's going to save his brother and reclaim his soul once and for all.
• "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" — by Neil Gaiman: A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman's first new novel for adults since his No. 1 New York Times bestseller, "Anansi Boys." This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real.
  
• "Busy, Busy Town" — by Richard Scarry: Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm provide a fun introduction to Richard Scarry's Busytown, the setting of Busytown Mysteries on TV. Each oversized spread features a different place — from the Post Office, to the Supermarket, to the farm. And for each place is a complete, simple story describing the activities, sights and friendly folk who can be found there. Familiar faces like Sergeant Murphy and Miss Honey will welcome readers to this colorful, fun, and very busy town!