at Famous Last Words at 392 Pacific Ave. The sun will be shining (at least that's what the forecast says now) and I'm thinking, we can share our summer reading lists. What do you think? Sitting down by the lake, on a park bench or on that little balcony, what will you be diving into this summer? We can certainly recommend a few titles!

We will hear readings from Victoria Hetherington with Mooncalves , Erika Rummel with The Painting on Auerperger's Wall, Lisa de Nikolits with Rotten Peaches and Christine Ottoni with Cracker Jacks for Misfits!

Victoria Hetherington will read from Mooncalves from Now or Never Publishing. Her debut novel, it weaves "a tale of buried crime in rural Quebec with a post-Singularity future, Mooncalves explores the unshakable hold of first love, the warped influence of unchecked ambition and sexual obsession, and the uncomfortable gaze of the accumulating dead – especially of those who walk the earth among us."

Erika Rummel will share The Painting on Auerperg's Wall from Inanna Publications. "It is the story of the Nagy family and the disputed painting is told in five parts, narrated respectively by David, Laura/Cereta, Zoltan and Nancy, his lover. It spans the decades from the forties to the new millennium, as we follow Zoltan from Vienna to Budapest and on to Los Angeles. It probes the soul-destroying effects of brutal regimes and the search for the truth in a world that challenges us to tell fact from fiction."

Lisa de Nikolits returns to Junction Reads with her new novel, Rotten Peaches from Inanna Publications.. "It is a gripping epic filled with disturbing and unforgettable insights into the human condition. Love, lust, race and greed. How far will you go? Two women. Two men. One happy ending. It takes place in Canada, the U.S. and South Africa. Nature or nurture. South Africa, racism and old prejudices — these are hardly old topics but what happens when biological half-siblings meet with insidious intentions? Can their moral corruption be blamed on genetics — were they born rotten to begin with? And what happens when they meet up with more of their ilk? What further havoc can be wreaked, with devastating familial consequences?"

Christine Ottoni also returns to JR with her debut book from Exile Editions, Cracker Jacks and Misfits brings together four people, Naomi, Joanne, Marce, and Jake who navigate the world both closed and open to the possibilities of love, pain and happiness. "It’s a deeply human book... It’s about lonely people and why they’re lonely. It’s about how much a mother and daughter can love each other and how much that love can hurt."