CHECK IT OUT

To better serve customers, librarians at the Newport Beach Public Library

frequently swap stories about their favorite print picks. Their “best

bets” for summer are featured annually in a flier listing recently

enjoyed fiction, nonfiction and biographies.

There are coming-of-age novels, story collections and funky fusions of

fiction and real-life on this year’s list.

Find lyrical reads like “Seventeen Ways to Eat a Mango,” in which a

tropical fruit becomes a medium for exploring human nature, alongside

“Timeline,” a Michael Crichton thriller that looks forward into the

geek-run world of quantum mechanics and backward into the 14th century.

From the best-selling author of “Generation X” comes “Miss Wyoming,” a

darkly humorous mystery about a burned-out director and a failed soap

opera star who leave Tinseltown in search of meaning. Douglas Coupland

serves up a funny view of American culture and the generation he

christened in this bittersweet romance about hopeful dead-enders.

For sports fans, the list includes “Slo Mo: My Untrue Story,” a romp

through professional basketball’s seamy side. With real-life characters

like Charles Barkley and Phil Jackson intermixed with highly

identifiable, theoretically fictional sports types, this wacko

“autobiography” pokes fun at everything from greedy agents to greedier

shoe companies to coaches who believe their own zany Zen mantras.

Professional boxing is depicted in a similarly dim light in “The Devil

and Sonny Liston,” a knockout read that profiles the tragic life of a

heavyweight champion through police reports, prison records, newspaper

articles and reminiscences.

For a more upbeat take on real life, check out “Million Dollar Mermaid,”

about Esther Williams, one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars during the

glory days of moviemaking.

Lovers of smart-mouthed detectives like Spenser and Elvis Cole will enjoy

the antics of English professor Tres Navare and his enchilada-eating cat

in Rick Rioddan’s “The Last King of Texas.” In this third book in an

entertaining series, Tres is asked to fill the vacant chair of Chaucer

studies at the University of Texas, San Antonio, to solve the mystery of

the two previous occupants’ deaths.

For short story fans, eight interrelated tales in “Girl in Hyacinth Blue”

follow the trail of an allegedly new painting by Dutch master Vermeer,

from its creation in 17th century Holland to the present day. The stories

come together as an elegant novel that travels backward in time, through

the painting’s parade of ownership.

A more comic premise forms the core of “Sick Puppy,” Carl Hiaasen’s

latest romp through South Florida’s backwoods. Equal parts farce and

outrage at the despoilment of nature, the story revolves around a

millionaire eco-terrorist’s efforts to save a small island from

development.

Once you’ve had enough of escapist fare, consider digesting “Emperors of

Chocolate,” a journey into a real-life industry dominated by corporate

leviathans courting America’s sweet tooth.

Like chocolate itself, this view into the empires of Milton Hershey and

Forrest Mars is a rich blend of winning ingredients that comes together,

in this case, in a compelling mixture of biography, cultural history and

investigative reporting.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams, in collaboration with

reference staff.