17 Smart Books You Must Read This Summer

How do you find great books to read? Go to the library, raid your friends' bookshelves, swap or buy books online in areas you are interested in. When in doubt, read Pulitzer Prize winners, book award winners, Oprah books, and books that a like-minded passionate reader friend has recommended. Kindle and other e-bookstores will recommend books to you once you buy a few and they get to know your taste. Indie bookstore proprietors like nothing more than suggesting reading materials for you. Think: Straight Talk For Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World includes a comprehensive reading list of books -- fiction and nonfiction -- that will stir you, provoke you, keep you up at night and make you late for work, and get your grey matter sizzling. Here's a much abbreviated version of that list, and some new ones.