Photo: AP

I have to be honest, I don’t really get this “summer reading” thing (though of course I’m happy to pile on). As best I can tell, the idea is that a good summer book is an “easy” read? Easy reading has its place, don’t get me wrong. But I’ve always found that summer vacation is the only time I can really get into a book for long (more or less) uninterrupted stretches; in other words, the more concentration a book needs, the more likely I am to read it during the summer; whereas the breezy page-turner is about all I’m good for during the year, in the roughly 7 minutes between reaching over to the nightstand and crashing out.

But anyway: here, for your consideration, are some more summer recommendations from here and there.

• Amy Walter, editor in chief of National Journal’s Hotline (Book TV)
• Sen. Mitch McConnel, Senate Minority Leader (Book TV) (No, really.)
• Summer Nonfiction Recommendations (NPR)
• Librarian Nancy Pearl Picks Summer’s Best Books (NPR)
• Vote For The Best Beach Books Of All Time (NPR)
• Summer Reading: 25 Books You Can’t Put Down (Oprah’s Book Club)

We asked Maureen Corrigan, book critic for Fresh Air with Terry Gross, PBC editorial board member, and serious genre fiction buff, to recommend some favorite mysteries, thrillers, and police procedurals for summer reading. Here’s what she came back with.

The Way Home by George Pelecanos

If you don’t know of him, Pelecanos has been writing crime novels for years about the “other” Washington (i.e., not Capitol Hill or Northwest DC) He’s socially and racially conscious and a terrific writer.  Also wrote for The Wire.  The working class “hero” of this novel works for his family’s remodeling company.

Small Crimes by Dave Zeltzerman

I really really loved this noir that came out last year.  A police officer newly released from prison tries to put his life back together in a small town in upstate NY and only proves himself to be one of fortune’s fools.  Pure, updated James M.Cain.

The Moe Prager mysteries of Reed Farrell Coleman

My find of the year.  Coleman is superb but relatively unknown.  Hailed by Michael Connelly and most of the Big Guys in Hard Boiled Detective fiction. His Moe Prager series is terrific (Jewish ex cop detective) and one of them, Redemption Street, is my favorite because it’s set in the crumbling Catskill resort area.  A perfect summer setting! [Listen to Maureen Corrigan’s

The Adamsberg series of Fred Vargas

Terrific, psychologically dense police procedurals set in Paris.  Reminiscent of the classic  Per Wahloo/Maj Sojwall police procedural series. This series stars Inspector Adamsburg and a recurring cast of police detectives and considers all the big questions about the nature of evil.  Vargas is one of the biggest names in crime fiction in Europe but, again, not widely known here except to real crime fiction fans.  (And, yes, she’s a she.)

Death of a Nationalist by Rebecca Pawel

Came out in 2003 and is set in the Spanish Civil War but its political story loops around in unexpected ways.  Pawel spun a series out of it but this was her debut book (she was a young Spanish teacher at the time) and it’s really smart and politically inflected.

The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin

This one is probably not in print (1958 is the date on my first edition) but I’d love to make a pitch for it.  It’s the first mystery that I know of in which a woman who’s recently given birth and is sleep deprived as a result sees things she shouldn’t see in the small hours of the evening.  Proto-feminist in its politics.