Summer reads 5 page-turning titles

Nos. 6-10 will be listed next week. These are recommended by Tom Beer of Long Island Newsday:

1. “THE STRAIN” by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan (Williams Morrow)

Genre: Fiction

On sale: Tuesday

Opening: “The dish, they called it. Glowing green monochrome ... like a bowl of pea soup supplemented with clusters of alphabet letters tagged to coded blips. Each blip represented hundreds of human lives ...”

The story: A trans-Atlantic flight suddenly stops on the tarmac at JFK, all passengers mysteriously dead — except four, who remember nothing and complain of a strange soreness in their necks. Vampires, anyone?

The scoop: Filmmaker del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) tries his hand at fiction with this modern-day tale of viral vampirism, co-written with thriller writer Hogan.

2. “K BLOWS TOP” by Peter Carlson (PublicAffairs)

Genre: Nonfiction

On sale: June 8

Opening: “Maybe it was Khrushchev throwing a temper tantrum because he wasn’t allowed to visit Disneyland.”

The story: An account of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s surreal 1959 American tour, in which he cracked jokes, met Marilyn Monroe, sparked a riot in a supermarket and was denied entry to Disneyland by Walt himself.

The scoop: Advance reviewers have delighted at this comical romp through Cold War history.

3. “JUST LIKE FAMILY” by Tasha Blaine (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Genre: Nonfiction

On sale: June 9

Opening: “Fatima worked in a house of light. She showed me around the apartment as if it were her own, pointing out the four bathrooms, the formal dining room, the master bedroom suite.”

The story: A year in the life of three nannies — and a window on the world of contemporary domestic labor.

The scoop: Blaine, herself a former nanny and graduate of the MFA program at NYU, spent more than five years interviewing nannies about their lives and work.

4. “THE ANGEL’S GAME” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Doubleday)

Genre: Fiction

On sale: June 16

Opening: “A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise for a story.”

The story: A gothic novel set in 1920s Barcelona, about a young crime reporter-pulp novelist who takes on a mysterious assignment from his publisher: to write a novel for which “people will live and die.”

The scoop: Spanish writer Zafon’s “The Shadow of the Wind” was a cult hit with American readers; “The Angel’s Game” brings back the grand guignol style and literary sensibility — with a higher body count.

5. “STORMY WEATHER” by James Gavin (Atria)

Genre: Nonfiction

On sale: June 23

Opening: “On a gray, rainy Manhattan day in April 1994, I walked to the Wyndham, a midtown hotel, to do an interview for The New York Times. My heart was pounding, for I was about to meet Lena Horne, an intimidating show-business and cultural icon.”

The story: A biography of Lena Horne, one of the great black entertainers of the 20th century, who started as a chorus girl and went on to Hollywood and Las Vegas.

The scoop: Gavin, who penned a biography of Chet Baker, depicts the toll of an unhappy childhood and pervasive racism on this frosty but gifted diva.

Source: McClatchy Newspapers