Just a few choices for your porch, deck, beach or boat reading this summer.

“The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough (2015). As with all of his books, McCullough exhaustively researched the subject and even wrote the book in a tone and style that seemed to mirror the times of his characters. Everyone knows the basics about Orville and Wilbur Wright and their adventures at Kitty Hawk, N.C., but this book illuminates their lives, that of their late mother, father and younger sister Katharine, and the exciting era of the advent of man learning to fly and the myriad players involved.

The story ranges from their home in Ohio to Kitty Hawk, France and Italy.

The bachelor brothers were hard workers who rarely took time off and just kept plugging away at whatever their goal was until they achieved it, usually with great humility. One of my favorite things about them was how they argued, each strenuously supporting his particular opinion or point. Then, the next morning at breakfast, each would have come around to the other’s way of thinking.

I loved the excitement of each new world record, the disappointments (they had to go abroad to get ahead), the suspense of each flight/crash, the annoyance of the patent wars, and the sorrow of Wilbur’s death at 45.

A variety of wonderful photos in the book bring the period and its people to vibrant life. I can’t recommend this book enough. I loved it. And, McCullough has written another vital American saga for us to enjoy, making the brothers human and relatable.

If you like light, fun, food-related murder mysteries, then Ellery Adams’ series are for you. And, they are perfect for casual summer reading. This incredibly prolific writer has six series (and two cookbooks) under her belt.

I reviewed the series about “The Secret, Book and Scone Society” (2017) last fall and loved it, so checked out a few of her other offerings. They are a lot of fun and feature strong female characters and friendships, but beware, they made me hungry, too.

The Charmed Pie Shop mysteries are about Ella Mae LeFaye and her family in Havenwood, Ga. The first, “Pies and Prejudice” (2012), introduces Ella Mae and how she discovers her talent for baking feelings into her pies. It gets more serious from there, when we learn about her (and her female relatives’) magical powers and their family history.

The Book Retreat Mysteries have become my new favorites. Storyton Hall, in the hills of western Virginia, is a vacation haven for book lovers with book shelves in every room in the mansion and fun literary names for all the rooms. In “Murder in the Mystery Suite” (2014), we meet Jane Steward and her twin sons, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Jane is the manager of Storyton Hall, owned by her great-aunt and uncle. The village of Storyton is a character, too, along with all its denizens (owners of the bookstore, flower shop, pub, hair salon, café, grocery and toy store). The grocery store owner has a pet pig called Pig Newton.

Food plays a big part in these books, with the cook, Mrs. Hubbard, creating huge teas, breakfast goodies and lavish desserts. In the first book, Jane needs to ramp up business and decides to hold a Murder & Mayhem week at the resort and … well, murder and mayhem ensues. In the second book, we discover more about the secrets of Storyton Hall and Jane’s purpose in life. I want to stay somewhere like this (minus the murders, of course). Afternoon tea anyone? Scones and shortbread, please.

“The Garden of Evening Mists” by Tan Twan Eng (2012) is a lyrical and haunting tale of lives upended by war but made more peaceful by the joys of creating a Japanese garden in a beautiful setting. Teoh Yun Ling lives in Malaya with her Chinese-Malaysian family. When the Japanese invaded, she and her sister were blindfolded and spirited away to a concentration camp where some secret work was undertaken. Brutalized and worked to death, the inmates spent two years in captivity. Yun-Ling is the only survivor and she returns to law school and becomes a Supreme Court judge in Kuala Lumpur where she prosecutes war criminals.

In 1951, she retires early and returns to a tea plantation owned by friends in the Cameron Highlands and to Yugiri, “a garden of evening mists,” and the home of Nakamura Aritomo, the emperor of Japan’s former gardener and a family friend, who left her his home and famous garden. Despite her antipathy for all things Japanese, Yun-Ling apprenticed with him after the war and learned about shakkei (borrowed scenery), the necessary deception needed to create a Japanese garden. She wanted to create a garden to honor her sister’s memory.

The story jumps back and forth between her memories of the camp and her days working with Aritomo. We slowly learn of all that happened during the war, why Aritomo is self-exiled in Malaya, and about the independence chaos now in the 1950s.

This complex novel boasts many characters, political nuances, historical information and much more, including the art of horimono (body tattoos). It’s not a quick read. It’s dense, slow moving and requires patience, but I enjoyed it.