Although we've been given a brief reprieve here in South Carolina, the height of summer is definitely upon us. For us, great heat means great irresponsibility, as we shirk our usual weekend tasks in favour of heading poolside with a cooler of beer, a pipe of our favoured leaf, and a book good enough to lose ourselves in. But what book? Well here's what we've been reading; maybe you can find something to your liking.

Kathryn Mann: Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter's Son

Although it's a departure from what I typically read, having no interest in horses or racing, I've found Blood Horses to be an amazingly well-crafted blend of history, research, and memoir. It relates the facts and folklore of horse racing, as told by a man with who is researching the sport in an attempt to understand his deceased father, a failed author-turned-sportswriter. If you're unfamiliar with John Jeremiah Sullivan, despite his work at Harper's and New York Times Magazine, his book of essays, Pulphead, is certainly more well-known and requires less commitment to a singular topic. Despite this, I've found both books to show off an artful and engrossing approach to journalism and memoir.

Paired with: BriarWorks Sweet Tea

Adam O'Neill: Underground Airlines

A challenging but compelling alt-history of a United States that saw the assassination of Abraham Lincoln shortly after the secession crisis, leading to a present where the Crittenden Compromise actually came to be. The main story follows a former slave whom, at the behest of the US Marshals Service, tracks down and returns escaped slaves to the "Hard Four" -- the four states for whom slavery is still a reality. Again, it is a challenging read, but it's short and you can probably knock it out in one lazy afternoon by the pool.

Paired with: Captain Earle's Honor Blend and a liberal application of 21st Amendment's Hell Or High Watermelon.

Kaysie Albecker: Midnight Riot/Rivers of London

Anyone familiar with the 'magical realism' school of fantasy should be fairly familiar with the formula here. The difference being that instead of the usual hard-boiled detective protagonist taking on magical big bads, Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant is a probationary constable in the Metropolitan Police Service of London, dragged into the magical wing of the Met after unknowingly taking a statement from an eyewitness that turned out to be a ghost. It's evident that Aaronovitch has an ongoing love affair with his home city of London, as between the granular detail of locations and the use of 'genius loci' (such as Mama Thames and her daughters), the city itself becomes the central character in the series.

Oh, and make sure you're looking for the correct title, as I had some frustration trying to find a copy before that muppet Australian (who recommended the series) remembered that it was published as 'Midnight Riot' here in the States.

Paired with: Dan Tobacco Devil's Holiday

Hadassah Hallman: In The Wake of The Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made

While searching for new reading material, I happened to stumble across the book 'In The Wake of The Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made' by Norman F. Cantor in the SPC library. History, no matter how morbid it may be, is a passion of mine. I have been burrowing down at night before bed with this "light read" and CAO's Moontrance tobacco in my Sven Hangaard Rhodesian. Since this is such a dark book, the light, fruity notes of the Moontrance help to lighten the mood in the room a bit. The best thing about this tobacco is once I get too wrapped up in the book to keep tending to my pipe, I just grab one of the Moontrance cigarillos, keep puffing away, and focus on my reading.

Paired with: CAO Moontrance

Chana O'Neill: The Martian Chronicles

People just ruin everything don't they?

Set at the turn of the millennia (as seen through the lens of the late 1940s), Ray Bradbury's collection of short science fiction stories is here compiled into a chronicle of man's expansion into a new world: Mars. Though somewhat more common these days, The Martian Chronicles was both accepted into mainstream fiction and ostracised from science fiction for the same reason -- a more negative tone toward, and lack of any, science, as well as a more poetic style of writing. Ultimately this is what made it the classic it is today though, touching on notes of the Westward Expansion, the beginnings of Cold War paranoia, and creating a view of the future that deals more in the morality of the endeavour, rather than the hard science of it.

Paired with: Edward G. Robinson's Pipe Blend

Let us know below if you took up any of our recommendations or if you have any of your own.