Summer Reading

A real list written by a real person....

The Magdalen Reading, by Rogier van der Weyden

You may have seen a news article earlier this week about an insert in the Chicago Sun-Times (and also circulated in the Philadelphia Inquirer) that included a list of summer reading recommendations dotted with the names of critically acclaimed, best-selling writers. The twist is that the article recommended ten books (out of fifteen) that don’t exist. The authors are real; the books are not.

It turns out the journalist used AI to write the article—and blithely turned in the piece about five minutes later, assuming that it didn’t need fact checking. And no one on up the publishing line at the newspaper thought to verify it, either. Oops. It’s just one of the latest examples of artificial intelligence “hallucinating” or “confabulating”: coming up with “data” that sound plausible but are totally fake. And people keep relying on it.

Silly? Embarrassing? Deeply concerning? How about all of the above?

Chuck Wendig wrote a blog post basically summarizing how I feel about the incident and generative AI in general, so I won’t get into that. Instead, I thought I’d give you a list of actual books that I, a real reader and writer, think are worth your time.

As I thought about possible recommendations, I realized that you and I might have different ideas about what constitutes summer reading. I think fondly of visits to the library during childhood and adolescence. Blissfully free from the strictures of school, I went to the library once a week to check out an armful of books. We moved around a lot, but generally, the libraries I visited allowed people to check out ten books at a time.

Since I read so fast and so much, this meant I generally went for doorstop-sized books, usually from the adult section, no matter the genre, the bigger, the better. “Books by the pound,” my mother used to say as I struggled to fit the latest haul in my canvas tote bag. Yes, it was heavy, but lugging it around was worth the knowledge I wouldn’t run out of words to read. (I couldn’t imagine a fate much worse.)

But other people have different definitions.

Maybe you want something light and amusing to keep you company on the beach or to pass the time on an airplane.

Or you’re looking for something the whole family—adults as well as kids—can enjoy via audiobook during a road trip.

Or perhaps you want something deeper and more muscular that you can really sink your mental teeth into over the course of a couple of months.

Or you crave something that transports you to a place you can’t afford to visit at the moment, or a time you’ll never be able to see.

Still others, maybe working summer hours or on holiday, relish the chance to stay up late and binge read until they run out of pages or battery, with the assurance they can sleep late the next day.

Whatever your definition, I’ve got you covered with six suggestions in each somewhat overlapping category.

Beach/Airplane

The Plot and
The Sequel, by Jan Hanff Korelitz
Ah, writers. Jacob Finch Bonner, a literary has-been, comes across a plot guaranteed to become a best-seller. The only problem is he didn’t make it up himself. I read The Plot so fast the first time that I remembered almost nothing about it. So when The Sequel came out, I quickly re-read the first before devouring the second. Delish.

Pesticide, by Kim Hays
Set in and around Bern, Switzerland, this is the first novel in a series; I’ve read the second book (Sons and Brothers, also excellent) and am delighted to report that books three and four are out as well. Giuliana Linder is our sleuth, a talented homicide detective and devoted wife and mother. Renzo Donatelli is her distractingly handsome junior partner. Tensions arise all kinds of ways as they solve the murder of an organic farmer.

The Square of Sevens, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
Red, a fortune teller in Regency England, is determined to learn the truth about who she really is. Nested mysteries take us from Cornwall to London to Bath, twisting and turning along the way. The novel was reminiscent of Charles Palliser’s The Quincunx, which is high praise coming from me.

The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub
If you’re a timid reader, don’t let the fact that two of the greatest horror writers of all time co-wrote this one. It’s an epic portal fantasy, admittedly dark at times—but Jack Sawyer’s quest to save his mother is all the more redemptive as a result. I just got this for Anne for her 17^th birthday, which means I get to re-read it (for at least the fourth time) so we can talk about it.

Dirt, by Bill Buford
When a former New Yorker editor decides he must move to Lyon—the gastronomic capital of France—to train as a chef for six months, his wife follows him uncomplainingly (along with their twin three-year-old sons). Half a year turns into five, throughout which we get Buford’s real-life adventures apprenticing at an old-school boulangerie, a famous culinary school, and a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Road Trip

East and
West, by Edith Pattou
A gorgeous and gripping retelling of the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon. The indomitable Rose must rescue her beloved from distress after distress. Memorable characters and attention to historical detail make this fantasy duology immersive and believable.

Flora Segunda, by Ysabeau Wilce
Saucy, outrageous, captivating. Flora tries everything in her power to prove herself to her legendary-but-absent parents. Their house—an ever-changing maze of 11,000 rooms—two mysterious butlers, and Flora’s faithful dog Flynnie are just some of the unique and amazing elements in this alternative history of California. The first book of a wonderful trilogy, though it does stand alone.

Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods, by Catherynne M. Valente
After his mother accidentally kills a magical creature in violation of a sacred treaty, our titular hero must go on a perilous errand through the land of the dead to save his world. Osmo’s adventures have a weight to them that reminds me of classics like The Little Prince and The Phantom Tollbooth while being accessible and suspenseful enough for younger readers.

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, by Julie Berry
Seven boarding school students band together to hide the sudden demise of their horrible headmistress (and her distasteful brother) in this droll and farcical Victorian mystery. Each of the girls has a label—Smooth Kitty, Dear Roberta—and Berry cleverly subverts each, showing their purported weaknesses to be the strengths that eventually lead to their success.

Furia, by Yamile Saied Mendez
Camila secretly plays—and excels at—fútbol, and dreams of getting a sports scholarship so she can leave Argentina behind. Meanwhile, her longtime crush Diego is back in town after having played professionally in Italy. Somehow Camila must obtain her parents’ approval to achieve her dreams. What’s more heart-stopping, the suspense in the play-by-play soccer sequences, or the vivid teen romance? There’s something for everyone here.

Deep

Breaking Together, by Jem Bendell
Perhaps you, like I, suspect the world is collapsing in ten different ways. In fact, perhaps the world as we know it actually did end sometime around 2016, and we’re just living out its last gasps. Bendell lays out a grim case for our having already passed several points of no return politically, societally, and environmentally.
What to do about it? Of course we should still work as hard as we can to feed the poor, promote peace, and save the bees and polar bears; doing what’s right and good shouldn’t be circumstantial. But perhaps you, like I, will find comfort and serenity in radical acceptance and deep adaptation. This book is a tome with more footnotes than a right whale has barnacles. If you get through it, hit me up so we can converse.

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
The first of a peerless trilogy based on the life of Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith who became Henry VIII’s most trusted advisor. Written in the closest third person: the reader sees out of Cromwell’s eyes and thinks his thoughts with him. Take your time; look up the locations, the fashions, and Cromwell’s portrait by Hans Holbein to enhance the experience. You won’t want it to end.

Meritocracy Mingled with Scripture, by Justin Pack
Highly recommended for my LDS/Mormon peeps out there. I read a lot of Church-adjacent stuff, both fiction and non-, and this book validated a lot of my own scriptural and theological outlook while generally giving paradigm-shifting insight into our unique doctrine. Again, please read it and get in touch so we can discuss!

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, by George Saunders
This gem of a book is like taking Saunders’s celebrated Syracuse University MFA course on writing without traveling to upstate New York. Saunders presents seven short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, then analyzes each to highlight how the Russian masters go about making art. Accessible yet rigorous; specific yet universal. I guarantee you will feel smarter after reading this lovely book.

Stolen Focus, by Johann Hari
Do you have the sneaking suspicion you don’t pay attention as well as you used to? Do you feel fractured, fragmented, scattered? It’s not your fault. Have you or has anyone you know been diagnosed with ADHD? However your brain works, however neurodivergent you are, there are things you can do to improve your attention and live more serenely and mindfully. Hari ventures both deeply and broadly to explain how modern society has stolen our focus, then provides concrete paths for reclaiming it.

The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, by Maria Tatar
If you think you know fairy tales from having watched Shrek or the Disney canon, think again. Tatar’s meticulous notes illuminate the original (very dark) versions of a broad assortment of stories by Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Brothers Grimm. (For true nerds (like me) who want the deep cuts as well, Tatar has annotated the complete collections of the latter two.) Tatar’s scholarship is immaculate and her prose is transparent, a rare and winning combination.

Armchair Travel

The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
Set in Kerala, India, this is a Michner-esque tale of love and loss and curses and healing. It takes a while for the different strands to be woven together, but when they are, the whole elaborate tapestry comes together in satisfying ways. By the end, this family will feel like your own. I cried at least twice.

Between Two Fires, by Christopher Buehlmann
Set in medieval France, when the Black Plague and a famine and the Crusades and inter-papal warfare all combine to make your average peasant or errant knight feel like the world is ending. (Relatable.) And perhaps it is; the reader soon realizes that all the earthly (and very earthy) drama is actually spillover of an ongoing war in heaven. This book is freaking brilliant, and I hope and pray someday to write something this good.

The Familiar, by Leigh Bardugo
A historical fantasy set during the Spanish Inquisition. Luzia Cortado is a Jewish woman working as a scullion while hiding the fact that she can create little miracles. Once her employer discovers her gift and starts exploiting it for her own ends, trouble ensues. I will read anything Bardugo writes, and so should you.

The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro
I will also read anything Ishiguro writes. His post-Roman-British alternate history tells the tale of Axl and Beatrice, who leave their home in search of their long-lost son. Their quest is complicated by the fact that no one in their world can hold on to memories for very long. Meditative and allegorical and filled with melancholy: bliss.

All the White Spaces, by Ally Wilkes
I’m obsessed with accounts of polar exploration, whether real or imagined. This book is the latter, following a young transgender man stowing away on a voyage to Antarctica—a journey his older brothers (who died in the Great War) always wanted to take. Harrowing and twisty don’t begin to describe it, and I dare you to guess the ending.

Escape to the Château, by Dick and Angel Strawbridge
This is pure, delicious candy, relating the real-life adventures of the visionary, humorous, and hard-working Strawbridges, who bought a derelict castle in the Mayenne and have gradually restored it and renovated it over the years—while also hosting weddings and gourmet getaways to help pay the bills. It’s the perfect companion to the delightful television series of the same name, which I also recommend most highly.

Binge

The Dragonbone Chair, by Tad Williams
You might never have heard of Williams, but he was and remains a massive influence on three fantasy writers I bet you have heard of: George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, and Brandon Sanderson. The Dragonbone Chair begins his first epic fantasy; if you like this one, you’ve got several treats ahead of you. Simon Mooncalf, sometime kitchen boy and wizard’s apprentice at Hayholt Castle, finds himself embroiled in a life-or-death struggle between good and evil that takes him and his companions all over the land of Osten Ard.

The Staircase in the Woods, by Chuck Wendig
I read this one the day it came out. The title alone: COME ON. So evocative and creepy—and Wendig more than delivers on the promise of the premise. Old friends reunite in search of a long-lost friend who once disappeared when he went up…a staircase in the woods. Endings are often a challenge for horror writers, but Wendig totally sticks the landing, if you’ll excuse the pun.

The Shards, by Bret Easton Ellis
Another super scary one (and this one bears a hard R-rating), set in 1980s Los Angeles—an era fellow Gen Xer Ellis helped redefine in his breakthrough novel Less Than Zero. Bret (also the main character’s name) is floating through life while attending Buckley, a posh private school. The arrival of a charismatic new student coincides with the rise of a local serial killer called the Trawler. Ellis’s autofictional exercises, which twine throughout his novels, get ever more convoluted and fascinating here. Bonus: there’s a lengthy Spotify playlist of every song Ellis mentions, the perfect soundtrack to this compelling read. Another bonus: be sure to read Ellis’s Lunar Park, one of my all-time favorite horror novels.

Just One More, by Annette Lyon
Jenn, a librarian, investigates her husband’s sinister past—with tragic results. Her best friend Becca vows to uncover the truth, seek justice, and protect Jenn’s young daughter; will she end up dead, too? This twisty, dual-perspective novel will keep you up well past your bedtime, guaranteed. Lyon is a master of suspense, and I can’t wait for more from her.

Darkly, by Marisha Pessl
Dia is obsessed with the reclusive game designer Louisiana Veda, who died under mysterious circumstances. One day, Dia receives an invitation to an exclusive internship at Veda’s cult-like game company, Darkly. Coincidence? Doubtful. Labyrinthine and full of puzzles: good times. I’m a huge Pessl fan; her novel Night Film is one of my desert island books.

The Bright Sword, by Lev Grossman
Collum arrives in Camelot to compete for a coveted spot as a knight at the Round Table—only to discover he’s already missed his chance. If you’re a King Arthur geek like me, you’ll agree that this is a wonderful addition to your shelf along with Le Morte d’Arthur, The Mists of Avalon, and The Crystal Cave.

There you have it! What are your recommendations for me? I’ll add them to the list I’m keeping on Fable, a Goodreads alternative app that is working well for me. Download it so we can follow each other there!