Good Summer Reads: Lightning Round!

And one that isn't for YWR #156

If I had a Real Housewives tagline, it would probably be, “I read them so you don’t have to.”

Actually, real ones know my actual tagline, which I say multiple times a week: “this chaos could have been avoided.” I mean, some chaos cannot be avoided! But QUITE A LOT of it CAN with planning and a little bit of working before the deadlines, despite what certain of my co-workers might think. Good thing s/he doesn’t read this.

However, this is an Immersive Book Experience Newsletter TM (omg can you imagine? That’s such an SAP airport signage word salad tagline). And thus I shall focus on my book purpose in this world, which is to read all the books and then tell you what merits your precious attention and what you can blithely skip.

The great news is that this week, I’m sharing a range of books and genres that mostly are worth your time. Hope, optimism, o let us rejoice! And 1.5 that aren’t, because I speaketh the unpopular truths. Ready, set, lightning round!

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ALERT Emily Henry is back with Funny Story - and it delivers. ALERT

For all that is heavenly and holy, Substack, WHEN ARE YOU ROLLING OUT EMOIJS? Is colored text THAT HARD, CODERS? Let me COOK!

Power summary: Children’s librarian Daphne is engaged to her dream man - until he leaves her for his childhood friend. Alone in a new town, she moves in with the friend’s jilted ex to pull the pieces of her life back together.

Do you know exactly what will happen on literal page one? You sure do! Is it a little bit precious? Kind of! Does her signature wit and eye for authenticity make it a delightful read that goes solidly in the Good Emily Henry Column*? It sure does!

Believe it or not, there are new people to this newsletter so a/ please invite them to sit with us in the cafeteria and b/let’s educate them about the Gentle Lamb Rating System, which rates not quality but potential for emotional calamity. See more HERE.

Yes, these two books are natural companions. Thank you for asking.

Power summary: Master Slave Husband Wife traces the journey of married couple Ellen and William Craft, from their daring, dangerous escape from enslavement in Georgia to become renowned abolitionists in the free states in the North and Europe.

This is an extraordinary story, told engagingly enough (if rather chronologically plodding.) Woo keeps the focus accessibly narrow without underselling the impact of these individuals on the greater course of the Civil War and emancipation. It’s no Erik Larson, but it’s good.

Power summary: Lauren returns home one night to her husband - except, she’s not married. An uncanny trick of her flat’s attic exchanges husbands and lives, showing her glimpses of all the lives she could be living.

Okay, that is a terrible power summary, and this cover is not particularly representative of this book - The Husbands is more grown-up than it looks while still being a good vacation read. This is a little bit time-bending/alternate worlds, a little bit romantic, a little bit comic and wry. It’s fresh and unexpected. It won’t make any “books of the century” lists but I keep thinking about it, which is always a good sign.

Power summary: Memoirist Alexandra Fuller’s recount of her 21-year-old son’s unexpected death and grappling with her grief.

I’m a fan of Alexandra Fuller’s writing, which is honest and wild and seemingly unconcerned with your reaction to her personal messiness (grief, sobriety, breakups, family estrangement, narcissism.) And Fi is grief in extreme present tense - it drips off the page, like we’re reading her journal.

But, I don’t know. In the canon of similar literature, it aspires to the ferocity of H Is For Hawk but without the terrifying majesty, and the reflection of The Year of Magical Thinking without the crystalline clarity and insight. It’s an interesting read AND there are similar, better options out there. Do with that what you will.

Power summary: One night, Billie hears the terrified screams of her best friend, Cassie, coming from the apartment above her. Cassie has discovered that her baby has gone missing - and Billie is responsible.

That summary contains no spoilers, you learn all that in chapter one. What makes this suspense novel both a little more tense and a little more interesting than the summary might suggest is the structure of Cassie and Billie’s alternate viewpoints. It’s a good view of female friendship and its potential to turn toxic, as well as a compelling “bad decisions that turn dangerous” plot line. Get it from your library (YAY FOR LIBBY) but it’s a captivating little read.

Power summary: In Lies and Weddings, the Leung Greshams may be glamorous and titled English landowners, but all is not rosy as they prepare for their daughter’s opulent Hawaiian wedding. Will they follow their heads or their hearts?

Query: how can Kevin Kwan’s books be both so intoxicating, so sly and insightful - and also so clunky? It’s like he’s never heard actual humans speak, or like we’re reading a first draft where the editor needed to say “this [resolution] comes out of nowhere. Did you delete a whole section accidentally?” Read Crazy Rich Asians (which IS good fun) and keep your distance from this one.

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Some Parting Thoughts

• This week’s links go to beloved Nantucket indie bookstores. Friends don’t let friends buy books on Amazon!

• *Good Emily Henry: Beach Read. Book Lovers. Funny Story. Bad Emily Henry: Friends We Meet on Vacation. Beach House. I will take no further questions at this time.

Are you still reading? Oh, thanks! So, FYI: after three. entire. years! of newsletters (156 for the math majors), I’m taking a petite creative hiatus. Not sure for how long (watch, I’m back next week like Selena Gomez on social media). Not sure what this looks like in the future. But I’m looking forward to building up a backlog of books for us to discuss! Don’t worry, I’ll still be around with recommendations at some point in some form (probably on Instagram for now). (You: “lady, we’re not worried about anything other than the CHARACTER LENGTH OF THIS NEWSLETTER.”)

In the meantime, you can always revisit the good times via the archive, where you can find 155 other newsletters with book recces across all manner of genre. thx ily bye!