Just Give Into Summer Reading Already!
Episode #119
In the past week, not one, not two, but THREE of my smartest friends have listlessly said, “KB, I need a book recommendation, I can’t get into anything right now.” Which, as an avid observer of the human condition, tells me two things:
These people aren’t actually consuming the past 118 weeks of book recommendations I’ve written before which fine that’s FINE but seriously? but okay we’re still friends and*
We’re all in the reading Doldrums and need some summer reading to get back into Madonna’s groove!**
*Sidebar 1: Should I actually spend the time to go back and reclassify all my past recos so you can search them by genre, rather than having to sift through several paragraphs of increasingly unhinged italicized notes on the state of the world? Please let me know if this would be useful.
**Sidebar 2: I can’t think of the Doldrums without thinking of The Phantom Tollbooth. Does it hold up since fifth grade English? Should I re-read it? Melissa (AKA The Book Mommy on Instagram, follow her for kids’ book recommendations), please advise!
So UNLIKE the forced summer reading from high school (which probably won’t exist as the fascists keep banning books. Will we be left with nothing but the Left Behind series and disintegrating copies of Highlights for Kids? #resist), your old pal KerryKB is going to give you the summer reading you actually want, which spans genres but neatly and nimbly checks the following boxes:
Engrossing and page-turning. Let the book do the work for you!
Not so lightweight that you feel your brain cells dripping out of your ears like tepid pool water, but also not requiring you to put on weightlifting gloves to handle the sheer heft of ideas. Sorry, no one wants that for a beach read, Yuval.
Hits your reading pleasure centers like a cherry-lime slushee of just the right temperature. Because summer reading is what? Joyful. (Would also have accepted “fundamental” from the purists.)
Let me know what’s on your summer reading lists, babies! (Unless you’re in the Southern Hemisphere in which case - lucky you, it’s boot season and winter reading!)
If you want historical fiction summer reading:
Enter The Whalebone Theater, a compelling WW2 story of Cristabel Seagrave and her siblings who grow up in the shadow of dissolute stepparents and a crumbling English manor, but who as young adults are confronted with WW2 and choose to become British secret agents. I loved its dry wit, its bracing, unsentimental demeanor, and its heart. While not as well-crafted as Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life (WILL you not read this, for heaven’s sake?) nor as skillfully tense/high stakes as Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, this debut novel will probably still please fans of either. Thanks for the reco, Amy!
Sorry, but WW2 books rarely get many lambs due to the absolute decimation of it all. If you’re new here, read what the lambs are trying to tell you »> HERE.
If you want a cooling and creepy mystery:
The Cloisters is as much of a vibe as it is a novel, in a good way. An academic horror novel in which main character Ann Stillwell is desperate to escape her poor and traumatic past and becomes an art assistant in Manhattan, where she increasingly becomes obsessed with the occult and with her co-worker, the wealthy and aspirational Rachel.
Set over the course of the summer, you can feel the in-your-face chaos and humidity of New York summer contrasted with the slate-floored cool, dark quiet of an academic museum, and the increasing dread of the impending fall/denouement. It’s admittedly a little trope-y and doesn’t break a ton of new ground in the art history/academic novel genre - it’s no The Secret History - but as a summer reading mystery, I stand by it.
If you want a romance with heart and humor:
Romance readers love themselves some Mhairi McFarlane; Just Last Night was my first and okay, I see the appeal! Four people have been friends for a decade, including Eve who still pines away for Ed, but one night’s events force them to rethink everything.
This has all the good romance elements (frenemies, secret longing, drunken nights, etc) but underpins its brightly-written fun with melancholy and loss. Sweet, moving, likable. For fans of In Five Years or Evvie Drake Starts Over.
The H2 ‘23 Notes:
How’s everyone’s reading year so far? I’m reading book #50 which puts me basically on track for my planned 100 books. I wish literally any other budget planning in my life had as much accuracy.
This week, all books link to the storied Politics and Prose, an excellent independent bookstore in Washington D.C. Plus, they have a great online store! Remember, send me your fave indie bookstores; I’ll link to them in future newsletters and plan trips around them and buy totes from them.
Big birthday shout out this week to the US (if you’re banning books, you’re on the wrong side of freedom) and also my dad, one of the greatest readers I know, a man who has possibly singlehandedly supported many indie bookstores, and an all-around Very Good Guy. Let’s see if he read this far!
While I love shopping for books in DC, I think The Ivy Bookshop (in Baltimore) is fabulous!