Three Delightful Summer Reads

Getcher mid-summer palate cleansers here! WSIR #34

OK, OK, since lately we’ve been talking about opioid abuse and unsettlingly fierce fictional female fury, mayhaps you would like to hear about something a little more … pleasant? I’m a big proponent of equalizing your hearty reads with a light read, your Important Works with a book bonbon. Balance, people, it’s all about BALANCE.

Of course, like crafting a perfect pop song or baking a fantastic funfetti cake, creating a delightful read for adults seems so easy that Serious Readers can disdain it, but I think must be a fiendishly tricky endeavor. Too cutesy or too sweet? Bleh. Too simple and it’s quite obvious what’s going to happen from page 1. (People We Meet on Vacation, I’m sadly talking to you.) And it has to be reasonably substantive in language or pathos or characterization so it doesn’t feel like you’ve totally wasted your time or precious brain cells. A tricky needle to thread - but the books below check all the boxes and so, I hope, are guaranteed pleasers.

And on a final note, it’s interesting and a little sad that, at least in my experience, “delightful summer reads” tend to be pretty female-oriented. As if the only people who deserved fizzy fun are women, and the only delight to be had is in romance. As god as my witness, I’m going to work to normalize fun reads for all! My name is Kerry and I have APPROVED this book message.

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How to even summarize The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden? Um, ok: Nombeko is born in a South African township with low expectations, but through her intelligence, pluck, some diamonds, a few latrines, explosives, some brothers and a grandmother, a facility with languages, and treacherous encounters with a few Mossad agents, she ends up as a globally influential player.

That actually wasn’t a great summary but really, here’s the point - this is hilarious, twisty, and charming, all the while with pointed commentary on racism, xenophobia, love, and the destructive power of entitlement. I loved it.

OK, in my experience, you gotta be careful with any book cover that uses this font because it can EASILY tip over into the “bad-dumb” category, but this book? This book is something special. In Anxious People, a failed bank robber takes a group of apartment hunters hostage at an open house, and a father-son police duo try to figure out what happened.

The plot is just as madcap as you might think while also having a lovely shading of melancholy, introspection, and empathy - everyone has a story, everyone has fragility, and in the best of cases, everyone is truly trying to do their best, even if the outcome is not what we intend. I was equally charmed and moved. (Also, what’s with the Swedish author theme? Are the Swedes disproportionately charming, delightful, and writerly as a people?)

I’m finding there are two types of Delightful Book readers: People who loved One to Watch and people who have not yet read it. Fine, I concede, it’s really more for the women readers but if this book sounds at all appealing, trust me and pick it up. Plus-size blogger Bea is chosen to appear on a thinly veiled Bachelorette-type show, and while she agrees to appear to champion diversity and representation, she quickly gets swept up in the actual drama of it all. And here’s the thing - you don’t need to watch those kinds of shows, or read plus-size fashion blogs, or any of the rest of it to absolutely love this book. It’s smarter than you might expect from the summary, it keeps you guessing, it doesn’t shy away from topical issues but never veers into polemic. A perfect fun summer read.

Okay, so I know I said “three delightful reads” but I’m throwing this one in as a wild card. AUTHORIAL SPONTANEITY! Anyway, The House in the Cerulean Sea follows English bureaucrat Arthur, whose job is to dispassionately monitor orphanages for magical children, as he visits his most unusual assignment yet. If you love it, you’ll love it for the Pixar-style banter, the ludicrously precocious children, the whimsical world-building. If you don’t like it, it … will probably be for the same reasons. It’s also much more earnest and less winking than the other three, however that hits you, but it is sweet and goofy and fun.

And you can also check out my past recommendations of vacation reads, escapist reads, or just tuck on into A Gentleman in Moscow!

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First time here? Oh hellllllo, there:

• First - thanks for being here!

• Second - if this week’s books weren’t up your alley, the theme changes each week - so you can always reference the archive for other recommendations like memoirs or contemporary black fiction or books about a pandemic, par example.

• All links go to Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores in the US, UK and Spain. You can see most of my past recos here; it should be *all* my past recos but apparently the staff here at What Should I Read Next is not that detail oriented. (It’s me. I’m the staff.)