Written by Erin
With Memorial Day in our rear view mirror, summer is officially upon us. In addition to BBQs, baseball and outdoor concerts, this also obviously means a lot of reading outdoors. Below are 5 books I recommend for poolside (or anywhere else you happen to read) in addition to 5 books I’m excited to read this summer.
5 Summer Reading Recommendations
- The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes: In 1992-1993 Chicago, Kirby Mazrachi is searching for a man who stabbed her and left her for dead. Spanning 1929-1993, Harper Curtis is a time-traveling serial killer. If that premise is e
ven remotely appealing to you, pick up this book now. The plot is well executed and Kirby is an impressive and entertaining character. The story is funny, vicious and original. - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: A mysterious flu kills most of the population within the US and Canada. This story follows several characters in the years preceding the outbreak, the immediate aftermath, and during post-outbreak Year 20. I’m a sucker for novels that follow seemingly disparate characters to a final, inevitable connection and for stories that skillfully jump back and forth through time. Post-apocalyptic premises are a plus. This book has all three.
- The Short & Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs: Robert Peace was born outside Newark in a ghetto known as “Illtown.” His unwed mother worked long hours in a kitchen. His charismatic father was later convicted of a double murder. Peace’s intellectual brilliance and hard-won determination earned him a full scholarship to Yale University. Upon graduation from Yale, he went home to teach at the high school he’d attended, slid into the drug trade, and was brutally murdered at age thirty. Over the last year, much attention has been focused on the deaths of young black men. Unfortunately, media talking points will often reduce the men whose lives have been lost to a series of clichés, mistruths, or personal mistakes- never fully reflecting the complex duality that resides within each of us. Hobbs, who knew Peace during and after college, presents Peace and all of his loyalty, love, intellect, warmth, and pursuit of Something Better: for himself and his family. Hobbs unflinchingly acknowledges Peace’s missteps. The end result shows a young man in all of his achingly wonderful and complicated humanity.
- An Untamed State by Roxane Gay: Mireille Duval Jameson has returned from the US to Haiti with her husband and infant son for a brief trip to visit her parents. The vacation turns into a nightmare as Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her wealthy father’s Port au Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of men who resent everything she represents. An
Untamed State is a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and of the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce. It is the story of a willful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places. - The Secret Place by Tana French: The Secret Place, a board where the girls at St. Kilda’s School can pin up their secrets anonymously, is normally a mishmash of gossip and covert cruel. Today, someone has used it to reignite the stalled investigation into the murder of handsome, popular Chris Harper by leaving a card on the board that says I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM. But St. Kilda’s will go a long way to keep murder outside their walls and the private underworld of teenage girls can be more mysterious and more dangerous than either of the detectives imagined. This book, #5 in French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, is a lot of fun. Really, pick up any book by French. The stories in the series can be read as stand-alone novels, but reading the series through adds another layer of depth to the characters. I’ve seldom read authors who excel at psychological thrillers the way that French does.
5 Books I Can’t Wait to Read
- Yes, Please by Amy Poehler: First of all, Amy Poehler is the best. Also, I love love humor essays a la David Sedaris, Tina Fey, Nora Ephron, and Mindy Kaling. So bring. It. On.
- Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee: I cannot wait to get my hands on the much-publicized and long-anticipated sequel
to To Kill a Mockingbird that features Scout Finch returning home to visit her father and grappling with her views and feelings about the town that shaped her. - Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemoch Lemmon: In Ashley’s War, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon uses exhaustive firsthand reporting and a finely tuned understanding of the complexities of war to tell the story of a unit of women hand-picked from across the Army. This book is described as: “Transporting readers into this little-known world of fierce women bound together by valor, danger, and the desire to serve, Ashley’s War is a riveting combat narrative and a testament to the unbreakable bonds born of war”. I loved Helen Thorpe’s Soldier Girls and am looking forward to learning more about women’s experiences in the military.
- Whatever- Love is Love: Questioning the Labels We Give Ourselves by Maria Bello: Goodreads description: “In her first book, Bello broadens her insights as she examines the idea of partnership in every woman’s life, and her own. She examines the myths that so many of us believe about partnership—that the partnership begins when the sex begins, that partnerships are static, that you have to love yourself before you can be loved, and turns them on their heads. Bello explores how many different relationships—romantic, platonic, spiritual, familial, educational—helped define her life. She encourages women to realize that the only labels we have are the ones we put on ourselves, and the best, happiest partnerships are the ones that make your life better, even if they don’t fit the mold of “typical.””
- The Bees by Laline Paull: Flora 717 is a member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive where work and sacrifice are the highest virtues and worship of the beloved Queen the only religion. But Flora is not like other bees. With c
ircumstances threatening the hive’s survival, she finds her way into the Queen’s inner sanctum, where she discovers mysteries about the hive that are both profound and ominous. But when Flora breaks the most sacred law of all—daring to challenge the Queen’s fertility—enemies abound, from the fearsome fertility police who enforce the strict social hierarchy to the high priestesses jealously wedded to power. Her deepest instincts to serve and sacrifice are now overshadowed by an even deeper desire that will bring her into conflict with her conscience, her heart, her society—and lead her to unthinkable deeds. This book is billed as The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Hunger Games, which is guaranteed to get my spidey senses tingling. - Bonus Book (because I’m bad at counting and good at wanting books): Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes: Goodreads description: “Detective Gabriella Versado has seen a lot of bodies, but this one is unique even by Detroit’s standards: half-boy, half-deer, somehow fused. The cops nickname him “Bambi,” but as stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to a reality that is already tearing at its seams?” This book weaves together the story of Detective Versado, her young daughter, and other characters impacted by the discovery of the mythological murder victims.
Among Friends 