The Summer Reading Guide

Whether you're vacationing, hitting the beach, or just need a book for your subway commute, there's something here for you.

It is officially summer. Last week I got a bunch of texts asking for summer reading recommendations (my favorite kind of text to receive) and I had so much fun writing up recs for those friends that I thought I'd share everything (and more) here.

I’m going to try to send out new book recommendations every couple weeks. To start us off, here are my summer reading picks.

---

NUMERO UNO:

• Let's start with the obvious. Have you read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin? If you haven't, and you feel like you're too late to the party or you're hesitating because "you hate hype," get over it. There's a reason everyone loves this book. It's the rare novel that brings you into a new world, makes you care about a new subject (video games), and gives you characters so vivid you literally dream about them. It remains my favorite book I’ve read this year.

RECENT FAVORITES: 

• One of my favorite genres is a gorgeous, sprawling family drama. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano won my heart this year. It's about love, empathy, and forgiveness and it is so powerful. If you’ve already read that and are looking for something similar, The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo is another engrossing novel about how family members can't help but hurt each other in the deepest ways.

• I have not stopped raving about Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet and rightly so because it is a perfect novel. It's not the blockbuster of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow nor is it the emotional rollercoaster that is Hello Beautiful. It's simple yet deep and Millet's unique restraint as she captures these characters and their everyday struggles makes it one of my favorite books.  

• Another novel that knocked me out was Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, a devastating novel about a young woman coming of age in Northern Ireland during The Troubles and a love affair that changes her life and the lives of everyone around her.

• Trust by Hernan Diaz won the Pulitzer this year and truthfully I was more interested in the structure than the actual writing but I don't even mean that as a diss because the way this book comes together is fascinating. I love an unreliable narrator so I enjoyed this one a lot.  

• A lighter, fun novel that I adored this year is Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson—about generational wealth in Brooklyn Heights and is the equivalent of peering into brownstone windows and wondering: who lives here?  

THRILLERS:

• I love reading a thriller on vacation. Probably my favorite is sci-fi thriller Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, which has Bourne Identity vibes mixed with some high level parallel universe stuff—just trust me, you won't be able to put it down (um, speaking of…who has my copy?). In order of increasing creepiness, I also really enjoyed The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, which is eerie and lingering, and The Perfect Nanny, which gave me nightmares and is terrifyingly based on a true story. I recently read The Guest by Emma Cline and Yellowface by R. F. Kuang, which are both hot *books of the summer* and while calling them thrillers is a stretch, both made me extremely stressed while reading them so that's why they're listed here. The pages flew by as I desperately hoped these characters would redeem themselves—it takes good writing to get under your skin like that! Lastly, for me, summer now means the newest release by my brilliant friend Jessica Goodman whose YA thrillers are compulsively readable and incredibly fun. Her latest, The Legacies, is out July 25th.

NON-FIC:

• Non-fiction can be fun too! These books are brilliantly written, fascinating, and somehow fun enough to be page-turners. One of my favorite biographies ever is Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris, which reflects on a Hollywood and Broadway legend, but also on American entertainment culture from the 50s to today. A few months ago I finally read the fascinating Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe about The Troubles. I devoured it and subsequently fell down a rabbit hole of Irish literature (more on that in the future). I brought The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown on my honeymoon and, bizarrely, reading about Diana and Charles’s ill-fated romance on the most romantic trip of my life really hit the spot. I absolutely love an oral history and my two favorites are Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman, about the rebirth of the New York rock scene in the early 2000s and Edie by Jean Stein, about the iconic Edie Sedgwick.  

ROM-COM: 

• More in the mood for rom-com beachy vibes? This year's Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld is so satisfying in a genre that can sometimes feel hackneyed. It's a love story set at a fictional SNL and inspired by Pete Davidson's love life—it's FUN. Another book cover you've seen everywhere: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is hilarious, poignant, and features a really great dog. But wait, are you looking for a light, fun, romantic beach read and you still haven't read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid? What are you waiting for?  

IF YOU WANT TO CRY: 

• Got that summertime sadness? Sometimes you just have to lean into it. Two hall-of-famers in this category are Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield, the gorgeous love story of one of my favorite Rolling Stone writers, and Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner aka Japanese Breakfast, who writes so eloquently about caring for her mother at the end of her life. Both books are must-reads. Beautiful, profound, relatable, and even funny at times.  

TINY BOOKS:

• If your brain can't focus on anything more than a tiny book in this heat, I feel you. The criteria for a tiny book is that it must be less than 200 pages, can easily fit in your pocket/purse, and the writing must be stellar. Here are some of my favorites for the summer. I will read anything Claire Keegan writes and Foster is a sparse but extremely affecting story of a young Irish girl sent to live on a rural farm for the summer. Told in a child's voice with heavy Irish slang, this tiny book packs a heavy punch. Heating & Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly is a joyful memoir told in 52 tiny parts—unlike anything I've read, it's poetic and funny and you don't want it to end. Reading The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain during the summer feels like watching a film noir in the park. For a true classic, Summer by Edith Wharton, published in 1917, is about summer romance and coming of age, a tale as old as time.

SERIES:

• In my opinion there is nothing better than digging into a series over the summer when you have time to coast from book to book. It reminds me of re-reading all the Harry Potters in anticipation of the new one coming out each summer of my childhood. A year ago Natasha brought the entire My Brilliant Friend series by Elena Ferrante (aka The Neapolitan Quartet) on her honeymoon and I thought she was a genius. There are a LOT of Italian names to get used to, but it reads like a soap opera and I've been chasing the high of this series since I read it. For a more meditative, thoughtful series that has stayed with me long after reading, The Outline Trilogy by Rachel Cusk is a series of conversations that start during a hot summer in Greece.

MISCELLANEOUSLY GREAT BOOKS THAT MAKE ME THINK OF SUMMER: 

• Something about Eve Babitz, one of my favorite writers ever, always makes me think of summer because of her gorgeous descriptions of languid hot days and feeling bored and horny. Start with Slow Days, Fast Company (my favorite of her books) or her novel Sex and Rage. Some other absolute knockouts in the "bored beautiful women behaving badly in hot weather" category: Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker, The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, and Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. 

• Plus, a recent reprinting with a cool new cover of The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe (sadly no relation) has this ahead-of-its-time 1958 classic on display at bookstores all over this summer. It's like if Mad Men was all about Joan, Betty, and Peggy.

• Lastly, what could be more transporting than a Greek myth? Circe and Song of Achilles, both by Madeline Miller, are absolute must-reads even if this isn't a genre you're usually interested in. Her adaptations are modern, captivating, and heart-wrenching. Reading these you'll feel like you're on vacation in Greece...thousands of years ago. 

---

If you want to keep getting book recommendations from me, and I hope you do, subscribe here. And share with your friends who love books, too. Happy reading!

More soon.

Love,

Ali