Stylebook Recommends: Summer Reads
Sun! Warmth! A long weekend! Maybe you’re headed to the beach, maybe your pool opens, but hopefully you’ll find a spot in the sun to relax and read. From YA to beach reads, health + wellness to humor, memoirs to historical fiction, here’s what we’ll be toting in our bags. Any must-reads to share with us? Comment below!
Elizabeth: I haven’t gotten much reading in lately, but on the top of my stack is Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld. I loved two of her other books, Prep and American Wife. It is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, based in my hometown of Cincinnati, where the author was also raised. With my favorite city as the background and Jane Austen as her guide, how can it disappoint?
Madelyn: It doesn’t! I read Eligible for two book clubs, the first of which met last week. Most agreed with me, but a vocal few were chagrined by the, hmm, “over-the-top” antics in the last part of the book. But, come on! It’s Pride and Prejudice – how could you not expect antics? I thought it was just right for a modern retelling of what was essentially the original rom-com.
Christen: I am half-way through Born to Run and canNOT put it down. I didn’t know what to expect but picked it up because I was in need of a little running motivation and a good friend recommended it. It reads like the most interesting novel (it’s a true story) and absolutely has the added benefit of making you want to lace up your kicks and hit the trail!
There are only a few emails I open regularly from websites to which I am subscribed: Alexandria Stylebook (duh), WhoWhatWear (for topic inspiration), and MindBodyGreen. So when the website’s founder released his first memoir, Wellth: How I Learned to Build a Life, Not a Resume, I ordered it instantly. I listened to a podcast with the author about his book and was further intrigued. To be honest, I haven’t read it yet but will make it my first poolside choice. Based on reviews and what I learned from the podcast, the book encourages its readers to redefine success and why it’s important to start living by new standards.
Elizabeth W.: Ask my sister and she’ll tell you (with a heavy eye roll) that I love a good supernatural novel. I’ll make fun of the Twilight or Mortal Instruments movies, sure, but you bet I read all the books. However, Harry Potter is in a league all its own. Well-written, interesting, and full of other literary or mythological references that reveal themselves anew with each re-read, these are my standby for any vacation, beachside or otherwise. Failing some Harry (they do start to weigh a lot around book three…), I have found Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries (a.k.a., where the show “True Blood” came from) to be significantly more charming than their television counterpart. Delightful to join you at the beach!
Rosana: As I mentioned last week, I am loving that I can read books and talk about books with the pre-teen daughter. My daughter has already read The Thing about Jellyfish and absolutely loved it. The book deals with a tough topic to broach with your kids: death. The main character, a 7th grader, loses her best friend to a drowning accident and, as a result, refuses to talk. But it’s more complicated. Her friendship had been fractured before her friend died. Reading the book has already opened up many conversations with my 11-year-old about life, death, friendships, and regret. There was also a lot of science in the book — facts about the human body, the world around us and, of course, jellyfish.
On the “grown-up” side, I am looking forward to The Door, which is by one of Hungary’s most important 20th century writers, Magda Szabo, who died in 2007. The Door was originally published in Hungary in 1987, and after a circuitous path of translations, this latest version introduced to American audiences prompted The New York Times to write that it is “astonishing that this masterpiece should have been essentially unknown to English language readers for so long, a realization that raises once again the question of what other gems we’re missing out on.”
Elisabeth: I highly recommend a book I am currently reading titled My Brilliant Friend by an Italian author, Elena Ferrante. It’s part of a four-novel story (The Neapolitan Novels). It’s hard to get into because of the gazillion characters, but the book includes a brief one-sentence description about each character at the beginning of the book which I referred back to several times until I finally was engrossed in the story.
Darby: Typically I read a lot about retail, customers’ wants and needs, and ways to improve upon our shopping experience. However, when I think of summer reading, I think of beach reading…nothing serious…only fun! This summer my beach bag will include a book describing the antithesis of clothing. In Naked at Lunch, A Reluctant Nudist’s Adventure in a Clothing-Optional World, author Mark Haskell Smith deftly balances investigative reporting, humor, historical context, and comical anecdotes. I’m looking forward to spending the day in the sun with this hilarious read!
Britt: What She Knew. I heard good things about it two weeks ago at graduations and just picked it up to read over Memorial Day.
Susie (The Patterson Group): Me Before You by Jojo Moyes! It is a tearjerker, but the movie’s coming out at the beginning of June and so worth reading before seeing on the big screen. Also, both of Mindy Kaling’s books are great, as is Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari.
Susie: The Nightingale. Excellent. (Editor’s Note: Gayla and Neil also recommend this one!)
Angela: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Very good.
Adrien: What Alice Forgot and Five Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter.
Alex: The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, Let the Great World Spin, and Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder, which was written by Claudia Kalb, a local mom, journalist, and author.
Neil: The Rainbow Comes and Goes, a joint memoir by Anderson Cooper his mother Gloria Vanderbilt; The Swans of Fifth Avenue (this is a GREAT book); The Truth According to Us (from the co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; All the Light We Cannot See; Circling the Sun; and I cut out a review that looked good this week from Wall Street Journal: The Honeymoon.
