4 Books to Read This Summer
It's time for fun, frothy, page-turning reads
Summer is for reading!
(I say that every season, but this time I really mean it.)
To me, summer books are best served fast-paced and frothy. But I also love reading a long-ass book at the cabin, or a dishy memoir. Anything too dark or literary or Russian can wait until winter. Here’s a few enjoyable reads to add to your list.
P.S. Check out my entire list of book recs here. I like buying online from Bookshop.org, where a portion of sales goes to a local bookstore of your choosing. Jeff Bezos doesn’t need any more money.
Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand
Elin Hilderbrand is the queen or summer reads. And while many of her novels feature monied folk set in Nantucket, she’s masterful at character development, tension, and writing stories with a deep sense of place. I can’t remember who said Hilderbrand could write the next Great American Novel if she wanted (was it Barbara Kingsolver or Anne Patchett? Either way, they know what’s what), but that’s just not what she’s all about.
This might be a little inside baseball, but Hilderbrand attended the iconic Iowa Writer’s Workshop and apparently… did not have the best time. She told the Kirkus review:
My brand of fiction was not appreciated, you might say, and this is even before I started writing about Nantucket. Everybody else was very serious, very dark, very literary, and they looked at me as like this little chirping bird.”
I want to hug her. I’ve often felt judged by the Serious Writing Community for not being literary enough. Sorry dudes, I’m not going to start using words like loquacious, or pen poems in my free time, and most people don’t like reading your boring Serious Literary Works. (Am I the only one who quit on page 16 of Lincoln in the Bardo?)
They like reading Swan Song, a story about a mysterious wealthy couple who buys an iconic but doomed Nantucket property for $22M and spends the whole summer wooing the town’s elite with their freaky-deaky fancy parties. And then someone goes missing, and there’s a fire, and the about-to-retire police chief has to Sherlock Holmes it all together before Labor Day. Come on, what sounds like a better summer read, that or an experimental literary exploration of Honest Abe’s son’s soul trapped in purgatory with a bunch of talkative ghosts? No question which one’s going in my beach bag.
Read this if: You’ve dreamed of a Nantucket vacation. You love gossip. You would wait in line for 90 minutes for a perfect lobster roll. You’ve ever wondered what happens at chichi country clubs. You like a whodunnit. You loved White Lotus.
Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn
Raise your hand if you didn’t get the All Fours hype.✋ Maybe read Amy Shearn’s Animal Instinct as a palate cleanser. It’s less weird, more relatable, and doesn’t have a menopause chart or a “sexy” tampon scene.
42-year-old Rachel leaves her clueless and often cruel husband who’s been taking her for granted ever since they signed the marriage license. They share now custody of their three kids. Rachel moms every other week, trying to turn her crummy Brooklyn apartment into a semblance of a home. And during her child-free weeks? She goes ham on dating apps, hooking up with all sort of people— men, women, musicians, olds, youngs— all during the height of COVID-19. But that’s just to satisfy her physically. To support her emotional needs, Rachel, a talented software engineer, creates an AI lover aimed at texting her the exact right thing (to various levels of success and disaster).
There is a lot of sex in this book. However, it’s not a romance and it’s not smut (both genres I enjoy). It’s more like dipping into a woman’s inner monologue about the sex she’s engaging in rather than the act itself; and what we need in order to feel seen and loved. We’re voyeurs into Rachel’s realization that her body is actually pretty great and partners don’t seem to care about her cellulite. She learns she’s way more into sex now that she’s not carrying the emotional load for five humans. We get to see a middle-aged woman freed to seek out exactly what she needs.
Read this if: You’re considering divorce (or going through one). You want to reconnect with yourself after years of being a wife or mom (even if you’re largely happy in your marriage/family life. I love my life [most days] and I got a lot out of this book). If you’re a hetero man looking to understand women in their 40s and beyond. You have a sense of humor and you’re not a prude.
Heartwood by Amity Gaige
It’s Wild meets The God of the Woods— a page-turning thriller set in the forests of Maine. 42-year-old nurse Valerie Gillis goes missing in the final 200 miles of her Appalachian Trail hike. We hear bits of the story from Valerie’s perspective, as well as from Beverly (the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie) and Lena, a seventy-six-year-old forager in a Connecticut retirement community, who becomes an armchair detective. Good twists and turns, beautiful setting, and perfect for summer reading.
Read this if: You like a thriller that’s not gross or violent or comes with a long list of trigger warnings. You enjoy hiking and the outdoors. You enjoy a book about strong women who push boundaries. You wonder how you’d do if you got lost in the woods, and if you’d be willing to drink your own pee or whatever to survive.
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me by Adrienne Broder
If you think your family’s messed up, you’ll be in good company with Adrienne Brodeur. I think I first heard about this book on Dani Shapiro’s podcast, Family Secrets (it’s so good! Listen to it here). At 14, Brodeur learns about her mother’s affair with a close family friend and spends the next many years not just covering it up, but helping her needy mother facilitate the whole thing. It’s three scoops of parentified child, topped with personality disorder sprinkles, and written with so much vulnerability.
Read this if: You love a dysfunctional family story. You enjoy a well-written and honest memoir. You enjoy beach life and lobster rolls (OMG the first book on my list takes place in Nantucket, this one is mostly on Cape Cod— make it a double feature!). You love a good dinner party. You like a story about the unintended consequences of secret keeping. You’re wild game curious, and by that I mean interested in venison, elk, and clams. It’ll all make sense once you start reading.
What’s one of your favorite summer reads? Old, new, whatever! Share with the rest of us!
Thanks for including ANIMAL INSTINCT! What great company!
Ohhh! I am 1000% tackling all of these this summer. I really do need a palate cleanser after All Fours.