Highly Recommended: Early Summer Reading List
Welcome to my first Highly Recommended book list!
As an occupational kick-back, I read a lot, which is a dream come true for me because now when I buy books, it is a tax write off. Also, because I am an author, I now get a lot of books for free (!!!), which is why to know me, means that you will probably leave my house with a book…or four.
I love reading and talking about it but I often feel overwhelmed when I sit down and try to distill what I found amazing about a book into a digestible 30 second video for Instagram, so I kind of just stopped doing that. But I haven’t stopped reading! And it is important for me to be a good literary citizen, meaning that I want to promote the work of other authors and I want to get as many people reading as possible. Hopefully Substack will be the perfect place to do that.
Here’s some recent books that I would suggest putting on your summer reading list*.
Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
This book was the literary equivalent of edging. There’s so many secrets. Everyone has a secret and you don’t really know what any of them are and how they are related until the very end. There’s also a phrase that was kept secret that I was sure I would explode if I didn’t find out what it is right then and there. When you read the book, you’ll see what I mean. I thought it was an excellent story and make sure you read the author’s note after since it was since a thoughtfully and well constructed book. I am the kind of reader who doesn’t need any push besides someone I respect and admire telling me that something is “good” but I realize that most people need a little more than that. So what I will tell you about this book is that it is about an affluent Black family (my favorite drama) who suffers an unimaginable tragedy and the ripple effects from that event on their lives. There’s romantic drama, financial stakes, racial tension and…surprisingly, history! It takes place between South Carolina and coastal New England (another favorite genre of mine) so it will be great to read on the beaches of MV, Nantucket or the Outerbanks.
To Have and Have More by Sanibel
This book was so good it made me want to throw up. I read it in a day and a half, which for me, a famously slow reader, is saying something. The readability of it is only one of its many strengths. Sanibel captures something so authentic in her characters and about the culture of prep school at large. Yes, this book is a prep school satire. You guessed it, one of my favorite genres. To Have and Have More is a narrative about Emery a Koren girl adopted into a wealthy white family and how she is able to moderate her identity through the lens of her privilege until she strikes up an unlikely friendship with Lilah, a first generation Chinese American who is equal parts enchanted with and afraid of Emery. Since I also went to a Connecticut prep school in the mid-aughts, this book brought back some visceral memories. The perfectly written characters with just the right amount of tenderness and observations that were chilling in parts left me thinking about it for a long time. This is one for the Hamptons or wherever it is you summer.
Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan
The third book in Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland series is one of the most anticipated books of the year and I will not miss the opportunity to humble brag here because Kennedy Ryan sent me a galley of this book, personally. I read it in one weekend, also pretty fast for me. If you are familiar with Kennedy’s other books in this series, this one also includes a lot of sexy scenes, complex family dynamics and softhearted friendship moments that make you want to text your bestie. This book also features a Black billionaire. I’m sure you know by now that I am going to say: my favorite genre! In my book, The Rules of Fortune, there’s also a Black billionaire family (derogatory) but in this case, Maverick Bell is handsome and kind and is a Black billionaire (complimentary) with a conscience. This book you can read anywhere. I would recommend near a pool or in a hammock, though.
Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith
So, historical fiction is actually NOT my preferred drama mostly because if you are going to accurately portray the history of America, there are so many uncomfortable truths to confront that it often makes the reading experience very distracting for me and mildly traumatic. In this case however, the historical setting provides so much tension and drama and I loved it! This book is about an ambitious lesbian who enters into a lavender marriage that she cleverly orchestrates between two gay men who she sets up as business partners and later lovers. It takes place at the turn of the 20th century (aka Reconstructionist America which you see what I mean about the trauma, right?) in New York City. I also love novels set in New York and not just because it’s where I am from. Also because it really feels like anything is possible in New York. So Mutual Interest is like a more scandalous Gilded Age which I also love. It is a love story but it is also pretty tragic to really think about how much people had to disguise who they really were not just in the name of success but in the name of physical safety. I also love the way this book was written, very unique. Read this on the subway on the way home on a Summer Friday.
Nothing Serious by Emily J. Smith
I got a galley of this book too and I really liked it. The concept was immediately arresting. Edie is a wayward 35 year old woman living in San Francisco in the dating trenches. She is one of those main characters that is pretty frustrating. She hates her job but does it anyway, has a lot of family trauma and can’t ever really say what it is that she wants. What she really wants is for her boy bestie from college to wake up one day and fall in love with her. He’s a tech founder and millionaire who recently broke up with his girlfriend and though Edie is thirsty for him, he dosen’t see her at all and begins dating girls in their early 20s because he has to “figure out what he wants”. You know the type. Then he meets a really hot professor girl who he likes and Edie likes. Edie is kind of thrown for a loop because she thought that a girl his own age, an intellectual one at that, would not be what he goes for. And then this girl turns up dead…after a date with him. So now Edie has to figure out if she is in love with a murderer and deal with all her other shit. It really makes you think! I loved this one for a little lakeside read. I can say that now since I live in Milwaukee.
Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
This book is so good it makes me start shaking when I have to talk about it. You guessed it, it’s from one of my favorite genres which is wealthy white mess. This one cuts especially deep because I am from New York and it just all felt so true. Long Island Comprise is a generational family story about a Jewish family in Long Island and the problems that they all inherit when the patriarch is kidnapped, held for ransom and then returned. The layers of this story are so deep and I really did not see the end coming. It was brilliant on every level. There were some laugh out loud moments as well as ethical questions that came up. I love to talk about this book with anyone so if you read it, please come chat. Obviously read this one in the Hamptons, on the Jitney or on the LIRR out there.
This is what Barbie (the movie) tried to be and it is the narrative that we deserved, frankly. This is a Black Mirror situation in that it takes place in a world like ours but slightly in the future. Annie is the central character and she is sentient artificial intelligence. She was “purchased” and created to serve her owner Doug who broke up with his fiance and wanted a girlfriend that would do anything and everything he said. This is an oversimplification but stay with me. Annie looks like a human and every day she understands more and more about herself and about the world. She becomes the blueprint for a program studying what can happen when the Annie-bots gain consciousness. Then Doug replaces Annie with a new robot as punishment because Annie starts to fight back. That’s when the real fun begins. I loved this book for all the questions it raised around consent, technology and human behavior. Warning: it might make you pissed off at your boyfriend! Read this on a girl’s trip or in the airport on your way to your Euro vacation.
I can’t believe this is the sentence I am going to write but this book takes place in Arkansas. I read a lot and this is the first book I have read with that setting. It centers around a university where a writer moves there to study how women in college are thinking about finances. You know I am going to say that I love books that talk about money and class. It’s true! I do. Money is so emotional and this book really gets messy. It’s kind of hard to talk about without spoilers but I will say it has multiple POVs and there’s at least one menty b that ends in a hospital visit. This book has drama but also a lot of humor and a little romance. Read this in your little cabin in the woods in the Berkshires or wherever you go.
*This list contains affiliate links and I linked to Amazon because I read most of my books on Kindle but feel free to search these titles at other book sellers.