Hey, friends,
It’s officially summer. I hope some lazy reading time is on your agenda—maybe on a porch or in a hammock—because I’ve got a bumper crop of book recs for you.
I didn’t read as much as I’d hoped this past month (new puppy alert!), but I’m including some new titles I have waiting in the wings that you may want to check out, too.
What I Read This Month
The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey: Recommended to me by a former colleague at the AKC. Great homework before Humphrey came home and something I keep reaching for now he’s here! 🐶
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld: One of my favorite phrases is “Can You Imagine?” Sittenfeld applies that question to Hillary Clinton, and this novel is hard to put down. Even if it makes you sad to imagine what could have been.
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout: Have you read Olive Kitteridge? This is the follow-up to that collection of interconnected stories set in small-town Maine. Strout is a master at conjuring unique characters, but none are as magnetic as the cantankerous, says-whatever-is-on-her-mind Olive.
Next Up
Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino. I loved her earlier novel, 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas, so when I read this excerpt of her new book—about a grandmother who shows up in the form of a bird on the eve of the protagonist’s wedding—I was chomping at the bit to read more.
I also want to crack open a book that came out earlier in the spring, Perfect Tunes by Emily Gould. Escaping into the music world of NYC circa the early 2000s (a time when I was a music editor at a magazine) sounds like the perfect way to forget 2020 for a spell—much like Writers & Lovers was for me last month.
Recent Purchases
There are lots of great lists showcasing Black writers and books, and it’s been awesome to see some of them hit the bestseller lists. Of course, I hope people continue to read and support Black authors—and bookstores (like Loyalty Books in D.C.)—year-round, not just in this moment.
This is not a one-off for me—writers of color are usually in my reading mix. (If I have a bias, it’s that I read way more women than men, but I’m not going to apologize for that!). But to support the recent lift of Black voices, I used a birthday gift card to buy the following batch of books that had been on my wish list:
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (he made an impression on me at last November’s Miami Book Fair)
D’Angelo’s Voodoo by Faith A. Pennick, a fellow 33 ⅓ author
How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones (I’m one of his many Twitter fans; the paperback edition comes out on July 7th)
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward (the author of one of my favorite novels, Salvage the Bones)
They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib, who I first discovered through his evocative writing about music. He has a cool Skillshare class on writing lyric essays and narrative poetry, too.
I also want to recommend a memoir I read last year — Heavy by Kiese Laymon, whose powerful stories and words echoed in my brain for weeks. You may have read his “City Summer, Country Summer” piece in The New York Times recently.
New Novels Getting Buzz & Awaiting My Eyeballs
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett — an instant New York Times bestseller (the first Black author to top the list this year, her agent points out) and, as of yesterday, a HBO limited series in the making.
A Burning by Megha Majumdar (great New Yorker review here)
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh (skim some of the reviews here.)
Other New Titles I’m Intrigued By
More Miracle Than Bird by Alice Miller: Historical fictionalization of the love story between Georgie Hyde-Lees and W. B. Yeats during World War I.
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan: Sally Rooney-esque, say most reviewers, but set in Hong Kong.
Places I've Taken My Body by Molly McCully Brown: Essays on living with “a disabled and conspicuous body, a religious conversion, a missing twin, a life in poetry” and more.
Also in My Current Stack
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin, an award-winning sci-fi and fantasy author. Genre is not usually my jam but the New Yorker profile on Jemisin and a sample (the prologue) of this new title reeled me in. I bought it on Kindle and then a friend loaned me her hardcover. (Much easier to read actual books in the sun. ☀️)
The Gilded Wolves by Rhosani Chokshi, a gift from a friend, who said this tale set in 1889 Paris would be a good summer read.
Love is Love is Reading
Books by queer authors are often in my reading stacks (some I recommended both last time and here), but if you’re looking for some of the year’s best LGBTQ books, O Magazine ran a big list of titles, both out now and on the horizon, to mark Pride this month.
OK, I’ll stop there, because I can talk books allll day. Let me know if you’d like any more info on any of the books I’ve mentioned. And if you want to share what you’ve been reading—or want to read‚ please drop those deets in the comments below, or shoot me an email.
If you’re in a holiday weekend mode for the Fourth, enjoy and stay safe (that means masks and sunscreen, please).
Cheers,
Rebecca
Disclosure: This newsletter includes affiliate links to the books featured from Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you happen to click through and make a purchase. Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores.