2021 Summer Reading Guide
Readable books for all readers
It’s mid-July, and that means if you haven’t already done some summer reading, it is time to start. As I mentioned in my beach read post a few weeks ago, I don’t think that summer reading has to be easy or without substance. The ideal beach read is one in your comfort zone; one that is inherently fast-paced and readable for you. The following list includes books from a variety of genres, all of which are interesting and fast-paced. There are a few books on this list that have appeared in other posts, but that just proves that they are the best in their category. If you want a specific recommendation that you don’t see on this list, please feel free to reach out. Happy summer reading!
Traditional Books for the Beach
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It - Elle Cosimano
Finlay Donovan is Killing It is a propulsive, smart, and fast-paced read - everything I like in my beach reads. Finlay is a financially struggling, recently divorced mother of two young kids. She is also a mystery writer. While at lunch with her editor pitching an idea for a new murder mystery that she was supposed to start months ago, Finlay gets slipped a note by the woman sitting next to them offering her $50,000 to kill her husband. While insistent that she does not want to get involved, Finlay can not keep her curiosity at bay and decides to inconspicuously meet the man she has been hired to kill. Once there, a series of mishaps create a snowball of events that plunges Finlay headfirst into the coverup of a murder at the same time that she is trying to solve it. Along the way, Finlay gets wrapped up in a police investigation and a run-in with the D.C. branch of the Russian mafia. While elements of the mystery can sometimes feel a little convenient, the book is overall creative and crisp. Cosimano adeptly pulls in little details that would normally be ignored by the reader to tie the mystery together and has created funny and charming characters that makes this book hard to put down.
Rating: 9/10
Beach Read - Emily Henry
January is a “women’s fiction” writer, struggling to overcome writer’s block after the loss of her father and desperate for her work to be recognized in the way that she thinks her books deserve. With a deadline looming, January goes to a beach house that her father has left her in his will to get away from distractions. When she gets there she accidentally reunites with Augustus, an old rival from her writing classes at college, who inadvertently lives next door and happens to be a renowned and respected author of literature. Hoping to force one another to respect the work that they each do, January and Augustus accept a challenge to write a book in the other’s genre, and along the way learn that their assumptions might have been just that. (They may also fall in love, but you have to read the book to find out.)
Rating: 9/10
Thriller/Mystery
Who Is Maud Dixon? - Alexandra Andrews
Florence Darrow is an aspiring writer stuck in a job as an editorial assistant at a mid-level publishing house. When she gets the opportunity to work for the internationally acclaimed author, Helen Wilcox, Florence jumps at the chance. Helen Wilcox works under the pseudonym Maud Dixon, and Florence is one of the only people who knows her identity. Florence quickly becomes infatuated with Helen’s lifestyle and begins to emulate her with the hopes that she too might someday be as successful. After a few weeks, Helen proposes a research trip to Morocco, and it is there that things start to unravel. About a week into their trip, Florence and Helen get into a car accident and when Florence wakes up in the hospital Helen is missing. Assuming that she has died, Florence decides to take on her identity and finish Helen’s second novel for her. I won’t include any spoilers, but taking on someone else’s identity is generally a recipe for disaster, and Florence begins to discover that there is more to Helen (and Maud) than meets the eye that may well be dangerous.
Rating: 8.5/10
The Plot - Jean Hanff-Korelitz
The Plot is a thriller that follows a writer named Jake, who after the dwindling sales of his first and second novels is desperate to be known for something more successful. While teaching at a low-residency MFA program in Vermont, Jake meets Evan Parker, a student who swears he has the plot for the next best-selling phenomenon. A few years later and struggling even more than when he was teaching, Jake discovers that Evan has died and that his book with the ironclad plot has possibly died with him. Never once asking where Evan came up with his ideas, Jake decides to write the book himself, justifying his actions by convincing himself that some stories are allowed to be borrowed in order to be told. And Evan was right, the book becomes a bestseller and all of Jake's fantasies of becoming a famous, well-respected author come true. That is, until Jake starts to receive messages from an anonymous person saying that Jake plagiarized the story and threatening to reveal the truth to the world. Despite the fact that Jake is not a particularly likable character, I couldn't help but be invested in him and his story, if only because Jake is the vehicle through which the author reveals what is actually going on. Although this is a thriller, the first three quarters of the book are not particularly fast-paced. However, this is not a bad thing. The author's pacing lures the reader into a false sense of security, slowly building up the drama until the final section of the book where all of the details are revealed. While I did guess some of the twists and red flags, (or at some points had sneaking suspicions), I was still focused on the plot and dreaded what could happen to Jake once all the pieces came together. I loved the way that the author ended the book (no spoilers) and the break from the arc of a traditional storyline. This is a well thought-out and interesting thriller that will keep readers guessing and pages turning.
Rating: 9/10
History and Current Events
Thanks, Obama - David Litt
This book is a hilarious inside-look at the life of a mid-level staffer in the White House. The humor of this book was heightened in audio format, which is how I read it, and I definitely laughed out loud multiple times. Litt was a speechwriter for Obama between 2011-2016. He wrote on serious policy issues like climate change and criminal justice, but was also Obama’s go-to for comedy, writing Obama’s famous speeches at the White House Correspondents Dinners. Litt writes like a guy who can’t believe he worked in the White House, which is fair because he graduated from college in 2008. Many of the experiences he relates show Litt and other young staffers like him stumbling through the corridors of power fueled almost exclusively by intense idealism. Their inexperienced proximity to power was made clear while Litt was preparing the speech Obama would give at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, which in its first draft, was supposed to include a joke about Osama Bin Laden. In rehearsal the day before, Obama had to convince his writers to change the reference without giving any explanation. While Litt complains to readers that the speechwriting team thought the joke was funnier in its original form, he also writes that they had no idea that the Bin Laden raid would take place 3 days later, highlighting the proximity Litt had to important moments, while not quiet being in the room where decisions were made. I highly recommend this book. It is humorous and insightful, and a reminder of how idealism is not always a bad thing.
Say Nothing - Patrick Radden Keefe
Say Nothing is a history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The book is certainly not light, but it is incredibly readable, as is everything that Radden Keefe writes. Radden Keefe hones in on the stories of a handful of people, from key political players to ordinary citizens, to tell the broader story of the conflict. Through this, readers are exposed to the violent drama of Belfast’s recent history in such an accessible way that at times it reads and feels like fiction. If Patrick Radden Keefe wrote a history of paint, I would read it. That’s how good of an author he is and that’s how good of a book this is.
Rating: 9/10
The Spy and the Traitor
This book might possibly be one of my favorite books of all time and that is saying something. Despite being non-fiction, this book reads like a novel both in the way that Macintyre writes and also what he is writing about. The Spy and the Traitor is about the life of Oleg Gordievsky, a career KGB agent who rises to the top post in London all the while working as a double agent for MI6. Despite the tight-knit intelligence sharing relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, MI6 was careful to never share the name of their high-value source with the CIA in an attempt to protect his identity. However, this secrecy only acted to fuel the curiosity of Aldrich Ames, a CIA officer later discovered to be acting as a double agent for the KGB, who ultimately identified Gordievsky’s identity. Ames’ identification prompts one of the more heart-pumping scenes in the book, as Gordievsky is extracted out of Moscow to the safety of English obscurity. The Spy and the Traitor is a book about chance and the way that well-sourced intelligence can alter the course of history. As a double agent with nearly unrestricted access, Gordievsky worked to foil Soviet intelligence plots and de-escalate nuclear tensions between the major powers.
Rating: 10/10
Fiction to Take You Someplace Else
The Vietri Project - Nicola DeRobertis-Theye
The Vietri Project is a coming of age novel that follows Gabrielle as she attempts to find her place in the world. It is 2011, and unable to get a job post-financial crisis, Gabrielle leaves a position in a bookstore in Berkeley where she has spent the past two years filling large and eclectic orders for a mysterious man named Vietri based in Rome. Feeling stuck, Gabrielle decides to travel the world and ends up in Rome, the city of her mother’s birth and adolescence, in an attempt to overtly learn more about Vietri and simultaneously subconsciously learn about herself.
While Gabrielle moves through Rome, readers learn that at twenty-five, her mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia, an affliction that left her institutionalized in California and upended Gabrielle’s childhood and connections to her family. As a result, Gabrielle’s search for meaning is not confined to the typical tropes of a coming of age novel. Rather, Gabrielle is acutely aware of the fact that the average age of a woman to be diagnosed with schizophrenia is her own age, and that at any moment her life and reality could be ripped away from her without any notice. The Vietri Project is Nicola DeRobertis-Theye’s first novel, and it is impressive for the sense of place it evokes. The writing is lyrical and Gabrielle’s observations moved me not just for the descriptions of Rome, but also due to the descriptions of complicated relationships within families, and a young person unsure of what comes next.
Rating: 9/10
His Only Wife - Peace Adzo Medie
Set in Ghana, His Only Wife is about Afi, a seamstress who agrees to marry a rich man she does not know without him being present. The marriage has been organized by his mother who hopes that by arranging this marriage her son will leave his current girlfriend who the family disapproves of. Unfortunately, Afi does not know all of this when she agrees to get married, and is in for a rude awakening when she moves to the capital of Accra and her new husband shows limited interest. His Only Wife is an interesting meditation on marriage and power, as Afi’s only reason to stay is a promise of financial security for her mother. Along the way, Afi must decide if she is okay being a prop or if she is going to stand up for herself and find her own agency. I loved this book both for Afi’s journey as well as for the descriptions of life in Accra.
Rating: 9/10
My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite
Korede would do anything for her sister Ayoola, including helping her clean up her messes, which sometimes include dead bodies. Ayoola is everything that Korede thinks she is not, beautiful, likable, and effortless in relationships. However, when Ayoola gets tired of boyfriends she has an unfortunate tendency to kill them. Ayoola then calls Korede who comes in and, out of fear for the consequences that her sister would face if caught, makes sure there is no evidence left behind. Their dysfunctional relationship continues like this until Ayoola sets her eyes on a doctor at the Nigerian hospital that Korede works and whom Korede has been in love with for a long time. Suddenly Korede must make a choice about how much she is willing to do for her sister, and whether or not she can continue to aid and abet her destructive behavior. This book is short, fast-paced, and perfect for a long weekend when you want to experience something new without leaving your couch.
Rating: 9/10
Disappearing Earth
When two sisters go missing off the beach of the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia, the small community is forced to reckon with the consequences as it tries to figure out what happened. Told through alternating and non-repeating perspectives from different members of the community, readers are exposed to the complicated social and political landscape of the remote region. Although it is as far from Moscow as possible while still being in Russia, the people living on the Kamchatka Peninsula still live with the aftereffects of the Kremlin’s politics, and there are many on the peninsula who long for the order and stability of the Soviet era. Coupled with tensions between the indigenous population and European transplants, the town struggles with accusations about what happened and what it means to co-exist. While the subject matter of the book is dark, I have never read a book set in this area of the world, and I found myself transported to the harsh winters, stunning oceans, and large swaths of uninhabitable land that make this book compelling and unique.
Rating: 9/10
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Hi Jodi, Ran into your Mom at a picnic the other day and she shared the link to your blog. Looking forward to following up on some of your recommendations! In the meantime, I have two books to suggest...one a kind of echoing of the Northern Ireland-thriller vibe in this week's list: Adrien McKinty's _The Chain_. It's a quick read...maybe belongs at the beach? The other is Kazuo Ishiguro's _Klara and the Sun_. Would be curious to hear what you think about both! All the best, Darryl