10 Books To Read Before Summer Is Over
A dysfunctional European vacation, a series of sensuous and lush short stories (for those super-short attention spans), an Indian wedding that sets off some much-needed romantic sparks and a dark, satiric thriller that involves a glossy lifestyle brand—let the books of late summer entertain, delight, compel and provoke you.
Here are 10 books to add to your summer reading list.
Destination Wedding by Diksha Basu
Indian-American streaming exec Tina Das wants it all: love, marriage and to create binge-worthy reality TV that shows the glitz and glamour of Indian life (rather than the grim documentary approach that Western culture eats up with a spoon.) It’s during a weeklong trip to India for her cousin’s wedding that Tina, her best friend, Marianne, and her divorced parents crack the code for having it all. Chrissy Teigen was “extremely obsessed” with this sophomore novel from bestselling author Diksha Basu, and if you’re in the mood for a series of well-heeled love stories, you might be, too. (Out now)
Exciting Times: A Novel by Naoise Dolan
Debut Irish novelist Naoise Dolan must be flattered (and fed up) with the inevitable comparisons to compatriot Sally Rooney. Both writers are young women with things to say about class, money and power, but Dolan’s Exciting Times pushes back harder against what compels us to defer to—rather than confront—what ails us. Narrator Ava, an Irish girl teaching English to children in Hong Kong, falls into the habit of hooking up with Julian, an expat British banker. She likes him, kind of, but along comes Edith, a lawyer for whom Ava appears to feel real passion. Slightly depth-deficient, there is still lots to admire in Dolan’s maiden flight. (Out now)
Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory
It all starts with a must-be-fate meeting in a bar between a gorgeous guy called Max, who happens to be a hotshot junior senator with heart, and Liv, an independent-minded, career-focused lawyer wanting to set up her own shop in L.A. What are the chances sparks will fly? Pretty good in this latest outing from New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory, the fifth instalment in a successful romcom series. Party of Two isn’t all fun and games and familiar tropes—the attraction of opposites, clandestine dating, wacky disguises and those inevitable pesky secrets. Guillory adeptly tackles the vicissitudes of interracial dating in a fraught culture in ways both meaningful and genre-appropriate—and to the author’s credit, Liv and Max’s first meeting isn’t that cute. (Out now)
So We Can Glow by Leesa Cross-Smith
This is a collection of short stories you’ll want by your side. Cross-Smith is an author (check out her 2018 novel, Whiskey and Ribbons) with a thrilling talent for language. This is a book about womanhood in all of its luscious, secret and confounding incarnations. The collection consists of 42 stories—some a startlingly short, sharp shock—but all shaped to illuminate aspects of womanly desire. Regardless of length, these stories unfold intelligently but organically. More poetry than prose, if you don’t know what it’s like to be a woman when you start reading, you’ll have a pretty good idea by the end. (Out now)
The Ghost in the House by Sara O’Leary
Canadian children’s author Sara O’Leary makes her adult fiction debut with The Ghost in the House, a high-concept story both light and dark whose narrative is a ghost story with a difference—this spectre is more haunted than the house she wanders. Forever thirtysomething Fay comes to the shocking realization that she’s dead but not. Her never-say-die spirit discovers she’s living the invisible life in her former house with her “beautiful” husband, Alec and his new wife, Janet and troubled stepdaughter, Dee. The encounter between a dead woman who wants to live and a teenage girl who wants to die rattles with a life-isn’t-fair vibe. But that’s part of the fun, too. (Out now)
The Herd by Andrea Bartz
Katie Bradley is a freelance journalist trying to snag membership into the exclusive members-only women’s co-working space, The Herd. Fronted by glamorous beauty tycoon and lifestyle blogger, Eleanor Walsh, The Herd is the place where feminist-branded influencers network while indulging in on-site yoga. Katie thinks she has an in at the exclusive club–and a scoop–that will redeem her ambitions for her floundering career, but The Herd’s gleaming interiors conceal some fairly primitive foundations and its leadership is united by a terrible secret. The second novel from Brooklyn-based Bartz, The Herd adds a splash of Girl Boss-inflected satire to the thriller. It’s a swirling concoction that gets darker as you go. (Out now)
The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward
Family. Take a moment to let that word roll around in your mind, gathering all its associated emotions/reactions/triggers as it revolves, and you’ll get some idea of what to expect from The Jetsetters. Funny, sad, tortured and toxic, bestselling author Amanda Eyre Ward’s sixth novel takes lonely 71-year-old matriarch, Charlotte Perkins, on the European tour of her life. Tagging along for the ride are her three singularly troubled adult children, Lee, Cord and Regan. It’s a journey, to put it mildly. The novel, which has been given the seal of approval from no less than Oprah and Reese Witherspoon, is both cinematic and emotional. If you close your eyes (not an easy task when you read, unfortunately) you can see the likely film or TV adaptation. (Out now)
Wow, No Thank You: Essays by Samantha Irby
Samantha Irby, who made a big splash with Meaty and We Are Never Meeting In Real Life, continues to ride a sustained wave of acclaim for her work.Wow, No Thank You, her latest, larger-than-life collection of essays, intentionally comes on like a steamroller with unreliable brakes—part of its marauding charm—daring readers to laugh or risk being flattened. Irby elevates self-deprecation to the status of art. Sex, anxiety, depression, bodily fluids, gastric distress, chin hair—Irby has her favourites, and so do her legion of deserved fans. (Out now)
All I Ask by Eva Crocker
All I Ask is the first novel for Newfoundland author Eva Crocker. Set in St. John’s and narrated by Stacey, an aspiring actor in her twenties, the novel, which shifts between past and present, starts with a bang: The police knocking on Stacey’s door, demanding entrance and seizing her computer. This is no police procedural, though the unnerving invasion of privacy and implicit threat provides a representative foundation of uncertainty. Confident and gritty, with a gift for dialogue, Crocker, the daughter of writer Lisa Moore, creates a credible enough community of friends and lovers trying to navigate a world in which boundaries vanish and goal posts shift. (Aug. 4)
Luster by Raven Leilani
Edie is a 23-year-old, underemployed orphan who gets involved with an older married white man, his wife (they have an open marriage) and their adopted tween daughter, Akila. Like Edie, Akila is a Black girl struggling against what that means when mainstream white culture sets the terms. Called “taut and funny,” by Zadie Smith, Leilani’s first novel is that and more: bitter, erotic, angry, destructive and full of longing. At its core, it’s a portrait of an artist in the process of creating herself, an exercise that demands a bit of self-destruction. (Aug. 4)
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