Summer is in full swing and WiLS staff is tearing through some fabulous books!
Do you have an opening on your summer reading list? Here are a few recommendations from us to you!
I just finished The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater knowing little about it except that it has been widely challenged in schools and libraries. Ultimately, this is a book intended to foster empathy and understanding of people embracing their authentic selves and the undeniable effects of systemic racism. It’s a story of consequences and accountability certainly, countered by the incredible power of love and forgiveness.
I’m embarrassed to admit that, for much of the time since COVID began, my brain has been too broken to read books. It’s a constant source of shame and has been a component of every New Year’s resolution since 2021. But I’m determined to make good on a change this summer! And to do so, I need a true page-turner so I’m currently reading Just Like Mother. It’s creeeeeeeepy and involves both dolls and cults and I got sunburned at the pool because I didn’t want to stop reading it long enough to put on sunscreen.
My favorite summer reads so far this year have to be The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman. The series focuses on four septuagenarian retirement home residents who insert themselves into various murder investigations and, naturally, play crucial roles in solving them. The characters are anything but one-dimensional and grapple with family relationships, memory, aging, and friendship. The plots are a little Slow Horses, a little Murder She Wrote, and Osman’s writing is laugh-out-loud funny.
I have many artists in my family tree and through friendships which is exhilarating and intimidating at the same time. I have had an idea for a graphic novel brewing in my head for several years and want to help it come to fruition. The problem is I can’t draw or at least I have a mental block about drawing, especially when comparing myself to the artists I am surrounded by. Enter Syllabus: Notes From an Accidental Professor by Lynda Barry. I learned about this gem from Sarah Miller at the WiLS Board retreat. It is literally the syllabus of Lynda Barry from a course she taught through the Art Department at UW-Madison. Barry teaches a way of writing that integrates the mind with words and images. She has exercises that coax the timid or self-conscious out of their cocoons and provide a comfort level in creating that I haven’t experienced before. An added bonus is a cameo appearance by a fellow WiLsian with the initials LDM.
I have been devouring books all summer and have enjoyed so many, including Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister, Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand, Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, and Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver. My favorite of the summer (so far) has been Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. It is a story of friendship and hope, and features a giant Pacific octopus who is a bit curmudgeonly but very endearing.
I just finished reading Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much by Jen Winston as my Pride-month-summer-pool read. While memoir in nature, Winston did an excellent job of tying her individual stories to broader cultural narratives around sexism, homophobia, racism, and intersectionality of identity, all while still being an easy and enjoyable read.
My daughter turned me on to Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, who also wrote Daisy Jones & The Six. This follows the end-of-summer of a famous family of kids of a famous rock star. Their inter-family struggles between each other and where their place in life culminates with the infamous family party in Malibu that produces not just revelations but tragedy, as the night turns to dawn. A great story from the time period of my young adult life that keeps you engrossed until the end!
Ever since Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and its depiction of poignant family dysfunction, I’ve been a big fan of Kate Atkinson. Her follow-up Jackson Brodie series gave the reader a detective with depth. In Shrines of Gaiety, Atkinson offers both. With a robust list of characters, the novel is led by three women, each trying to find their own form of happiness in glitzy, Jazz Age London.
It’s a struggle for me to pick up new books over the summer months, so I usually reread old favorites that I can easily set down and pick up again days, or even weeks, later. Right now I’m rereading (for the umpteenth time) Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. It’s a delightful fantasy novel that follows a small cast of characters as they begin to question what their society has deemed “immoral” and begin to once again introduce the fanciful and absurd into their lives. I’m also eagerly awaiting the release of a horror novel, Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle, which is certain to propel me back into reading new/new-to-me titles.
I’ve been on a mystery kick for a while, so my summer reads so far have been The Hollow (or Murder After Hours) by Agatha Christie, whose books I always adore, and noir classic The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet. I enjoyed the film adaptation with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Peter Lorre, so it’s interesting seeing the source material! My next book is going to be the newly released Divinity 36 by my favorite author, Gail Carriger, the first book of a new trilogy describing itself as “Murderbot meets Eurovision” and I can’t wait to start it!
I picked up The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley in an airport on the way to summer travels, and finished it before the end of my trip. The story of an 18-year-old teenager of Ojibwe and French heritage wraps up mystery, romance, Indigenous culture, and Midwest life in a fascinating story. My other summer fave has been the surprise Twitter hit This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Told in the form of letters between two futuristic enemies-turned-friends, I particularly loved listening to the audiobook version with two narrators. The story and writing are just gorgeous and completely breathtaking.