What you should read this summer
Page-turning paperbacks to toss in your summer beach bag
In a parallel universe, there’s a version of me that spent the weekend deep in the final pages of Anna Karenina, and spent yesterday polishing off a Play the Hits newsletter featuring an AK review and a bit of modern world-building.
In *this* universe, I spent the weekend biking to and from the beach, playing with a puppy, taking my niece to the playground, and searching in vain for ice cream (what town doesn’t have an ice cream shop?!) It reminded me of the infamous Harry Styles Don’t Worry Darling interview, where he states that it’s good because “it feels like a movie.” People roasted him, but I knew what he meant. Because this weekend felt like “SUMMER!” All caps, exclamation point.
You know what doesn’t feel like summer? An 800-page work of Russian literature about a woman on the verge. Let me preface this by saying: I’m enjoying Anna Karenina. BUT: its contents are incongruent with my desired summer vibe. That’s not to say I won’t finish it—I fully intend to, hopefully by next week. But AK is serious, and summer is not a time to be taken seriously.
Historically, the season has been one giant free period; three months of unbridled freedom after nine spent indoors at school. Anna Karenina is the type of book you’d read during the academic year in order to enjoy quick reads like The DaVinci Code and The Other Boleyn Girl [the first two page-turners I remember reading; insert your own here] guilt-free. And so I’ve decided: my summer intention is fly through fun, “fast” books as nature intended, and save the rest of the classics on my list for the back-to-school season (but, again, I promise I’ll finish Anna first).
With that in mind, here are a few fun, older (as in: more than a year old) books I’ve read over the years that you may have missed. They’re all perfect for tossing in a beach bag or flying through on your next flight abroad.
This is one of the more recent releases on my list. I read it on my honeymoon last year and was completely gripped. I wrote a full review here, but the gist is: Ola is a successful journalist at a feminist UK magazine, famous for exposing problematic men. She revels in the opportunity to hold people accountable for their bad behavior, until one day, her editor commissions her to write a story on a new list of “shitty men in media”*—and she sees her fiancé on it. It’s an absorbing read that keeps you guessing until the very end and a deft exploration of an extremely sensitive topic. I might not be making it sound “fun,” but trust me…you’ll tear through it.
Read this if: you’ve ever worked in the entertainment or publishing industry
*those who worked in media/were ~very online~ in 2017 (who amongst us WASN’T?!) will remember that this was an actual list, which is what gave Adegoke the idea for the book
Other People’s Clothes, Calla Henkel
You know how you’ll occasionally have a book on your list for years? Other People’s Clothes was one of those for me. I saw it teased as an upcoming release in a 2020 TikTok (by a literary scout, whose handle was someooatmeal, and who seems to have disappeared from the internet…) and thought it looked great. But for whatever reason, I didn’t buy it. It might’ve been because I read Happy Hour around the time I was considering the purchase; they felt similar, and Happy Hour was good, but also kind of sad. I digress.
I wrote a full review here, but Other People’s Clothes is like Tàr meets Heathers meets Jay McInerney. It’s about two girls who go abroad to Berlin in the early aughts, as the Amanda Knox case is unfolding. They meet a mysterious writer who offers them her stunning apartment at a ridiculously reduced price. It all feels too good to be true - because it is. This book took so many twists and turns—there are lots of ways to describe it, but let’s go with CHIC. (Michiko Kakutani is shaking…)
Read this if: you’ve ever thought about whether or not you’d get into Berghain
Everybody Rise, Stephanie Clifford
Everybody Rise is a book about a wannabe WASP named Evelyn and her desperate attempts to penetrate the upper echelons of old school Manhattan on the cusp of the 2008 recession. It’s a book I’d lend to the influencers on TikTok recommending Chanel suits as a means of achieving quiet luxury. Clifford knows that real WASPs wear fisherman sweaters and old khakis with holes in them. The book is peppered with her keen observations of this social set; everything from their seemingly simple social customs to stylistic conventions to dietary preferences—and she injects this ancient world with the modern anxieties of a looming recession and an outsider living in constant fear of being found out. It’s also quite clearly Edith Wharton inspired, and though I did just put a metaphorical pin in reading the classics until fall, there may be some Wharton-inspired content coming to this letter courtesy of a special guest soon…watch this space.
Read this if: you know what the Ausable Club is
On a random spring Friday 2016, when I was working at Harper’s BAZAAR, we were all in the office when our Publisher decided to magnanimously release us to enjoy an “early summer Friday.” It was so last-minute that I had no plans, and—given that it wasn’t an actual holiday—no friends who also had the day off, so I went home and decided to pick up the first book I saw on my shelf. It was Rebecca. I spent the entire afternoon and evening reading it, refusing to stop until I was finished. Rebecca is about an unnamed narrator who wins the heart of a rich man named Maxim de Winter. He marries her and spirits her away to his estate, where all of the staff hate her—they’re still mourning the loss of his first wife, Rebecca. It’s an OG thriller, with some shock twists in the second half. It might not hold the same allure as a shiny new hardcover, but I promise you won’t regret reading.
Read this if: you’ve seen the Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice…more than once
Thrillers are my guilty pleasure. If I’m having a bad week, I will go to Shakespeare & Co. and buy any thriller with a Reese’s Book Club sticker slapped on top. I’m not picky (although there was one that I did hate, message me privately👼); but I prefer when they’re good (hot take). In my mind, Lucy Foley is the current undisputed master (I also love Harriet Walker). The Hunting Party is about a group of Oxford friends who spend New Year’s at a remote lodge in the Scottish Highlands (side note, I’m dying to spend Christmas at the Fife Arms but my dad thinks it will be too depressing because of the early sunsets. Thoughts?). You know someone is dead from the start of the book but you don’t know who or why until the very end.
Foley’s books are formulaic, but that’s always part of a thriller’s charm. If push came to shove, I’d say The Hunting Party was my favorite, but The Guest List (about a wedding gone wrong on a remote island off of Dublin) came in a close second (The Paris Apartment was my least favorite; I preferred the spookier UK settings to the Parisian backdrop). I’m pretty sure I found Foley because of the aforementioned Reese sticker and then proceeded to read the rest of her books in a matter of days. I will be purchasing her upcoming book, The Midnight Feast, the day it releases (June 21st).
Read this if: you watched Pretty Little Liars as a teen.
PS if you read and enjoy (and, again, expect formulaic fun, not profound literary prize bait), throw Book Lovers by Emily Henry into your cart, too. Affinity for Bridgerton aside, I’m not typically a *romance* girl, but Henry knows what she’s doing. Charlie Lastra, anyone?
OKAY! That’s all for now but this was fun (for me, at least) and I have dozens more where that came from. Should this be a series?! LET ME KNOW.
Just finished Worry by Alexandra Tanner and it must be added to the list
Excellent and refreshing list- I am going to read every book on it. And yes to becoming a series 🤗