Softcovers on a Summer's Day

reading all our cares away

Jun 06, 2024

I’m switching it up this month! The book post is first, and the essay will come second. Apologies (and gratitude) to Chad & Jeremy for the title of today’s post.

Sprawled on cushions, laying on the grass, sitting in a swing, under the branches of a generous pine tree, in the back of a minivan on a two-day roadtrip. The freedom of reading in the summer as a kid, when time seemed endless, marked only by mosquito bites and popsicles, is the vibe I’m always chasing with summer books.

Here are my recommendations for summer reading: grown-up books that give me that summer-reading feeling. I’ve included a swath of genres at different levels of commitment. A few of the books are even from this millennium. What’s on your summer reading list?

For reading the day after the summer’s major [party, reunion, wedding] when you need a good laugh:

Apricot Sky by Ruby Ferguson (1952): It’s 1948 on the Scottish coast and the MacAlveys are preparing for a wedding. Unspoken love, reassembling family life after the war, a crumbling ancestral home, and ocean adventures tantalize in this novel.

For reading outdoors at sunset when you want emotional catharsis:

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark (2022): Best friends in their eighties, a few long-kept secrets, and rural Maine. This is a novel to savor slowly, like a conversation with a friend.

For reading when you want a cup of tea but the weather is sweltering:

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See (2017): Pu-er tea is Li-yan’s heritage, and it means more to her life than she knows. A portrait of the cost of China’s Great Leap Forward with a final scene of illumination that haunts me (in the best way).

For reading when you want that stack-of-Nancy-Drews feeling:

The Lost Book of the Grail (2017): A missing manuscript, legends and history that give clues to the present, and the pairing of a youthful but curmudgeonly literature professor with a tech whiz. Lost Book is set in the modern day, but readers of Anthony Trollope will recognize names and places.

For reading when you fancy a literary road trip but are actually reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit for the forty-sixth time:

How the Heather Looks by Joan Bodger (1965): Bodger and her family traipse through Great Britain one summer, tracking down Arthur Ransome, sites of Arthurian legends, and Robin Hood’s Nottingham. If your Disneyland is Hill Top Farm, Bodger is your kindred spirit.

For reading when you want Mamma Mia! vibes with zanier characters:

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (1956): If you don’t split your sides laughing I will personally apologize (and internally question your sense of humor). Struggling to appreciate our noisy cicada neighbors? Durrell’s fascination with the natural world might convince you to give the red-eyed orchestra another glance.

For reading when you’re at your favorite vacation spot, nothing extravagant, but you love it because it’s yours:

The Fortnight in September by R. C. Sherriff (1931): A delightfully normal family takes a delightfully normal vacation. A celebration of ordinary life, with humor only those who’ve planned vacations will understand.

For reading when you want to be in another world:

The Golden Key by George MacDonald (1867): MacDonald’s fairy tales are otherworldly, yet tell stories truthfully about our world. I especially love the edition illustrated by Ruth Sanderson. Her pictures may be in black and white but I remember them in color.

For reading when you crave the succulence of a gourmet meal but will settle for making a quick dinner that won’t heat up the house:

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme (2006): Child’s good humor, invigorating spirit, and lively storytelling make her book one of my all-time favorites. A great choice to restore your creativity and to send you running to the store for butter.

For reading when you yearn for the chill zephyrs of museum air conditioning:

The Book of Everlasting Things by Aanchal Malhotra (2022): A Hindu family of parfumiers and a Muslim family of calligraphers encounter each other in Lahore—until the Partition severs their relationship. Malhotra cofounded the Museum of Material Memory, making this story an exquisite read.