I'm in school and have a five year old so my for-pleasure reading has been slower than I generally like and my TBR drawer in my nightstand has spilled over to a massive stack on top so my main goal is to make a dent in that baby so that I feel like I can justify buying more books (😅). Some of the ones at the top of my list for the summer are:
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Morata
The White Book by Han Kang
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The City and it's Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
I'm so excited to get into it! I live just about forty minutes south of Dungy so I feel like it will be especially applicable. I'd really been hoping to read it before this gardening season but it just wasn't in the cards for me this year
Two books I’m most looking forward to reading this summer are Land by Maggie O’ Farrell and Whistler by Ann Patchett. Additionally, I joined Laura Tremaine’s Stephen King Summer and will be reading Holly, The Life of Chuck and Cujo.
I LOVE Dear Committee Members and have read it multiple times. (I also read the sequels, but DCM is my favorite.) I did not know she had a new book! I will definitely add it to my asap list. :)
I am about to finish The Calamity Club and will have a serious bookish hangover! The 600+ pages doesn’t feel long enough. Kathryn Stockett has done it again. Characters you love and root for (and one to despise) along with a sweeping story to feel all the feels of being in the middle of Depression era Mississippi. My favorite read so far this year!!
I am a fan of Ann Patchett, Maggie O’Farrell and all mentioned by Mel. That is except for Tillie Walden who I have yet to read her work. Knowing she is a dear friend of Mel and Dave, I’m quite certain I will be a fan of hers as well! Thanks for letting us know about her new book!!
The Calamity Club is top of my list. ; Wild Dark Shore (finally got my hands on this one), The Last Mandarin. The Summer Book by Jove and The Fix in NF
I always make a Summer Reading Stack (posted on my Facebook and displayed in my living room!). This summer I have 14 books that I already had at home by authors I have enjoyed in the past. Right now I am reading Lisa See’s Lady Tan’s Circle of Women before I get to hear her speak at a breakfast next week! Another reading project is to read books connected to Route 66 before our drive from Chicago to Santa Monica on the Mother Road in September! Happy Summer Reading everyone!
I am currently rereading Free Food for Millionaires (I'd forgotten-it is tremendous) and plan on rereading Pachinko, both by Min Jen Lee. I am rereading them before her latest book is released American Hagwon (9/29). I am traveling to Red Cloud, Nebraska for a weekend trip to the Willa Cather national center-so I am getting ready to start My Antonia, which I have never read. I just received a notice that my pre-ordered copy of Land by Maggie O'Farrell is in my mailbox...so that is probably where I'll be tonight!! Whistler should be here soon, and I am looking forward to that as well.
I want to tackle The Sisters: A Novel by Jonas Hassen Khemiri. This was his first book written in English. He subsequently translated himself back into Swedish. (So that will scratch my translation itch a bit but I also want to read Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami. Translated from the Japanese.
I am on the hunt for an excellent mystery series that I can return to for several years. Looking for suggestions!
Like others here, I’m excited about Land, Whistler, and The Calamity Club. For actual read-on-the-beach books I’m saving a couple of romances - the new releases from Abby Jimenez and Annabel Monaghan. And I’m adding the new Natasha Pulley to my list!
I've been focusing on reading more nonfiction this year by reading at least one nonfiction book per month. The next three on my list are:
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
Firestorm by Jacob Soboroff
I'm also trying to read one translation per month, from as many different languages as possible. I've already read books translated from Russian, Japanese, French and German. Over the summer I'm hoping to read:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Portuguese)
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni (Italian)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (Polish)
I've been trying to read more fiction in translation myself. I'll be curious to know what you think of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones... It's been on my list but mostly I read New Directions Publishing's books in translation. They tend to be shorter and more realistic for my fiction reading time. By the way, Olga Tokarczuk collaborated with illustrator Joanna Concejo, to write a fable "for all ages" called The Lost Soul. The illustrations are a stunning addition to the tale.
Ulysses thanks to you, Mel!! 💕 I am reading a lot of rom-coms this summer. My book club is doing one in July followed by what is to be a sad memoir by Matthew Quick coming out.
I am looking forward to Wonderland by Joyce Maynard, The Great Where Ever by shannon Sanders and a new Steve Cavanaugh book in August but the title escapes me right now. I also would like this summer to be the summer that I tackle The Drifters by James Michener
I love reading what’s on everyone’s lists; that may very well distract me from my own… I’m primarily a non-fiction reader but after spending nearly the first 5 months of the year too busy to read, I’m delighted to have reading time again. I’m not quite ready for the non-fiction I have in mind so I started with two British detective stories and I’m sure there will be more such fun reading but the fiction reading I have in mind next will take better focus: I’m reading the 2nd of 7 (slender) volumes of On The Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle, trying to figure out why the fascination with a story of a woman caught in a time warp of an ever-repeating November 18.
My big stretch for the summer is the Italian translation of a French novel, Alice in the World of Ideas, where she meets great thinkers in her fantasy land. Ask me next year if I ever finished this one… but I’m keen to try. Since I’ve never read an adult edition of Alice in Wonderland, I suppose I’ll start with your summer reading questionnaire answer, Mel: Alice in Wonderland.
My summer reading questionnaire answer was The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. I look forward to some armchair travel in Italy with this one and with Jan Morris’ A Venetian Bestiary.
Sheets, a graphic novel by Brenna Thummler, is on the list, too. Looks like fantasy is the summer theme.
Finally, after my good fortune to spend a couple weeks in Italy recently. enjoying some wonderful food, I’m planning to cook my way through Alice Waters “In the Green Kitchen” to try to simply and “flavor-fy” my cooking.
I'm in school and have a five year old so my for-pleasure reading has been slower than I generally like and my TBR drawer in my nightstand has spilled over to a massive stack on top so my main goal is to make a dent in that baby so that I feel like I can justify buying more books (😅). Some of the ones at the top of my list for the summer are:
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Morata
The White Book by Han Kang
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The City and it's Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
Soil by Camille T. Dungy
& Monk and Robot by Becky Chambers
Life After Life is my Favorite book by Atkinson. One of my all-time favorites in general.
Ditto. Life After Life is in my Top 3 All Time, I think. I hope you enjoy it, Tullia!
I loved both the Murakami and the Chambers books. What a great TBR you have!
If native gardening is new to you, Soil will change the way you garden. One of those books I wish more people read.
I'm so excited to get into it! I live just about forty minutes south of Dungy so I feel like it will be especially applicable. I'd really been hoping to read it before this gardening season but it just wasn't in the cards for me this year
That’s great, Tullia! What a bonus that her native plants will be the same as yours!
Man, I remember grad school and how delightful it was when it was finished. Not the least of which was because I could read whatever I wanted!!
Two books I’m most looking forward to reading this summer are Land by Maggie O’ Farrell and Whistler by Ann Patchett. Additionally, I joined Laura Tremaine’s Stephen King Summer and will be reading Holly, The Life of Chuck and Cujo.
Dana, we are book twins!! Land and Whistler were on my list and I'm part of Laura's Secret Stuff Group so I'll be reading those, too!
Can we make that triplets? Land is on order already, and Patchett is always a must read.
I was the first to get it on Libby...but it was kindle accessible so I had to send it back. 😔 So I'm probably going to have to buy it!!
It’s nice to find other readers who share your same taste in books. 😊
Land is my most anticipated book of the summer as well.
I am trying the NYT challenge. I like the broader categories. It helps me choose things from my over full TBR shelf!
I’m also doing the NYT challenge 😊
Excited to read Julie Schumacher’s new collection Patient, Female: Stories. After Dear Committee Members I’ll read anything she writes!☺️
I had not heard of Patient, Female until now. But the blurb sounds SO up my alley. Going on the TBR… now. Thanks!
I LOVE Dear Committee Members and have read it multiple times. (I also read the sequels, but DCM is my favorite.) I did not know she had a new book! I will definitely add it to my asap list. :)
Looking forward to The Lion Women of Tehran, Marjan Kamali and The Pohaku, byJasmin Iolani Jakes. I absolutely loved her first book, Hula!
I am about to finish The Calamity Club and will have a serious bookish hangover! The 600+ pages doesn’t feel long enough. Kathryn Stockett has done it again. Characters you love and root for (and one to despise) along with a sweeping story to feel all the feels of being in the middle of Depression era Mississippi. My favorite read so far this year!!
I am a fan of Ann Patchett, Maggie O’Farrell and all mentioned by Mel. That is except for Tillie Walden who I have yet to read her work. Knowing she is a dear friend of Mel and Dave, I’m quite certain I will be a fan of hers as well! Thanks for letting us know about her new book!!
The Calamity Club is top of my list. ; Wild Dark Shore (finally got my hands on this one), The Last Mandarin. The Summer Book by Jove and The Fix in NF
If this is your first time to read The Summer Book, Kathy you are in for a treat!
I always make a Summer Reading Stack (posted on my Facebook and displayed in my living room!). This summer I have 14 books that I already had at home by authors I have enjoyed in the past. Right now I am reading Lisa See’s Lady Tan’s Circle of Women before I get to hear her speak at a breakfast next week! Another reading project is to read books connected to Route 66 before our drive from Chicago to Santa Monica on the Mother Road in September! Happy Summer Reading everyone!
I am currently rereading Free Food for Millionaires (I'd forgotten-it is tremendous) and plan on rereading Pachinko, both by Min Jen Lee. I am rereading them before her latest book is released American Hagwon (9/29). I am traveling to Red Cloud, Nebraska for a weekend trip to the Willa Cather national center-so I am getting ready to start My Antonia, which I have never read. I just received a notice that my pre-ordered copy of Land by Maggie O'Farrell is in my mailbox...so that is probably where I'll be tonight!! Whistler should be here soon, and I am looking forward to that as well.
I want to tackle The Sisters: A Novel by Jonas Hassen Khemiri. This was his first book written in English. He subsequently translated himself back into Swedish. (So that will scratch my translation itch a bit but I also want to read Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami. Translated from the Japanese.
I am on the hunt for an excellent mystery series that I can return to for several years. Looking for suggestions!
Like others here, I’m excited about Land, Whistler, and The Calamity Club. For actual read-on-the-beach books I’m saving a couple of romances - the new releases from Abby Jimenez and Annabel Monaghan. And I’m adding the new Natasha Pulley to my list!
I've been focusing on reading more nonfiction this year by reading at least one nonfiction book per month. The next three on my list are:
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
Firestorm by Jacob Soboroff
I'm also trying to read one translation per month, from as many different languages as possible. I've already read books translated from Russian, Japanese, French and German. Over the summer I'm hoping to read:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Portuguese)
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni (Italian)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (Polish)
Oracle by Thomas Olde Heuveldt (Dutch)
I've been trying to read more fiction in translation myself. I'll be curious to know what you think of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones... It's been on my list but mostly I read New Directions Publishing's books in translation. They tend to be shorter and more realistic for my fiction reading time. By the way, Olga Tokarczuk collaborated with illustrator Joanna Concejo, to write a fable "for all ages" called The Lost Soul. The illustrations are a stunning addition to the tale.
The Lost Soul sounds lovely! Adding it to my TBR :)
Continuing my read around the world! This summer will include authors/books from Paraguay, Gabon and Oceania as well as some of the new thrillers!
Ulysses thanks to you, Mel!! 💕 I am reading a lot of rom-coms this summer. My book club is doing one in July followed by what is to be a sad memoir by Matthew Quick coming out.
I am looking forward to Wonderland by Joyce Maynard, The Great Where Ever by shannon Sanders and a new Steve Cavanaugh book in August but the title escapes me right now. I also would like this summer to be the summer that I tackle The Drifters by James Michener
I love reading what’s on everyone’s lists; that may very well distract me from my own… I’m primarily a non-fiction reader but after spending nearly the first 5 months of the year too busy to read, I’m delighted to have reading time again. I’m not quite ready for the non-fiction I have in mind so I started with two British detective stories and I’m sure there will be more such fun reading but the fiction reading I have in mind next will take better focus: I’m reading the 2nd of 7 (slender) volumes of On The Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle, trying to figure out why the fascination with a story of a woman caught in a time warp of an ever-repeating November 18.
My big stretch for the summer is the Italian translation of a French novel, Alice in the World of Ideas, where she meets great thinkers in her fantasy land. Ask me next year if I ever finished this one… but I’m keen to try. Since I’ve never read an adult edition of Alice in Wonderland, I suppose I’ll start with your summer reading questionnaire answer, Mel: Alice in Wonderland.
My summer reading questionnaire answer was The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. I look forward to some armchair travel in Italy with this one and with Jan Morris’ A Venetian Bestiary.
Sheets, a graphic novel by Brenna Thummler, is on the list, too. Looks like fantasy is the summer theme.
Finally, after my good fortune to spend a couple weeks in Italy recently. enjoying some wonderful food, I’m planning to cook my way through Alice Waters “In the Green Kitchen” to try to simply and “flavor-fy” my cooking.
Happy reading all!
Land by Maggie O'Farrell
Whistler by Ann Patchett
The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clark (which is VE Schwab and someone else)
This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum