What We’re Reading This Summer

Here at the Reading Group Center, we believe that any book you read in the summer, from a love story set on a beach to a moving collection of short stories, is summer reading. As such, we asked our colleagues to share a book they’ve loved or can’t wait to read this summer. We’re sure you’ll find something to love on this list!

Amatka by Karin Tidbeck: The twists and turns of this dystopian read really captured my attention. I couldn’t put it down! —Mandy, Publicity

Kate Christensen is one of my favorite Vintage/Anchor authors, but I’m still catching up on some of her earlier work. I’m a sucker for novels about food obsessives, so The Epicure’s Lament is next on my list, followed closely by Trouble—a novel about two friends who flee their domestic lives in Manhattan for Mexico City. —Angie, Publicity

I’m planning to read Bridget Jones’s Baby; I’m craving a fun, lighthearted beach read, and Bridget always delivers! —Jess, Marketing

I’m reading The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow. I can’t put this epic narco-thriller down. The characters are complex, the plot is propulsive, and his spare prose cuts like a knife. —Andrew, Editorial

I’m looking forward to finally reading Geoff Dyer’s White Sands. He’s a transcendent writer on any subject but best of all on travel. And this is his first travel book in far too long. —Tom, Editorial

How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball: Lucia is a brilliant, bristling teenager with the urge to rebel and very little adult supervision. You won’t find a more compelling narrator anywhere else this summer.—Adam, Publicity

Sweetbitter captures that time in early adulthood when the past and future temporarily evaporate and living in the moment is all that matters. Tess is smart, young, beautiful—and a little dangerous. But the friends and lovers she chooses are more dangerous. The novel perfectly captures the grittier New York City that existed a couple of decades ago, and I loved the depiction of the craziness of restaurant work. —Roz, Sales and Marketing

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero: Hilarious, disturbing, authentic, and weird, this book is everything you could want in a summer read., especially if your formative summers included getting up early on Saturday mornings to watch spooky cartoons. This goes double for any Lovecraft fans. —Eliza, Editorial

I’m going to read Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra this summer because I’m very interested in Tom Cruise movie–related  books and Roman history. —Kathleen, Editorial

I just read We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. I thought it was an incredible collection of essays that each tell a story—both hilarious and moving. An absolute joy to read. —Nate, Sales

I recently started reading Jill Lepore’s The Secret History of Wonder Woman after seeing Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman a second time. Lepore’s cultural history/biography of the man and women behind the iconic superhero is the perfect read for anyone interested in comic books or feminism (or both)! —Emily, Editorial

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo: I’ve just finished Xiaolu Guo’s incredibly clever and seductive second novel, which tells the story of a young woman from rural China who moves to London to learn English and falls in love with a sculptor. It’s full of funny, cutting observations about various cultural myopias, but my favorite thing about it is the narrator’s language, which changes throughout the book as her experiences outgrow the limits of her dictionary—and sometimes, she finds, of words themselves. —Stella, Editorial

 Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf: You can’t help but become emotionally invested, and the payoff is an engrossing and beautifully tender story with characters that will stay with you long after you turn the last page. —Nikeeyia, Marketing

Amatka by Karin Tidbeck gives us an unforgettable vision of dystopia and asks us how the words we use shape the world around us. Karin Tidbeck shows that language can be used to maintain an oppressive syste, but that words can also liberate us. —Catherine, Editorial

I finally read Into Thin Air a few weeks ago and haven’t been able to stop talking or thinking about it since. Krakauer’s account of his catastrophic Mt. Everest expedition is both an insightful look at the commercialization of mountain climbing and a haunting story of grief and regret. —Laura, Marketing