Our Summer Reading List: Books We Actually Can’t Put Down
I always overpack my summer reading list in June and then actually finish about half of it, so this year I tried to be a little more honest about what I’ll realistically get through. What made the cut is a mix of the book everyone’s already been texting me about and a couple of quieter picks I almost skipped and I’m glad I didn’t.
The one everyone’s already talking about
Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid has been sitting on my list for longer than I’d like to admit, mostly because I kept hearing it described as “the one you read in a single sitting” and I didn’t quite believe that until I actually started it. It’s the kind of thriller that makes you suspicious of every character by chapter three, which is exactly the point. It’s already had its own film adaptation, and apparently a sequel’s on the way, so this felt like the right summer to finally see what the fuss was about before the follow-up shows up.
The quiet one that surprised me
Every summer list needs one book that isn’t trying to be a page-turner, and this year that’s been Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun. It’s slower and quieter than most of what I usually pick for summer, and I almost passed on it for that reason. I’m glad I didn’t. With Taika Waititi’s film adaptation on the way later this year, it felt like good timing to actually read it first, and there’s something to be said for reading a book before you know how a director’s going to interpret it.
The reread I keep coming back to
Not every summer book needs to be new. I reread Sense and Sensibility most years around this time, partly out of habit and partly because a new film adaptation is on the way this fall and I wanted the book fresh in my head before I see how it’s handled on screen. Austen holds up to rereading in a way surprisingly few books do.
The one I judged by its premise alone
Daniel Kraus’s Whalefall is, on paper, one of the strangest premises I’ve read a description for in a while: a son scuba diving to recover his father’s remains, then getting swallowed by a sperm whale mid-dive. I bought it purely on the strength of that premise, and I’m including it here half as a recommendation and half as a warning that it is exactly as intense as it sounds.
What’s still on the list
I haven’t gotten to everything, and I’m trying to be okay with that instead of guilt-reading through August. A realistic list beats an aspirational one that just makes you feel behind by September.
