Biblioracle: From a coming-of-age adventure to a techno-thriller, my 7 ‘hammock reads’ for summer
This is the time of year I’m supposed to be alerting you to the hottest new release “beach reads.”
I’m not going to do that for a couple of reasons. For one, I prefer shade and quiet to sun, sand and frivolity. I’m just not all that much fun.
For two, there are lots of people and publications that rush to tell you about what’s new, overlooking what’s old, or as I like to think, tried and true.
In the spirit of those objections consider these my “classic porch hammock” reads for the summer.
For those in search of a rollicking, coming-of-age adventure written in a unique and compelling voice, I’m going with Kiese Laymon’s “Long Division,” featuring TV quiz kid City Coldson from 2013, and his doppelgänger, also named City Coldson, living in 1985. There’s time travel, there’s media satire, a battle against the Ku Klux Klan, and all manner of other events that coalesce into a story like you’ve never read before.
No summer reading is complete without a good techno-thriller, so I’m recommending “Lexicon” by Max Barry, in which clandestine operatives have been trained to kill, literally using language. But Emily, a rogue operative, is determined to take them down and save Wil Parke, an innocent man who is somehow the key to the whole thing (but doesn’t know why) in the process. Published in 2013, “Lexicon” seems particularly apropos in our ChatGPT world, where machines are now capable of generating language that can fool humans.
Summers mean love and romance, but rather than leaning into the happily-ever-after, I’m recommending a love story on the tragic side, but one that will crack open the heart of any reader. The book is “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin. David, a young American in Paris is on the cusp of living the rest of his conventional life following an engagement to Hella. But when Hella is away on a trip, David becomes entangled with Giovanni, and well … things get rough from there. An unforgettable story.
How about a tense, psychological page-turner? Let me recommend J. Robert Lennon’s “Castle,” about Eric Loesch, a man with a past who retreats to his remote property on which he discovers a Gothic castle he’s certain is not his own, but to which he’s inextricably drawn. What’s inside the castle? What lurks in Eric’s past that he can no longer suppress? Jaw-clenchingly tense.
Marcy Dermansky’s “Very Nice” is a mix of romance, satire and sincerity with a quasi-love triangle (or two?) at the center and is literally set during the summer. Covering the twinned worlds of creative writing programs and high finance, this is a novel for readers who like to watch people make spectacles of themselves.
I see that I need a mystery in the mix, but rather than picking something straight from the genre, I’m recommending Susan Choi’s “Trust Exercise,” which starts as a recounting of the drama and machinations inside an elite performing arts high school (think Fame in the suburbs), but shifts part way to reveal that what we’ve been previously told about David and Sarah, the school’s it couple, may not be the whole truth. Some readers are wrong-footed by Choi’s structure, but it absolutely pays off.
Lastly, if you’re looking for interesting, quiet companions where still waters run deep, check out Tom Drury’s “The End of Vandalism” the story of the folks in the fictional Grouse County, Iowa, who are doing the best they can without having been given much. For fans of Richard Russo looking for a Midwestern flavor.
Stay cool, friends. I’ll see you at the beach. (Not.)
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “O Caledonia” by Elspeth Barker
2. “Segu” by Maryse Conde
3. “Tree of Smoke” by Denis Johnson
4. “Open Secrets” by Alice Munro
5. “11/23/63″ by Stephen King
— Jill B., Chicago
Interesting and diverse list. Because my recommendation is a collection of stories, I’m going to caution that this is not a book to read in one fell swoop, but is instead, a good companion over the entirety of the summer months when you need a little jolt of life from a truly unique voice, “A Manual for Cleaning Women” by Lucia Berlin.
1. “The Lincoln Lawyer” by Michael Connelly
2. “The Brass Verdict” by Michael Connelly
3. “Small Mercies” by Dennis Lehane
4. “The Likeness” by Tana French
5. “The Killer Inside Me” by Jim Thompson
— Michael P., Peoria
Michael is clearly into crime/suspense fiction, and I’m not going to talk him out of it, but I am going to try to recommend a book and author that might not be on his radar yet, Charlie Huston and “The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death.”
1. “The House of Broken Angels” by Luis Alberto Urrea
2. “American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins
3. “Emma” by Jane Austen
4. “Black Swan Green” by David Mitchell
5. “Pineapple Street” by Jenny Jackson
— Leah T., Urbana
The family drama of Tayari Jones’ “Silver Sparrow” should be a good match for Leah.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com
