My Plan for Summer Reading

It can be your plan, too, if you want!

One of the funny things about being a bookseller is that I never read anything “on time,” which is to say, I never read anything when it’s published. I either read things six to nine months ahead of publication or years after. Here’s my line of thinking: if something is popular and selling, I don’t need to read it, because my booksellers have probably read it. All of this is to say, right now I’m in the middle of reading Liz Moore’s God of the Woods and I love it so, so much. Am I late to this party? Yes, but chic people are always late to the party. (In real life, at actual parties, I am always the first guest. Anxiety is more powerful than chicness.)

Which got me to thinking—what do I love about it? The writing is fabulous, the characters are flawed and interesting, I love summer camp, I love mean rich people—but what is really thrilling me is the uncovering of the plot. I love a plot! My books’ plots are usually, ahem, fairly quiet. So I started thinking yesterday about the other plot-y books I love, and how I want to go back to them, for more of this perfect summer reading pleasure, of turning the page turning the page turning the page. I just re-read Pride and Prejudice, which is like hugging my smartest friend. (My smartest friend is Jane Austen.)

This week I also finished Lily King’s new book, out in October. It’s called Heart the Lover, and if you enjoyed her very excellent Writers and Lovers, boy oh boy are you going to enjoy this one. Talk about a smart friend. I gobbled it, truly. The sentences are glorious, yes, but the book also moves.

My plan for the summer is to read as many books as possible that make me feel that drugged-up feeling, where you just want to get back to the page. Publishers love to use ridiculous words like unputdownable which I will not do, but yes, that. What are your favorite propulsive reads? Tell me, I’ll add them to my summer stack!

Side note: I’m sending my 11 year old to sleep away camp for the first time, and here are the books I just picked out for him: Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me in a Crown, Kristy Boyce’s Dungeons and Drama, Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince, and Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows.