Summer ’24 and the Reading is Easy
July 2, 2024
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One summer long weekend behind us already! Hope you’ve been finding some reading delights. As is tradition, I’m here to share a few of my own summer recommendations. As is also tradition for a few years now, Amy of Redfern Book Review and I have cooked up a podcast version to listen to for full discussion of these books and some random meanderings. Come join us! You can tune in to anywhere you listen to podcasts or simply click here.
You Are Here by David Nicholls – The latest from the British writer best known for the novel and recently televised One Day. This focuses less on young love and more on the mature variety. The charming story follows two single middle-agers who through circumstances (and best intentions of friends) end up hiking through all manner of weather and emotional drama across Northern England. There is delightful and funny repartee and some pretty relatable predicaments. A blend of humour and poignancy along with some travel makes for an ideal summer escape.
Wives Like Us by Plum Sykes – Speaking of escape… and England … and humour. Check, check check! But quite different adventures. This one promises full on farcical fun. Set in the linked villages of Little Bottom, Middle Bottom, Great Bottom and Monkton Bottom for starters, a cast of Gucci-clad socialites gets wound up in all sorts of shenanigans. “Take a grand English country house, one (heartbroken) American divorcee, three rich wives, two tycoons, a pair of miniature sausage dogs and one (bereaved) butler; put them all into the blender and out comes the impossibly funny Wives Like Us, the new novel from the best-selling author of Bergdorf Blondes and Party Girls Die In Pearls, Plum Sykes.” Just add a beach if you wish and you’re set for an ideal summer read.
The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier – She’s back! Prolific historical fiction writer Tracy Chevalier has found a new milieu. Not Vermeer (Girl with a Pearl Earring) or textiles (A Single Thread, The Lady and the Unicorn) or fossils (Remarkable Creatures) or the underground railway (The Last Runaway) or … this time it’s Venice and specifically, Murano glassworks. The story follows a family of glassblowers from Renaissance times to present day, through rivalries and love stories and historical events that challenge the family and the women who work to keep their glass legacy alive. A writer with a talent for immersing her reader into exotic worlds of art and significant times in our history. Looking forward to the journey!
Sandwich by Catherine Newman – Catherine Newman cornered the market on honest new parenthood tales some years ago and has become a treasured voice we turn to for guaranteed hilarity and frank commentary along with a little heartbreak. She is a frequent essay writer, blogger (I find her contributing to Cup of Jo or on her own substack Crone Sandwich) and She recently wrote We All Want Impossible Things about the loss of a best friend which was an emotional rollercoaster (laughter! tears!) and a moving tribute to long term adult friendships and having to say an early good-bye. Sandwich is a novel that follows a mid-life menopausal mama through a week of the annual multi-generational family vacation on Cape Cod. And what a week it is. While working on hormonal anger management and empty-nest syndrome, she is also grappling with the reality of independent but aging parents. Her long-suffering husband and their marriage demand her attention too. Meanwhile, sandwiches need to be made! Humorous and poignant … sensing a theme yet?
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman – Unlike the other books on this list, Anxious People is not a new release. It was published in 2021 after Fredrik Backman’s other hits, A Man Called Ove and Bear Town perhaps the most familiar. Backman has great range in topics and deftly handles all aspects of the emotional spectrum. I was prompted to head to the back list after viewing the most hilarious video of the author presenting his thoughts on “Creative Anxiety and Procrastination” (click link to view) to a group of writers gathered by Simon and Schuster. It is comic gold.
And all the motivation I needed to order up Anxious People – the story of a group of people randomly taken hostage at a real estate Open House. A couple of retirees who may have outgrown one another, an overworked executive, confused expectant parents, an emboldened 87 year old woman, a realtor and a mystery man each struggles with their own challenges and emotions. Together they try to find a way through this highly anxious experience. Apparently, a similar encounter of his own prompted Backman to pen this one.
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard – This squeaked onto the list at the end as it’s one I’d just recently read and enjoyed. Captivating and creative, kind of in a category of its own: a little time travel and fantasy with emotions tied to friendship and family and identity and big choices. This follows a young woman who lives in a community located in a central valley. A valley to the East and one to the West are populated by Life Past and Life Future and travel between is forbidden except in very special circumstances. Any movement is secret and tightly managed and monitored. When a visitor from a neighbouring valley is accidently noticed by our protagonist, she becomes part of an upper echelon and is swept up in a close friend’s family story. A debut Canadian author. Looking forward to what’s next already!
Let us know what makes its way into your book bag. Happy reading!
