Five new and unusual ways to choose the best thriller, mystery or historical novel for your summer reading list.
Summertime – and the reading is easy. Or is it? Is the combination of sunshine and blue skies the perfect set up for a darker read, a delicious corrective to the iced-tea sweating in a glass at arm’s reach?
In book clubs, both online and off, on Facebook and Instagram, in newspaper and magazine book reviews, the debate simmers. Stephen King, Gillian Flynn or Chelsea Cain versus beachy family sagas and feel-good stories? Or, if good weather hardens your resolve, is this the season to commit to the classics and literary fiction?
I’m here to help you decide. With academic rigor and a spirit of inquiry, I’ve devised five totally random and idiosyncratic reading categories that align with the vagaries of summer reading moods. The underlying premise is that more is more, a novel for every location and state-of-being, a match-up that guarantees you’re held hostage by characters and situations to keep you reading well into early autumn. Let’s crack on.
Planes, trains, automobiles and buses. It’s vacation time and you’re getting from point A to B, hardly enraptured by the passing scenery or the chatty passenger beside you flipping through photos on her phone, ready to share. The wheels on the bus keep going round and round or your plane seat is so tight, you’re seriously considering the emergency exit. This situation calls for a riveting read, a story that sucks you in and makes time and space at least bend, if not disappear. In other words, the pages have to turn themselves. A thriller is the only choice. A psychological historical thriller – my own, The Women of Blackmouth Street. Espionage David McCloskey’s Damascus Station. Or Louisa Luna’s psychological twister, Tell Me Who You Are.
The lake, a tent, van or summer house. A couple of ways things can go here. Uncomfortable seating (wicker, camp chairs, blow-up mattresses). Too many people, their noisy kids or mosquitoes. Bad weather (or too many people, their noisy kids or mosquitoes) keeping you indoors. The antidote is long, involved reads, like trilogies or historical novels. I’m thinking Sarah Penner’s The Lost Apothecary or Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall tour-de-force, all deep dives into other places and other lives, with heft enough to serve as a door stop and with hundreds of pages to see you through.
La Dolce Vita. You’ve scored your dream vacation, complete with staggering views, charming cobble-stoned streets and stimulating distractions. Little time for reading but, if you’re like me, it’s unnerving not to have a book in hand or queued up in your kindle. You’re looking for a slender volume, something you can dip in and out of, with atmosphere that captures a foreign place. Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend comes to mind or Sabine Durant’s Sun Damage.
Staycation. Your front porch, backyard, small balcony or nearby park. Days stretch in front of you, long and langorous, with frozen drinks and frozen meals leaving acres of time to read. No distractions or irritations mean you can finally commit to the books you’ve always meant to tackle. Classics like Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary or more contemporary, Jessica Knoll’s Bright Young Women or Herman Diaz’s Trust?
No vacation. You’re sacrificing summertime fun for palm trees and boredom in the dead of winter, content to make do with a sparsely populated office and an eye toward the horizon. While the boss is away at the Hamptons or Georgian Bay, the mice will play. Duck out for a longer lunch, take advantage of work-from-home because nobody’s around to notice, revel in fewer meetings and no deadlines. Remember, though, you’re still at work and a bit of cheating comes with a bit of penance. Forgo escapist fantasy dramas or Taylor Jenkins Read’s body of work and lean into workplace narratives replete with dysfunctional dynamics and thwarted ambitions. I’d suggest Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl or Chandler Baker’s The Whisper Network.
So, there you have it. A summer time of thrill or chill, depending on your mood and circumstances. If you want to continue the conversation, please sign up for my newsletter, The Real Read, with its five, under-the-radar, book recommendations coming to you each month (plus the odd surprise or goody). And based on a host of 4 and 5 starred reviews on Amazon and GoodReads, you may want to try The Women of Blackmouth Street. NYT’s bestselling author of The Truants, Kate Weinberg, blurbed the novel as compelling, original and brilliantly disturbing. Would love to hear your take- please send me an email or leave a review on Amazon or GoodReads. ‘Till next time. TS
