12 Books On My Summer Reading List

If you’ve been around here a minute, you know I love to read and have a dedicated #bookstagram (because, why not?) updated bi-weekly with what I’m reading now. 12 books is a lot - but I didn’t say reading them all was my goal. I’d love to read 12 books. Because I’ve been a writer for most of my professional life, taking breaks in my workday to read is something I’ve always done. For many years, it was articles or stories online, but now that I work from my home office, I get up, go to the closest window and give myself a chapter. Just a little, day by day, until I can make a list of 12 books and say: I want to read these.

I mention the writing part because some people truly feel, and you may be one of them, that reading for work should be relegated to non-fiction missives about business or team management. And while there are many great ones, reading stories from a wide range of authors not only increases your capacity for words, and how ideas form but also much-needed humanity into an often inhumane-feeling field. Not to mention, it’s great for your mental health and honestly, just a great way to break up your day.

Here’s my list this year:

01. WOMAN OF LIGHT BY KALI FAJARDO-ANSTINE
Real talk: I’m already about 100 pages into this one. It’s this month’s selection from Parnassus Books’ First Editions club - a book club of sorts, wherein subscribers receive one book a month picked by the booksellers there. It’s a great way to get an unexpected book from a diverse range of authors. This book by, Kali Fajardo-Anstine (who also wrote the short story collection Sabrina & Corina), is about Luz Lopez, a 17-year-old tea leaf reader and laundress in 1930s Denver. After her brother is run off by a white mob, she begins having visions that transport her to her indigenous homeland, the nearby Lost Territory. It’s already such a layered story of family, ancestors, and stories that will never be forgotten.

02. THESE PRECIOUS DAYS BY ANN PATCHETT
When you live in the same town as Ann Patchett, you get pretty familiar with her work. She’s done a lot for the literary community of Nashville by co-founding Parnassus Books when the city lost its biggest independent bookstore over a decade ago. In this book of essays, Patchett explores unexpected friendships, the peculiarity of her three fathers, and the influence of Snoopy, and Eudora Welty - and I’m excited to spend some time in her stories. Enjoy a preview from her story “My Three Fathers” from The New Yorker.

03. BOMB SHELTER: LOVE, TIME & OTHER EXPLOSIVES BY MARY-LAURA PHILLPOT
Mary-Laura Phillpot is a former Parnassus Books bookseller, though, in the past several years, she has been a podcast host, public television host, and NY Times best-selling essayist of this and her previous collection I Miss You When I Blink. In this collection, Phillpot asks a lot of big questions that I find resonating in myself as well; big life questions that tend to provoke big emotions - but with her brand of casual humor, I feel like there might be a less explosive ending than the title suggests.

04. FILTHY ANIMALS BY BRANDON TAYLOR
I listened to Brandon Taylor’s Real Life on audiobook and loved Taylor’s tackling of hard subjects with both the weight they deserve and the lightness we translate them through. It’s what made me a fan of Taylor’s work and why Filthy Animals is a must-read. In this story, Taylor again sets us in the midwest, among the young and creative. Linked stories traverse a series of sexually fraught encounters, vulnerability, loneliness, and the jagged edges of experience.

05. YOU HAVE A FRIEND IN 10A BY MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD
I became a fan of Maggie Shipstead’s writing only recently, with the publication of Great Circle. In her latest collection, Shipstead brings her unique voice to a dude ranch in Montana, the slopes of an unfinished ski resort, a man’s deathbed in Paris, and the fringes of a Hollywood cult. I ended up buying Shipstead’s back catalog (including Seating Arrangments and Astonish Me), so it’s entirely possible I’ll just binge on her writing all summer.

06. THIS TIME TOMORROW BY EMMA STRAUB
Another book from Parnassus Books’ First Editions Club. I would have read this one anyway, but it was nice for it to show up on my doorstep. This book is sort of a reverse 13 Going on 30 wherein the main character, Alice, drunkenly falls asleep on her 40th birthday, and wakes up on her 16th. I can already feel the emotions brewing - being able to go back to before you knew what life was really like, and the possibility of changing how things are - ugh, this has all the hallmarks of a good ‘un.

07. THE VANISHING HALF BY BRIT BENNETT
I loved Brit Bennett’s last work, The Mothers and I can’t wait to get back in her world of characters. The Vanishing Half has been on my bookshelf for … a minute, but I’m finally ready to prioritize. This story focuses on the Vignes twins, growing up in Mallard, Louisiana, a small town reserved for black residents with light skin. When one of the twins realizes she can pass as white, it sets off a string of fractures in the twins’ relationship.

08. A LITTLE DEVIL IN AMERICA: NOTES IN PRAISE OF BLACK PERFORMANCE BY HANIF ABDURRAQIB
I’ve been a fan of Hanif’s writing for a long time, and his latest A Little Devil in America, is another quintessential piece in his pop culture criticism canon. I started this one a while back and have been going through it slowly, sometimes because the pieces are so heavy and unbelievable, I just have to sit with it for a minute, and other times, because I just don’t want it to end. Here is a quick excerpt & interview about the book.

09. INHERITORS BY ASAKO SERIZAWA
Another from Parnassus Books’ First Editions, this story spans over 150 years in colonial and post-colonial Asia and the U.S. and deals with the legacies of war, imperialism, and loss. In such a slim volume, it is hard to believe it can hold the weight of its linked plots, but I’m more than intrigued to see Serizawa’s stories unfold.

10. LONG LIVE THE TRIBE OF FATHERLESS GIRLS BY T KIRA MADDEN
You can tell by the title of this book that essayist T Kira Madden is about to go deep into some heavy shit. I think that’s likely the reason I’ve had this book since 2019, but haven’t cracked its pages. I haven’t been ready for it. it’s a memoir, the kind you know will likely be both parts tender and painful. It promises “unflinching honesty and lyrical prose,” as she recounts her childhood in Hawai’i to the present, where she is grieving her father and all the realities that rise from his absence.

11. HURRICANE GIRL BY MARCY DERMANSKY
If you don’t know, I read almost every book Roxane Gay recommends. It’s how I’ve found some amazing works by equally amazing authors and while I hate to hold anyone up to such a high bar, it just has to be. Gay called this book, “outstanding in every way” and that’s pretty good. In Hurricane Girl, a woman whose life is already a disaster, finds herself in the aftermath of a hurricane, her physical surroundings literally swept away, and has to figure out who and how to get help.

12. SHOUTIN’ IN THE FIRE BY DANTE STEWART
A few months ago, I went to the annual fundraiser for The Porch here in Nashville, partly due to the good cause and partly because Kiese Laymon was speaking. I had no idea Dante Stewart would be there, and I felt so moved by his conversation with Kiese, and also by the mutual respect they had for each other, and their work, I needed to get Dante on my reading list. He is a prolific Instagrammer posting hit after hit on topics close to my heart, among them: the crossroads of religion and the south. I’ve been wanting to read this book since that night, and I can’t wait to see what’s up ahead for Dante.