My Summer In Books

Photo by Florencia Viadana on Unsplash

Today the girls and I celebrated the end of our library’s summer reading program. Gusts of wind that made the heavy sun bearable also knocked over games and scattered the raffle tickets. The girls got temporary tattoos (after being reassured that this tattoo, unlike mine, will wash off), played tic-tac-toe to a draw, twice, on a giant foam board, and scavenged around the base of trees (the ones without poison ivy) for rocks with hand drawn images of “food buddies:” milk and cookies, coffee and donuts, apple and banana, peanut butter and jelly. We visited the Book Mobile too, earning me my final square in the “Book-Opoly” game that’s been the cornerstone of the adult’s summer reading challenge for the last two years at least. Now that the challenge is basically over (we still have until Saturday to earn a few last-minute tickets), and August is staring me in the face, it really feels like the summer is winding down. Soon I’ll be too busy with homeschooling to read so much, and I’ll miss it. I’ve read some great books this summer. So, in the spirit of “All Together Now,” this year’s summer program theme, I thought I’d share what I’ve been reading the last two months.

The Undertow: Scenes From A Slow Civil War by Jeff Sharlet, 2023

A journalist’s odyssey across America chasing the ghost of Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was shot and killed while attempting to storm the Capitol building, while repeatedly asking the question: “What the fuck is happening to this country?” From Trump rallies to backwoods America to Filthy Rich Churches, “Jeff Sharlet journeys into corners of our national psyche where others fear to tread,” according to the publisher, W.W. Norton. “The Undertow is both inquiry and meditation, an attempt to understand how, over the last decade, reaction has morphed into delusion, social division into distrust, distrust into paranoia, and hatred into fantasies—sometimes realities—of violence.” If you have found yourself asking that very same question (or a less crude version of it) at any point in the last few years, I highly recommend The Undertow. Like the current for which it is names, I was caught and swept along to the finish, barely breathing until it was done.

So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow, 2021

If you’re a feminist and anti-racist who also grew up loving Little Women, this book is for you. Set in the Freedpeople’s colony of Roanoke Island (an important chapter of Civil War history my whitewashed conservative Christian history book completely overlooked), the March sisters take on the newly opened—but only so much opened, and still white-dominated—world, together.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, 2015

My best friend gifted me this book for my birthday one year, and it’s been waiting patiently for me to tackle it. I’m glad I finally did. An engrossing and painfully beautiful portrait of France during WWII as seen through the eyes of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, who thought they had nothing whatsoever in common until the war took everything away…everything except their will to survive the war with their humanity intact. It’s long, but it doesn’t seem so long once you’re in it because you’ve just got to know how it ends. And the ending is worth the wait. Slated to become a major motion picture starring real-life sisters Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning.

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow, 2020

A modern fantasy about friendship and sisterhood in the face of racism and sexism. Tavia is a siren forced to hide her powers for the sake of her family, and her own safety. Effie is a mermaid for two weeks every summer—but only in a costume at the yearly Ren Fest. Both live quiet lives, until the year that a siren murder trial coincides with Effie’s unusually dry and flaky skin, and both girls must face the truth of who—and what—they truly are. A perfectly magical book. (The sequel, A Chorus Rises, is about a side character in this book, and I’m looking forward to reading it soon).

Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance edited by Bethany C. Morrow, 2019

Yes, yes I did order everything by Bethany C. Morrow that the library had. You should too. She’s well worth reading. And these stories…it’s all in the title. Young people standing up, speaking up. Not. Backing. Down.

Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain, 2022

If you’ve been reading my newsletter lately, you’ve heard of this book. Bittersweet made my chest swell with painful/beautiful, happy/sad feelings with each chapter. Which is, after all, what the book is about: sad music, melancholic personalities (who usually happen to also be creative types), the dangers of the “winners or losers” mentality in American business and life, and the word poignant. Love, love, loved this book.

The Vital Abyss by James S. A. Corey, 2015

and

Persepolis Rising by James S. A. Corey, 2017

and

Strange Dogs by James S. A. Corey, 2017

A novel and two novellas in the Expanse series, which is the best science fiction I’ve ever read (and an incredible TV series, too). The world building and character development are as good as Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, although the content is more gritty at times. Leviathan Wakes is the first novel in the series, and all novellas as available in the new collection, Memory’s Legion. Highly recommend all of them.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, 2020

This book surprised me. It’s about a brother and sister, Danny and Maeve Conroy, and the house that tore their family apart—and that they can’t quite let go of. The narrative jumps around a lot, so pay attention when you read it, but it’s worth the effort. By the end I felt like I knew them both in a way I don’t usually invest in fictional characters that I haven’t created. I guess that’s what surprised me. The characters felt so alive and vibrant. A powerful book in it’s own small way.