Pat Taub
My summer reading recommendations have books for every taste: spellbinding stories, mystery, memoir, humor, and a walking guide.
FICTION
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
Strout’s latest novel is one of her best: the protagonist, Artie Dam, an amicable 57-year-old popular high school teacher, is secretly depressed and contemplating suicide until he’s renewed by a chance encounter. A long-buried family secret threatens to derail him; instead, it provokes a new intimacy in his relationship with his son. Artie’s questions about the meaning of life have stayed with me.
Elizabeth Strout
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
A riveting story of a poor black family’s trials in Southern Mississippi in the lead-up to Hurricane Katrina. The four siblings: Esch, a pregnant teenager, and her three brothers—Skeetah, Randall, and Junior— lost their equilibrium years ago when their mother died in childbirth leaving them under the care of their alcoholic father. The children parent one another in heart-warming detail. Tension mounts as Katrina approaches and they struggle to survive. Ward is unquestionably among our finest writers, delivering an almost perfect novel.
Jesmyn Ward, in 2022 at 45, she was the youngest recipient of the Library of Congress Fiction Award
CRIME
The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
Galbraith is J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym; this is the 8th book in her Strike series. Crime fans, like my brother, are addicted to Strike, drawn to his brilliant crime-solving. Dazzling plot twists. A page turner of the first order.
MEMOIR
Ghost Stories by Siri Hustvedt
Hustvedt’s compelling memoir of her celebrated 43-year-old literary marriage to noted author, Paul Auster, who died in 2024, documents her profound grief through writings she and Paul exchanged, cherished memories of family and literary friends, like Salman Rushdie. “Ghost Stories” like Joan Didion’s “The Year of Magical Thinking,” is destined to be a classic read for recovering from a spouse’s death.
HUMOR
I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett
A satirical novel about a young Black man named Not Sidney Poitier, who is orphaned, inherits a fortune from Ted Turner, and bears an uncanny resemblance to the actor Sidney Poitier, leading him through a series of adventures that parody the plots of Poitier’s films. Not Sidney lands in scenarios mirroring classic Poitier movies like The Defiant Ones and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Brilliant absurd humor.
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
July’s wackiness restores me when feeling blue, provoking laughter every few pages. A favorite is “The Swim Team,” where a young woman gives three octogenarians swimming lessons in her kitchen. They practice breathing by dunking their faces in bowls of warm water. Then get down on all fours and scurry along the kitchen floor flapping their arms and legs. Diving practice consists of jumping from a dresser onto the bed.
SHORT STORIES
After the Funeral by Tess Hadley
Short stories are ideal for plane or train travel when your reading time is limited. Tess is frequently cited as among the best living short story authors; like Alice Munro she is a master of plot twists. In this collection Hadley explores unlikely family relationships, exposing their psychological undercurrents.
NON-FICTION
On Looking by Alexander Horowitz
Horowitz, a regular walker of her Manhattan neighborhood, wanted to expand her walking perspective, taking 11 walks with 11 different people: a blind woman, a geologist, a doctor and the artist Maira Kalman, inviting each companion to describe what they saw. They helped Horowitz to slow down her walks to take in sounds, high vistas, artistry in unexpected places and more. Great tips for expanding your visual intake and for assisting children and grandchildren similarly.
Reading matters.
It’s a remedy for internet addiction, enlarging imagination, stimulating the brain, calming a restless spirit, and keeping company with great writers.
