Welcome to Quick Lit, where I share short and sweet reviews of what I’ve been reading lately on (or around) the 15th of the month, and invite you to do the same.
This has been a satisfying and thoroughly “summer” reading month: compared to the hecticness of the end of school, my reading pace has increased significantly and I’m loving it. (It’s not necessarily good or bad to read more books, unless that is what you want—and it’s what I wanted!) We’ve been languishing in this heat dome for a full month now, which has been miserable in many ways but has also been most amenable to indoorsy activities like reading in the air conditioning—and occasionally, when I wake up very early, on the back patio.
In mid-summer I like to read a little old and a little new. This month the “new” looks like books that weren’t yet on my radar or that I wasn’t able to get an advance copy of when I was putting together the 2024 Summer Reading Guide (Joselyn Takac’s Pearce Oysters and John Vercher’s Devil Is Fine), a spring release that sounded interesting-but-not-urgent until events conspired to make it the-book-I-HAD-to-read-next (Rita Bullwinkel’s Headshot), two critically claimed literary novels from the past several years (Colm Tóibín’s The Magician and Isabella Hamad’s Enter Ghost), and a quirky little how-to book (Peter Miller’s How to Wash the Dishes).
I also listened to half the books featured in today’s new edition of Quick Lit on audio: I’ve noted those below. I’m not entirely sure why, but I’ve been listening at a faster clip than I was in the spring and thus have plenty of good stuff to share on the audiobook front!
Of course, not all my reading is reflected here: many of the new books I’m reading publish in the fall, and I’m excited to feature them in our 2024 Fall Book Preview when the time is right. We’ll tell you more about that next month.
But for now, I would never wish summer reading season away: our Summer Reading Guide is available now, and packed with an eclectic mix of standout selections for your summer reading consideration. If you also like to read a mix of old and new, you’ll be happy to discover the many backlist recs included in our special features. Click here to get your Guide.
I hope you find something that looks intriguing for your TBR on this list (and in these comments), and I look forward to browsing your recent reads below. Thanks in advance for sharing your short and sweet book reviews with us here!
Welcome to July Quick Lit
I featured this in
my 2024 beach reading report, but it was such a standout I don’t want you to miss it: I bought this Aspen Words Literary Prize winner back in April when I was shopping with
WSIRN alum Allison Matz at the Grand Rapids bookstore Books & Mortar. When Allison spotted it on a display and called it her favorite book of the year (or some similar superlative), I snatched up a copy immediately—and saved it for my beach reading. This was an excellent choice, as it proved to be the kind of book I had to read slowly: smart, reflective, and beautifully written. I knew very little about it going in and was surprised to discover it’s a theater book: in the wake of a destabilizing break-up, a Palestinian actress flees London and returns home to visit her Palestinian family in Haifa after a long absence, and while there is persuaded to join an Arabic production of
Hamlet. This story demanded a close reading, and on top of that I often paused to google names, places, and the region’s history, both for my understanding of the plot and timeline and to satisfy my own curiosity. While not at all the same, in many ways it reminded me of Hala Alyan’s
The Arsonist’s City.
More info →
A
Summer Reading Guide rabbit trail led me to this undeniably earnest yet whimsical instructional volume about how to not only take on the titular task, but to enjoy doing it. Miller’s own enjoyment of the dishwashing process and his love for its many tools is evident here, as he seeks to convince the reader that washing the dishes, in a clean sink, with warm water, is a luxury, that completing this sometimes-dreaded kitchen task can deliver a real sense of accomplishment, and that you would be happier if you set yourself to the work with respect, know-how, and a sense of the greater meaning of the job. Recommended reading for fans of
Laundry Love; I liked this little book so much that I devoted
a WSIRN One Great Book-style bonus episode to it.)
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Dion Graham is one of my favorite narrators, so I pounced on this new June release as soon as it was available on audio and was hooked from the first line. The story centers a biracial Black father grieving the recent death of his seventeen-year-old son, whose life is further unmoored when he inherits a plantation from his estranged white grandfather, and remains of both enslavers and enslaved are immediately discovered on the property. The man (whose name we never learn) is a writer and professor, and he thrills his agent by emailing her in the middle of the night with a book proposal based on these real-life events. But when morning comes he has no memory of writing the proposal his agent loves so much. He grows increasingly concerned as he begins hearing voices—and fears he’s turning into a jellyfish. Vercher beautifully incorporates these elements of magical realism into his story to portray a man and father wrestling with past wrongs, and grasping at some sort of way forward. A book club could have a great time with this: there is so much to discuss.
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After reading and loving
2024 Summer Reading Guide pick
Long Island and its 2009 companion
Brooklyn this year, I was eager to read more Tóibín and landed on this 2021 biographical novel based on the life of Thomas Mann. My timing was serendipitous, as I happened to pick this up not long after we returned from
our family trip to Germany and it was a delight to see so many of the cities we visited referenced on the page. Despite being a German minor and having read some of his works in school, I knew little about Mann’s life and found myself frequently googling and consulting my college texts to compare Tóibín’s story with his source material. This was an often challenging and extremely sad work; I came away with it with a deepened appreciation for Tóibín’s range. I listened to the audio version, narrated by Gunnar Cauthery.
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This late June release was recommended by several readers whose taste I trust; it’s a family saga that plays out against the backdrop of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Pearce family business is oyster farming: they’ve made for living for decades bringing their in-demand product to market. But when the explosion occurs, it brings their long-simmering personal crises to a boiling point, and creates chaos and despair in the broader community. While I was interested in matriarch May and her two grown sons, this story really shone for its detailed portrayal of the oil spill from the perspective of coastal Louisianans and its impact on the local communities. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Xavier Casals.
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After reading a 2024 Fall Book Preview title where boxing played a surprising role, I reached for this March 2024 release that’s been waiting patiently on my shelves all year. What an interesting little book (with
a thimble full of weird, for sure): the story takes place at and is structured in the form of a weekend boxing tournament in Reno featuring some of the nation’s elite junior female boxers. The book opens with a tournament bracket, and each chapter is comprised of a blow-by-blow account of a single match, from the boxers’ perspectives. This was unlike anything else I’ve read in ages and I loved it for that.
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What have YOU been reading lately? Tell us about your recent reads—or share the link to a blog or instagram post about them—in comments.
P.S. I visited two bookstores this month for the first time (or the first time in decades) that weren’t terribly far from home: that top photo was taken at Lexington’s Joseph-Beth Booksellers.
The post What I’ve been reading lately: the new and the notable appeared first on Modern Mrs Darcy.
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