Summer’s here! So grab some sunscreen, a sandy spot and your latest summer read. Don’t know what to choose? We’ve got a list of books that’ll have you flipping from sun-up to lights out.
Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra
Alejandro Zambra’s “darn brilliant” MULTIPLE CHOICE is one of @ELLEmagazine‘s summer reads: https://t.co/dqxwwP0i5g pic.twitter.com/Punuy3Emmp
— Penguin Books (@PenguinBooks) April 15, 2016
Don’t judge a book by its cover, kids. What may appear to be the cover page of your latest standardized test, is in fact, Zambra’s latest novel. The Chilean writer splits the book over the course of 90 multiple choice questions. As the initial quiz begins simplistically with word problems and logic questions, the reader is then taken on a crash course in love, death and how to deal with life’s most horrific struggles. This test is anything but standardized and one whose results culminate in much more than a number score.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Effia is married to an Englishman, living lavishly in the Cape Coast Castle of Ghana. Her half sister, Esi, resides in its dungeons just below. Unbeknownst to the pair, Esi is sold into slavery. Gyasi’s novel interweaves two drastically different threads of history through the telling of these sisters’ lives. Bringing to light Ghanan warfare and the Great Migration, this novel shows how an instance can change the course of a narrative continentally.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Don’t let the page count scare you. Tartt’s novel is a must read, especially for all you art history geeks out there. The novel is a wonderful ethnography of a Theodore “Theo” Decker as it begins with his thirteenth year, living with his mother (whom he adores) in Manhattan. A lover of art, his mother takes Theo to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see Carel Fabritius’ piece, ‘The Goldfinch’. Suddenly caught in the crossfire of an ongoing robbery, Theo escapes with a famed painting of his own choosing.
Originally published in 2013, Tartt’s novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014 and stands as one of our tops reads this summer.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
“They’re happy, I can tell. They’re what I used to be, they’re Tom and me five years ago. They’re what I lost, they’re everything I want to be,” Rachel observes. As both an alcoholic and the main character of Hawkins’ novel, Rachel watches the seemingly perfect couple outside the window of her commute to and from London. The train’s single window pane separates reality from her imagined delusion as she names the couple, Jess and Jason. But what good will her drunken imaginations be to the investigation regarding ‘Jess’ and her disappearance? Hawkins’ novel offers suspense as the thriller follows the narrative of three differing points of view: Rachel, Rachel’s Jess and Rachel’s ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend.
Did we mention the film adaptation hits theaters this October? Get your Kindles ready.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Louisa Clark is twenty-six. She has just lost her six-year barista gig and is struggling to support her mother, father and sister Treena (who just so happens to have an illegitimate child too). That is until she becomes the caregiver to quadriplegic Will Traynor, and begins to discover a young man who has already lived a life she deemed unimaginable. As he inspires her to live a full life, will she inspire him to simply live? With over six million copies sold and a motion picture adaptation out this summer, Me Before You is a read-before-movie type of book.
Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty by Ramona Ausubel
Edgar is the son of a steel baron. Fern comes from old money. Together, they have three children with a vacation home in Martha’s Vineyard. Fern gets a call that the money is gone. Edgar writes a book about walking away from his father’s money. Their nine-year-old daughter returns home to find herself the caretaker of six-year-old twins as her parents enter into an unexpected tailspin of fury and deceit. This is not your typical rise-above-it novel. Ausubel is real and provocative in this summer’s must read!
The Girls by Emma Cline
The New York Times reads, “Attuned to the possibilities, a man with unkempt hair and penetrating eyes wandered the Haight, seeking a particular kind of damaged girl.” This man was Charles Manson. The narrator of Cline’s novel? A Manson devotee. Cline and her characters reimagined the summer of Manson’s famed Tate-Labianca murders in 1969. The 27-year-old writes a mesmerizing tale that was worth the $2 million advance. Thanks, Random House.
