What’s in your book bag?
Enjoy the most exciting releases of July, an app for the perfect reading soundscape, and a much-too-large reading list for your next road trip.
Summer has arrived, and with it a surge of vacations. Despite record-high prices at the pump and supermarket, people are road tripping it this holiday week. Time to get away, unplug, and if you travel correctly, read a lot.
I’m never more optimistic about my reading goals than when I pack for a trip. Eight titles should cover a long weekend, right? And if we’re talking a getaway of a week plus, well, I’ll need an extra bag for the books alone. Reading is always a core goal for me when traveling—so much so that I can recall specific trips by the books I read during them.
A few years back (while on vacation, no less), I read Pamela Paul’s My Life with Bob, where she describes her “Book of Books,” a journal she’s kept since high school of every book she’s read. What started as a simple, personal catalogue grew into a collection of memories as she graduated from college, lived overseas, married her husband, had children, and eventually became the editor of The New York Times Book Review. She writes:
Diaries contained all kinds of things I wanted to forget—unrequited crushes and falling-outs with friends and angsting over college admissions. Bob contains things I wanted to remember: what I was reading when all that happened.
I’ve been enamored with that idea ever since, which is, in part, why this newsletter exists.
Much like the smell of freshly baked cookies reminds you of visiting your grandma’s house or hearing Lifehouse’s “You and Me” takes you back to your high school prom, I associate specific books with the moments during which I read them.
Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons accompanied me during the summer I lived in Rome, where I tracked down the “clues” to the Vatican conspiracy in person and shared the adventure with a pretty girl I had just met and who would later become my wife.
On our first wedding anniversary, we escaped to a small cabin for a few days where I first read Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy and discovered that an intellectual faith could coexist with a childlike love for God.
Winding our way along the coastal roads of Maine, my wife and I soaked in unrivaled scenery while engrossed in the Magpie Murders audiobook.
Anticipating our first child, we booked a babymoon to Bermuda where I soaked up the sun along with every word of Zadie Smith’s Feel Free essay collection.
A couple of weeks after our daughter arrived, I worked long hours at a conference, shuttling speakers to and from the venue. During those quiet commutes without passengers, bleary eyed and freezing, I laughed and cried as Craig Ferguson described fatherhood in Riding the Elephant with his trademark Scottish lilt.
As that little girl slept cradled in my arm, I stumbled across my favorite description of parenthood in Karen Thompson Walker’s The Dreamers.
Some purchase souvenirs to remind them of their travels. I read and bring home all the reminders I need, each narrative intermingling itself with the one playing out around me.
Which reminds me: I need to go pack my book bag.
Oh, and I’m sure you’re wondering about that parenthood quote I referenced above. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging. Here it is:
For seventeen days, they’ve been sleeping different sleep: short and sudden, and like sipping salt water for thirst—they wake more in need than before they closed their eyes. Every hour is needed, every moment put to use. It is exactly what he has always feared would happen with a baby. But what he didn’t understand before, what he failed to imagine in advance is how much pleasure there is in being so consumed.
The pleasure of being so consumed—the finest souvenir I could ask for.
June Reads
Scoundrel by Sarah Weinman—In 1957, Edgar Smith was arrested for killing a teenage girl and later sentenced to death for the crime. While awaiting his execution, he began corresponding with William Buckley, founder of National Review, who became convinced through their exchanges that a man so committed to conservative ideology as Smith could never have committed such a crime. Scoundrel chronicles Buckley’s campaign to overturn Smith’s conviction of a crime he later confessed to with a careful eye toward how easily our ideologies can determine our judgments of those around us.
Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen—Ava Wong may look put together on the surface, but she’s falling apart behind the scenes. Struggling to stay afloat with her toddler’s constant meltdowns and her overworked husband, she bumps into an old friend and soon joins her in building a business selling counterfeit handbags. Told in large part through Ava’s interview with a police detective, Counterfeit confronts minority stereotypes and America’s vision of the good life in a story the keeps delivering the deeper you dig.
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill—Four strangers become unlikely friends when they witness a woman’s terrified scream while sitting together at a communal table in the reading room of the Boston Public Library. Soon after, they discover the scream belonged to a woman who was murdered on site and they band together to investigate the cause of the crime. The main character is also writing her own novel, which allows Gentill to weave in some clever storytelling techniques to this whodunit.
July’s Most Anticipated
The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras—Colombian native Rojas Contreras comes from a fascinating family said to possess healing powers, fortune telling abilities, and shared bouts of short-term amnesia. In this new memoir, she travels back to Colombia to explore her family’s history in the company of her mother. Rojas Contreras’s novel, Fruit of the Drunken Tree, was a beautiful and heart-wrenching read. I’m expecting much the same from this one.
Upgrade by Blake Crouch—If you like tightly plotted, thought-provoking sci-fi, put this at the top of your list. With Dark Matter and Recursion already under his belt, Crouch has proven himself a highly imaginative writer, and Upgrade promises to be his most ambitious plot yet following a character who’s genome has literally been hacked.
The It Girl by Ruth Ware—The queen of thrillers is back, this time with a tale about a long-buried murder, a wrongfully convicted culprit, and secrets that refuse to stay hidden forever.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin—Childhood friends Sam and Sadie reconnect during a chance encounter in college and partner in developing a blockbuster video game that catapults them into the spotlight. Rich, successful, and famous, they must learn to navigate their new platform and discover the cost that comes with plenty. If this novel lands like Zevin’s The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, it’s guaranteed to stay with you for a long time.
The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger—When a wealthy Miami family has their life destroyed by the world’s first category 6 hurricane, they’re left to depend on the support of government programs and the kindness of neighbors as they chart their way to a new normal, stripped of the safety and security of privilege.
Reading Roundup
The deracination of good literature—A fascinating exploration of how technology has reshaped our instincts for perception as well as our ability to see what we read.
Beware the Luxury Beach Resort—I cannot relate to the opening sentence of this essay by acclaimed author Lauren Groff, but I can relate to her conscience pangs and the warning, “Luxury can swiftly glut.”
Ex Libris: Writers and Critics—What is the duty of book reviewers? It’s to inform you, the reader, not the author.
Parts of John Hughes’ novel The Dogs copied from The Great Gatsby and Anna Karenina—If you’re going to plagiarize, go big, amirite?
Afterword
For my money, nothing beats reading under the rhythmic drum of rain on a thin roof, thunderclaps echoing in the distance. I’ll also take a nighttime campfire on an ocean front or the gurgle of a clear mountain stream. Living in a landlocked city makes these hard to come by, which is why I love Noisli.
It’s a digital app with a catalogue of sounds you can listen to individually or blend together for the perfect mix. Whether you’re surrounded by chaos or resting in the quiet hours before bed, it’s a great tool to create the soundscape you want to make the most of your reading.