Fifteen REAL Books You Should ACTUALLY Read This Summer
Written by humans!
So, yesterday was interesting. You can read more about it here.
But you know what today is for? I’m going to make you a real summer reading list. And all of these books are guaranteed to exist in this plane of reality! All but maybe one are books that didn’t get quite the attention they deserve. Are these my top 15 books of all time? No. Are they my top 15 books of the recent past? Also no. I just really love them all and maybe you will too.
(Because of ~mysterious reasons~ I can’t include any 2025 fiction on the list, so if your novel came out this year please just assume that I adore it.)
Sonora Jha, The Laughter
An academic satire that doesn’t devolve into silliness. A straight white dude who thinks he’s one of the good guys, and is not.
Adam Ross, Playworld
A child actor grows up in New York in the 80s. This is raw and tender, with a completely charming protagonist even when he’s at his worst.
Jessica Anthony, The Most
One day, a woman will not get out of her swimming pool. That is the plot of this book. It is brilliant.
Crystal Hana Kim, The Stone Home
A dark (sometimes very dark) novel about a shameful chapter of South Korean history. Read this if you want to stay up late worrying about the characters.
John Green, Everything is Tuberculosis
This one is brand new nonfiction and yes, because it’s John Green, this one is probably getting the attention it’s due. I read this in one afternoon and it blew my mind and I’ve been thinking about tuberculosis/consumption kind of constantly since then.
Rumaan Alam, Entitlement
Despite what you might have read or hallucinated elsewhere, Rumaan Alam already has had another book since Leave the World Behind. This one is very different, about a woman working to give away money from a billionaire’s foundation, while melting down. You should read this one, because it is good and it exists.
Dinaw Mengestu, Someone Like Us
Try this if you want something slippery and subtle and psychological. You can read my review of it from last year here.
Charles Finch, What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year
I don’t know when the right time to read this book is. In 2021, when it came out? Now? In a hundred years? But Charles Finch kept a diary of the surreal year 2020 and it’s hilarious and cathartic. (Remember “Four Seasons Total Landscaping”?) And it’s a reminder that we’re all navigating history as individuals; there’s something heartening about that.
Charlotte Bronte, Villette
I’m throwing a classic in here. This book is just as good as Jane Eyre, and just as weird, and it definitely has a better ending. Why isn’t it more famous? Why??
Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic
This is one of my perennial go-to recommendations for smart people who’ve read a lot but haven’t read everything. It’s about Japanese “picture brides” in California in the early 20th century, and it’s stylistically unlike anything you’ve ever read (except for a few things that have tried to copy it since).
Pamela Erens, The Virgins
Another of my regular go-tos. Boarding school tragedy in the 70s, with a fascinatingly oblique narrative angle. Gorgeous, and from small-press juggernaut Tin House, to boot.
Alexander Stille, The Sullivanians
This one got a bunch of reviews and articles last year, but I don’t know that enough people actually read it. Nonfiction about a psychological cult right in New York City. I know three of the people in this book but had no idea they were connected to each other, which made this an even trippier read for me… but it’s a wild ride for everyone.
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Big Girl
A gorgeous debut from 2022. This is a compassionately-told coming-of-age story that gave me a lot of new psychological insights on weight and bodies and eating and adolescence.
Imbolo Mbue, How Beautiful We Were
A generation grows up in a small Africa village under the specter of corporate environmental poisoning. One young woman leaves for college. This book is stunning.
Tania James, Loot
This got some prize nods in 2023 but didn’t take off as widely as it should have. We start with a statue of a tiger eating someone’s face and wind through 18th century India, England, and France, and points of view you weren’t expecting. These “we move through time and perspective” books can sometimes be long and dry, but this one is juicy.
Oh, wait, a bonus classic for your kids!
If you ask adults if they’ve heard of Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game (1978), there are only two responses: they stare blankly, or they jump up and down like whoever asked the question must be their soulmate. It was my favorite book as a kid, and it was Gillian Flynn’s favorite book too, and it was in fact the favorite book of a lot of writers. There’s a reason. You might not find that it has held up in every way, but it’s a really fun book to read together with a ten-year-old.
Anyway…
Please enjoy these real books by real authors on a real beach or a real lawn chair, drinking some real lemonade. The real world is a nice place.
re: LOOT, I suspect "a statue of a tiger eating someone's face" is a depiction of a tiger attack? but it reminded me of when I was a kid and my hometown got its very own NFL franchise and erected a statue of a jaguar at the stadium and all the elementary schools took field trips there and one kid got his head stuck in the jaguar statue's mouth and had to be rescued with the jaws of life....so there is a part of me wondering if this statue of a tiger....ate someone's face.
"The Westing Game" was one of my three favorite books as a child ("Harriet the Spy" and "The Mixed-Up Files..." the other two)! I read them all recently, and they all held up. (As did my favorite YA, Lois Duncan's "Down a Dark Hall.")