Summer Reading Wrap-Up
Everything I read in July, August, and September.
Wow wow wow, hello from…October?? It’s been some time since I’ve sent out a newsletter, but I am back to share quick thoughts on the 24 (!!) books I read this summer in July (8), August (8), and September (8)—I was consistent with June and shared my usual r.e.p.o.r.t. wrap-up. If you’d like, you can find my full reviews for most of these on Instagram, StoryGraph, or Goodreads, and as we’re now in literary award season, I’ve also shared my thoughts and updates at the end.
As far as the future of the newsletter, I’m not exactly sure what iteration it’ll take, but my goal is to get back to my usual weekly reading wrap-ups. As a fellow Olivia [Dean] sings: I’m taking ba-ba-ba-baby steps.
Disclaimer: Each book (to see a full synopsis or to purchase) is linked to Bookshop.org, where I will earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. If you prefer audiobooks, I use and recommend Libro.fm (my affiliate link for new members can be used, here).
⚠️ Content Warnings can be found on The StoryGraph.
July
🌳 Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall | A surprising, heart-wrenching historical fiction with romance, we follow a love triangle that looks at the complexities of marriage, motherhood, grief, and true love. 4⭐️
🌱 Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li | “Children die and parents go on living in an abyss.” This excellent memoir is a candid reflection on Yi’s experiences after losing her youngest son to suicide, the same way her eldest son also passed. Short, precise, and a must-read. 5⭐️
🌾 The Antidote by Karen Russell; thank you Knopf for the physical copy and PRH Audio for the audiobook. | With an unsuspecting group—a prairie witch, a high school girl and her farmer uncle, a scarecrow, a photographer—in Nebraska face climate emergencies, we take a deep dive into collective memory, the weight of our actions, and small town politics. A longer book that I don’t think earned its page count as some storylines were more compelling than others. 4⭐️
🪶 I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell; thank you Vintage for the gifted copy. | This memoir, as the subtitle states, recounts the 17 ways in which O’Farrell has evaded death. Though these are moments filled with acute tension to spike your anxiety, it was balanced with an urgent gratitude to live life and experience everything for all that it’s worth. 5⭐️
❤️🩹 Pearl by Siân Hughes; thank you Vintage for the gifted copy. | A quiet, reflective, coming-of-age story where we see Marianne, in childhood and adulthood, navigate the mysterious disappearance of her mother. Less of a mystery and more of a desire to learn more about someone who isn’t able to be the person you wish they could have been. 3.5⭐️
🍐 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden | What starts as an awkward coexistence between two polar opposite people, quickly turns into a relationship with several evolutions. An impactful and unexpected ending that makes you want to start the story over from the beginning. 4⭐️
☔️ Nevermoor: The Adventures of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Nevermoor #1) | A cute, enjoyable middle-grade fantasy novel. This was on my ‘I’ll get to it eventually TBR’ but prioritized it to help with a summer reading challenge. 3⭐️
🪦 Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders | One of my favorite books of the year, this follows the ghosts that inhabit a graveyard as they exist in a bardo (or, a transitional state between life and death). A fictional President Lincoln buries his young son in this graveyard, and through 150+ characters, written akin to a play, we learn about the social and political environment as the Civil War has just begun. 5⭐️
August
👥 Among Friends by Hal Ebbott | College roommates turned lifelong friends bring their families together for a weekend getaway and birthday celebration, but their decades-long grudges, secrets, and loyalty, is tested when an unforgivable act occurs. The stunning prose makes the relationship dynamics and character development all the more immersive, leaving you wholly invested. 5⭐️
🎭 Audition by Katie Kitamura | Told in two parts, we see different iterations between a woman and a young man, and how each version expands upon the roles we play within family. 3⭐️
🔦 Flashlight by Susan Choi | A novel highlighting themes of identity, belonging, and grief through the lives of three characters: a father, mother, and their daughter. The story begins when the father goes missing, and from there, we see the ripple effects on a traumatic incident. 3.5⭐️
🪶 There There by Tommy Orange | Told through slice-of-life, interconnected narratives, 12 characters—some related, some strangers—as they prepare to attend the Big Oakland Powwow, which is going to be an event that changes all of their lives. 4⭐️
🚬 The South by Tash Aw | The first in a planned coming-of-age quartet, we learn about Jay, his family, and the budding relationship between him and the son of the farmer who tends to his family’s land. I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would, and enjoyed the underlying criticism of industrialization. 4⭐️
🥭 The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros | The first time I’ve revisited this classic since high school, and while not every aspect of this novel has aged well, the themes remain true and I found a deep appreciation for the depth Cisneros captures within each sentence. 4⭐️
🌱 Devotions by Mary Oliver | A selected collection of the iconic poet’s work and another balm for the soul, must-read, that I feel will be revisited biblically. 5⭐️
🍓 Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer | A must-read, new all-time favorite work of nonfiction (specifically, essay collection) that shows the reciprocity we hold with the natural world and the healing that can come from it. 5⭐️
September
✝️ Dominion by Addie E. Citchens | In a fictional town of Dominion, Mississippi, a young teenage girl, Diamond, finds herself caught up in the whirlwind of the wealthy, influential, and Godly, Winfrey family who leads the Seven Seals Baptist Church. We see two parallel relationships that also juxtapose each other—the Reverend and his wife in their long marriage, and the new romance between Diamond and the Winfrey’s youngest, perfect son (who is literally nicknamed Wonderboy). Each exemplifies complimentarian themes of biblical ‘dominion’, allowing misogyny to fester and light a fuse for habitually destructive and carefree behavior. 4⭐️
🖼️ The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde | I liked what this was saying more than how it was executed. An early exploration of vanity, sin, greed, and youth. 3⭐️
🧩 Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle by Natan Last; thank you Pantheon and NetGalley for the gifted digital ARC (publishing Nov. 25) | In this part history, part memoir, Last takes us on a journey exploring the origins and lasting impacts of the crossword puzzle. This would be a perfect gift for any puzzle lover or crossword enthusiast. 4⭐️
⛵️ Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from the French by Helen Stevenson | Though under 150 pages, this packs quite the ethical punch. One night, a woman who works in the French Naval control tower intercepting and sending rescue aid to migrants in French waters, decides… not to. We see the moral conundrum and philosophical dilemma that is the crux of the book: do you save people no matter what, and if you don’t, are you at fault for being the last domino to fall in a line of systemic failures? Is there a “right” or a “wrong”? Can this one woman who is merely showing up for her 9 to 5 be responsible for the lives and/or deaths of a boat she never asked to set sail? 4⭐️
📚 The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien | In a surreal residence called The Sea, Lina and her father and fellow travelers build community through memory, curiosity, and compassion. Lina becomes friends with three of her neighbors and begins telling them about the only three books—each about a different real-life historical figure facing systemic oppression—she was able to bring with her. Time and reality blend as we see the connections between her neighbors and these figures and Lina’s own journey. 4⭐️
🫖 The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine | A novel exploring the life of our main character, Raja, and his mother of course, through three main moments throughout his life as a gay man and writer in Lebanon. This was a very pleasant surprise that had me emotionally invested in these characters. 4⭐️
🦐 Seascraper by Benjamin Wood | A simple, unassuming shrimper with big dreams gets the opportunity of a lifetime when a Hollywood executive comes knocking for a movie opportunity in this quiet, atmospheric novel. 4⭐️
🌼 Heart the Lover by Lily King | A stunning novel that will rip your heart out pull on your heartstrings. We see Jordan caught up in a love triangle between two best friends, and we see how their relationships change over the course of their lives. While not technically a sequel to Writers & Lovers1, I do recommend you read it first. 4.5⭐️
Did Not Finish
🐌 Endling by Maria Reva, at 24% | I ultimately think this novel was trying to do too much and couldn't find its footing for the story it wanted to tell. It felt unfocused and unbelievable.
Literary Award Season
Of the literary awards I follow, pay attention to, and/or read from, I’m only highlighting The Booker and the National Book Awards right now. (*Shortlisted / ✔️ = I’ve read)
The Booker longlist was announced on July 29th, and the Shortlist on September 23rd, and while I’m not committing to reading the entire longlist, I have been mood reading from it.
This year’s Booker Dozen and what I’ve read from it so far:
Audition by Katie Kitamura* ✔️
Endling by Maria Reva ✔️
Flashlight by Susan Choi* ✔️
Flesh by David Szalay* ✔️
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller*
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai*
Love Forms by Claire Adam
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga
One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits*
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood ✔️
The South by Tash Aw ✔️
Universality by Natasha Brown ✔️
The National Book Award longlists were announced September 9th-12th, with the shortlists announced October 7th! This is my favorite literary award and I commit to reading the entire fiction longlist every year. All of the lists were incredibly strong and have been generating a lot of buzz, especially in the Nonfiction and Translated Literature categories. My ambitious goal is to read the Nonfiction shortlist in November for part of my Nonfiction November reading.
The fiction longlist and what I’ve read from it so far:
The Antidote by Karen Russell* ✔️
Flashlight by Susan Choi* ✔️
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar*
North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther by Ethan Rutherford* ✔️
Only Son by Kevin Moffett
Palaver by Bryan Washington
The Pelican Child by Joy Williams
The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri ✔️
The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine* ✔️
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
That wraps up the summer! Thank you for your patience as we settle into fall and can finally enjoy some crisp weather.
-Olivia
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I read Writers & Lovers in 2023 and gave it 5⭐️