“Whatcha doing?” my husband Josh asked me the other day. “Oh, just maxing out my holds requests at the library,” I responded.
I love making a great big summer reading list! I never really get to all of the books on it (sometimes this is because I’m #658 on the library waitlist…), but half the fun is just making the list in the first place.
But what I don’t love? Is wasting my precious reading time on a mediocre book. ¡No gracias! I used to feel this weird obligation to finish every book I started (is this a Capricorn thing?), but now I just give myself permission to stop reading if it’s not doing anything for me.
But it’s always nicer to start off with a book that I’m pretty sure I’ll love. 🙂 These 8 below have been some of my favorites that I’ve read recently (or recently-ish), and I think they’d be perfect for YOUR summer reading list!
Almost none of these are new releases (in fact, some are quite old), so hopefully you can avoid being #658 on the library waitlist and actually read them in the summer instead of, say, January when it’s finally your turn.
BOOKS BY A LATINX AUTHOR:
The Book of Unknown Americans
This book follows the story of Arturo and Alma Rivera and their beautiful daughter Maribel, who all move to the U.S. from their small town in Mexico. After a horrific accident that left fifteen-year-old Maribel with a brain injury, they’ve waited and sacrificed to get the right papers to come to los Estados Unidos, the country that they hope will help her get better. Amid all of the struggles and difficulties the Rivera family faces in this new country, one bright spot is their friendship with their Panamanian neighbors, the Toro family. Mayor Toro (their teenage son) and Maribel become especially close. But all of those relationships are tested as a number of incidents occur which set in motion a chain of events that will change each of their lives forever. I really liked how the author wove in testimonios of other men and women (neighbors in their apartment complex who also immigrated to the States) throughout the book. This is a short-ish, engrossing read that goes by fast!
The Seamstress: A Novel
The Seamstress was released 10 years ago, but I just discovered it this year after reading the author’s newest book. Sisters Emília and Luzia dos Santos start off as seamstresses in a small town in backcountry Brazil. Left orphaned at a young age, they live with their aunt, who teaches them how to mend, cut and create. Both long for escape, and both find it: Luzia is (willingly) abducted by a band of outlaw cangaceiros (bandits) led by the infamous Hawk; and Emília (the family romantic) finangles her way into a marriage with the son of a wealthy and politically powerful doctor and moves to the big city. Though the sisters’ lives diverge in drastic ways, they keep track of each other through occasional mentions in the newspaper (Emília in the society section, Luzia in the headlines when the cangaceiros do something particularly brutal or barbaric). This is an epic, long novel (600+ pages), but I was so engrossed in all of it and thought about the book for a long time after I finished it. I definitely wouldn’t classify this as a “light” read (both the story and the writing are intense), but it’s excellently written and the author does a great job of creating strong, believable characters and situating them perfectly in the context of 1930’s Brazil.
MEMOIRS:
Love Warrior: A Memoir
I’m not the first person to recommend Glennon Doyle’s memoir (though I am in excellent company because Oprah picked it for her book club), but I couldn’t leave it off this summer reading list! Starting with her early descent into bulimia and alcoholism, this book takes us through Glennon’s beautiful, brutal journey to get sober for marriage and motherhood. Three kids later, she discovers her husband is wrestling his own addictions: to porn and infidelity. What makes the story so riveting is her account of how she– and he– rebuild their lives, together and separately. Doyle started off as a blogger who gained a massive following for her vulnerable writing, and that honesty and warmth totally shines through in her book.
At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe
I picked up this book because we have several friends who have done some version of what Oxenreider and her family did: packing up a house and spending a year wandering the world. I’m not sure that type of travel is for me (give me a home base and a routine for my kids, please). But I still loved following the Oxenreiders as they load up their three kids and set off on an adventure, starting in Beijing and ending in London. The most interesting part of this book for me was the way Oxenreider worked to balance her love of travel, of seeing the world and exploring new places, with her love of roots, stability, and community. It’s a tension I feel (and, I suspect, so do many others), and her reflections on family and home and community really resonated with me. I also really like her thesis that travel isn’t mutually exclusive with having kids (preach!). Pick this one up if you want a way to satisfy your wanderlust from your couch this summer (though the end result might be that you book a plane ticket to see the world— you’ve been warned).
BOOKS SET OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES:
The Last Days of Café Leila
I grabbed this off the library shelf on a whim solely because my oldest daughter is named Leila, and was pleasantly surprised by it! Noor is a (happily— or so she thinks) married doctor living in San Francisco, but a personal crisis leaves her reeling. Dragging her unwilling teenage daughter along, she decides to take a long-overdue visit to her father, Zod, in Iran. As Noor rejoins the world of Cafe Leila, the restaurant her family has been running for three generations and the backdrop of her Persian childhood, she must rethink who she is and figure out her plan for the future. I’m a big fan of immigrant stories, and this one beautifully weaves together Iran’s complex history with the more domestic story of food, family and homecoming.
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
In this book we read the parallel storylines of Li-yan, who grew up in a remote Chinese village among the Akha people, and her daughter Hayley, adopted by an American couple in California. As a teenager Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, violates Akha cultural taboos in several significant ways, including having a baby out of wedlock (and later marrying the baby’s father despite her family’s disapproval). Rather than standing by tradition, Li-yan wraps the baby in a blanket, tucks in a tea cake, and leaves her near an orphanage in the nearest city. The rest of the book is the story of Li-yan’s emergence from the insularity of her village and her introduction to modern (1990’s) China; it’s also the story of Hayley’s search for answers as she grows up the privileged, well-loved Asian daughter of a White couple. Ultimately, they both find what they are seeking in the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for generations.
LIBROS EN ESPAÑOL
El tiempo entre costuras
This is the book that inspired one of my faaaavorite TV series (same name in Spanish, or “The Time in Between” in English.). Sira is the daughter of a Spanish seamstress. When Spain becomes politically fraught leading up to the Spanish Civil War, Sira ends up escaping the country with her gorgeous lover and heads to Morocco. However, she soon finds herself abandoned, penniless, and heartbroken in an exotic land. This story follows Sira as she reinvents herself and opens a successful atelier in Morocco, but the adventure doesn’t end there. At the height of World War II, Sira’s new friends persuade her to return to Madrid and adopt an entirely new identity, embarking on the most dangerous undertaking of her career. A little bit love story, a little bit spy story, and lots of beautiful clothes, I couldn’t put this book down! It’s on the long side, so if you’re looking for an epic summer reading project I think this would be a great option.
Largo pétalo de mar
Obviously no summer reading list of mine would be complete without something by Isabel Allende, and luckily she has a brand new book out this month! Coincidentally, this story is also set during the Spanish Civil War. Víctor Dalmau, a young doctor, finds himself fleeing Barcelona along with his pianist friend Roser Bruguera aboard the Winnipeg (the ship that poet Pablo Neruda commissioned to sail from France to Chile with two thousand Spanish refugees aboard). Roser and Víctor had to marry before boarding the Winnipeg to be allowed aboard, but despite the fact that it was a marriage of convenience they settle in Chile and live happily for several decades. However, when President Salvador Allende is outed in a military coup, the threat of a new dictatorship puts everything they have worked for at risk.
Any good recommendations for me? I’d love to add another book (or 15) to my summer reading list!
P.S. How to read more books 🙂 (in case you’re feeling crunched for time!)