Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer Reads
- Karen Rettich
- Jul 3
- 7 min read
When I was growing up there was a small library in town. It was an old stone building and the children’s department was in the basement. In my memory it is small and crowded and delightful. The walls were lined with shelves of books and smaller book cases in the middle of the room. There was a window that looked out at street level with just enough light to delude you into thinking you were not in a basement. In the heat of the summer when my dad would take me to gather an array of books, he would open the heavy door and the cool air would soak my face and the smell of books- slightly musty older volumes and the crisp fresh paper of new books- would fill my nose.
Summer meant reading to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. I would set a goal to read as many books as possible and then get pledges from neighbors and family friends. Summer meant reading at the pool, at the beach under our green and white umbrella, on the couch under the air conditioning with my mother sitting nearby.
Each summer I feel the need to read as many books as possible even though there is no longer a fundraiser. And summer reading feels essential, like swimming or laying in a hammock. It makes summer feel like summer. I never kept a list as a kid, but I do now. I have some new favorites to share. Whether you are reading beachside, poolside or on your couch under the cool of your AC. I hope you find something to enjoy in this summer’s reading list!
I read Abraham Verghese’s tome in the summer of 2023. I heard him interviewed on Oprah’s podcast and was immediately intrigued. It is definitely my latest favorite and one I will, at some point , read again. Get ready to settle in as this book tops 700 pages but I promise it won’t feel like it!
This book takes us on a generational journey from 1900-1977 in Kerala, South India. The book is filled with love, loss, faith, family- both born with and chosen. It is the story of one family and the curse that water brings to it. It explores what it means to be human, to have shared empathy and compassion. It has twists and turns and the characters come together and move apart and weave back into each other’s lives effortlessly. The characters are richly developed and hard to forget. It took Verghese 14 years to write and it is , in my opinion, a masterpiece of storytelling. The characters are richly drawn and the history of the region explained within each person’s narrative. It is well worth a summer read!
I read “The Patron Saint of Liars” while at my summer job as a camp nurse in 2022. I am a new Ann Patchett fan. I read her book “The Dutch House” in 2020 and it was a great read. I found this at my favorite used bookstore, The Book Barn in Niantic ,CT.
This was Patchett’s debut novel in 1992 and since then has written several beautifully woven stories families, love, friendship and the complexities of being human and finding our place in the world. This novel tells the story of a young woman named Rose, who is married and pregnant but does not tell her husband and leaves him without telling him where she is going or that she is pregnant. She goes to St Elizabeth’s, a home for unwed mothers in Kentucky. The women only stay long enough to give birth but Rose after delivering her baby does not want to give her up and makes a home for herself and her child with the nuns and the rotating characters of unwed mothers. Rose is complex. She arrives at St Elizabeth as an evasive young woman who married a man she didn’t love and escaped to find freedom and a new life- or maybe no life at all. So much of Rose is a mystery but the characters around her, including her daughter Cecelia and “Son” , the handy man for St Elizabeth’s that you begin to grasp some understanding of Rose. The ending left me slightly bereft I will admit.
A quick and enjoyable read for a warm summer day.
For those of you who prefer a lighter read in the summer I give you Trevor Noah. He was the host of “The Daily Show” from 2015 to 2022. In this book he tells of us his story of being born in South Africa to a white Swiss father and black Xhosa mother in a time when inter-racial marriage was punishable by five years in prison. Thus the title.
Trevor was hidden from the government by his mother during his youngest years as he could have been taken away from her. It wasn’t until the end of apartheid when he was ten years old that he was able to live out in the open. His stories are hilarious and affecting, while not minimizing his life in Apartheid in South Africa. He gives us a history lesson woven through his own narrative but does so with wit and wisdom. His story is populated by the women who helped to raise him and filled with tales of his own mischievousness as a young boy and how he came to be a rising comedian. Funny and engaging, I laughed out loud throughout and was amazed by his journey!
“The Silent Patient” I picked up at a Little Free Library on a whim at the end of last summer. The premise sounded interesting, and I do like a good mystery. Although I rarely read mysteries, I prefer a good British murder mystery on the tele.
Michaelides draws us into the silent world of Alicia Berenson who is accused of shooting her husband and then never speaks again. Enter criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber and his fascination with Alicia that catapults him into her world and tries to figure out what caused her to commit this act of murder. The story is well plotted, intriguing and captivating. Theo feels like a person you don’t want to like- ambitious and calculating. Alicia is a complete mystery and the end totally threw me! I love a twist at the end and this had a great one. An easy, quick read which is great for a lazy beach day.
I read “Horse” by Geraldine Brooks last summer while sitting on the beach. My daughter and her friends frolicked around while I sat under my green and white umbrella and read. I have liked every Brooks novel I have read. Her novel “The Year of Wonders” is on another one of my lists. She does extensive research, and it shows.
This novel is based on the life of racing horse Lexington in the pre-Civil War era. Brooks takes us through three timelines- 1850s Kentucky, 1950s NYC and 2019 in Washington DC where the skeleton of Lexington is rediscovered and his story begins again. There is also a famous painter and his painting of this horse. At the center is the horses’ trainer, an enslaved man named Jarrett (fictional) and his story also unfolds within the story of Lexington. enslaved. The slavery of the 1850s collides with racism in the 21st century. Our contemporary character, Jess, an Australian scientist working at the Smithsonian who is studying the bones of Lexington and Theo, a Nigerian American art historian who is trying to uncover the story of the Black horsemen who were crucial in the horse’s success. The slavery of the 1850s collides with racism in the 21st century. And then there is the art collector and the painting of Lexington which brings another layer to the story.
It may sound confusing but in the expert hands of Brooks the story flows between timelines and is written in beautiful prose that gives all the characters depth and is written with compassion. Slavery is not glossed over and neither is the current state of racism in our country. The ending was difficult but it highlighted how far we still need to go.
A compulsive and engrossing read! Add it to your TBR pile!
My final recommendation is the latest book I have read. This is an amazing retelling of “The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn” but from the perspective of Jim. Worthy of all the hype around it!
The story begins in much the same way as Huck Finn’s story, but we are propelled into Jim’s world. The reader is tossed into a new reality in the second chapter that made me stop reading for a moment because I was confused at the new “dialect" but I won’t say more, I wouldn’t want to ruin your discovery! This novel showed slaves as smart and cunning and absolutely human, dismantling the stereotypes in Twain’s novel. The development of the characters, the menace of the white men chasing Jim and Huck, and the relationship between Jim and Huck is compelling and thought provoking. I am truly sorry to admit I had not heard of Percival Everett before this novel, which has won the Pulitzer Prize. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at USC. He has won numerous awards and prizes for his writing. I will be reading his other novels for sure! If you are like my husband and read about one book a year- this is the book!
Summer is here and I hope you find yourself lost in a great book! My TBR pile keeps getting bigger but here are a couple on my list:
“Hazel Says No” by Jessica Berger Gross
“The River is Waiting” By Wally Lamb
“The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare” by Kimberly Brock
“Memorial Days” by Geraldine Brooks ( A memoir)
“The Sea “by John Banville
For my local readers here are some websites to my favorite bookstores in Connecticut. Please support our independent book sellers.
Happy reading and don't forget your sunscreen!
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