July Reads
I always read a lot in summer, but this summer, I’m reading more than ever. It’s the best escape I’ve found for the worries that seem to be everywhere right now. Here’s a brief look at a handful of books I’ve recently enjoyed in my summer reading.
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
“People either see me or they don’t. I wonder what it’s like to walk down the street, safe and easy in your skin, and just blend right in. No one turning away, no one staring, no one waiting and expecting, wondering what stupid, crazy thing you’ll do next.”
Finch and Violet meet at the top of the school bell tower, both on the ledge and unsure where to go next. They talk each other down and begin a friendship unlike anything either has ever known. This is a story of love, acceptance, and delight, as well as sadness, pain, and suicide, and it takes a thoughtful and important look at mental illness. It didn’t give me the happy ending I so wanted, but I couldn’t put it down.
Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
“I kept the smile on my face as I let myself remember the night that everything had changed; the night at this bar when I’d decided to stop being a girl on a diet and just start being a girl.”
I don’t know why I haven’t read more of Jennifer Weiner’s books. The first half of this book threw me right in the summer-beach-read mood I wanted, and the second half was a fast-paced mystery that reminds us that people contain multitudes and are never just one thing.
The Potlikker Papers by John T. Edge
“Today, as the region evolves, so do its foods. Culture, as historian Lawrence Levine reminds us, is not a product fixed in time. It’s a vigorous and ongoing process.”
This book is a history of the South within the context of its foods. I always want to understand more about the history of race here and how I can be part of helping to change it now, and I also really love reading about food, so this was an easy choice. I didn’t really learn much that was new, but it was an interesting food history.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
“As they grew, they no longer seemed like one body split in two, but two bodies poured into one, each pulling it her own way.”
Stella and Desiree Vignes are Black girls from Louisiana who run away from home together but then choose very different lives. Desiree ends up back home in Mallard. Stella enters adulthood as a white woman. Each has one daughter. And because of their split, none of their lives are ever the same. This book defies easy explanations and upends racial assumptions. It’s a challenging, absorbing, necessary read. I really need a book club to discuss this one.
No picture for this one—I let my sister borrow it!
The Big Finish by Brooke Fossey
“A breeze rustled my thin hair; the sun warmed my face. I closed my eyes to it and let the last of my misgivings melt off until there was nothing left but a why-not-go-ahead-and-jump tickle in my toes.
“There you go, skydiving again, I thought.”
Duffy and Carl are roommates in an assisted living facility. Duffy’s goal is to raise havoc, have a good time, and stay healthy enough that he doesn’t get sent to the town’s nursing home, where he believes people go to die. But priorities for both men are turned upside down when Josie, Carl’s estranged granddaughter, climbs in their window, and knowing, protecting and helping her become keys to knowing, protecting, and helping themselves. I picked up this one because I heard it described as curmudgeon fiction, which it definitely was and I definitely love. This book was a poignant and sweet reminder that you’re never too old to change your life.
I hope you’re reading something amazing! Let me know what it is!
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