海角大神

When it comes to summer reading, I firmly believe there is no right answer. If you鈥檙e at the beach and you鈥檙e reading it, it鈥檚 a beach read.聽

My son celebrated the end of his junior year of college with 鈥淗eart of Darkness鈥� (confession: Joseph Conrad does not scream 鈥減leasure reading鈥� to me) and then moved on to Ralph Ellison鈥檚 鈥淚nvisible Man鈥� and 鈥淭he Rest Is Noise鈥� by New Yorker music critic Alex Ross.聽

His parents are, comparatively speaking, lightweights. My husband is happily working his way through 鈥淭he Pot Thief鈥� series (no, not that kind of pot) by J. Michael Orenduff. The comic mysteries serve up Southwest culture, archaeology, excellent food, and plenty of Hatch chiles, and they remind Brian of his desert childhood.聽

This summer I鈥檓 finally diving into 鈥淗 Is for Hawk鈥� and 鈥淭he Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.鈥� (Perils of a reviewer: There are so many new books that if you don鈥檛 make time to circle back, you never catch up with the ones you weren鈥檛 assigned.)聽

When it comes to summer 2023, people are seeking a sense of adventure and reconnection 鈥� and, let鈥檚 be honest, we all could use a good laugh. We鈥檝e got you covered whether you鈥檙e interested in a book club read, a BookTok author, a real-life adventure, a fantasy, a mystery, or a novel that can make you snort-laugh poolside. We鈥檝e also got a pirate queen.

Pony Express redux

The Pony Express existed only 18 months, but it has endured in the imagination as an institution for much longer than riders carried the mail via horseback from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. 鈥淚t was the greatest display of American horsemanship to ever color the pages of a history book,鈥� writes Outside magazine contributor Will Grant. (Only one mailbag, called a mochila, was lost.) Grant sets out to follow their trail in his new book, 鈥淭he Last Ride of the Pony Express,鈥� covering 2,000 miles with his horses Chicken Fry and Badger. Grant, who spent his youth working with horses, gives the trio 100 days rather than the 10-day relay route so dangerous that one advertisement allegedly read, 鈥淥rphans preferred.鈥� In addition to the miles, he also covers the philosophy, history, and environment of the American West and how the land shaped a people.

Summer school satire

For a far more irreverent take on U.S. history, and with a sincere apology to any high school student actually studying for the Advanced Placement exam, Washington Post humorist Alexandra Petri creates the Americana she wished existed. 鈥淎lexandra Petri鈥檚 US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up)鈥� offers essays ranging from 鈥淗ow To Pose for Your Civil War Photograph,鈥� to Elizabeth Cady Stanton getting pulled involuntarily into a Hallmark movie when she traveled to Seneca Falls. (Any career-minded woman who ventures to a small town is doomed to be trapped in a sweet and probably snow-filled future.) There鈥檚 a new take on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that tries to be more accurate about who actually warned that the British were coming. (Editor鈥檚 note: Longfellow never let a name or a fact get in the way of a poem.) Petri knows her stuff 鈥� readers are advised to check out the footnotes 鈥� and some of the most absurd flights of history are, in fact, true.聽

A legendary Chinese pirate queen聽

If you鈥檇 prefer a combination of fiction and history with more emphasis on the fiction 鈥� and 100% more piracy 鈥� pack Rita Chang-Eppig鈥檚 debut, 鈥淒eep as the Sky, Red as the Sea.鈥� Nineteenth-century pirate queen Shek Yeung ruled the South China Sea at a time when women were not allowed to chart their own path. Shek is a vibrant, complicated heroine who was sold into sexual slavery as a teenager, only to win her freedom and captain half a fleet. Chang-Eppig starts her epic in the middle of a battle, when Shek鈥檚 pirate husband is killed. The novel then moves backward and forward through time, as the master strategist begins the fight for her own life and her children 鈥� a survivor who refuses to live life on anyone else鈥檚 terms again.聽

A tangled murder mystery聽

If, like me, you鈥檝e needed a mystery handy since the pandemic to help restore your sense of order, author Elly Griffiths鈥� character, Ruth Galloway, can relate. The British forensic archaeologist 鈥渇eels that she has been fighting things 鈥� Covid, the university, her own feelings 鈥� for too long,鈥� writes Griffiths in 鈥淭he Last Remains,鈥� the conclusion to her well-loved and long-running series. Ruth鈥檚 university plans to shut down her department to cut costs, and Ruth is trying to summon the energy for one more battle. (鈥淲e need to fight back, David texted. I鈥檓 starting a Twitter account.鈥�) Meanwhile, a skeleton has been found behind a bricked-up wall in a pub 鈥� a traditional punishment meted out to erring women. Cathbad, Ruth鈥檚 friend, not only knew the dead woman but also suddenly vanishes, leaving Ruth, Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson, and Cathbad鈥檚 family distraught with worry. A careful craftswoman, Griffiths brings back characters from earlier mysteries, and the novel chimes with echoes that reach back to Ruth鈥檚 first outing, 鈥淭he Crossing Places.鈥� While I got a little weary of the romance a few books ago, Ruth and her found family remain good company, and Griffiths offers up the historical detail that has enriched each mystery. (Nicola de la Haye, 12th-century castellan and savior of England, is someone I鈥檓 happy to know about.)聽

Finding grace in grief聽

In a country as bad at mourning as the United States, it鈥檚 hard to think of a novelist who handles grief with more gentleness than Steven Rowley. He follows up his utterly charming 鈥淭he Guncle,鈥� in which the main character steps in to care for his niece and nephew after the death of his sister, with 鈥淭he Celebrants.鈥� Five college friends vow to be there for each other at their lowest moments in life by throwing funerals. The point is simple: when life gets really hard, 鈥渢o remind you that you are loved.鈥澛�

They drop everything and fly 3,000 miles when parents die, when a marriage fails, when an honest mistake is about to send someone to prison. When you can鈥檛 find the light in your own life, 鈥渋t鈥檚 someone else鈥檚 turn to hold the lantern.鈥� The marketing copy calls it a Gen X 鈥淏ig Chill,鈥� but Rowley himself nails the vibe as 鈥渇our funerals and a wedding.鈥� Some of the situations are a little forced 鈥� a destination funeral, a surprise funeral 鈥� but then, what memorial service isn鈥檛 staged, with the celebrants unsure how to act or what to say?聽

Rowley鈥檚 repartee is witty, and the importance of making sure those you love know how much they mean to you comes through on every page.

Dragon-filled fantasy聽

Speaking of friendship, every reader should have a book friend in their life. Mine handed me 鈥淔ourth Wing鈥� by Rebecca Yarros with the admonition that I shouldn鈥檛 look it up or read any reviews. This was sage advice. If you loved the series 鈥淭he Dragonriders of Pern鈥� but cringed at the consent issues, hie thee to a bookstore. Here be dragons! Violet Sorrengail survived a childhood illness that left her with weak joints and prematurely gray hair. She planned to live an indoorsy life as a scribe among her beloved books. Her general mom conscripts her into the fantasy equivalent of the Air Force Academy in which fellow students see weakness as a reason to kill you. Oh, and several of her classmates鈥� parents were executed on her mother鈥檚 orders.聽Be warned: There is a cliffhanger. It is a doozy.