It’s almost officially summer, which means it’s time to pick a book to enjoy beachside, on an airplane or while curled up on the couch. With so many outstanding books to choose from, we asked three local librarians to share their picks for summer reading this year.
One book trend that’s now year-round are feel-good “cozy” books — cozy mysteries, cozy fantasy, even cozy sci-fi. Veronica Koven-Matasy, of the Boston Public Library, says one of her picks, “Automatic Noodle” by Annalee Newitz, fits the cozy bill, though the setting may not seem very heart-warming: a futuristic, post-war California.
“All of our protagonists are sentient robots,” Koven-Matasy said. “They have been abandoned in this fast-food restaurant by their owners, and this group of robots have decided that actually what they want is to make noodles. They create their own restaurant, and they have this amazingly wonderful family of little robots who want to make noodles. And they all have their specific traumas. But they’re bonding together. And it’s just such a wonderful metaphor for humanity, but with robots.”
Romance novels are also big summer hits. Robin Brenner, of the Woburn Public Library, says the enemies-to-lovers male romance “Fall Into You” by Dylan Morrison is one of her recent favorites, thanks to beautiful writing and great dialogue.
“In some ways, it’s a classic setup: It’s a man named Will who has left behind his entire town, his family, because he’d never fit,” Brenner said. “So he goes off and creates his own life far away and hasn’t talked to anyone in the town for decades, and then has to come back because his father has passed away and he has to deal with the farm. But then he gets back there and discovers that there is a manager of the farm who is both irritating and attractive ... and then has to figure out how to make this all work.”
But it’s not just fiction books that are hot for summer. Nonfiction books, like biographies and memoirs, are always making waves, including “Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free” by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, which Jane Philbrick, of the Cambridge Public Library, included in her list.
“Clare McCardell was a pioneer of American fashion, and she innovated or popularized a bunch of things that we take for granted now, like clothes with pockets or wrap dresses or ballet flats,” Philbrick said. “This focuses on her family life growing up in Maryland and then her later marriage, and her professional life. And what stands out to me is that she was really her own best advocate for moving her career forward, for knowing exactly what direction she wanted to go, and she didn’t rely on anyone else to open doors for her or to tell her what she should be doing. She knew she had this in her, and she went out and did it, which I think is very impressive.”
All those picks and so many more are in this year’s Under The Radar summer reading special!
Guests
- Jane Philbrick, manager of borrower services at the Cambridge Public Library
- Robin Brenner, head of reference and programming at the Woburn Public Library
- Veronica Koven-Matasy, the reader services librarian at the Boston Public Library
Want to learn more about the summer reading programs our librarians chatted about? Here are some helpful links:
- Summer reading at the Boston Public Library
- Summer reading at the Cambridge Public Library
Robin Brenner’s list
- “Woodworking” by Emily St. James
- “The Listeners” by Maggie Stiefvater
- “The Tomb of Dragons” by Katherine Addison
- “The Memory Palace” by Nate DiMeo
- “Fall Into You” by Dylan Morrison
- “Angel Down” by Daniel Kraus
- “Tamaki & Amane” by Fumi Yoshinaga
- “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- “Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe” by C. B. Lee
- “No Body No Crime” by Tess Sharpe
- “The Enchanted Greenhouse” by Sarah Beth Durst
- “Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel” by Maggie Stiefvater, adapted by Stephanie Williams and illustrated by Sas Milledge
- “Songs for Other People’s Weddings” by David Levithan and Jens Lekman
- “Lucky Day” by Chuck Tingle
- “Katabasis” by R.F. Kuang
- “Hemlock & Silver” by T. Kingfisher
- “Graveyard Shift” and “Hot Wax” by M. L. Rio
- “Swordcrossed” by Freya Marske
- “Nicked” by M. T. Anderson
Veronica Koven-Matasy’s list
- “Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas” by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
- “Automatic Noodle” by Annalee Newitz
- “A Song of Legends” Lost by M.H. Ayinde
- “Spent: A Comic Novel” by Alison Bechdel
- “Rules for Ruin” by Mimi Matthews
- “Katabasis” by R.F. Kuang
- “The River Has Roots” by Amal El-Mohtar
- “The Hymn to Dionysus” by Natasha Pulley
- “My Name Is Emilia Del Valle” by Isabel Allende
- “A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping” by Sangu Mandanna
- “Worth Fighting For” by Jesse Q. Sutanto
- “When the Tides Held the Moon” by Venessa Vida Kelley
- “Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life” by Maggie Smith
Jane Philbrick’s list
- “Sky Daddy” by Kate Folk
- “Run for the Hills” by Kevin Wilson
- “Raising Hare” by Chloe Dalton
- “Endling” by Maria Reva
- “Dominion” by Addie E. Citchens
- “Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free” by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
- “The Impossible Thing” by Belinda Bauer
- “Park Avenue” by Renée Ahdieh
- “Bring the House Down” by Charlotte Runcie
- “I Leave It Up to You” by Jinwoo Chong
- “Isola” by Allegra Goodman
- “Women, Seated” by Zhang Yueran
- “The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America” by Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz
- “The History of Sound” by Ben Shattuck
- “The Fisherman’s Gift” by Julia R. Kelly
- “Hollywood High: A Totally Epic, Way Opinionated History of Teen Movies” by Bruce Handy
Callie Crossley’s list
Biography
- “Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker And The Harlem Renaissance” by A’Lelia Bundles
Memoir
- “The Trouble Of Color: An American Family Memoir” by Martha S. Jones
- “Written In The Waters: A Memoir Of History, Home, And Belonging” by Tara Roberts
- “Nothing More Of This Land: Community, Power, And The Search For Indigenous Identity” by Joseph Lee
- “Tender Headed” by Michaela Angela Davis
Non Fiction
- “Cue The Sun! The Invention Of Reality TV” by Emily Nussbaum
- “Whiskey Tender” by Deborah Jackson Taffa
Fiction
- “The History Of Sound” by Ben Shattuck
- “Elementary” and “The Game Is Afoot” by Elise Bryant
- “Dream Count” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “The Phoenix Pencil Company” by Alison King
- “The Dark Maestro” by Brendan Slocumb
- “Lula Dean’s Little Library Of Banned Books” by Kirsten Miller
- “The House Guest” and “One Wrong Word” by Hank Philipi Ryan
Romance
- “Can’t Get Enough” by Kennedy Ryan
- “Great Big Beautiful Life” by Emily Henry
- “Back After This” by Linda Holmes
- “Ms. V’s Hot Girl Summer” by A.H. Cunningham
Children’s books
- “The Last Stand” by Antwan Eady
- “The Book That Almost Rhymed” by Omar Abed
- “Home In A Lunchbox” by Cherry Mo
- “The Yellow Bus” by Loren Long
- “Lucy Sings On Lucy Street” by Lawrence Roberts and Sally Ann Roberts
- “The Girl Who Was Too Big For The Page” by Geena Davis
- “Hello There, Sunshine” by Tabitha Brown
- “Woo Hoo! You’re Doing Great!” by Sandra Boynton
- “The Boy Who Said Wow” by Todd Boss
