If you’re like me, summer brings to mind sunshine, beach trips, and more time to read. I asked a few of our GBH staffers for their favorite new read, a summer story they might return to, and an author they love. Their lists contain everything from mysteries to memoirs, poetry to historical fiction, and everything in between.
Maggie DiPatri,
National Audience Development/Station Services
Favorite new read: From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough. “An intimate glimpse of growing up with Elvis, experiencing his death when she was a child, and how that impacted [Lisa Marie’s] life.”
Fun summer read: The Wedding People by Alison Espach. “The beachy setting at a seaside hotel in Newport, Rhode Island, makes this a great summer read. It’s funny and biting, dark at times, but also heartwarming.”
A don’t-miss author: Elissa Sussman. “Her rom-coms perfectly balance ‘rom’ and ‘com.’”
John Landrigan, Development
Favorite new read: The Mind’s Mirror: Risk and Reward in the Age of AI by Daniela Rus and Gregory Mone. “This book focuses on a timely topic. It’s rather optimistic, but a good corrective to the many A.I. apocalypse scenarios recently circulating.”
Fun summer read: Classic detective novels by Rex Stout, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Ellery Queen. “But I wouldn’t limit that to summer.”
A don’t-miss author: Ali Smith. “Her seasonal quartet of novels — Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer — was terrific. Sebastian Barry [a former Laureate for Irish Fiction] called her ‘Scotland’s Nobel Laureate-in-waiting.’”
Kendall Todd, GBH Music
Favorite new read: The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson. “Part scientific mystery — what are eels and where do they come from? — and part memoir. It’s beautifully written, deeply moving, and full of wonderful eel facts that I’ve been telling my friends and family nonstop.”
Fun summer read: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. “It’s a charming, whimsical fantasy with a side of tax evasion. What’s not to love?”
A don’t-miss author: Natasha Pulley. “Every one of her books is different from the last — magical realism, historical fiction, science fiction, mythology, time travel…”
Frances Littell, Development
Favorite new read: The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow. “Mary Bennet is the most overlooked sister in the world of Pride and Prejudice. In this version, Mary gets her own story as she starts a new life in London.”
Fun summer read: Historical fiction including The Social Graces by Renée Rosen, The Huntress by Kate Quinn, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal, Jackie by Dawn Tripp, and The Women by Kristin Hannah.
A don’t-miss author: Daniel Silva and his 24-volume Gabriel Allon series.
Donna Danielewski, Accessibility
Favorite new read: The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne. “This memoir stitches together the family experiences of Dominick Dunne and Joan Didion, their traumatic family events, and their complex relationship with Hollywood and literary luminaries.”
Fun summer read: The Kate Shugak Investigation series by Dana Stabenow. “These books [23 so far] are thrilling and twisty mysteries but also introduce readers to Alaskan life, history, politics, and the culture of Alaska’s Indigenous communities.”
A don’t-miss author:
Anthony Horowitz. “His books feel custom-made for PBS lovers.”
Kevin Coyne, Communications
Favorite new read: Winter Stars by Larry Levis. “Levis was, by all accounts, an incredible jerk, but boy did he know his way around a line of poetry. ‘It is so American, fire. So like us./Its desolation. And its eventual, brief triumph.’”
Fun summer read: “I have a habit of undertaking long and arduous books over the summer. Last year it was The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Another year it was Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. This summer, my friend and I are taking a crack at Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.”
A don’t-miss author: Amy Hempel. “I pretty much always leave an Amy Hempel story laughing, or gutted, or admiring the economy of her writing. I think I’d frame her Collected Stories if I didn’t find myself returning to it so routinely!”
Rebecca Fraimow, Archives
Favorite new read: Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-Zǐ. “This book uses the structure of travel memoirs — with detailed food descriptions, visits to tourist hot spots, and falling for your translator — to illuminate and interrogate colonial histories.”
Fun summer read: The Friend Zone Experiment by Zen Cho. “Cho’s romances are always fun and funny, and this one’s no exception, with a satisfying depth that leaves a lasting impression.”
A don’t-miss author: Emily Tesh. “Just when you think you know where her plots are going, the book takes a jagged and more interesting left turn.”
Melissa Pollard, GBH Kids
Favorite new read: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. “The storyteller was able to take an inciting incident (a child’s disappearance) and weave it over decades. I found it heart-wrenching and utterly captivating.”
Fun summer read: Elin Hilderbrand’s Nantucket series. “I was born and raised on Cape Cod and now live in Newburyport, so being by the ocean in the summer is necessary for my well-being. I often use an audio book, so I can listen and look out over the water.”
A don’t-miss author: Jenny Colgan. “I love to read or listen to Colgan’s books around the holidays as they are cozy hygge reads often taking place on islands off the coast of the U.K. or in quaint villages.”
Melissa Baccala, Audience and Member Services
Favorite new read: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger. “It’s literary and speculative with gorgeous prose. Themes include love and loss, found family, community, an imagined not-too-distant dystopic U.S., climate fiction, and a book about books. It felt like magic in my hands, eyes, and ears.”
Fun summer read: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. “They are all tender, wholesome, and summery.”
A don’t-miss author: Clarie Keegan. “Fellow reader, find out for yourself, then come see me!”
Ron Bachman, Programming
Favorite new read: Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford. “It’s a noirish literary mystery set in an alternate 1920s America in which Indigenous people wield political clout. Its real theme is racial politics in America, refracted through an intriguing what-if scenario. For someone like me who likes both mysteries and jazz, this was a home run.”
Fun summer read: Books by P.G. Wodehouse. “I find his stories wonderfully fizzy and witty — not to mention beautifully written.”
A don’t-miss author: Michael Connelly. “Straightforward and unadorned prose, but it serves plots which are gritty and twisty and rooted in the here-and-now.”
