Book lovers, get ready to update your summer reading lists! We rounded up everything our staff are looking forward to reading. You may just find your next favorite book!
Yours in media,
Elizabeth He, Visual Communications Editor
This is a web edition of GBH's The Deep Dive, a weekly newsletter bringing you the best GBH has to offer.
Use Your Imagination
Explore these recommendations for new fiction and historical fiction, paired with programs and video clips to get you into the world of these great reads.
Historical Fiction: The Harlem Trilogy by Colson Whitehead
Follow Ray Carney, a New York City furniture salesman and part-time criminal through the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Our staffer is excited for the third book, Cool Machine, due out in July.
Learn more about Carney’s world by watching this clip — Making Black America Through the Grapevine: Harlem, The Black Metropolis.
Enjoy an interview with the author about the first book in the trilogy, Harlem Shuffle.
Historical Fiction: Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki
Learn about this little-known, but brilliant, writer, and Transcendentalist leader who had close relationships with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and others.
Learn more about the mentor relationship between Emerson and Thoreau in this clip from Ken Burns’ film, Henry David Thoreau.
Watch the PBS Books interview with Pataki about this book.
Historical Fiction: A Fortune of Sand by Ruta Sepetys
The youngest daughter in a powerful family secretly applies to an elite arts program in Detroit in 1927 backed by a mysterious benefactor. This gothic novel is inspired by real events.
Peek into some other 1920s Detroit history through the story of Detroit Coneys hot dogs.
Watch Sepetys talk about her previous novel, Salt to the Sea.
Fiction/Contemporary Romance: American Fantasy by Emma Straub
Set sail for four days on the American Fantasy cruise ship with a 1990s boyband and 3,000 diehard fans, including newly divorced Annie.
Ever wondered what goes into building one of these ships? NOVA will take you aboard the process.
Watch this interview with Straub about her earlier book, The Vacationers.
Contemporary Fiction: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
A young executive and his new wife are faced with the unthinkable when he is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. What happens when he is released?
Explore the topic of incarceration with GBH News’s Life After Prison series.
Hear Jones discuss her novel on Under the Radar with Callie Crossley.
Find out more about each of these books, in our new article, “Books GBH Staff Can’t Wait to Read This Summer.” To learn even more about historical fiction, check out this Under the Radar program, “Historical fiction: The genre that makes history come to life.”
The Scary Stuff
Ready for something that will get your mind twitching? Try a dark or psychological thriller or maybe a paranormal pick.
Psychological Thriller: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Three different staffers recommended this debut novel which imagines an influencer committed to portraying the “traditional American woman (tradwife) lifestyle” who awakens in the harsh realities of life in 1855. Reality show? Time travel? Something darker?
Read more about how a period drama like MASTERPIECE’s The Forsytes can inform us about the current moment of “tradwife” influencers.
Horror: The Strange series by Uketsu
These books include a series of stories and images that are eventually revealed to be connected. Said the staffer who recommended the series, “They have enough horror elements to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.”
Explore some other “strange happenings” on this episode of Stories from the Stage.
Horror: The Butcher Legacy by Alaina Urquhart
An autopsy technician is forced to re-engage with a serial killer and a Massachusetts pastor who is hiding a sinister secret in book three of the Dr. Wren Muller Series.
Interested in how the term “serial killer” was coined? Find out with All Things Considered.
Interested in a few more things to get your heart racing? Watch this Beyond the Page with Lucy Foley or this PBS Books interview with Tana French.
And check out our highlight, “Books GBH Staff Can’t Wait to Read This Summer,” for a bonus selection!
Recipe of the Week
Make the Perfect Cheeseboard To Enjoy While You Read
Whether you want to assemble your board in minutes or take your time crafting the perfect spread, we’ve got a foolproof choose-your-own-adventure guide for making a drool-worthy cheeseboard.
Tell Me About Yourself
Ready to follow someone’s personal journey? Try these memoirs, travelogues, and true crime offerings. And, for a little more true crime programming, check out the “Catching the Codfather” podcast.
Travelogue: This Land Is Your Land by Beverly Gage
Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage travels the country in search of historic sites, attractions, and souvenir shops where Americans try to engage with the nation’s history.
Enjoy a PBS Books talk with Gage about her biography of J. Edgar Hoover.
Travel the U.S. and beyond from your armchair with Samantha Brown’s Places to Love.
True Crime: London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
In this true story, a 19-year-old dies from a fall from a high-rise building into the River Thames, and his family discovers that he had a secret life in London’s criminal underworld.
Hear Keefe talk about this story on “The Culture Show Podcast.”
Explore another secret with FRONTLINE’s Secrets of the Vatican.
Memoir: How to Ruin Everything by George Watsky
From accidental ivory smuggler to middle-school rap battle victor to struggles with epilepsy, Watsky shares funny and brutally honest stories about growth after defeat in this debut collection of essays.
Speaking of accidents — Did you know that John Cleese’s entry to comedy was accidental?
Memoir: Don’t Call It a Comeback by Keira D’Amato
After a decade away, D’Amato returned to elite running, culminating in breaking the American women’s marathon record at age 37. “It serves as an inspirational guide for balancing life, setting goals, and finding personal growth outside of a traditional path,” said the staffer who recommends it.
What is it that makes the Boston Marathon special? Find out in this clip.
Here are more books to get on you radar this summer. Under the Radar host Callie Crossley is joined by three local librarians to share their summer reading lists.
Dive Into America 250
Pushing a “Sacred Rebellion,” American Colonists Justified Revolt with Religion
Old almanacs and songs show how religious icons — familiar from ancient, sacred texts — helped legitimize a war effort for independence. Can you recognize them?
Off Topic
- Cultural appropriation or appreciation? Trace the history of mahjong in America.
- What to do with NYC’s BQE? It’s a one-of-a-kind highway in desperate need of repair, but no one can agree how to fix it. Check out the first episode of “The Highway Teardown Tour” from the team behind “The Big Dig™” podcast.
- ANTIQUES ROADSHOW’s Marsha Bemko reacts to reader comments. Sorry, great-grandma’s vape!
