Start of Summer Book List

My love of reading came from my mom who dedicated her career to teaching elementary school kids. She spent her summers on our back deck on a lounge chair, sun tea in one hand, a book in the other. It’s with that spirit that I put together this reading list to get your summer reading started!

1. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

   Did you catch Tiny Beautiful Things on Hulu? It’s based on the book by Cheryl Strayed. I had previously read the book and I was eager to watch the series. I mostly enjoyed the show, but the teenage daughter in it hit a bit close to home, so I found some scenes hard to stomach. I did find the young Clare character very endearing. One of my favorite books ever is Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed and when I watched the Hulu show it dawned on me I had never read Cheryl’s most famous book, a memoir called Wild. I think the topic didn’t particularly appeal to me (hiking the Pacific Crest Trail) and I had watched the movie adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon. I guess I was having a Cheryl Strayed moment and decided to get Wild from the library. It was phenomenal! It’s an incredible story of perseverance and proving to yourself that you can do hard things, even when everyone doubts you. If you need some inspiration in the form of a strong female character, this would be an excellent summer read.

2. You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir by Maggie Smith

   I know I just mentioned a favorite book in #1, but another favorite of mine is Keep Moving by Maggie Smith. (Both of these - Brave Enough and Keep Moving - are excellent books to gift!) I was super excited when Maggie’s memoir came out this spring. In it Maggie explores her life through the lens of a being recently divorced. She wants to unpack what happened, but she refuses to lay all the blame on her ex-husband. The structure of the book has lots of white space (she’s a poet so this makes sense) and I enjoyed how that gave me space to breathe as I read about her heartache. One question that Maggie posed that has stuck with me is whether the parent who earns less money is by default the parent who should have more of the child rearing responsibility. She helped me see that this was message I had been conditioned to believe. I love when a book helps you uncover something within yourself. Highly recommend.

3. What My Mother and I Don't Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence by Michele Filgate

   We read this book of essays for a book club in my writing community, The Inner Story Writing Circle. If you are a writer of essays, it’s a good practice to read essays and since I don’t do that too often, I got a lot out of this book in terms of considering the craft of writing. I enjoyed some of the essays more than others, but what I really enjoyed was the opportunity to talk about the book with my community. This is a perfect one for the beach - see if you can get a full essay in before you have to get out of your chair to fetch a snack for the kids.

4. Signal Fires: A novel by Dani Shapiro

   Dani Shapiro is another favorite author of mine and I devoured her new book, Signal Fires. Dani is a writer I aspire to be like - she writes thoughtful prose and artfully weaves together storylines, but she does it without being dense or too wordy. I read a review that calls her writing “crisp” and that feels like a perfect description. This is a story about how two families are connected, about loss, and about the everlasting impact of certain events in our lives. It wasn’t my favorite book of Dani’s, but it surely deepened my admiration of her. It’s a perfect book to read on the porch this summer.

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