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Hot for a summer read?

’Tis the season for sun and sand, lobster and leisure, barbecues and books. Especially books. In the mood for dreamy literary fiction? A dark, twisty mystery? A gripping memoir (or perhaps a biography of the Godfather of Soul)? Sports, anyone? Here are some suggestions for your summer reading list.

Lead art by Jasu Hu

literary fiction

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  • The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

    By Arundhati Roy

    In her first novel since 1997, Roy burns with righteous anger — at globalism’s inequities, at sectarian violence in all its forms — in language that is ferocious and, quite often, darkly funny.

    — Anthony Domestico

    A book cover for The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
  • The Bear and the Nightingale

    By Katherine Arden

    Arden’s immersive, beautifully written debut — at once fairy tale, bildungsroman, and domestic drama — will transport you to the cold, dark forests of medieval Russia even as you’re sweltering on the beach.

    — Anthony Domestico

    A book cover for The Bear and the Nightingale
  • Thick as Thieves

    By Megan Whalen Turner

    Turner is a criminally underrated writer, and this stand-alone novel from her “Queen’s Thief” series shows her again playing with narrative perspective, mixing history with fantasy to brilliant effect.

    — Anthony Domestico

    A book cover for Thick as Thieves
  • Pond

    By Claire-Louise Bennett

    Imagine a short-story collection written by Emily Dickinson, and you’ll get the weird genius of this book, which explores the fastidious mind and odd sensibility of a woman living in an Irish cottage.

    — Anthony Domestico

    A book cover for Pond
  • Mrs. Dalloway

    By Virginia Woolf

    “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself”: the perfect opening for this nearly perfect novel about a single day in June of 1923.

    — Anthony Domestico

    A book cover for Mrs. Dalloway
  • The Chalk Artist

    By Allegra Goodman

    Goodman’s latest combines fantastical flourishes (an imagined video game called “UnderWorld”) and realistic Cambridge details (Grendel’s Den and Café Algiers) in a narrative about art and ambition.

    — Anthony Domestico

    A book cover for The Chalk Artist
  • The Maytrees

    By Annie Dillard

    Set in Cape Cod, that most summery of places, Dillard’s slim novel helps us attend to the wonder of human existence, our transient, imperfect loves set “before the backdrop of fixed stars.”

    — Anthony Domestico

    A book cover for The Maytrees
  • Counternarratives

    By John Keene

    Keene’s story collection is truly radical — in its politics, in its stylistic restlessness, in its rethinking of the myths we tell ourselves about race and sexuality in the history of the Americas.

    — Anthony Domestico

    A book cover for Counternarratives
  • Seven Surrenders

    By Ada Palmer

    Summer is the perfect season for a sci-fi epic, and “Seven Surrenders,” the second in Palmer’s “Terra Ignota” series, splendidly balances political philosophy, theology, and complex world-building.

    — Anthony Domestico

    A book cover for Seven Surrenders
  • The Terranauts

    By T.C. Boyle

    Amid growing climate-change fears, a group of ambitious and attractive young scientists move into a biodome as an experiment and prove that constant 80-degree temperatures aren’t the key to happiness.

    — Eugenia Williamson

    A book cover for The Terranauts
  • After Claude

    By Iris Owens

    Protagonist Harriet — recently dumped by the titular Claude — suffers from a personality as discomfiting as a Manhattan summer, but far funnier.

    — Eugenia Williamson

    A book cover for After Claude
  • State of Wonder

    By Ann Patchett

    A research scientist travels to the Amazonian rain forest and tangles with a highly credentialed hybrid of Kurtz and Dr. Moreau.

    — Eugenia Williamson

    A book cover for State of Wonder
  • The Deep Blue Good-By

    By John D. MacDonald

    In the first installment of MacDonald’s classic crime fiction series, dissolute detective Travis McGee rescues an imperiled woman while enjoying the Florida sun from his houseboat.

    — Eugenia Williamson

    A book cover for The Deep Blue Good-By
  • Friday

    By Michel Tournier

    Translated from the French by Norman Denny

    In this 1960s French retelling of Robinson Crusoe, our hero’s notorious Puritanism gives way to amorous feelings for his tropical surroundings.

    — Eugenia Williamson

    A book cover for Friday
  • God Says No

    By James Hannaham

    A confused black, gay teenager who loves Disneyland stumbles toward knowledge while bouncing around the Christian South.

    — Eugenia Williamson

    A book cover for God Says No
  • A Separation

    By Katie Kitamura

    When her estranged husband goes missing, a young woman travels to a rural fishing village in Greece and finds, well, other things.

    — Eugenia Williamson

    A book cover for A Separation
  • Telex From Cuba

    By Rachel Kushner

    American expats enjoy the fruits — both literal and metaphorical — of pre-revolutionary Cuba. Until Fidel and Raul Castro arrive.

    — Eugenia Williamson

    A book cover for Telex From Cuba
  • Two Serious Ladies

    By Jane Bowles

    In this acerbic art novel, a pair of fancy women yearning for experience do things unbecoming of their station, including consorting with prostitutes in hottest Panama.

    — Eugenia Williamson

    A book cover for Two Serious Ladies
  • Vacation

    By Deb Olin Unferth

    A man with a misshapen head staggers around Central America to seek revenge on a man whom he believes broke up his marriage.

    — Eugenia Williamson

    A book cover for Vacation

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nonfiction

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  • Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

    By Carrie Brownstein

    The cofounder of Sleater-Kinney and co-creator of “Portlandia” delivers a riveting memoir of self-discovery that recounts her impressive rise in the male-dominated field of rock music.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl
  • The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey

    By Rinker Buck

    In a book perfect for armchair travelers, one of America’s classic pioneer tales receives a fresh update from Buck, who spent a summer retracing the 2,000-mile journey from Missouri to Oregon.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey
  • St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street

    By Ada Calhoun

    For decades, the legendary New York City street has been home to hippies, punks, anarchists, vagrants, and freaks of all stripes, and Calhoun brings it to colorful life in this vibrant history.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street
  • The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

    By Philip Caputo

    Summer means travel, and Pulitzer Prize winner Caputo takes readers on the ultimate journey from Key West to Deadhorse, Alaska, all narrated from a vintage Airstream trailer.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean
  • Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

    By Roz Chast

    One of the best graphic memoirs of the past decade, New Yorker artist Chast’s story movingly follows the last years of her parents’ life in a narrative saturated in both genuine emotion and laugh-out-loud humor.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
  • Barbarian Days

    By William Finnegan

    One of the quintessential summer pastimes gets the literary treatment in the New Yorker writer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of surf and travel, which ranges across decades and continents.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for Barbarian Days
  • Fresh Off the Boat

    By Eddie Huang

    This sharp, hilarious coming-of-age memoir, now an ABC sitcom, is packed with tales of food, immigration, basketball, and hip-hop, and it helped launch Huang into the mainstream.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for Fresh Off the Boat
  • Lab Girl

    By Hope Jahren

    The recent autobiography award winner of the National Book Critics Circle, Jahren’s warm memoir testifies to a lifetime of curiosity and determination in pursuit of science.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for Lab Girl
  • The World’s Largest Man

    By Harrison Scott Key

    The Oxford American humor columnist grew up in rural Mississippi, and he entertainingly mines his childhood and adolescence with his eccentric father to create one of the funniest memoirs of recent years.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for The World’s Largest Man
  • Hold Still: A Memoir With Photographs

    By Sally Mann

    Packed with plenty of evocative photographs, the acclaimed photographer’s memoir is a tender, heartfelt revelation of her Virginia upbringing and probing exploration of the mechanics of her art.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for Hold Still: A Memoir With Photographs
  • Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul

    By James McBride

    Hardly a straightforward biography of the Godfather of Soul, McBride’s narrative proceeds through penetrating anecdotes and digressions that cohere into a rhythmic encapsulation of the essence of a one-of-a-kind artist.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul
  • The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese

    By Michael Paterniti

    Though the tale hangs on a celebrated cheesemaker in Spain, Paterniti’s memoir/travelogue/cultural history/murder mystery is far greater than a mere celebration of food; it is a masterfully rendered page-turner that is simply impossible to put down.

    — Eric Liebetrau

    A book cover for The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese
  • Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

    By Roxane Gay

    In the wake of a childhood rape, Gay writes that she “ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe.” A bold and tender exploration of trauma’s marks on the body and soul.

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
  • Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

    By Jane Mayer

    Meticulously reported and chilling in its implications, Mayer’s book follows the money trail to the ultrarich conservative donors whose financing has created, she argues, a kind of shadow political party.

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
  • Priestdaddy

    By Patricia Lockwood

    Bitingly funny and dizzyingly intelligent, this memoir by poet Lockwood chronicles her life as the daughter of a Catholic priest, one who grew up in thrall to both the sacred and the profane.

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for Priestdaddy
  • Over the Hills and Far Away: The Life of Beatrix Potter

    By Matthew Dennison

    This lively new biography traces the roots of Potter’s enduring animal stories, from a childhood steeped in art and natural history to a stifling family life in which imagination was Potter’s only freedom.

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for Over the Hills and Far Away: The Life of Beatrix Potter
  • We Are Never Meeting in Real Life

    By Samantha Irby

    Starting with an imaginary application to appear on television as the bachelorette, Irby’s essays tackle romance, race, beauty, health, and family. Irby’s writing is bold and honest, funny and sad, utterly entertaining.

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for We Are Never Meeting in Real Life
  • Richard Nixon: The Life

    By John A. Farrell

    A rich new biography of the only president to have resigned from office, Farrell’s book portrays Nixon’s deep insecurities and fears while never excusing his crimes.

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for Richard Nixon: The Life
  • My Soul Looks Back

    By Jessica B. Harris

    A time capsule of 1970s black New York, Harris’s memoir describes a life and times defined by art, food, and fabulous friendships (with Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and others).

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for My Soul Looks Back
  • Edie: American Girl

    By Jean Stein

    Stein’s multivoiced biography of one of Warhol’s great muses has been entrancing readers with its heroine’s dazzling, terribly brief life since it was first published in 1982.

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for Edie: American Girl
  • All the President’s Men: The Greatest Reporting Story of All Time

    By Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

    Behind the scenes with the journalists whose reporting exposed a corrupt and lawless presidency. Republished with a new subtitle and updates on Watergate’s legacy in 2014, the book is as relevant as ever.

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for All the President’s Men: The Greatest Reporting Story of All Time
  • The Fire Next Time

    By James Baldwin

    Race has never ceased to be our most pressing national conversation, and Baldwin still tops any list of writers on the subject (or any subject).

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for The Fire Next Time
  • In Cold Blood

    By Truman Capote

    The original “nonfiction novel,” as Capote described it, tells the unsettling story of a murder in Kansas. True crime is a hot trend today in literature and television; this book remains at the top of the heap.

    — Kate Tuttle

    A book cover for In Cold Blood

mysteries

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  • Conviction

    By Julia Dahl

    Brooklyn reporter Rebekah Roberts, desperate to escape the sketchy world of tabloid journalism, gets a letter from a man convicted of murdering a family in Crown Heights proclaiming his innocence. His story hooks her and sets her off on an investigation that tests her loyalty to people closest to her.

    — Hallie Ephron

    A book cover for Conviction
  • Cast the First Stone

    By James W. Ziskin

    In 1962 Hollywood, journalist Ellie Stone is assigned to write a profile on a hometown boy who’s just landed a big role in a film — and then goes missing. Full of humor and intrigue, the book examines Hollywood’s dehumanizing ideals as Ellie goes toe-to-toe with the Don Drapers of the film business.

    — Hallie Ephron

    A book cover for Cast the First Stone
  • Crime Song

    By David Swinson

    A former police detective turned PI is the novel’s morally compromised, drug-addicted anti-hero. In an understated, dialogue-driven narrative (think: “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”) set in Washington, D.C., Frank Marr soon regrets agreeing to check up on a cousin who may be dealing drugs.

    — Hallie Ephron

    A book cover for Crime Song
  • Darktown

    By Thomas Mullen

    Set in Atlanta after World War II, this police procedural features the city’s first black cops, who face abuse and disrespect from white cops because they’re black and from black citizens because they’re cops. Complications mount when they’re blocked from questioning a white man suspected of murdering a young black woman.

    — Hallie Ephron

    A book cover for Darktown
  • The Girl Before

    By J.P. Delaney

    This psychological thriller weaves the tales of two traumatized women (“Now-Emma” and “Then-Jane”). Seeking solace and healing in different time frames, each rents the same minimalist, high-tech house after passing muster from the creepy architect-owner. Are they being haunted or is it all an elaborate test? Read it before Ron Howard turns it into a movie.

    — Hallie Ephron

    A book cover for The Girl Before
  • The Lies We Tell

    By Theresa Schwegel

    In Chicago, police detective Gina Simonetti is trying to keep her own debilitating health issues under wraps so she can hang onto her job and keep fostering her delightful toddler niece. We get the human and professional side of a police officer in crisis as she goes after a man who brutalizes women.

    — Hallie Ephron

    A book cover for The Lies We Tell
  • The Switch

    By Joseph Finder

    Returning from a business trip Michael Tanner inadvertently walks off with the wrong laptop computer after going through airport security. Tanner’s curiosity gets the better of him, and he takes a peek to see what’s on it. Big mistake. Perfect for fans of “The Fugitive.”

    — Hallie Ephron

    A book cover for The Switch
  • A Twist of the Knife

    By Becky Masterman

    In a gripping third entry of this powerhouse series, ex-FBI agent Brigid Quinn agrees to help her former partner exonerate a man convicted of killing his wife and three children, even though Brigid thinks he did it. Meanwhile, she discovers some uncomfortable truths about her dying police-officer father.

    — Hallie Ephron

    A book cover for A Twist of the Knife
  • Unsub

    By Meg Gardiner

    An adrenaline-fueled rush, this series first has newly minted narcotics detective Caitlyn Hendrix reassigned to homicide so she can track down a sadistic serial killer, the Prophet. Her father was the lead detective who failed to bring him to justice 20 years ago. Shades of “Silence of the Lambs” and the Zodiac Killer.

    — Hallie Ephron

    A book cover for Unsub
  • The Force

    By Don Winslow

    Winslow brings incisively-researched details, gut-wrenching plotlines, and infinite heart to his all-too-real, highly compassionate tale of decorated New York City cop Denny Malone, who isn’t as clean as he seems and has drawn the notice of the feds.

    — Daneet Steffens

    A book cover for The Force
  • Since We Fell

    By Dennis Lehane

    Lehane’s terrific tour-de-force kicks off with a journalist determinedly searching for her long-lost father, and — after her public, on-the-job breakdown — deftly evolves into a crafty and nuanced page-turner.

    — Daneet Steffens

    A book cover for Since We Fell
  • The Woman From Prague

    By Rob Hart

    Accidental spying comes just as naturally as accidental private investigating to Ash McKenna: a mellow three months in Prague comes to a screeching halt when he encounters an evil blackmailer, a Russian assassin, and a femme fatale.

    — Daneet Steffens

    A book cover for The Woman From Prague
  • Magpie Murders

    By Anthony Horowitz

    This double-barreled puzzler involving a mystery writer whose work begins to anticipate real events cleverly melds vintage English-village crime fiction with a snarky contemporary murder mystery. A literary sparkler that is effervescent, riveting, and fun.

    — Daneet Steffens

    A book cover for Magpie Murders
  • The Child

    By Fiona Barton

    A gruesome discovery under a London house drives journalist Kate Waters to pursue a missing-baby story, but, this being a Barton thriller, there’s more to pretty much everything than meets the eye.

    — Daneet Steffens

    A book cover for The Child
  • Based on a True Story

    By Delphine de Vigan

    Translated from the French by George Miller

    When a writer befriends a ghostwriter, the scene is set for a tension-filled tale about a tangled, stifling relationship that gleefully channels both Stephen King’s “Misery” and 1992’s “Single White Female.”

    — Daneet Steffens

    A book cover for Based on a True Story
  • The Daughter of Time

    By Josephine Tey

    An injured policeman spends his hospital time ruminating over the mystery of Richard III and whether the king, in fact, had his nephews murdered. An elegant and provocative crime-fiction classic.

    — Daneet Steffens

    A book cover for The Daughter of Time
  • The Martin Beck police procedurals

    By Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

    Translated from the Swedish by various translators

    Start with “Roseanna,” first published in Sweden in 1965, and don’t stop until you’ve read all 10 installments of this original — and still one of the best — Nordic noir series.

    — Daneet Steffens

    A book cover for The Martin Beck police procedurals
  • Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

    By Jeffrey Archer

    In this pitch-perfect caper, when a millionaire tricks four men out of their money, they decide to get their revenge — and their money — by conning him right back.

    — Daneet Steffens

    A book cover for Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less
  • Quiet as a Nun

    By Antonia Fraser

    The first of Fraser’s entertaining mysteries featuring television journalist Jemima Shore sees Shore returning to her old convent school when a nun dies in an ancient tower under suspicious circumstances.

    — Daneet Steffens

    A book cover for Quiet as a Nun

sports

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  • Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship on and off the Court and Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White

    By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

    The prolific Abdul-Jabbar likes to be introduced these days as a writer who used to play some basketball. “Coach Wooden” demonstrates how a progressive black Muslim and a conservative white Christian can create a friendship based on respect, curiosity, and open minds. “Writings on the Wall” explores the nation’s most critical social issue more thoughtfully than any politician has done and actually offers hope.

    — Bill Littlefield

    A book cover for Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship on and off the Court
  • Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son

    By Paul Dickson

    The biography by a veteran sportswriter makes a case for the cocky and combative star shortstop and legendary manager as both charming and insufferable, which sounds about right for the guy who both championed Jackie Robinson’s arrival in Brooklyn and insulted him as fat and slow.

    — Bill Littlefield

    A book cover for Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son
  • The Bittersweet Science: Fifteen Writers in the Gym, in the Corner, and at Ringside

    Edited by Carlo Rotella and Michael Ezra

    Essays by journalists, fiction writers, and people in the game examine the sportboxing as business, cultural curiosity, and craft. The piece titled “Why I Fixed Fights” by Charles Farrell is especially instructive, even for those who don’t aspire to fix fights.

    — Bill Littlefield

    A book cover for The Bittersweet Science: Fifteen Writers in the Gym, in the Corner, and at Ringside
  • Sting Like a Bee: Muhammad Ali vs. The United States of America, 1966-1971

    By Leigh Montville

    Montville, who has written for the Globe and Sports Illustrated, has accomplished the unlikely: He’s written a fresh, ambitious book about one of the most written-about men in the history of sports or anything else. Shouldn’t have been surprised. He’s a writer who never disappoints.

    — Bill Littlefield

    A book cover for Sting Like a Bee: Muhammad Ali vs. The United States of America, 1966-1971
  • Kill The Ámpaya! The Best Latin American Baseball Fiction

    Edited and translated from the Spanish by Dick Cluster

    This collection reminds us through baseball stories that people are just people — a crucial lesson in these times when some of our leaders apparently don’t feel that immigrants qualify for that distinction.

    — Bill Littlefield

    A book cover for Kill The Ámpaya! The Best Latin American Baseball Fiction
  • You’re Welcome, Cleveland: How I Helped LeBron James Win a Championship and Save a City

    By Scott Raab

    Embittered superfan Raab provides the antidote to his own gonzo excoriation of James for leaving the Cavs as a free agent before bringing home a championship (“The Whore of Akron: One Man’s Search for the Soul of LeBron James”). While the first book was bile-driven and hilarious, the second is a father-and-son-centered celebration of the return of the prodigal star and paradise found. In Cleveland.

    — Bill Littlefield

    A book cover for You’re Welcome, Cleveland: How I Helped LeBron James Win a Championship and Save a City
  • The Range Bucket List: The Golf Adventure of a Lifetime

    By James Dodson

    Golf writer Dodson has characterized this book as his “love letter to Arnold Palmer.” It’s that and more, and the “more” includes his revealing and entertaining account of a luncheon four years ago with Donald and Eric Trump at one of their clubs. All the signs were there.

    — Bill Littlefield

    A book cover for The Range Bucket List: The Golf Adventure of a Lifetime
  • Long Shot: The Triumphs and Struggles of an NBA Freedom Fighter

    By Craig Hodges with Rory Fanning

    Hodges makes his case that he was blackballed by pro basketball for his political activism and inclination to encourage Michael Jordan et al to consider such matters as black history and social responsibility. Hodges sued the NBA in 1996, four years after being waived by the Bulls and drawing scant interest from the other teams.

    — Bill Littlefield

    A book cover for Long Shot: The Triumphs and Struggles of an NBA Freedom Fighter
  • Champion of the World

    By Chad Dundas

    Dundas’s debut novel harkens back to the 1920s, the days before professional wrestling became fake. It follows the unlikely comeback attempt of former-champ-turned-circus-performer Pepper Van Dean in a world of gangsters, bootleggers, and stacked decks.

    — Bill Littlefield

    A book cover for Champion of the World