Favorite book of the summer that others just have to read

[Manda]

So for all y'all that get on here, I know you've been reading over the summer. If any book has just blown you away, I want to hear about it. We all could use more recommendations (despite the fact that our to read piles are neverending), so whether you're graduated or not, please share any amazing books you've read.

[Kelly K.]

I'm so glad you asked! :) This summer has been filled with lots of reading as I've tried to cram in as many "fun" books as I can before grad school starts.

If you're obsessed with the Hamilton soundtrack (and you should be!), read Hamilton: The Revolution. It includes the lyrics to all of the songs, comments by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and insights into the making of this revolutionary musical. (And I use the word revolutionary in terms of its historical content and its impact on our own time. Seriously, go listen to Hamilton.)

If you like poetry, check out Collected Lyrics. I don't know why I hadn't read Edna St. Vincent Millay before, but her poems are all kinds of lovely and thought-provoking. It's also refreshing to hear the voice of a great woman poet. (For a more contemporary poet who was very much inspired by Millay, check out Mary Oliver's New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1.)

If you like Rebecca, I highly recommend another Daphne du Maurier book, My Cousin Rachel. It's just as creepy, Gothic, and psychological as her more famous work, but I found her characterizations much more mesmerizing here.

Like period dramas? Read Ross Poldark! And watch the wonderful new BBC series based on the books. I read the second one this summer and am way too invested in all of the characters' lives. Fantastic historical fiction.

Like more speculative historical fiction with a dash of mystery thrown in? I can't recommend The Alienist enough. Be warned that it's rather graphic, but it was such a page-turner that I finished it in less than 24 hours. The author imagines a turn of the century psychologist (at the time called an alienist) who compiles a group of social misfits (and Teddy Roosevelt) to track down a serial killer with the latest, most cutting-edge technology. SO GOOD.

One of my absolute favorite reads from the summer was a nonfiction book about death: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. It's a really fascinating perspective on how the American medical system treats and responds to death, and how it could do so better. It's a totally accessible read, too, and brings an important conversation onto a more prominent platform.

Speaking of death, The Loved One is a hysterical satire of Hollywood and the funeral industry. This one may be more like a school book than most, but it's so short and funny and one of the characters is a poet and pets' mortician, for crying out loud. And the ending is... something else.

OK! Last recommendation: Flight by the ever brilliant and funny Sherman Alexie. While Alexie is laugh out loud funny, he also manages to cram so much heart and horror into this book. Zits, a Native American foster kid and constant troublemaker, begins to time travel just before he commits a truly horrific act of violence. Alexie wrote this in the aftermath of 9/11 and the war on terror, but his exploration of pain and violence seems especially relevant in 2016. Managing this while also making you laugh on nearly every page is what makes Alexie such a brilliant writer.

[Kelly K.]

OK, so I may have gone a bit overboard with the recs, but they were all so good! To help you navigate, maybe just read the first sentence of my rantings, and you can probably tell whether it's your cup of tea or not.

[Manda]

First of all, Millay is great and I love her so I totally second that recommendation. Otherwise, you can never really go overboard with recs if they're amazing. I'm excited to check some of these out. I spent the summer reading mostly cheesy books so I could prepare myself for the good ones over the school year, so most of my recs wouldn't be super amazing.

I'm really looking forward to reading I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, which is an odd sentence to write. It's a literary thriller that plays with ideas like free will, relationships, etc. It's supposed to be enthralling and I want it so much.

Also looking forward to Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave, the same author that wrote Little Bee.

[Kelly K.]

Ooo, I'm really interested in the two you brought up, Manda! And I was curious if anyone had read anything else by Chris Cleave?