summer reading

I have been hearing whispers that summer reading is out of fashion. “Summer is outside time! Take to the beaches! Have several long conversations with strangers at a barbecue, for god’s sake!!! Don’t sit inside and reclude while the days are long!”

I tend to agree and plan to do all of the above, however, I like reading quite a lot. It is one of the engines that power my songwriting machine and summer is when I want to do most of it.

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I have public libraries to thank for that and public school teachers who assigned optional summer reading lists. And my mom and dad (hi mom and dad!), who are abject nerds. Though my access to television and movies was intentionally limited, I was allowed to read whatever I wanted, and I did.

Summer reading is ideal even when the weather isn’t. Getting lost in some long book during a huge rolling summer storm is one of life’s finest things, and same goes for days when it’s so unbearably swampy (a fond ‘what’s up’ to my fellow swamp dwellers) that no amount of being at the lake will cure. Sometimes, I just need the air to be dry, and you know where it’s dry? The library. The bookstore. My room, with an AC unit running.

Is this sounding weirdly good to you right now? Great, step right this way for some recommendations and what I’m cruising through this summer. I split them up by categories that I tend to reach for during summer specifically. Also, I announced both a new partnership with a booking agency and a Big Show with the full band last week, so if you want to skip the nerd stuff you can just scroll to the end.

Long and Absorbing Books

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Older Women Who Are Tired of Bullshit

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Younger Women Who are Completely Normal, Given the Circumstances

The Seaplane on Final Approach by Rebecca Rukeyser

Severance by Ling Ma

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

Indelicacy by Amina Cain

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Both Hilarious and Frighteningly True

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

The Pisces by Melissa Broder

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Young Adult Novels That Remind Me of Being on Summer Break

Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende

The Pearls of Lutra by Brian Jacques

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Poetry

Voyager by Srikanth Reddy

Please by Jericho Brown

Devotions by Mary Oliver

Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz

Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich

These are what I am currently/imminently/recently reading:

Wellness by Nathan Hill

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Bunny by Mona Awad

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins

Metro Show with Tobacco City and Red PK

I am thrilled to be playing Chicago’s storied Metro for the first time on September 6! I have a full band lined up for this, which I don’t do often, so if you haven’t seen it or heard the new songs I highly suggest you come to this show. I heard Tobacco City also has new ones in the bag and I was delighted by Red PK’s set at Empty Bottle last spring.