Summer Reading Recommendations
Summer is officially here. It is a time of extended daylight, and for many a time to kick back with a good book and get some solid reading done. Whether on vacation, up at the lake or soaking up the sunshine in your own backyard… we hope you bring a good book with you. Bonus, it’s also a SAFE activity during these uncertain times!
The members of the Mississippi Valley Writers Guild want to help you find your perfect summer read and to that end have graciously shared the next book on their reading list. We are hopeful that you’ll pop into Pearl Street Books or Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy (or seven) of the titles below! Have a great summer, full of fun and lots of good books.
General Fiction
Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel
An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.
Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.
More Recommendations
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
Apeirogon by Colum McCann
The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Deckle Edge
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Disappearing Earth, by Julia Phillips
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
The Sundown Motel by Simone St. James
Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
The Second Home by Christina Clancy
Carpe Diem, Illinois by Kristin A. Oakley
The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed
Historical Fiction
Sister of Mine by Sabra Waldfogel
Religious
Jesus and the Disinherited Howard Thurman
Jesus for the Non-Religious John Shelby Spong
Race Reading Selections
Stamped: Racism, Anti- Racism and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi
This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A book about race.
The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited. Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas--and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.
More Recommendations
Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
The Fire Next Time (1963): two essays about race and racism in America and the role of Christianity in America's beliefs by James Baldwin
Going to Meet the Man By James Baldwin
We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Waking Up White: and Finding Myself in the Story of Race Debby Irving
Officer Clemmons by Dr. Francois S. Clemmons
Miscellaneous
Swearing is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language by Emma Byrne
We’re often told that swearing is outrageous or even offensive, that it’s a sign of a stunted vocabulary or a limited intellect. Dictionaries have traditionally omitted it and parents forbid it. But the latest research by neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists, and others has revealed that swear words, curses, and oaths―when used judiciously―can have surprising benefits.
In this sparkling debut work of popular science, Emma Byrne examines the latest research to show how swearing can be good for you. With humor and colorful language, she explores every angle of swearing―why we do it, how we do it, and what it tells us about ourselves.
Packed with the results of unlikely and often hilarious scientific studies―from the “ice-bucket test” for coping with pain, to the connection between Tourette’s and swearing, to a chimpanzee that curses at her handler in sign language―Swearing Is Good for You presents a lighthearted but convincing case for the foulmouthed.
More Recommendations
The World: A Brief Introduction by Richard Haass
The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz
My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Midwestern Strange: Hunting Monsters, Martians, and the Weird in Flyover Country by B.J. Hollars