We asked Tattered Cover to curate a selection of summer reads. These are the standout volumes they recommend, freshly minted for your literary exploration.
1. White Cat, Black Dog
by Kelly Link
This spellbinding collection of short stories takes a Black- Mirror-meets-The- Brothers-Grimm tone. Through seven twisted tales, the author unravels the threads of familiar fairy tales, leading readers on a bewitching descent into an enigmatic world of eerie intrigue where magical realism reigns supreme.
2. No Two Persons
by Erica Bauermeister
Peek inside the world of publishing with this book about the power of prose, told through a series of vignettes. The protagonist, Alice, pours her heart into her debut novel, and it changes more than just her life but also the lives of the assistant who reads the manuscript, Alice’s literary agent, and a range of readers, from an unhoused girl to an endurance athlete.
3. Yellowface
by R.F. Kuang
No author tackles morally gray areas better than R. F. Kuang, and she does it with cutting humor and dark satire. In Kuang’s latest novel, the main character, June, steals a manuscript from her recently passed best friend and grapples with the cultural appropriation that arises when a Caucasian girl tells an Asian-American tale—in the first person.
4. The Last Animal
by Ramona Ausubel
Jane, a paleontologist, receives an invitation to join a bold project aimed at resurrecting the wooly mammoth in the Arctic. Jane heads north with a lot of baggage, specifically, her teenage daughters who are grieving the recent loss of their father. A heartfelt descent from Jurassic Park, the book delves into the moral issues of cloning, workplace sexism, and the meaning of life and loss.
5. Happy Place
by Emily Henry
Nothing says poolside pages like a book about friends on a sun-soaked summer getaway. And this one has everything you desire: a seaside cottage in Maine, a close-knit group of old college friends, the “it couple” who are secretly no longer a couple, and a valedictory vacation to the cottage before its sale puts finality to the fun.
6. I Have Some Questions for You
by Rebecca Makkai
Makkai pioneers a new genre with this novel: social justice thrillers. When Bodie Kane, a professional podcaster, returns to her alma mater boarding school to teach a course, she is confronted with noir crime and the #Me- Too movement as a student’s podcast reopens a cold case from Kane’s days at the New Hampshire high school.
