“Rapturous summer titles you’ll be done with before you have the chance to look up.”
The bend toward summertime carries with it a sense of motion — we want to be on the move, metabolize our experiences more quickly, and match the momentum of seasonal change. For many of us, this impulse manifests in an appetite for thrill; in a desire to be transported elsewhere swiftly and colorfully, and then to carry on toward our next destination.
Here, we’ve rounded up a handful of books that won’t slow you down — in fact, they’re so rich and whimsical that you can read them in one sitting. Whether after an al fresco luncheon, between poolside naps, or mid-flight en route to your summer paradise, you’ll read these titles in a flash.
The Player by Michael Tolkin
Recommended by Molly Young and Marina Sulmona
Enter the bizarre, paranoid world of late-twentieth-century Hollywood in Michael Tolkin’s satirical novel from 1988. When a hardened, late-career executive finds himself facing death threats from a rejected screenwriter, he goes on a tear of compulsive, extralegal activities in order to save his job, and his life. This one is for those who are in for a horrifying, nightmarish thrill or are fans of Robert Altman’s on-screen adaptation.
buy here
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
Recommended by Molly Young and rebecca Boorstin
From the author of A Separation, Intimacies follows an interpreter who becomes entwined with a series of personal dramas through her work at the International Court. Unable to restrain herself from projecting her own fervent views on love and power onto others’ narratives, she ultimately finds herself at a precarious crossroads where heartbreak, betrayal, and violence all loom.
buy here
Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger
Recommended by Cassandra Marketos and Emma Baker
In this hybrid volume — equal parts novel, biography, and criticism — acclaimed French writer Nathalie Léger delves into the making of Wanda, the 1970 film about an aimless housewife on the run. Obsessed with this being the only film ever directed by the American actress Barbara Loden (who also stars in it), Léger traveled multiple continents and pored over archives to investigate the makings of this cult classic and its auteur’s larger legacy. (Note: Suite for Barbara Loden is the second in a triptych by Léger, which also includes Exposition and The White Dress).
buy here
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Recommended by @eliza_meyers
The world of Piranesi is a labyrinth: ever-expanding corridors, a boundless, treacherous ocean, infinite rooms and staircases adorned with — or guarded by — statues. Only the eponymous character Piranesi and one other (“The Other”) live here; together, they explore and search for truth within the fantasy world, and are shocked to uncover additional, ominous signs of life.
buy here
And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos by John Berger
Recommended by Niki Kohandel
Here we see the famous art critic and theorist at his most open and direct, as he muses about the relationship between language, love, and absence and how each is inextricably bound by time. Berger relies on sensory images to animate his ideas, from a Rembrandt painting to flowers at sunset; in his typical fashion, the book is part theory, part social history, and part sheer descriptive prose.
buy here
The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Recommended by @dinyfbrant
A classic delight at any age, this fantastical novella from 1943 traces an auto-pilot (the narrator) and the Little Prince, who journey together through a magical desert. In his nostalgic, somewhat somber style, de Saint-Exupéry gives himself over to awe for the world’s mysteries — look for a copy with original, color illustrations to heighten the child-like wonder of it all.
buy here
Should you find yourself with a few more sunny, unencumbered afternoons, consider reading Sempre Susan by Sigrid Nunez (recommended by Cassandra Marketos), Bad Thoughts by Nada Alic (recommended by Nada Alic), The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker (recommended by Fatima Jones), Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (recommended by Molly Young), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (recommended by Marina Sulmona), The Water Statues by Fleur Jaeggy (recommended by Cassandra Marketos), Sissy by Jacob Tobia (recommended by Puno Dostres), Nature Poem by Tommy Pico (recommended by @texasjaynesawmassacre), Long Live the Post Horn! by Vigdis Hjorth (recommended by @vagrantings), Solipsist by Henry Rollins (recommended by @celia_remedios_), or “anything by Romain Gary,” as Anna Polonsky recommends.
Words by Emma Baker