As the summer heat winds down and you take those last vacations, you might be in need of a travel companion. Here are 10 of the year’s best books so far, in no particular order, for your summer reading pleasure.
Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly
This novel follows an absolutely hilarious Vladisavljevic family in New Zealand as they try to get their professional and personal lives together. Valdin and his sister, Greta, are queer 20-somethings trying to navigate love, life, heartbreak, and coming of age in the Internet era (dating apps and social media profiles galore). They also navigate family dynamics with their Russian father, Maori mother, older brother, and younger nephew. The best part of Reilly’s writing is the joy her characters exhibit at being queer, Maori, Russian, and Jewish! It’s also a great way to learn about modern New Zealand society. And though there is always love between the family members, like every family, it is a messy and imperfect one. This is a sharply written book as the commentary on racism, classism, ableism, and other prejudices are cleverly woven through and pack a punch. As proven in the wit behind one of my favourite lines: "I don't really feel like anything these days, just a beautiful husk filled with opinions about globalism and a strong desire to go out for dinner."
The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden
The Safekeep was marketed as a historical thriller, yet through its exploration of the relationship between its two central characters, Eva and Isabel, it reads more like a meditative examination of the treatment of Jews in the Netherlands before and during World War II. The year is 1961 and Isabel lives alone in the Dutch farmhouse her family bought during the war to flee Amsterdam. When her brother’s girlfriend, Eva, comes to stay with her (against Isabel’s will), she is forced out of her shell and reckons with both her attraction to Eva and the complex history of her family and their farmhouse. The story is an excellent reminder of how easily humans can turn on, or towards, each other.
Women, Life, Freedom ed. Marjane Satrapi, translated from the French by Una Dimitrijevic
Satrapi is the author and illustrator of the well-known graphic novel Persepolis and brings audiences a new graphic novel centring on the incredibly brave acts Iranians are committing in the face of countless injustices following the murder of Mahsa Amini. The graphic novel goes into the history of protest movements in Iran and provides important context on the issues facing the country. I learned so much about social media, youth movements, and the history of protests in Women, Life, Freedom. It is hopeful but not naive, making it a necessary read in today’s world.
Worry by Alexandra Tanner
If you’ve ever had a parent spout conspiracy theories or if you’ve ever been a little too invested in that tradwife online, Worry is for you. Jewish sisters, Jules and Poppy, move in together in New York following Poppy’s mental health struggles and subsequent time spent living at home with their parents. The move to Jule’s place was supposed to be a temporary fix while Poppy looked for a job and her own apartment, but a year later she’s still there. We witness the hilarious and sometimes toxic relationship between the sisters and their mother, who spirals down a multi-level marketing and Messianic path. This book captures the way you sometimes treat family because you trust they’ll always be there, even though everyone has a breaking point. And though the book isn’t plot driven, the hilarious writing will keep you engaged. A sisterly Gen-Z dramedy with something for everyone, it’s the very definition of “no plot, just vibes.”
James by Percival Everett
Hot off the success of last year’s film adaptation of his novel Erasure, Percival Everett is back with a brilliant subversion of the classic Huckleberry Finn, this time from the perspective of enslaved character Jim, also known as James. This is a quick, engaging read, and if you don’t remember the details of Huckleberry Finn, that’s okay. Everett does a wonderful job of tying in plot points from Mark Twain’s novel while weaving in his own story. James is a hard-hitting look at how insidious racism is, and how non-Black readers are often disinclined to think beyond the portrayals of Black characters in our society. Everett has already cemented himself as a literary genius, and with this work he cements his status even more.
Her Side of the Story by Alba de Céspedes, translated from the Italian by Jill Foulston
Following the translation of de Céspedes’s Forbidden Notebook last year, the much longer and in-depth Her Side of the Story was released in English. Originally written in 1949, the novel follows Alessandra, a young woman coming of age in pre-fascist Rome. As she examines her own family and community through the lens of a budding feminist, we see the rise of Mussolini, World War II, and the fall out of the war in Italy. The text remains a fascinating and relevant portrait of womanhood and how the personal is political.
City of Laughter by Temim Fruchter
This is one of the most delightfully Jewish novels of recent memory. The brilliance of this book rests in how queerness becomes a path to freedom. The story revolves around Shiva who, at the loss of her beloved father, is forced to confront her difficult relationship with her mother, Hannah. Her mother, who is withholding, doesn’t understand why Shiva is so interested in the family’s history in Poland. She also isn’t supportive of Shiva’s relationship with a woman. As the story progresses, the reader learns that the troubled mother-daughter relationships are borne out of intergenerational trauma. Three generations of Jewish women become the basis for an exploration of Jewish folklore, history, and culture, especially when Shiva goes to Poland to explore both Jewish history and her own family’s past life in a shtetl.
You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
For fans of postcolonial literature, prolific Mexican author Álvaro Enrigue, has created an irreverent and creative reimagining of Cortes’s conquest of Moctezuma’s empire in modern day Mexico City. The ending is satisfyingly anti-colonialist but also devastating because it exposes what could’ve been. The power of this book rests in the slow dismantling of the Spanish; the defiance of hegemonic power is subtle but effective. With a sprawling and diverse cast, Enrigue is able to showcase a range of perspectives on Spanish colonialism in Mexico, as well as the many fates of people during that period.
Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke
This short novel is a tender and raw look centred around Akúa, who lives in Vancouver and goes back to her home country Jamaica—a place she hasn’t returned to since her mother’s death 10 years prior. Now, under tragic circumstances again, she visits her sister following the death of their young brother to sickle cell anemia, the same disease that took their mother. Through Akúa’s perspective, and the memories she revisits of her mother, the reader learns of how Jamaica has changed in the last decade. At first, the nonlinear storytelling threw me off, but once I realized there was a pattern to how the text flowed back and forth through time, I was able to keep up, and ended up finding that Cooke did a great job balancing the past and present. We see the discrimination and racism Akúa faced when first immigrating to Texas and then Vancouver, and how her father worked hard to give them a caring family after the death of their mother. This is a beautiful and devastating look at a family fractured by migration and grief.
Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar
Novels written by poets can be divisive—sometimes their poetic stylings translate well to prose, and sometimes the text becomes overwrought. Kaveh Akbar, luckily, is a master of prose as well as poetry. Martyr!’s protagonist, Cyrus, grows up in the Midwestern U.S. with his single father, after his mother was killed by the American military. The book is based on a real event, where the U.S. Navy shot down an Iranian passenger plane in 1988, but the characters and details have been fictionalized. The presence of the U.S. empire hangs heavy over him because of this, but so does the concept of death. On the cusp of adulthood, Cyrus’s father passes away, triggering his need to make his own death meaningful. The novel’s nonlinear narrative gives us glimpses of his parents’ youth and Cyrus’s dream scenarios with celebrities, historical figures, and family members. These moments offer interesting insight into Cyrus’s unconscious, the kind of imagining we have when we are desperate to reconnect with lost loved ones or need to make meaning out of the unimaginable. Martyr! is a tragic, moving, and hopeful look at the dimensions that make up a life, even when you wrestle with death.
Special Mention: Book of Queens by Pardis Mahdavi
Book of Queens was published in 2023, but it flew under my radar and I didn’t pick it up until 2024, so I wanted to mention it here, especially if you’re looking for a narrative nonfiction read. This book is about the legacy of incredible women in Iran and Afghanistan who live in caves and ride bareback on ancient horses in some of the toughest mountain terrain. The author’s Iranian grandmother, Maryam, came from a long line of mounted women warriors and started bringing women facing abuse and domestic violence to join their community. Maryam’s story eventually intersects with Louise, an American who married an Iranian aristocrat. Together, Maryam and Louise help save this ancient horse breed and continue the legacy of Maryam’s ancestors. These women formed an alliance and fought the Taliban for decades before 9/11. It’s an incredible true story that more of us should know.
As the summer heat winds down and you take those last vacations, you might be in need of a travel companion. Here are 10 of the year’s best books so far, in no particular order, for your summer reading pleasure.
Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly
This novel follows an absolutely hilarious Vladisavljevic family in New Zealand as they try to get their professional and personal lives together. Valdin and his sister, Greta, are queer 20-somethings trying to navigate love, life, heartbreak, and coming of age in the Internet era (dating apps and social media profiles galore). They also navigate family dynamics with their Russian father, Maori mother, older brother, and younger nephew. The best part of Reilly’s writing is the joy her characters exhibit at being queer, Maori, Russian, and Jewish! It’s also a great way to learn about modern New Zealand society. And though there is always love between the family members, like every family, it is a messy and imperfect one. This is a sharply written book as the commentary on racism, classism, ableism, and other prejudices are cleverly woven through and pack a punch. As proven in the wit behind one of my favourite lines: "I don't really feel like anything these days, just a beautiful husk filled with opinions about globalism and a strong desire to go out for dinner."
The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden
The Safekeep was marketed as a historical thriller, yet through its exploration of the relationship between its two central characters, Eva and Isabel, it reads more like a meditative examination of the treatment of Jews in the Netherlands before and during World War II. The year is 1961 and Isabel lives alone in the Dutch farmhouse her family bought during the war to flee Amsterdam. When her brother’s girlfriend, Eva, comes to stay with her (against Isabel’s will), she is forced out of her shell and reckons with both her attraction to Eva and the complex history of her family and their farmhouse. The story is an excellent reminder of how easily humans can turn on, or towards, each other.
Women, Life, Freedom ed. Marjane Satrapi, translated from the French by Una Dimitrijevic
Satrapi is the author and illustrator of the well-known graphic novel Persepolis and brings audiences a new graphic novel centring on the incredibly brave acts Iranians are committing in the face of countless injustices following the murder of Mahsa Amini. The graphic novel goes into the history of protest movements in Iran and provides important context on the issues facing the country. I learned so much about social media, youth movements, and the history of protests in Women, Life, Freedom. It is hopeful but not naive, making it a necessary read in today’s world.
Worry by Alexandra Tanner
If you’ve ever had a parent spout conspiracy theories or if you’ve ever been a little too invested in that tradwife online, Worry is for you. Jewish sisters, Jules and Poppy, move in together in New York following Poppy’s mental health struggles and subsequent time spent living at home with their parents. The move to Jule’s place was supposed to be a temporary fix while Poppy looked for a job and her own apartment, but a year later she’s still there. We witness the hilarious and sometimes toxic relationship between the sisters and their mother, who spirals down a multi-level marketing and Messianic path. This book captures the way you sometimes treat family because you trust they’ll always be there, even though everyone has a breaking point. And though the book isn’t plot driven, the hilarious writing will keep you engaged. A sisterly Gen-Z dramedy with something for everyone, it’s the very definition of “no plot, just vibes.”
James by Percival Everett
Hot off the success of last year’s film adaptation of his novel Erasure, Percival Everett is back with a brilliant subversion of the classic Huckleberry Finn, this time from the perspective of enslaved character Jim, also known as James. This is a quick, engaging read, and if you don’t remember the details of Huckleberry Finn, that’s okay. Everett does a wonderful job of tying in plot points from Mark Twain’s novel while weaving in his own story. James is a hard-hitting look at how insidious racism is, and how non-Black readers are often disinclined to think beyond the portrayals of Black characters in our society. Everett has already cemented himself as a literary genius, and with this work he cements his status even more.
Her Side of the Story by Alba de Céspedes, translated from the Italian by Jill Foulston
Following the translation of de Céspedes’s Forbidden Notebook last year, the much longer and in-depth Her Side of the Story was released in English. Originally written in 1949, the novel follows Alessandra, a young woman coming of age in pre-fascist Rome. As she examines her own family and community through the lens of a budding feminist, we see the rise of Mussolini, World War II, and the fall out of the war in Italy. The text remains a fascinating and relevant portrait of womanhood and how the personal is political.
City of Laughter by Temim Fruchter
This is one of the most delightfully Jewish novels of recent memory. The brilliance of this book rests in how queerness becomes a path to freedom. The story revolves around Shiva who, at the loss of her beloved father, is forced to confront her difficult relationship with her mother, Hannah. Her mother, who is withholding, doesn’t understand why Shiva is so interested in the family’s history in Poland. She also isn’t supportive of Shiva’s relationship with a woman. As the story progresses, the reader learns that the troubled mother-daughter relationships are borne out of intergenerational trauma. Three generations of Jewish women become the basis for an exploration of Jewish folklore, history, and culture, especially when Shiva goes to Poland to explore both Jewish history and her own family’s past life in a shtetl.
You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
For fans of postcolonial literature, prolific Mexican author Álvaro Enrigue, has created an irreverent and creative reimagining of Cortes’s conquest of Moctezuma’s empire in modern day Mexico City. The ending is satisfyingly anti-colonialist but also devastating because it exposes what could’ve been. The power of this book rests in the slow dismantling of the Spanish; the defiance of hegemonic power is subtle but effective. With a sprawling and diverse cast, Enrigue is able to showcase a range of perspectives on Spanish colonialism in Mexico, as well as the many fates of people during that period.
Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke
This short novel is a tender and raw look centred around Akúa, who lives in Vancouver and goes back to her home country Jamaica—a place she hasn’t returned to since her mother’s death 10 years prior. Now, under tragic circumstances again, she visits her sister following the death of their young brother to sickle cell anemia, the same disease that took their mother. Through Akúa’s perspective, and the memories she revisits of her mother, the reader learns of how Jamaica has changed in the last decade. At first, the nonlinear storytelling threw me off, but once I realized there was a pattern to how the text flowed back and forth through time, I was able to keep up, and ended up finding that Cooke did a great job balancing the past and present. We see the discrimination and racism Akúa faced when first immigrating to Texas and then Vancouver, and how her father worked hard to give them a caring family after the death of their mother. This is a beautiful and devastating look at a family fractured by migration and grief.
Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar
Novels written by poets can be divisive—sometimes their poetic stylings translate well to prose, and sometimes the text becomes overwrought. Kaveh Akbar, luckily, is a master of prose as well as poetry. Martyr!’s protagonist, Cyrus, grows up in the Midwestern U.S. with his single father, after his mother was killed by the American military. The book is based on a real event, where the U.S. Navy shot down an Iranian passenger plane in 1988, but the characters and details have been fictionalized. The presence of the U.S. empire hangs heavy over him because of this, but so does the concept of death. On the cusp of adulthood, Cyrus’s father passes away, triggering his need to make his own death meaningful. The novel’s nonlinear narrative gives us glimpses of his parents’ youth and Cyrus’s dream scenarios with celebrities, historical figures, and family members. These moments offer interesting insight into Cyrus’s unconscious, the kind of imagining we have when we are desperate to reconnect with lost loved ones or need to make meaning out of the unimaginable. Martyr! is a tragic, moving, and hopeful look at the dimensions that make up a life, even when you wrestle with death.
Special Mention: Book of Queens by Pardis Mahdavi
Book of Queens was published in 2023, but it flew under my radar and I didn’t pick it up until 2024, so I wanted to mention it here, especially if you’re looking for a narrative nonfiction read. This book is about the legacy of incredible women in Iran and Afghanistan who live in caves and ride bareback on ancient horses in some of the toughest mountain terrain. The author’s Iranian grandmother, Maryam, came from a long line of mounted women warriors and started bringing women facing abuse and domestic violence to join their community. Maryam’s story eventually intersects with Louise, an American who married an Iranian aristocrat. Together, Maryam and Louise help save this ancient horse breed and continue the legacy of Maryam’s ancestors. These women formed an alliance and fought the Taliban for decades before 9/11. It’s an incredible true story that more of us should know.