O Magazine’s Summer Reading List

As far as ambitious seasonal reading goes, O Magazine takes the cake thus far, offering 60 titles. A list that long is bound to include many the others have not, as well as expected titles, such as The Girls, Modern Lovers, Homegoing, and Before the Fall.

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Among the dozen unique fiction selections is Dating Tips for the Unemployed, Iris Smyles (HMH/Mariner; OverDrive Sample) gets the nod with the comment that the mix of novel and autobiography is “A flat-out joy to read.”

Hot Little Hands, Abigail Ulman (PRH/Spiegel & Grau; RH Audio; OverDrive Sample). The magazine calls this debut collection of short stories “sardonic, smart, and thoroughly modern.”

Native Believer, Ali Eteraz (Consortium/Akashic Books; OverDrive Sample) tells the story of a modern secular Muslim living in the age of terrorism. O calls it a “wickedly funny Philadelphia picaresque.”

The Noise of Time, Julian Barnes (PRH/Knopf; OverDrive Sample). This fictional account of the real life Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich imagines a creative life living under the eyes of Stalin. O says it is “exquisite.”

The Sport of Kings, C.E. Morgan (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample). Horse racing and the aftershocks of slavery intertwine in this “sprawling, magisterial Southern Gothic for the 21st century.”

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In nonfiction new choices include two titles addressing past decades and several books spanning history and modern times:

Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul by Clara Bingham (PRH/RH; OverDrive Sample) provides “A gripping oral history of the centrifugal social forces tearing America apart at the end of the ’60s,” while Never a Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded, David Hepworth (Macmillan/Henry Holt; OverDrive Sample) offers “A revelatory account of the bombshell 365 days that gave birth to … the music that made us.”

The Cook Up,by D. Watkins (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample), a tale of family and drugs, O calls this “An East Baltimore bildungsroman memoir about hope, hustle, and getting out while you can.”

How the Post Office Created America: A History, Winifred Gallagher (PRH/Penguin) details the early history of mail service. O promises that, as unlikely as it sounds, the book is “invigorating.”

The full list of titles is available online.

See our catalog for a running list of all summer picks. Links to each of the summer previews can be found in the column to the right.

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