This is anything but a carefree summer.
The term ‘beach reading’ probably takes on a melancholy and wistful connotation during the pandemic, with beaches either closed or holding fewer people. But we need summer reading more than ever this year; for diversion, education, and many other reasons.
As I have done last year and in previous years, here is my curation of lists that highlight books to make your summer a better one, regardless of where you are reading, and whether or not you are taking a vacation.
The Atlantic: The Books Briefing: Your Socially Distanced Summer-Reading List
Boston.com: 22 books that local experts say you should read this summer
CNN.com: 25 books that make for a perfect summer read
Esquire: The 20 Must-Read Books of Summer 2020
Financial Times: Summer books of 2020: critics’ picks
Forbes.com: The CFO Essential Summer Reading List
GatesNotes: 5 summer books and other things to do at home
Goodreads: Dive into Summer Reading!
The Guardian: The great escape: 50 brilliant books to transport you this summer
Inc.com: 15 Great Leadership Books on Adam Grant’s Summer Reading List
Literary Hub: The Ultimate Summer 2020 Reading List
The New York Times: Summer Reading
The New Yorker: What We’re Reading This Summer
NPR: A Long Summer Ahead: What Writers Are Reading As The Pandemic Goes On
O The Oprah Magazine: 28 of the Best Beach Reads of Summer 2020
Publishers Weekly: Summer Reads 2020
Refinery29: The 25 Books You’ll Want To Read This Summer
TIME: 45 New Books You Need to Read This Summer
TODAY: 16 highly anticipated summer books you won’t be able to put down
The Washington Post: 20 Books to Read This Summer
Special kudos and congrats go to Emily Temple, managing editor at Literary Hub, who painstakingly collates books that have been included on at least 4 different lists. This year, her own debut novel, The Lightness, made it onto 12 lists. Brit Bennett’s novel The Vanishing Half is this year’s champ, included in 24 lists. And the perfectly-timed/named novel Beach Read, by Emily Henry, is on 10 lists.
While fiction predominates on many of these lists, there is still lots of intriguing nonfiction.
I was interested to learn from The Atlantic’s list of a new book by the highly original British author Geoff Dyer, Broadsword Calling Danny Boy: Watching ‘Where Eagles Dare.’ Adam Grant’s list includes the intriguingly titled Leadership by Algorithm: Who Leads and Who Follows in the AI Era?, by David De Cremer, founder/director of the Centre on AI Technology for Humankind (AiTH) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School.
And Bill Gates’ closely-followed list has a category called ‘Other Books Worth Reading.’ That section is topped by Andy Puddicombe’s The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness. “For years,” Gates writes, “I was a skeptic about meditation. Now I do it as often as I can—three times a week, if time allows. Andy’s book and the app he created, Headspace, are what made me a convert. Andy, a former Buddhist monk, offers lots of helpful metaphors to explain potentially tricky concepts in meditation. At a time when we all could use a few minutes to de-stress and re-focus each day, this is a great place to start.”
My favorite summer books list invariably is from the Financial Times. FT contributor and novelist Susie Boyt writes about values useful to embrace in any season: “Negative Capability, Michele Roberts’ memoir of a novelist’s villainous year, was bracing and galvanising. Modestly billed as a book about failure it is more an account of how life’s setbacks are best countered by ever sterner levels of artistic engagement.”
Despite how grim and uncertain much of the world currently is, the outpouring of creativity from these and so many other authors displays hope for humanity.