10 Favorites: My Recommended Summer Reading List

May 25, 2023

I’ve been so grateful to be able to read more this last year, especially as the sun returns to Portland and I can grab an hour or two outside in the burgeoning heat to sink into wonderful writing. I’m pretty sure most of my recent favorite books aren’t considered “light beach reads,” but I’ve loved so many books lately that I wanted to share them! So here’s my curated Salome Summer Reading List of ten great books in case you happen to be looking for your next really good read.

I recently devoured the memoir Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones, a book that explores the inner and outer experience of her life with a physical disability. The book begins like this: "I am in a bar in Brooklyn, listening to two men, my friends, discuss whether my life is worth living." And from that line, I didn’t want to put the book down. This memoir is a treasure. It is exquisitely written and an absolute page-turner. Oh, and she was just a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in memoir. Highly deserved.

I was similarly captivated by Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, a memoir about grief and in particular grief in quarterlife when the author (a young musician) loses her mother to cancer. I know this may not sound like a summer read (and maybe it isn’t?), but it’s so beautifully written and is punctuated continuously with the vibrant flavors, images, and smells of Korean food, meals that helped frame the author’s relationship with her mother. This book had been on the New York Times Bestseller list for so long that I was intrigued and felt like I had to check it out. I thought it was excellent and, given that it’s all about grief, a surprisingly easy read.

Okay, this one really is a classic summer read! I finally picked up Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin for the same reason that I picked up Crying in H Mart: It’s been all over the best sellers’ lists and it seemed like everyone was saying how much they loved this book. I was so curious! And I quickly became a convert. This novel is delightfully easy to read, yet it never once felt like fluff. The characters are expertly rendered and I loved following along with the turns in their lives. This particular book may speak most to Gen-Xers and elder Millennials given the historical-fiction context of coming of age in the 90s, though it’s hard to say. It’s just a beautiful novel that I rearranged my days to keep reading. I loved it.

I was deeply impressed with the novel The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling. I initially decided to read it because Lydia is a writer who now lives in Portland, and I like to try to read local authors whenever I can. I also know that she has a new novel coming out in August so I wanted to read her first novel quickly! The Golden State was unlike anything I’ve ever read in either form or content. It follows the life of a mother and her small daughter for ten days of exhaustion, uncertainty, and feeling in limbo while her husband, a Turkish citizen, is in Turkey awaiting news on his immigration paperwork that, because of human error, seems permanently stalled. It’s a little hard to convey why this book is so unusual and profound, but I truly think it’s a masterpiece. I can’t wait to read her next one!

I read the stunning novel Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi maybe two years ago now, but it has stayed with me month after month. Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize and translated into seemingly every language on earth, this book is stunningly crafted. In the words of the New York Times Book Review: “Avni Doshi isn’t just a talented writer, she is an artist.” The protagonist of this story is a woman in India facing her mother’s quickly advancing dementia. She is the ambivalent daughter and caregiver of a mother who was always an ambivalent parent. As she tries to make sense of her feelings about her mother and her childhood in which she was dragged to an ashram and then onto the streets to beg, she sorts out her present life as an artist and wife. I loved this book and have come to adore the author, who has been in many a Salome Institute seminar or salon.

Avni’s story was so much on my mind as I read Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv, a book I’ve mentioned a few times before. You may know the author from her extraordinarily empathetic and psychologically complex New Yorker profiles. She is unrivaled in her ability to portray the inner lives of her subjects—all real people—and evoke readers' compassion and understanding. If anyone is ever inclined to feel that our psychology, from diagnosis to treatment to social “supports” are easily defined, just one of Rachel’s profiles will complicate the picture. In this collection of profiles of people from around the world, each one extraordinary, she explores the life of an Indian woman (partially through the lens of her daughter) who entered into an arranged marriage and then began to lose her mind, ending up in ashrams and on the street many times. It was so resonant for me with Avni’s book, Burnt Sugar, and so alive.

I have very fond memories of a blissful few days beside a pool reading While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams—the governor-of-my-heart-political-powerhouse Stacey Abrams. I really never read thrillers or mysteries, but since I would follow Stacey to the ends of the earth, I was very excited to follow her into a thriller if she wrote it! I’m so happy I did. This really was the perfect beach (or pool) read. I describe it as “‘Knives Out’ meets ‘The Pelican Brief'.’” In other words, it’s a complicated who-done-it-esq story involving the Supreme Court. Also, the sequel just came out this week!! I just bought Rogue Justice and can’t wait to make that a summer read soon. I heartily encourage you to buy/borrow both and get your feet near some water.

Another double-header, of sorts: I was absolutely riveted by Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling, the story of a young Native woman, Louise White Elk, coming of age on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana in the 1940s. I loved this novel so much that I felt sad I hadn’t read it years earlier, like I’d missed something really important in my life. The writing is extraordinary and the story is so powerful I felt in awe page after page that someone can weave characters’ lives together with such seaming ease. I feel personally in luck because Debra’s first novel, The Lost Journals of Sacagawea by Debra Magpie Earling, was just re-published this week. I’m looking forward to starting this one very soon.

I’ve written plenty already about The Patriarchs by Angela Saini, but my commentary stands. It’s such an important new book.

And last but not least: I once again wholeheartedly recommend On Our Best Behavior by Elise Loehnen. I wrote about this last time, but this book was just published on Tuesday so I’ve been reading On Our Best Behavior for the last two days and I am already lost in personal contemplation, with a heavy dose of necessary social criticism. This book tackles the toxicity of patriarchal propaganda and the insidious ways it has entered our thinking, and how to get it out. It really feels like an extension of our final Red Book class in that Elise is exploring the Gnostic roots of Christianity, what went wrong to eliminate women from the story, and the effect that has had on all of us. This book is both very nerdy and very readable, making it my favorite kind of book. Full disclosure: Elise and I grew up together and she was a huge support when my book came out last year (and before). But I would not strongly recommend this book unless I believed in it fully. I think it’s a must-read and also feel pretty sure that it’s going to hit the New York Times Best Sellers list this weekend, so, you know, it’s not just me.

I hope whatever you’re reading, you’re enjoying it. In this world, we need beautiful, insightful things to keep our souls afloat.

Sending love to you and yours,

Satya

Satya Doyle Byock, Director of The Salome Institute of Jungian Studies

Speaking of Books…!

My book, Quarterlife, is coming out in paperback in July and I’ve got a few readings lined up! I’d love to see you there!

  • Thursday, July 6th, 7pm | Eliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA