It was one of the first Really On the hottest days of the year in New York City, I found myself on a mission. Along with photographer Yael Malka, I boarded the ferry to the Rockaways in search of the city’s hottest (outdoor) club: Jacob Riis Park. The beach, already in the height of summer, was packed. Beats ranging from EDM to disco to J.Lo hits echoed across the warm expanse of sand and gorgeous bodies. Near the shore, someone had set up a table labeled “Free Date,” encouraging a budding romantic to sit and wait for another beachgoer to join them. Some were dancing, others were drinking, many were swimming or sleeping — and several had their noses buried in a book.
On the ferry and at the beach, I spied the book that inspired me Kill Eve (Luke Jennings Code name Villanelle), a classic trilogy by Tolkien (the Lord of the Ringsanyone?), BookTok sensation Sarah J. Maas Queen of ShadowsA law manual, AS Byatt’s The Little Black Book of Storiesand of course, the book of the summer: On all fours, by Miranda July. The recommendations we’ve collected are unlike any summer reading list I’ve seen. Which is exactly why together they form the ultimate summer reading list, with representatives from a range of genres, authors, and even decades. The lesson? Read whatever you want this summer, and don’t worry about having the hottest titles on your shelf. I know I won’t.
Photo: Yael Malka
“It’s a gift I got recently from a friend,” Omar says. “He said, ‘This will suit you. You’re brunette.’ Receiving a book is such a love letter. I read Neruda in Arabic, but it was a really bad translation. So now, reading it again, hearing the poet, changes everything. I love him, but he’s a little mean sometimes. I read really hard poetry, but it’s such a beautiful day, so I appreciate that too. I understand that I’m sitting here in safety, and at the same time I think he was in political exile. I come from political exile, I come from Syria, so I feel connected to him.”
“I like the author. His writing style is very interesting, it’s more of an investigation conducted from several levels,” says Leda. “This is the third time I’ve read it. He deals with more serious subjects, so there’s an element of discretion and advice to the reader, but I like it a lot. He really keeps you on the edge of your seat. And then there’s a twist at the end.”
“I’m an aspiring screenwriter. It’s the most widely recognized textbook on screenwriting. It’s very cringe-worthy, but it’s an expert in its field,” Hope says. “I usually read it right before bed. It’s pretty boring, so it puts me right to sleep. It’s funny that I read it in the light of day. I’m always taking naps and waking up again. The foundations of the book are the essential foundations of story theory, which is Aristotle, and act structure, and creating and releasing tension. It’s cool.”
“It’s been cool so far. I just started today. Each chapter is a different character’s point of view, so I’m still getting to know people,” Clay says. “It was on our bookshelf at home. My roommates have read it. The common thread is that they’re all natives living in Oakland. It seems emotional but interesting. I like emotional reads. It’s very personal, kind of like a diary. It wasn’t hard to focus while listening to the music and noise in the background.”
“They’re really, really beautiful. Some of the sonnets are about heartbreak, some of them are about love, and some of them are about power. She’s a great writer,” Katherine says. “Every poem is different, so I take a picture of my favorites. I highly recommend page 12. They don’t have titles. I read them on the train sometimes. Right now, given what I’m going through in my personal life, I need them now. I’ve had a little heartbreak recently, so it also gives you a little bit of love and a little bit of hope that everything will be okay.”
“My dad gave it to me. He read it in Spanish,” Kevin says. “Since it’s in English and Andrés only speaks Spanish, I translated it as I was reading it to tell him a little bit more about it. It’s good. We only read two pages because it was too hard. Andrés says the book looks really interesting so far. It’s about ways to live a better life, a more peaceful life. You’re at the beach, you’re relaxing; it’s a good way to connect.”
“It’s about a woman coming out of a traumatic relationship experience and looking to date. It feels like it’s going to be a real emotional rollercoaster,” Jess says. “The writing is really beautiful. It’s very real. I feel like I know these characters in real life. It has a lot of that summer energy, running around the city and getting into trouble with your friends. It’s the Brooklyn, New York dating scene, summed up in a concise way, but also in a real way.”
Photo: Yael Malka
Photo: Yael Malka
“I’m about halfway through. The book is about the protests against the World Trade Organization, I think it was in 2000. It’s fiction,” Alex says. “There are a lot of stories of different people who get caught up in the protests and converge together. It’s a coming-of-age story. It’s very fast-paced and an easy, interesting and sometimes emotional read. I recommend it. It’s a little intense, but it’s good.”
“It’s a really captivating beach read. I have about 50 pages left, which is exciting. It’s a fun summer book, and I love Miranda. She always writes fascinating stories,” says Genevieve. “It’s captivating. I bought it two days after it came out. It reminds me a little bit of some of the books I’ve read by Elena Ferrante, and they’re often set on the beach in the summer, but in those books it’s about a woman going through a crisis, and I really like reading those books in the summer. It’s weird and delightful.”
“It’s a lesbian Western. My job is relatively new and I’m putting myself out there and participating in things. There’s a thriving queer community at my workplace and everything is super feminine, which is really fun. It’s our book club book,” Claudia says. “I’m from Oklahoma and my dad is a beef cattle geneticist, so I grew up around horses and cows and cattle. All his students were real cowboys and cowgirls. The country-western stuff makes me homesick in a good way. Even after a few pages, I feel really nostalgic. I’m early, but I think it’s going to be a little racy. Summer reading is great when it’s a little racy.” When I was growing up, anyone with a female presence was a disposable character, and it’s so wonderful to read, even at the very beginning of this book, something where the female presence is the most complicated and interesting character. It makes me rethink my childhood and what I expected of myself in the stories I was told.
“It’s actually a reread for me. This book is fantastic. It’s a fantasy, really a Roman“The novel follows a female lead named Oraya,” Michelle explains. “She’s going through a world of vampires fighting each other, and she’s the human in the middle of it all. She ends up meeting someone, a rival, and there’s a lot of tension. Plus, the whole empire is falling apart. I devoured the book very quickly.”
“Now that I’ve finished the Kill Eve “I’m reading the books. So far, it’s pretty similar, but I’ve heard they’ve gotten pretty different over the books,” Katie says. “Which is good, because the TV show was heartbreaking at the end. It’s a bit trashy. It’s like the women are gay and written by a man, which is always a bit suspicious. But it’s sexy. It’s fast-paced. It’s pretty silly, so you can pick it up anywhere and be entertained. I usually read the book first, but Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh drew me more to the show than the plot.”
“I found it on an Instagram Reel. It’s a Palestinian author who lives in Brooklyn. It’s a generational story. Grandparents immigrated to Brooklyn and young girls are learning to live with cultural differences. I wanted to try to get a little more involved, and reading was a great way for me to express myself. It’s not a fun, ‘let me just ignore all my problems’ kind of book, but it takes you out of your world and your problems and into a totally different world.”
Photo: Yael Malka
“I just read Kinship and I really enjoyed it, and a friend of mine said, ‘If you like that, you’ll like this one even more.’ So now I’m on this one,” Laurel says. “The first few pages of Kinship It caught me faster, but when hyperempathy was added, I thought: fascinating. That piqued my curiosity. Let me pick a few words off the back: anarchy, debilitating sensitivity to other people’s emotions, survival. Maybe some tough themes, but I guess tough themes are okay for the beach.
“It’s a collection of short stories. The one I just started reading starts with a baby who is abandoned in a monastery and raised by monks. Then, when the baby is 30, he starts working as a laundress for a woman named Señora Lucy,” Grace explains. “Now the book focuses on the life of Señora Lucy, who seems to be a con artist in a relationship with another con artist. There are lesbian con artists who are having fun conning people, and that’s where I came into the book. Her girlfriend has just been accused of murdering her employer. So let’s see where it goes from there. It was sitting on my shelf, I was looking for a new book to read, and I hadn’t read this one yet. Short stories are perfect for taking to the beach. There’s intrigue, mystery, romance, crime, everything.”
“Cecilia Gentili is an icon of the Brooklyn trans community who passed away earlier this year. She was an incredible mother. This book is an incredible glimpse into a very young version of herself who was already embodied in her transness. Someone detected something in her that she didn’t even know was there, which is so much a part of being gay. And then I read Tarot for Changeby Jessica Dore. Every time I do tarot, I use this book. She interprets it through a behavioral psychology modality. Tarot is just a portal through which you can receive information from the universe. It’s an incredible book that encourages you to view tarot through a lens of self-love and compassion. These books seem to complement the context we’re in. We’re on the beach, surrounded by so many people, so many plastic surgery scars. Being here is a powerful whirlwind.”