Looking for something good to read? Check out our micro reviews of the best books we read this summer!
This summer I read You’re on an Airplane by Parker Posey. Posey’s memoir reflects on the absurdity of fame. The book is both candid and witty and was a delightful read.–Kim Abrams
In Exit West, Mohsin Hamid, paints a compelling and intimate portrait that captures the effects of civil war and what it means to be a refugee. Exit West manages to be at once a love story and a candid chronicle of the everyday violence faced by the citizens of an unnamed middle-eastern city under siege. Tinged with magical realism and hope, Hamid reminds us that displacement is not just about where we come from but also, who we are after our national identity is stripped away. —Nora Almeida
Chef Anthony “Tony” Bourdain was quite the storyteller: with a strong, confiding authorial voice, it’s not surprising he went on to a successful career in television. His memoir of becoming a chef, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, gave me insight into the high pressure and often decadent world of “back of the house” New York City restaurants. Be prepared for a high octane, opinionated look at the physically grueling, detail-oriented life of a chef. –Monica Berger
I re-read the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin off and on over the summer. I love to re-read books and this series in particular always reveals something new when you return to it. It is the perfect accompaniment to wildly obsessing over fan theories while impatiently waiting for the next, and last, season of the show to premier. —Wanett Clyde
I loved every page of Old in Art School by Nell Irvin Painter, professor emerita of US History at Princeton University, author of several books including the 2010 best-selling The History of White People, and now an artist. In her first memoir, Painter chronicles her education as an artist as she pursues a BFA from Rutgers and an MFA from RISD, both of which she earned after retiring from academic life. Throughout, she probes how age and race affect how she is seen, critiqued, and mentored as a full-time student of painting and an aspiring, and ultimately successful, gallery-exhibiting, fellowship-winning visual artist. I could not put it down for too long, so curious was I about the aesthetic, institutional, and personal challenges she would negotiate next. —Anne Leonard
Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown chronicles the captivating experiences of the American roaring team during the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It is inspiring how they beat the odds and reminds one of the buoyancy of hope. At the end of the book, a novice learns everything about the sport. It is also a fine informative read about the American depression. —Nandi Prince
This summer I read the thought provoking and necessary book Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, by Safiya Umoja Noble, library and information studies scholar and faculty member at the University of Southern California. Noble’s research reveals the troubling representation of girls and women of color in Google search results, results that software engineers often claim are unbiased and not within their control to determine. With the ubiquitous position that commercial search engines and internet platforms hold in our lives, this book is a worthwhile exploration of the ways that the corporation who develop these services assign meaning and shape popular opinion.–Maura Smale
This summer, I read Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters, a fictionalized account of the Philippines under a dictatorship seen through the lens of several loosely related characters, including a little girl, a congressman, an actress, and a DJ. The writing is surreal at times making commentary on class, gender, the influence of American/western culture, and government corruption. —Junior Tidal
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