Summer Reading

I was delighted to spend the weekend at the LA Times Book Festival (Bookchella) where tens of thousands of readers descended upon the USC campus to attend author panels and shop for books and book-related swag. 

For all the talk of the publishing industry in free fall, this weekend proved there is still a huge audience for the written word in Los Angeles. 

I attended several panels and thought I'd share a few book recommendations for your spring and summer TBR stacks. 

TL;DR? You can go check out the whole list here.

MODERN FAMILY

I was a big fan of Kevin Wilson’s NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC. He was so darling on this panel that I can’t wait to read his newest effort, RUN FOR HILLS, about five half siblings who take off on a road trip in a PT Cruiser to confront their absent father. Honestly, he was so great I want to read his whole backlist, and I want to wrap him up in bubble wrap because he is too raw and dear for this world.

Sara Levine was new to me, but her book THE HITCH sounds hilarious. It concerns an aunt who must exorcise the ghost of a corgi from her young nephew before his parents come home from their vacation. In describing her protagonist, she said she wanted to explore when it’s okay to have zeal – politically or otherwise – and when are you just being a jerk? Reader, take note.

LAW AND DISORDER 

Adam Oyebange’s book ESPERANCE is a speculative detective novel that sounds really fascinating, especially as described by the writer in his British accent. His book was up for an award at the festival.

Todd Goldberg’s new book ONLY WAY OUT sounds fantastic, and was also nominated for an award at the festival. Plus Todd is really funny and he shares my obsession with Jason Isbell and yeah, I think I’m gonna read his entire backlist too. And maybe his brother’s, while we’re at it. Why not?

LEGENDS ARE REAL

Stephen Graham Jones described one of the motivating questions of his book THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER as “how much blood does the human body have and what does it look like on a wall?” Plus he spent the whole weekend in a gorgeous leather cowboy hat. Yes, I have a type of moody writer and the cowboy hat wearing variety is that type.

Jordan Kurella’s THE DEATH OF MOUNTAINS is narrated by mountains. Talking mountains? Sign me up. Jordan said this book asks the central question, “why do we persist in the face of horror? If everything is so terrible, why we do ask to keep going?” If that’s not the question for our times, I don’t know what is.

Catriona Ward’s NOWHERE BURNING transforms Peter Pan and the Lost Boys into a cult, and the whole thing is set in the Rockies. Let’s see: more mountains, and my favorite mountains, plus Peter Pan. If you know me, you know Peter Pan is my animating myth. This novel sounds a little scarier than I generally like but I think I’m here for it. 

JURY OF THEIR PEERS

Of these books, I was most interested in reading Allie Condie’s book THE GIRLS TRIP, which is set in Zion, and follows a group of women on a girls’ trip gone wrong. Are we sensing a theme here? I really love a novel set in the West.

WRITTEN BY HAND

I went to this panel mostly for Anne Lamott, who did not disappoint. She is so funny and so warm and so self-aware and having read BIRD BY BIRD in my teenage years, I was thrilled to get to see her in real life. She and her husband Neal Allen have written a new book called GOOD WRITING. I didn’t grab it but it might be helpful if you are starting out on your writing journey.

THE SCIENCE AND FICTION OF GRIEF

I was really interested in Kim Fu’s book THE VALLEY OF VENGEFUL GHOSTS, about a woman who makes an ill-advised house purchase while grieving her mother, and Aja Gabel’s book, LIGHTBREAKERS. 

Aja did a lot of research about physics and neuroscience that mostly got cut from the book, but she said the most interesting thing she learned in her research was how much we don’t know, and maybe things can and do exist beyond our comprehension because we simply don’t have capacity to comprehend those things fully. I liked that idea a lot.

I also really enjoyed the moderator, Melissa Ann Chadburn, and I am adding her book A TINY UPWARD SHOVE to this list, too.

Happy summer reading, everybody! 

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In the coming weeks, I’ll probably be writing more about my takeaways from the Festival from a craft perspective.

If you’re interested in that sort of thing, why not sign up for the Unruly Writer newsletter? I sent it out on a monthly-ish basis.  

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