Summer Reading Roundup 2022
I hate to admit that I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump lately. I can’t pinpoint the exact reason this happens only that it’s never fun. I know when I’m in a slump because it takes me far longer to finish a book than usual. Still, I managed to read four books during the summer and that’s what I’m sharing with you today.
The transition from summer to fall is one I look forward to all year. Granted, I tend to get a head cold due to inconsistent weather patterns, but I make do. What I love most is the cooler weather, spooky season, and new fall reads.
I’m hoping that this new season gets me out of my slump and even if it doesn’t so long as I’m reading something, I’m happy. So now let’s take a look at my summer reading roundup.
Here are the books I read during the summer season
Unfiltered by Lily Collins
I love Lily Collins. Though I still haven’t watched Emily In Paris yet, I’ve been a fan of her previous work. She’s always presented herself as humble, goofy, and just happy to be here. I think we can all approach life a little more like that.
Unfiltered was her memoir where she dove deep into the early days of her Hollywood career. She shares stories about love affairs that didn’t end well, her eating disorder, the rocky relationship she had with her dad, music star Phil Collins, and the bond she and her mother still have.
By literary standards, this isn’t your typical memoir. It reads more like a collection of essays that together form a consistent theme of learning to get back up again after constant falls. But I prefer memoirs that don’t read like typical memoirs if that makes sense.
Her writing is relatable. Simple and to the point. She doesn’t need to fluff it up with big words or deep visceral details. You can paint the picture easily with the little bit she gives you. Personally, that is the type of writing I like to read and write. Straightforward with minimal fluff.
What matters is the story and the lesson learned from it. That is what Collins portrays in this book and I’m happy to have read it and gotten a little insight into her life.
Maid by Stephanie Land
Disclaimer: I haven’t yet watched the Netflix series based on this book. I plan to, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Some family members did warn me it was pretty intense and the book gives off that vibe as well.
I’m always glad when books like this become best sellers. Why? Because memoirs about celebrities, influencers, and political players are everywhere. Look, I get it. Publishers know they will sell which is why they release them. But many of us, myself included, prefer memoirs by real people. Folks we can relate to and feel a sense of kinship with. I don’t know about you but I can’t do that with celebrities.
Obviously, celebrities and politicians are real people, but they’re already in the spotlight. Allowing books like Maid and others like it the chance to shine is important. They teach us something we may not have known before. Maid does that in spades.
Land’s life was not easy and I’m curious to see how it improved or didn’t improve in her upcoming sequel, Class where she writes about being a single mother in college. But Maid pulls back the curtain on what those in poverty deal with on a daily basis. The scrutiny, the pity, the upturned noses, and the uncertainty of where their next meal is coming from.
The jobs they take that no one else wants like cleaning is a testament to what they must do to survive. And Land is good at it. She aims to prove herself not just through her online classwork, but in her job as a cleaning lady and as a mother.
This powerful memoir is more than just a woman doing what she has to take care of her daughter. It’s about resilience when your only other option is to give up.
The Wild One by Colleen McKeegan
Colleen McKeegan is a Northern California Writers Retreat alumn. I didn’t attend the same session as her, but whenever Heather (founder of the program) posts about one of us getting published, I’m quick to support them.
The Wild One follows three women who all went to the same camp as kids. They witnessed a gruesome event that has haunted them since. When they get back together as adults their goal is to silence the past forever, but the past isn’t quick to forget and has followed them.
McKeegan wrote the book based on her years going to a summer sleepaway camp when she was a girl. She nails the nostalgic feel for the time period, which was before social media.
She also reminds you how difficult it was to be a girl at the tender age of twelve. How you aimed to be liked by the most popular girl. How you were trying to figure out yourself and where you stand on the social pecking order.
The main character, Amanda, struggles not only with letting go of the past but with trying to get her footing in the present. Gaslighted by her boyfriend, whom she’s told to leave more than once, she now has the memory of that fateful camp trip to contend with.
It’s an amazing insight into the complexity of female relationships, from childhood to adulthood. As the truth unravels and the girls work to end things once and for all, it transitions into a thrilling conclusion that leaves you breathless.
I look forward to reading more from McKeegan and from my other NCWR alumni.
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Writers love books about writers. You might have heard the opposite, but stories about writers tend to be more realistic than movies about writers. Why? Because movies tend to romanticize what being a novelist means whereas books show more of the truth.
Take Andrew Sean Greer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Less. This story follows a moderately famous author, Arthur Less, as he is about to turn fifty. His ex-lover is getting married and to avoid going to the wedding he decides to travel the world, accepting invitations he has long since ignored.
The reader journeys alongside Less. Some of the stops include Italy, Germany, Morocco, and India. As he travels, Less recalls his life as a young man when he meets and falls in love with a renowned poet. They’re together for a while, but end things when the poet declares he’s getting too old for Less. Less himself eventually takes on a young lover, which turns out to be his literary enemy’s son.
When news of the marriage reaches Less, he cannot bare it and that prompts his journey around the world. Throughout, we get glimpses into his life including how people truly feel about his work and how he is considered a “bad gay.”
Greer’s writing is simplistic and funny. I found myself laughing a few times throughout the book. The character of Less is someone you want to pity, but also take note of his white privilege, which is a running joke in the book.
It’s definitely a book worth reading if you want a glance into a writer’s life that seems more appropriate to reality than anything else. And with a sequel coming out this month (Less Is Lost) I’m curious to see what new adventures await our quietly observant character.
What are some books you read this summer? Have you ever fallen into a reading slump? What helped get you out? Did you read any of the books I mentioned above? Comment below as I love finding new reads and recommendations.
