The Workman #Summerreading List!

Book lovers across the internet are posting lists, recommendations, thoughts, and other ideas about summer reading on Twitter today (#summerreading), thanks to the Learning Network blog on the New York Times. Since we’ve done Workman summer reading lists in the past, we were inspired to join the conversation. And it’s a good week for books: Today is the last day of Book Expo America. But we’re a little exhausted from the festivities. Is that the ocean we hear calling our names? The promise of summer vacation, of sandy and sun-beaten days?

Please, pull up a beach chair with us! Here are some of the delicacies on our summer reading menu:

Los Angeles, Reyner Banham

Are You My Mother?, Alison Bechdel

The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov (trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky)

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain

The Miseducation of Cameron Post, emily m. danforth

Butterfly’s Child, Angela Davis-Gardner

The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt

Travels in Siberia, Ian Frazier

The Aleppo Codex, Matti Friedman

Fire the Bastards!, Jack Green

The Transit of Venus, Shirley Hazzard

The Great Fire, Shirley Hazzard

The World According to Garp, John Irving

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs

Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year, Anne Lamott

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson

The Color of Water, James McBride

Sutton, J.R. Moehringer

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, Wendy Mogel

The Island at the Center of the World, Russell Shorto

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

How to Be Black, Baratunde Thurston

The Submission, Amy Waldman

For a while I thought John Irving was a horror writer, maybe because I confused Hotel New Hampshire with the song ‘Hotel California,’ with a little bit of the hotel from The Shining thrown in there.  I think I’m past that now, so I’m finally cracking open my first Irving book, The World According to Garp. –Heather

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I just read Fire the Bastards!, by Jack Green and adored it.  It’s stinging, and a hilarious rebuke of the book reviewing industry that was written in response to the general panning of William Gaddis’s The Recognitions.  The essay is written without punctuation. –Deborah

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My most recent beloved book was The Transit Of Venus by Shirley Hazzard. I have already purchased Shirley Hazzard’s most recent book, The Great Fire. That’s next on my list. Also there’s a new novel from my favorite memoirist, J.R. Moehringer.  He’s the author of The Tender Bar (that’s the memoir).  His new novel, to be published in the fall, is SUTTON.  I am in lucky possession of a galley and may just end up reading that next, since it looks so good and was edited by my good friend.  If you haven’t discovered him, The Tender Bar is a beautiful, touching, and really funny memoir.  –Mary Ellen

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I’ve been carrying around Ian Frazier’s Travels in Siberia in the hopes of having a spare moment with it. His book The Fish’s Eye is unexpectedly (I’ve never caught a fish in my life) one of my favorites.  –Kylie

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I’m reading The Submission by Amy Waldman, and loving it. It’s always interesting when liberals (that would be me) are forced to confront the ambiguity of what we think of as an absolute truth. And the writing is so good!  –Suzie

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As for me, I am currently feasting on Gabrielle Hamilton’s lovely Blood, Bones, and Butter. Also on deck is Rhoda Janzen’s Does This Church Make Me Look Fat?, an ARC that I happily snatched at BEA. Happy reading! –Liz