Yet Another Summer Reading List — But With Timeless Titles Only
Novels, memoirs, and children's books to savor in the sun
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a light beach read: It’s just that summer reading ambitions can provide the perfect opportunity for deeper dives into literature we might otherwise be too preoccupied to take.
Within the following of what I hope to be a humble but mighty summer reading list, it’s my wish that you find something to enrich your inner world through either re-enchantment with the written word or serious contemplation. The books listed below are not just beautifully written, they’re also full of heartbreak and the mess of what it means to be human.
Sometimes that mess can be too painful to approach with a mirror; a well-written novel paired with a reflective mind, however, I’ve found, will suffice.
From coming-of-age tales to myths retold, the following novels, memoirs, and children’s books explore what it means to know oneself in relation to the people, places, and influences surrounding us.
Novels:
A Room With A View by E. M. Forster
When Lucy Honeychurch travels to Italy with her older cousin for the summer, she finds herself wrestling with the social norms and customs of Edwardian-era England. With the acquaintance of new friends, she is faced with the opportunity to know her own mind and make decisions about love, social class, honesty, and marriage. If it’s been awhile since you’ve attempted to read “the classics”, this short, coming-of-age novel will help acclimate you to a long-lost style of writing only classic literature can showcase.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
I’m convinced that everyone needs to read a Steinbeck at some point and this is the one that will make you audibly gasp for both the tumultuous terror and the brilliant beauty that only this writer can showcase so acutely. Set in the Salinas Valley of rural California, the story follows two families with fates and conflicts that mirror the Book of Genesis. Themes of identity, rivalry, and love—and consequences from the absence of love—dominate the novel, but that really only scratches the surface of what Steinbeck asks you to reflect on. It is a brutal story, to be sure, but it is an important story.
“When a child first catches adults out—when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just—his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child's world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.”
-John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
While it’s often accepted as a gothic romance, I would consider this late 1930s literary gem to be a (stunningly written) cautionary tale. Rebecca will transport you to a seaside estate in the wilds of Cornwall, in which our nameless narrator is woefully unprepared to run the mansion after she hastily marries the dark, mysterious — and recently widowed — Maxim de Winter. The power of place, mystery, and suspense make this hauntingly beautiful novel one that’s hard to put down. Rest assured, Manderley and its monstrous rhododendrons will linger in your mind long after you’ve left.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
No matter how hard I try I cannot recall how I stumbled upon this enchanting coming-of-age novel — but I suspect I found it around the petulant age of the 17-year-old narrator Cassandra Mortmain. Living in a crumbling castle in mid-1930s England with her peculiar but lovable family, the witty narrator takes refuge in pen and paper. Grappling with poverty, a first love, and all the eccentricities that one might imagine comes with living in a defunct castle, this book will have you weeping for the narrator’s plight one moment and howling with laughter at her keen observations the next. I don’t know if there’s a narrator I love more than Cassandra.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
This semi-autobiographical novel is yet another beautifully told coming-of-age tale, this time set in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York in the early 1900s. Poverty, alcoholism, and sexual assault are only a handful of the problems that plague Francie Nolan’s adolescence, but there is a tenacity that steadily blooms within her—just as the tree that grows in Brooklyn.
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
How this particular C.S. Lewis novel speaks to you will likely differ from another reader’s experience—and that’s only because it’s such a rich and tumultuous tale with seemingly infinite layers. What starts as a retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, (told from the perspective of Psyche’s sister), slowly morphs into an exploration of what it might look like for a mortal to face judgment from the divine. All of Lewis’ usual themes are here—the wrestle for belief, the struggle to comprehend the divine, the tension in reconciling logic with imagination—but the crux of the story is about what happens when we are faced with our entire selves; the good, the bad, and the ugly converge to reveal our true motives. What then?
Children’s Books:
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
A young girl named Sal goes blueberry picking with her mother just as Little Bear and his mother go ambling for blueberries on the other side of Blueberry Hill. This light-hearted picture book is a story of mischief and motherly love that will have your little ones squealing with delight and holding their breath in anticipation. (Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings is another beloved favorite in our home.)
Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco
This heartfelt story of a grandmother helping a granddaughter—or rather, Babushka and Patricia Polacco herself—overcome her fear of thunderstorms stayed with me for many, many years. I still remember the very first reading of this book at “carpet time,” in which my second-grade teacher enthralled us all with the concept of a “thunder cake” and the courage it took to make one in the midst of a looming summer storm. The novelty of this beloved story never left—and reading it to my own little girl only made my experience with this beautifully illustrated children’s book richer. There’s even a recipe in the back, which your children will undoubtedly beg you to try. (Note: Recipe aside, you’ll need a convincing Babushka voice.)
The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
My then five-year-old fell head over heels for Charlotte’s Web and the following year we met Stuart Little; E.B. White became a fast favorite. The Trumpet of the Swan tells the story of a voiceless trumpeter swan named Louis who learns to read, write, and play the trumpet—all in the hopes of someday attracting the lovely Serena. Even without his voice, Louis lives a life of summer camp adventures, impressive employment opportunities, and plenty of travel. In the world of E.B. White, animals—talking or not—have a way of teaching us about humanity and all its silly and serious flaws.
“The world is full of talkers, but it is rare to find anyone who listens. And I assure you that you can pick up more information when you are listening than when you are talking.”
― E.B. White, The Trumpet of the Swan
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
In the spirit of transparency, I have yet to read this particular children’s classic—but I am very much looking forward to diving into this beloved work published in the Golden Age of Children's Literature. I suspect that Rat and Mole “messing about in boats” have much to teach me in my all too often hurried and worrisome existence. Trusted sources tell me there are philosophical nuggets that explore the importance of place and the value in re-enchantment—and I hope to leave it with a better appreciation for my backyard maple and the way in which the light falls on the grass just before the sun begins to set.
Non-Fiction:
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle
Although she’s widely known for her middle-grade A Wrinkle in Time series, Madeleine L’Engle is a treasure trove for any aspiring writer. Her non-fiction works are some of my most favorite books, and nothing makes me want to write more than her Crosswicks Journals. A Circle of Quiet is the first of these journals, in which she primarily writes about the struggle to both mother well and write well. In reading this book—and her blessedly frank sentences such as “When I scrubbed the kitchen floor, the family cheered”—I have never, ever in all my life felt so seen.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Literature can be an actual lifeline to those in the throws of trauma, and this autobiographical work beautifully illustrates what a love of books paired with a strong character has the power to overcome. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first in Maya Angelou’s seven-volume autobiographical series. Racism, rape, and identity are just a few of the many heavy subjects this important work explores, but Maya Angelou’s prevailing tenacity and the power of her written words offer a hope few stories have the potency to tell.
I'm 80 odd pages into Till We Have Faces. It's sooo good.
All great books! I need to revisit A Circle of Quiet. It was balm for my soul when I first read it.