{"id":15245,"date":"2025-07-22T11:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T11:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/15245\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T11:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T11:04:13","slug":"12-books-to-dive-into-this-summer-according-to-our-literary-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/15245\/","title":{"rendered":"12 books to dive into this summer, according to our literary experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer may be in full swing, but there\u2019s still time for you to dive into a new book. To help you choose your next read, Jeffrey Brown spoke with two of our experts: Ann Patchett, acclaimed author and owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, and Maureen Corrigan, a professor at Georgetown University and book critic for NPR\u2019s Fresh Air.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Film critics reveal their favorite and most anticipated summer movies<\/a><\/p>\n

Find the full list of their book recommendations below.<\/p>\n

Fiction
\n\"The
\n\u201cThe Correspondent\u201d by Virginia Evans<\/p>\n

\u201cEpistolary novels usually don\u2019t work, but this one does. It\u2019s about a grouchy older woman who lives alone, who in the course of the book makes more and more connections to neighbors, to friends. It\u2019s a really beautiful, beautiful book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Ann Patchett<\/p>\n

\"The
\n\u201cThe Satisfaction Cafe\u201d by Kathy Wang<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very quiet, funny, smart book in which you don\u2019t think a whole lot is going on and then more and more and more happens\u2026 Just beautifully written, quiet, simple and very, very smart, very entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Ann Patchett<\/p>\n

\"King
\n\u201cKing of Ashes\u201d by S. A. Cosby<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about a young man, a successful financier, who returns to his hometown in Virginia, where his father has been the victim of a mysterious hit and run. This young man has to figure out how to save the family business\u2026 from the clutches of a mob that now controls the town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Maureen Corrigan<\/p>\n

\"El
\n\u201cEl Dorado Drive\u201d by Megan Abbott<\/p>\n

\u201cThis book is set in Detroit, which is Abbott\u2019s hometown. Early 2000s Detroit is down on its luck. A bunch of women get together and join a finance club and they spout all these slogans about female empowerment and yet this club also turns out to be a Ponzi scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Maureen Corrigan<\/p>\n

\"The
\n\u201cThe Antidote\u201d by Karen Russell<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Karen Russell is one of our greatest living American writers. Nobody captures the old weird America like she does. This one is set in the Dust Bowl in Nebraska.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Maureen Corrigan<\/p>\n

Nonfiction
\n\"Who
\n\u201cWho is Government?\u201d edited by Michael Lewis<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a collection of essays\u2026 each one about a specific person in a particular branch of government\u2026 and talks about the work that they are doing and the enormous impact it makes on all of our lives. We never knew that these people were doing these amazing things. This is absolutely the book for right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Ann Patchett<\/p>\n

\"Everything
\n\u201cEverything is Tuberculosis\u201d by John Green<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Green\u2026 is obsessed with tuberculosis. Tuberculosis in history, but also tuberculosis here and now. Why is it that this completely curable disease is still killing so many people? And what will happen when we no longer are giving money to the World Health Organization to save those people\u2019s lives?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Ann Patchett<\/p>\n

\"A
\n\u201cA Marriage at Sea\u201d by Sophie Elmhurst<\/p>\n

\u201cA fantastic true story about a young couple in the 1970s in England\u2026 They want to build a boat, chuck everything and live at sea\u2026 Everything is terrific until about a year into the voyage, they\u2019re in the middle of the Pacific and they encounter a whale who breaches the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Maureen Corrigan<\/p>\n

\"The
\n\u201cThe Salt Stones\u201d by Helen Whybrow<\/p>\n

\u201cWhybrow was an editor earlier in her life, worked in publishing, but for the last 20 years, she and her husband have been on a farm in Vermont, and she has been raising Icelandic sheep. This is not my fantasy. This is not my world. But boy, does she take me as a reader out there into the meadow with her and make me feel how everything is interconnected in that meadow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Maureen Corrigan<\/p>\n

\"Swimming
\n\u201cSwimming Studies\u201d by Leanne Shapton<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a book about a young woman who goes to the pool every morning when she\u2019s in high school, swims and swims and swims, tries out for the Olympic team, practices, swims and swims\u2026 It\u2019s a book about showing up and practicing and doing the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Ann Patchett<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s
\n\"Mister
\n\u201cMister Dog\u201d by Margaret Wise Brown<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about a dog named Crispin\u2019s Crispian, and he\u2019s named that because he owns himself. He belongs to himself. And it does what great children\u2019s books, what great books period, do. It takes you into a world you would never have imagined, and you just wanna stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Maureen Corrigan<\/p>\n

\"In
\n\u201cIn the Wild\u201d by Zadie Smith and Nick Laird<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the sequel to her book, \u2018The Surprise.\u2019 In this one, the guinea pig\u2019s owner, Maude, is going camping. Guinea pig gets into the backpack the way they do and goes off into the wilderness. It is such a strange, terrific book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Ann Patchett<\/p>\n

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