The Understory’s Summer Reading List
After 20 years teaching English and as a high school librarian, I’ve learned that while reading is a deeply personal act, it also has the innate ability to build community through the simple act of sharing the books we’ve loved or what’s next on our list. While Joyce Carol Oates once said, “Read widely, and without apology. Read what you want to read, not what someone tells you you should read,” I also believe that one should never turn down an opportunity to share what’s on their reading list. So, here are 10 books for your summer reading adventures, with stories rooted in travel and place.
1. Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins. The Eastern Sierra is magical this time of year and Wiggins manages to capture the beauty of the Owens Valley and create historical fiction perfection with this story about the building of Manzanar, the city of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and a family stuck in the middle. This is one of my favorite books of all time.
2. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. Eco-fiction, mystery, family drama all in one. A woman washes up shipwrecked on a remote sub-Antarctic island guarding a seed vault, and nothing about the family sheltering her is quite what it seems.
3. Playground by Richard Powers. While Powers’ The Overstory was part of the inspiration for The Understory, his novel Playground is a captivating shift to the ocean with this sweeping story about ocean exploration, tech oligarchs, and what it means to be family.
4. The Land and Its People by David Sedaris. I first discovered the sheer genius of David Sedaris while reading Me Talk Pretty One Day on a study abroad trip to France. To this day, I have never felt so seen in a collection of essays about navigating life in another country with such sharp, tender wit. In The Land and Its People, Sedaris revisits those themes of travel, brotherhood, and friendship.
5. Land by Maggie O’Farrell. This highly anticipated historical fiction piece will transport you to Ireland in the years surrounding The Great Hunger, from the author of Hamnet.
6. Barbarian Days by William Finnegan. Much like skiing, surfing quickly turns into an all-consuming adventure. In this Pulitzer-winning memoir I come back to every summer, Finnegan shares stories of chasing waves around the world. Part travelogue, part coming-of-age-story, and part meditation on obsession in sport.
7. Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune. In a past life when I worked for a surf camp in Mexico, my favorite colleagues were all from Tofino. This slow-burn romance set on the Canadian coastline is the perfect summer beach read.
8. Saltwater by Katy Hayes. In this twisty, glamorous murder mystery filled with family secrets, the island of Capri is a character itself. Local Tahoe author Katy Hayes brings the same eye for atmosphere and intrigue that made The Cloisters a hit, making Capri’s sun-bleached cliffs and shadowy villas feel as vivid as anywhere in fiction this summer.
9. Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer. Italy, but make it chaotic. The Pulitzer-winning author of Less sends a young archivist to catalog a crumbling Tuscan villa for a 92-year-old baroness with one last love to track down. The other side of The Understory are library services, including archival work, so my inner cataloguer loves this premise.
10. Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead. This is going to be my personal challenge book for the summer, and it feels like good timing between the release of Spielberg’s Disclosure Day and the new Odyssey movie coming out in late July. Recommended by a friend who’s a sci-fi expert, this Hugo-nominated sci-fi novel is told entirely in verse, following a colony ship engineer who wakes from cryosleep to find her vessel transformed into a forest, ruled by the descendants of the crew.
