Summer Reading:
Always in Fashion
Elle and Glamour, staples of the fashion magazine world, have both issued summer reading lists. Each offers multiple titles no other round-up has included (Vogue has a list, too, but since it consists of picks by celebrities of older titles and classics, we’re not counting it as a true summer list).
It is surprising that Elle is alone in mentioning The Muse by Jessie Burton (HC/Ecco). It follows on the heels of Burton’s bestselling debut The Miniaturist and again features a mysterious story of art and history.
Elle also features a true fashion read, the debut An Innocent Fashion, R.J. Hernández (HC/Harper Perennial), a coming of age story about a Yale grad taking up his longed for post at a fashion magazine.
Another debut is Break in Case of Emergency, Jessica Winter (PRH/Knopf; RH Audio), also about working the job, but this time the protagonist is a 30-somthing woman, who, on top of office issues, is feeling the inadequacy of comparisons and is desperate to have a child.
Glamour magazine offers six unique picks, including The Assistants, Camille Perri (PRH/Putnam; OverDrive Sample), a timely debut that has already received attention but not from summer reading list makers [read our online chat with the author here].
Two nonfiction titles round out the list. I’m Just a Person, Tig Notaro (HC/Ecco; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample), a memoir by the Transparent star and The Girl Who Escaped ISIS: This Is My Story, Farida Khalaf and Andrea C. Hoffmann (S&S/Atria) the account of a young woman who managed to survive and escape after being sold into sexual slavery by ISIS.
Both magazines also overlap on a number of titles making other lists as well, including the Amazon pick (and LibraryReads selection) We Could Be Beautiful, Swan Huntley (PRH/Doubleday; RH Audio).
Robin Beerbower, who writes our GalleyChatter column, warns not be put off by Elle‘s description that this is yet another book about the “exquisitely rich life of an Upper East Side lady being rocked by a mysterious figure out of her past.” Robin says that while such characters “have so many first world problems that it’s hard to relate,” this novel is “fascinating, especially because the author gets into the head of someone who is totally wealthy and has absolutely no clue what real life is like. It’s psychological suspense, but also a character study.”
See our catalog for a running list of all summer picks. Links to each of the summer previews are in the column to the right.