You’re Prepping for the Back-to-School Season
Want to learn something new or want to pick up a new memoir
Hi friends,
Congrats to everyone who has already submitted their Summer Reading Bingo Card. For everyone else like me who hasn’t finished yet, don’t worry. You still have a month.
A bunch of you have asked me for play/script recommendations. A confession: I put that on there to push myself out of my comfort zone, so I’m not super confident on this one. If you can help me — and other subscribers out — with a suggestion, offer one in the comments.
And, now, what to read if…
You’re Starting to Think About the Back-to-School Season
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
Growing up, I started school the Wednesday after Labor Day, so August was spent enjoying long, lazy days under bright blue skies while school supply shopping. If the calendar flip has you feeling nostalgic about returning to school, grab a copy of Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You, about a film professor / podcaster who returns to her elite boarding school, where her former roommate, Thalia, was murdered during their senior year.
For years, Bodie Kane has refused to engage with any of the conspiracy theories popular online about Thalia’s death or claims that the man convicted of the crime, the school’s athletic trainer, is innocent. All that changes when she returns to the Granby School to teach a class on podcasts — and her students decide to make a true crime show investigating Thalia’s murder. As she grows increasingly obsessed with the case she’s spent years trying to ignore, Bodie reassesses her time at Granby, her relationship with her former music teacher and what she knew about Thalia’s death.
As I wrote in my review for Best Evidence when I Have Some Questions for You first came out, “At its core, the book, set against the backdrop of the national reckoning that was #MeToo, is about coming to grips with the stories we’re told, the stories we create and the stories we choose to believe. … To say I loved the audiobook* of I Have Some Questions For You, read by narrator extraordinaire Julia Whelan, is an understatement. I laid on my couch for hours listening to it. Makkai is one of the best novelists writing today — her last book, The Great Believers, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize — and Whelan’s narration further highlights the conflict Bodie feels about this literal and figurative trip into her past.”
You’re Ready to Learn Something New
One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson reminds us all why he’s the king of offering an insane amount of information in an entertaining, even funny, way in One Summer, his history of the summer of 1927.
As Bryson presents it, the sheer number of historical events that happened in the U.S. that summer almost boggles the mind:
Charles Lindbergh completed the first trans-Atlantic flight and instantly became the most famous person on the planet.
Babe Ruth broke the home run record while playing on a Yankees squad still considered to be one of the greatest teams of all time.
Al Capone’s hold on Chicago grew stronger, even as the federal government formed the legal theory that would take him down.
The world’s central bankers made policy decisions that led to the Great Depression.
And that’s not even all. Bryson recounts all these events and the colorful characters behind them with his characteristic wit and humor. Henry Ford, Dorothy Parker and Chicago Tribune publisher Robert McCormick all make cameo appearances. I love a book that recounts how one moment or one thing had ripple effects that we experience today — and One Summer delivers on that, showing how everything from TV and movies to our politics have their roots in 1927.
Reminder rec: The Big Fella by Jane Leavy recounts the three-week tour of the country Ruth took with fellow Yankee Lou Gehrig after the 1927 baseball season wrapped.
You Know All the Words to “Take Me Home Country Roads”
Another Appalachia by Neema Avashia
After the 2016 election, there was an explosion in media interest about the “real Appalachia,” as reporters visited former mining towns and book critics discussed J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. Neema Avashia, a proud West Virginia native and the daughter of Indian immigrants, though, didn’t see her experience reflected in that writing, so she wrote Another Appalachia, and I’m so glad she did.
Avashia recounts her time celebrating the nine-day festival of Navarati with the women of the small but vibrant Indian community in the Kanawha Valley, as well as her close relationships with her neighbors on Pamela Circle. She describes how her Appalachian roots drive her current life as a teacher in Boston. The tension running through Another Appalachia is the love Avashia feels for and from her Appalachian neighbors, even as she hears them denigrate immigrants and use racial and homophobic slurs.
Another Appalachia is a strong addition to the Appalachian literature tradition, simultaneously expanding on and critiquing the books that have gone before it. Avashia attempts to answer the question about what it means to truly belong in a community.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back on Thursday with a Q&A featuring Kate Flannery, author of Strip Tees, and the chance to win a copy of her book.
*I received a free copy of the I Have Some Question for You audiobook from Libro.fm in exchange for an honest review.
What to Read If is a free weekly book recommendation newsletter. Need a rec? Want to gush about a book? Reply to this email, leave a comment or find me on Twitter or Instagram.
If you’re reading this on Substack or were forwarded this email, and you’d like to subscribe, click the button below.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth.
"I was putting young Mercy to bed earlier and she said to me, ‘Uncle Pat, Where has Seamus been all this time? Where has his soul been?’ And I opened my mouth to answer. But nothing came. I had no answer. In case she asks again, I was wondering what to say. Where would you say his soul has been, Father. Where has it been?"
(Also seconding the recs for Our Town and The Crucible)
For play, I would suggest "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller. Because the story is familiar, I think it helps settle into the structure of reading a script. Plus, it's an entirely captivating and haunting story.