We asked seven Chicago-area authors which books are on their personal reading lists this summer — yes, we asked real authors, and they suggested real books, no AI involved.
The wide-ranging list recommended by writers Sonali Dev, Rebecca Makkai, Cristina Henríquez, Rowan Beaird, Rafael Frumkin, Keir Graff and Julie Iromuanya includes mostly new or forthcoming releases, from mystery to romance to thriller to tome-length biography, and they explain their choices. Their responses have been lightly edited.
Sonali Dev
Romance writer Sonali Dev is the author of 11 bestselling novels exploring American and Indian cultures, including her latest, “There’s Something About Mira.”
“ ‘The Guilt Pill” by Saumya Dave is a far too real meditation on mom guilt and the pressure on women to ‘have it all.’ What if a pill could fix it for you? There’s a daring vulnerability to Dave’s writing that reaches into your heart and puts you firmly in Maya’s shoes as she does what we all often want to: try to take the easy way out of an impossible situation. The result is a journey of discovery that’s as thrilling as it is thought-provoking.
“Stories of mothers and daughters are perfect for spotlighting how everything changes, yet nothing changes. In ‘People of Means,’ Nancy Johnson brings to vibrant life two watershed incidents in recent Black history in America: a mother coming of age in Nashville in 1959 and a daughter in 1992 Chicago. Both walk the line between their fragile privilege and the reality of how it fits in with community and history and learn to see themselves only when they learn to see each other.
“ ‘Flirting With Disaster’ by Naina Kumar is a tender and sizzling trope-y romance that’s filled with warmth, connection and the gentle flipping of stereotypes. An estranged couple who once defied everything for each other are stuck together in a hurricane with divorce papers to sign. A second-chance story that will make you yearn to fight for love.”
Rebecca Makkai
Rebecca Makkai teaches graduate fiction writing, is the artistic director of StoryStudio Chicago and has published five novels, including “The Great Believers,” which was a finalist for a 2019 Pulitzer Prize and one of The New York Times’ “Best Books of the 21st Century.”
“Yes, “Everything Is Tuberculosis” is a slim nonfiction volume about tuberculosis by John Green, who’s normally a YA novelist. It’s also the most compelling book I’ve read in a long time; I consumed it in a single afternoon and have been thinking ever since about the profound ways tuberculosis has shaped American history.
“ ‘The Paris Express’ by Emma Donoghue is about the real 1895 train disaster at Paris’ Montparnasse Station. This novel sweeps us along with a large and varied cast of characters — everyone from a medical student to a scared young boy to a dangerous anarchist bent on destruction.
“First published in 1943 in Turkish, ‘Madonna in a Fur Coat’ by Sabahattin Ali has become a bestseller in Turkey in the past 10 years, capturing a new generation with its doomed love story and its surprisingly modern characters who push against traditional gender roles. This novel is wildly readable in its English translation and equally wonderful on audio.”
Cristina Henríquez
Cristina Henríquez is the author of four books, including “The Book of Unknown Americans” and, most recently, “The Great Divide.”
“I’m a sucker for any beautifully written novel, and “Stone Yard Devotional” by Charlotte Wood is certainly that. It’s about a woman who leaves her life behind to live in the quietude of a convent even though she herself is not religious. The past is never fully past, though, and the narrator is forced to come face to face with it even in this new place. Elegiac and contemplative while also unnerving and compelling, it’s perfect for a moody summer read.
” ‘Run for the Hills” by Kevin Wilson is a rollicking, hilarious family drama about four siblings who, after meeting each other for the first time, take a road trip together to confront the father who left each of them years ago. It’s zany and madcap, and the characters are so indelibly drawn, so charming and full of heart, that it’s an absolute pleasure to go along for the ride.”
Rowan Beaird
Rowan Beaird’s debut novel ‘The Divorcées‘ was named a best book of 2024 by Harper’s Bazaar, The Independent and the Chicago Review of Books. Her second novel, ‘Tenderness,’ is due out next summer.
“No one writes a literary thriller like Megan Abbott. Her latest, ‘El Dorado Drive,’ is about a trio of sisters in suburban Detroit who became entangled in The Wheel — a ‘club’ that offers them a way to make money away from their husbands. Abbott’s novels are exactly what I want to read during the summer (or really, any season): beautifully written page-turners embedded with razor-sharp insights about what it means to be a woman in today’s world.
” ‘I Want to Burn This Place Down’ by Maris Kreizman. This essay collection had me at the title — a ‘Mad Men’ reference, and something I think any time I’ve found myself at a bar on Rush Street on Saturday night. Kreizman is one of my favorite culture writers, and, in this book, she turns her eye on how American institutions have failed us. The essays hit that perfect note of being both universal and deeply personal, and though, yes, you’ll feel anger, you’ll laugh and feel surges of hope, too.”
Julie Iromuanya
Julie Iromuanya is a novelist who has been the finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and is the author most recently of “A Season of Light.” She is an assistant professor in the University of Chicago’s Program in Creative Writing and a affiliate faculty member fo the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture.
“When I first moved to Chicago, I arrived one year ahead of the 2013 closure of 50 neighborhood schools under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the largest school shutdown in history. Many of the schools were situated in historically Black neighborhoods on the South Side and West Side of the city. More than a decade later, I walk by the remains of these shuttered schools in my neighborhood. Through painstaking research and searing vision, Chicago native Eve Ewing excavates a history of American schooling that, by design, has resulted in unequal trajectories for Black and Native American students in ‘Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism.’ With the continued assaults to our educational institutions and infrastructure, ”Original Sins’ belongs on every summer reading list.
“ ‘Under the Neon Lights’ by Arriel Vinson is a debut YA novel that can be shared across generations. It’s steeped with the nostalgia of the neighborhood skating rink and all the kitschy delights of popcorn and nacho scents where first loves, first heartbreaks and friendships are cemented. Amid the erosion of a Black Indianapolis neighborhood touchstone as a result of gentrification, Vinson’s clear-eyed and celebratory voice takes us back lovingly.
“I’ve read every book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. With excitement, I’m ready to dive into her latest book ‘Dream Count,’ a book about four women whose lives are caught at varying crossroads that feel so real and personal and alive because of Adichie’s incisive wit and unforgettable insights.”
Rafael Frumkin
Rafael Frumkin is the author of two novels and the short story collection “Bugsy.” She’s at work on a third novel and writes online at The Cosmic Cheeto.
“I love a summertime psychological thriller, and Kerry Cullen’s taut and hauntingly smart debut ‘House of Beth’ certainly fits the bill. Heartbroken and plagued by OCD-fueled intrusive thoughts, Cassie leaves her literary ambition and ex-girlfriend in New York and decamps to her New Jersey hometown in search of a quieter existence. When she finds herself sliding into the life of Eli, a high school friend grieving the death of his wife, readers may fear Cassie’s destined for a future of trad-wifery. But what awaits Cassie is far weirder than any TikTok trend, as Cullen captivatingly illustrates in this un-love story that’s also a ghost story and a thoughtful exploration of the social roles we play.
“The beloved author Dan Chaon is back with another hair-raising entry in his formidable catalog of the weird. Set in 1915, ‘One of Us’ tells the story of twins Bolt and Eleanor, orphans whose lives take a sharp left turn when they’re rescued from their con artist uncle by circus showman Mr. Jengling, whose Emporium of Wonders functions as an adoptive family of the strangest sort. It’s ‘eldritch Dickens’ meets Tod Browning’s ‘Freaks,’ with a twisty plot that will make even the staunchest horror lover blanch.
“In ‘A Silent Treatment,’ Jeannie Vanasco explores her fraught relationship with her mother, one marked by periods of silence as long as six months. Vanasco is without question one of the most versatile and inventive memoirists working today, and her latest tells a powerful story of the gulfs that separate people and the love that bridges them.”
Keir Graff
Keir Graff co-writes middle-grade mysteries with James Patterson and also writes thrillers, mysteries and fiction for adults. His latest book is “Chicago’s Fine Arts Building: Music, Magic and Murder.”
“I’m a fiction writer, so I read a lot of novels for work. But, when summer rolls around, I like to vacation with nonfiction — and I can’t wait to read ‘Mark Twain,’ Ron Chernow’s biography of one of America’s greatest authors. It’s 1,000 pages long, so it should last me until the weather turns colder.
“I also like horror stories in summer. Unfortunately, this one is real: “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism’ by Sarah Wynn-Williams. In an age increasingly dominated by the whims of tech bro-ligarchs, this insider’s tale of Facebook’s rise and moral decline is essential reading. Amazingly, it starts with a shark attack scarier than ‘Jaws.’ ”
