Books to Bring on Vacation

There’s a lot to look forward to on this summer’s reading list: Rachel Aviv on the mother-daughter dynamic, the return of Colson Whitehead’s great protagonist Ray Carney, the perennial vogue of French theory, and more. I sat down with two of our books editors, Namara Smith and Victoria Uren, to discuss the most exciting upcoming publications.

Our conversation has been edited and condensed.

Which books are you bringing with you on vacation this summer, for those days off when you can really savor them? I’m taking Andrew Sean Greer’s “Villa Coco,” for the focaccia-in-Tuscany of it all.

Victoria [chewing thoughtfully on a croissant]: I’m certainly pro-bread. But I’d take “Dooneen,” by Keith Ridgway. He published a beautiful story in The New Yorker a few years ago, and the new book, set in a bizarro Dublin, looks strange and thrilling. And, because you always need two, I’d also bring Ann Patchett’s new novel, “Whistler.” I’ve loved this essay she wrote about her friend the writer Lucy Grealy for a long time, but I only just read what I think might be my favorite of her books, “Commonwealth.”

Namara: So good.

Victoria: So good, so devastating. I imagine her new one, about a woman reconnecting with her long-lost stepfather, will be similarly absorbing.

Namara: During a heat wave last summer, I spent a weekend in front of my air-conditioner reading “Sag Harbor,” by Colson Whitehead, a coming-of-age story set in 1985. That might be the perfect summer-in-New-York novel. This year, I want to catch up on Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy, because the final book, “Cool Machine,” is out in July. And, for my second, Deborah Levy’s new novel, “My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein,” which came out last week, will probably find its way onto my e-reader at some point. Here is where I have to confess that I’ve never read Gertrude Stein, but I have read a lot of Deborah Levy—she’s delightful.

Victoria: Yes, Deborah Levy—well-known beach-read producer.

Namara: Her best book, from a beach-read perspective, is her novel “Hot Milk,” about a mother and daughter on vacation in Spain. It’s one of the novels where a lot happens under the surface—literally, the daughter gets stung by a poisonous jellyfish when she enters the ocean.

While we’re confessing things, I will say that I am curious about “Big Little Truths,” Liane Moriarty’s follow-up to “Big Little Lies.” It’s not out until August 25th, but might it be a contender for Book of the Summer?

Namara: I think the most discussed book this summer is going to be Rachel Cusk’s “Life of M,” although it’s also not coming out until August 25th. It’s about the relationship between an actress and a writer, and about celebrity, and spectacle, and femininity; it sort of seems like Cusk’s version of Catherine Lacey’s “Biography of X,” which is about a famous artist and her biographer.