Falling temperatures, blowing snow and dangerous travel conditions

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast

Your reading list is about to get a lot longer.
 
Lisa Lucas, the new executive director of the National Book Foundation, and Carlos Lozada, a book critic at the Washington Post, unleashed their book recommendations this morning with MPR News host Kerri Miller.

There's plenty of entertaining reads, but the list also has a serious side.

"There's this sense that summer reading should be breezy and fun and uplifting," Lozada said. "But it's also a great opportunity to grapple with things you don't grapple with in the regular course of your life."

Lucas recommended diving back into old favorites during the summer for a second, third or even fourth read: "You're going to get more of it from that second reading — you're going to be seeing an old friend that you haven't seen in years, or learning something new from the text."

Listeners also chimed in with their summer reading recommendations, including books that changed the way they see the world.

This compilation of some of Jackson's never-before-published works is a must-read for those interested in of the great American writers of the 20th century. (You've probably read her best-known short story, "The Lottery.") With a new biography of Jackson coming out this fall, Lucas is catching up on all things Shirley Jackson.

Lucas had big praise for Beatty: "I think everything he's ever written, everyone should read." His satirical, cutting view of racial issues is both hilarious and thought-provoking. "He has a prefect sense of humor about these terrifying racial injustices we live through," Lucas said.

"So lush and wonderful. It involves an opera singer and intrigue, but it's also really beautiful. It's one of those enveloping books," Lucas said.

"It Takes a Village" by Hillary Clinton and "The Art of the Deal" by Donald Trump

In the midst of campaign season, Lozada recommends pairing Clinton's first book with Trump's first book: "They're extraordinarily revealing about their motivations — about the way they think, the way they act. ... It's really worth reading the two foundational books from each of our candidates."

"[Morgan] is writing about horse racing as a framing for really talking about justice in America," Lucas said. "It's this beautiful book of ideas, but it's also a page turner. The sentences are gorgeous. It changes the way I thought about what a novel could do for me."

"The Gunning of America: Business and the Making of American Gun Culture" by Pamela Haag

"[Haag] punctures a lot of the myths about the role of guns in America," Lozada said. "She looks at how gun manufacturers, in particularly the Winchester company, have really created and forged that gun culture. It's a grimly timely kind of book, but made me look at the whole debate over guns in a very different way."

"Stamped from the Beginning" by Ibram X. Kendi

"It's a book on the history of racist ideas in America. It's one of these perspective-shifting books," Lozada said. "It's quite long, but it's worth every page."

The economy may be on a path to recovery after the 2008 crisis, but eviction rates are still at record highs across the country. Desmond's book is arguably the most comprehensive study of this crisis.

A Harvard professor and a MacArthur Fellow, Desmond embedded himself in low-income neighborhoods in Milwaukee for more than a year to understand the emotional and economic impact that comes with losing your home.

Lozada recommended this Hungarian masterpiece, which was written in 1942 but not translated into English until 2002. It follows two friends meeting again after 41 years, and investigates the dark acts that have kept them apart.

The book world spent all of last year raving about Coates' book "Between the World and Me." Intrigued readers should dive deeper into Coates' work and pick up his earlier memoir, which focuses on his father's efforts to raise seven children.

"Where'd You Go Bernadette" by Maria Semple

This funny, quirky novel from 2012 is worth picking up if you haven't yet. It follows an overwhelmed woman who pulls a disappearing act, and how her daughter sets out to find her. Semple has a new novel coming this fall, which Lucas is excited about: "Today Will Be Different."

Even more reading recommendations, from listeners

"Gilead" and "Housekeeping" by Marilynne Robinson

 are on President Obama's reading list — they should be on yours too.

"The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Set in Barcelona in 1945, the novel follows a book dealer's son who find a mysterious book. He soon discovers someone is trying to destroy every copy of it, and he may have the only one left. 

Berger's novel is narrated by a blind Greek street vendor who tells the story of a wedding, and all of the characters caught up in it.

Moore's classic graphic novel started the trend of superhero stories where the superheroes actually have faults, fears and real personalities.

Okorafor's novel takes place in a post-apocalyptic Africa, where plague has ravaged the continent. 

A young adult book featuring fantasy, romance and an embattled princess.

 "The Book of Night Women" by Marlon James

James won the Man Booker Prize of "A Brief History of Seven Killings." Dive into his back catalog with his story of life on a Jamaican plantation at the end of the 17th century.

 "The Sound of Things Falling" by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Vasquez, a writer to watch from South America, explores the violence that once gripped Colombia in this novel of the drug wars.

Primo Levi called this "the greatest book ever written about the German resistance to the Nazis."

"All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

This young adult novel tackles the difficult racial and political realities of modern boyhood. The book follows two friends, one black and one white, as they get swept up in an incident of police brutality.

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Shows

Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

Kerri Miller Feature

MPR News Staff

Author

Tracy Mumford

Summer reading can be breezy and uplifting, but it can also be a season for books that investigate new topics and difficult issues.

Lisa Lucas, the new executive director of the National Book Foundation, and Carlos Lozada, a book critic at the Washington Post, unleashed their book recommendations with MPR News host Kerri Miller. 6/15/16

The big summer book show: What to read under the sun

Go Deeper.

Like this?