I’ve read 3 very different books: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, The Wedding People by Alison Espach, and The Faith of Beasts by James S. A. Corey. I’m currently reading Simple Church by Thom Rainer, Eric Geiger, et al, and The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt. – Bob Alt
I do read a lot during the summer, both print and audiobooks. Here are a few titles I’m currently reading or have read: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab, a vampire fantasy; 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, a hard-to-describe alternate reality mystery/fantasy/love story; The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erick Larson, a historical telling of the people and happenings leading to the start of the Civil War; and On the Beach by Nevil Shute, a fictional account that takes place after World War III when fallout from a nuclear war hasn’t yet, but will soon, reach people living in Australia. – Maria Baratta
I read Abundance by Hafeez Lakhnai. And I will reread many of Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, something historical, and something scientific. – Beth Brasor
Rereading James by Percival Everett and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn for a book club where we’ll compare the two. Also reading Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb, which details how roads have affected wildlife and encouraged the adaptation and evolution of species. I enjoyed reading Robert Galbraith’s (JK Rowling’s) The Running Grave. – Sue Busch
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. Set in the Adirondacks, it’s interesting, but dark. Before that, I was bingeing on Elin Hilderbrand beach books, which are set in Nantucket. – Kathie Chaikin
My daughter bought me a big fat multi-generational novel called Barkskins by Annie Proulx that I am working on. I love historical fiction, and this follows two families involved in the timber industry from the 1600s to the present day. It has a lot of environmental themes, and addresses attitudes and interactions with Native Americans both from their perspective and the white perspective. It is mostly set in the US and Canada, but visits a good portion of the world too, from Europe to New Zealand. – Parker Cohen
I’ve been chipping away at the 10 challenges on The New York Times Summer Reading Bucket List. Of the eight I’ve read so far, my favorites were The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann about Anne Boleyn, who awakens in her coffin after her beheading, sews her head back on, and seeks to avenge her death and ensure that her daughter Elizabeth succeeds Henry VIII on the throne. It may sound crazy, but it’s an entertaining story of female empowerment and revenge. I also reread In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan, a favorite ever since a college friend introduced me to him in 1976. I am currently reading The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War, and Betrayal by Catherine Ostler about the lives and fate of three sisters — daughters of a prominent French Jewish banking family — before, during, and after World War II, who Renoir painted in the late 19th century. – Scott Cullen
The Next Conversation by Jefferson Fisher and Lessons of Love by Melodie Beattie – Sara del Castillo
I just finished Whistler by Ann Patchett, which I really enjoyed, and have just started the new thriller by Lisa Scottoline (autographed!), This Changes Everything. Next is The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. – Barbara Drew
I read Marc Maron’s semi-autobiographical book. I finished Cormac McCarthy’s The Road while on vacation and am now working my way through White Noise by Don DeLillo.
After watching PBS’s The Forsytes I read A Man of Property, the first book in John Galsworthy’s series The Forsythe Saga. If you do the same, prepare to be shocked by the license Debbie Horsfield has taken while adapting the story for TV. For some best sellers, I joined the Doylestown Library book club. Our current read is Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It’s an unusual style; the author writes as if she is reporting interviews conducted with the members of a rock band. Next up is Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall. – Michael Howe-Smith
A few nonfiction books that touched some of my deep roots: Where the Music Had to Go: How The Beatles and Bob Dylan Changed Each Other—And the World by Jim Windolf, Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run by Peter Ames Carlin, and Trudeau & Doonesbury by Joshua Kendall. – Janet Hubbard
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan, The Pioneers by David McCullough, and London Falling by Patrick Raddenkeefe. – Andrew Kidd
Currently reading James by Percival Everett. I loved reading Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, Uneducated: What We Didn’t Learn in School by Joe Hinchliffe, and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. – Dianne Kidd-Ross
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood. It takes place in a convent in Australia during a mouse plague. Upon my return from a vacation in London, jet-lagged and exhausted, I plopped into my bed only to hear sounds of something stirring in the kitchen. The last thing I needed to hear or see was a mouse in my house! – Geri Koblis
I consume most of my books via audiobook. It’s easier to listen while I’m doing monotonous chores like folding laundry and washing dishes. My latest listen was Off-White: The Truth about Anti-Semitism, by Rachel Shabi. It’s part of my journey to learn more about the intricacies of the Israel-Palestine conflict, stemming from a coordinated and sustained attack my ex-partner and forever co-parent, Nathalie, suffered a couple of years ago after a speech she gave at a conference in Philadelphia. And it’s also because we read it for Nat’s book club. I save my physical book reading for Stephen King. After I graduated college and was psyched to not be forced to read for classes, a dear friend put King’s The Gunslinger in front of me and guided me through what turned out to be the full 7-book Dark Tower series that changed my life. Since then, I have been one of King’s “Constant Readers.” To uphold that title, I am always in a King book. In July, I finished Mr. Mercedes and moved immediately to Finders Keepers. I have more than 50 King titles under my belt, but still have more than 20 more yet to go, and he’s still putting them out about as fast as I’m reading them, so I can keep this system going for a while yet. – Chris Marietti