Bombshell’s Summer Reading List
The Bombshell Summer Reading List
It’s summer! Why are you reading Clausewitz by the pool?
In an effort to keep you sane and aware of worlds beyond natsec Twitter and the beltway, Bombshell has put together a list of its hosts’ and guests’ favorite fiction summer reads. Enjoy these on the beach, in the mountains, in the air, locked in the jungle-hot metro, your choice. Buying books from these links will provide a tiny bit of support to the Bombshell’s cocktail collection.
Kelly Magsamen
All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr.
I really enjoyed “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr. It gives you a kick in the pants when it comes to perspective on resilience.
Amy Schafer
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
The Name of the Wind, it’s the first in a science fiction trilogy by Patrick Rothfuss (The Kingkiller Chronicles) which I’ve lovingly referred to as a more mature Harry Potter. They’re an incredibly engrossing and well-written escape to a world in which you can summon the wind…if you know its name.
Susanna Blume
A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
A beautifully written work of fiction observing the birth and rise of the Soviet Union from an extremely narrow and specific viewpoint of the title character, with a full cast of wonderfully compelling and very human characters. Note: nearly every Bombshell guest is raving about this book, or his earlier novel, Rules of Civility.
Mara Karlin
Florence of Arabia, Christopher Buckley
Buckley’s dark humor betrays a realistic perspective on Middle East policymaking.
Janine Davidson
The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt (ok, not fiction, but highly recommended)
Super valuable insight on why it is so hard to communicate with much less convince people who don’t agree with you. And what to do about it.
Alice Hunt Friend
Exit West, Mohsin Hamid
Everyone has been reading Exit West by Mohsin Hamid and if you haven’t yet, it’s time. Hamid is a beautiful, lucid writer. The story starts in an unnamed city going through civil war, sprinkles in some magical realism, and follows a couple as they become refugees.
Run, Ann Patchett
I am an Ann Patchett devotee but I had never read her 2007 book “Run” until recently. It is a slow, engrossing story about family and legacy, and the winter setting feels like stepping into a snow globe. Perfect for hot days when you want to be still and remember you’re a human.
Sarah Margon
Eligible, Curtis Sittenfeld
A slightly ridiculous and very modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Price & Prejudice replete with love, heartbreak, familial issues & generational transitions. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself giggling out loud on more than one occasion. I thoroughly enjoyed the semi-mindlessness and total escape.
Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
A rich, gorgeous story about Ethiopian twins & their family that spans multiple continents and multiple generations. All the good stuff is there — love, compassion, exile, the trials of medical school & developing world hospitals, secrets, political chaos.
Mieke Eoyang
Americana, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A great novel about what it means to be an African immigrant in America, and is really incisive on race.
Also, it’s been a little while, but I also enjoyed Alif the Unseen, which combines the middle east, cyber, and a little mysticism.
Mira Rapp-Hooper
Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan.
McEwan is one of the true masters of the English language, and our young heroine is a savvy MI5 recruit in the 1970s navigating two highly intriguing love interests.
Kori Schake
Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walters
A merry coming of age novel about the time when scandal became the business of celebrity.
Lauren Fish
Life After Life by Scottish author Kate Atkinson
A beautiful multi-story novel of a British woman’s life through both world wars. The story is told and retold as she traverses through many possible lives based on different choices or situations. The companion novel A God in Ruins follows her fighter pilot brother whose plane is downed behind German lines in WWII and his family and life through the rest of the 20th century. Both are beautiful and engrossing.
Rebecca Lissner
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
It’s the compulsively readable story of a marriage, told from the husband and then the wife’s very different perspectives — and made all the more intriguing by its selection as one of President Obama’s favorite books of 2015.
Loren DeJonge Schulman
The Winds of War, Herman Wouk
I dragged this paperback sailing in Greece and have read it every summer since. It’s an engrossing, epic story of a Navy family in World War II, spanning the U.S. embassy in Berlin, Mussolini’s Italy, Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Britain, the Manhattan project….ok, it’s a little ridiculous but still marvelous.
Susan Hennessey
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders
In strictly adhering to my tradition of getting to things a solid year after the rest of popular culture, I just finished George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo and it was beautiful and sad.
Erin Simpson
Asymmetry, Lisa Halliday
Ingeniously structured, this slim novel will speak to many readers who came of age in the 9/11 era (even though that’s not explicitly what it’s trying to do). It reads as two books in one, but both spark rich questions and human dilemmas.
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Immersive and tricky, this novel explores the complex social and political relationships at work in Jamaica through the lens of the rival political parties, growing drug trade, and assassination of Bill Marley. Rewards reading on long flights and quiet beaches.
Lindsey Ford
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (and the rest of her Neopolitan Series, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child).
I can’t say how much I loved this series! Ferrante chronicles the story of two life-long friends, Elena & Lila, from childhood through adulthood. The best thing about this series is that Ferrante writes real women. Elena and Lila are smart and funny, but also sometimes mean, petty, and shallow. They’re sometimes astonishingly cruel to each other but their flawed friendship continues to endure across multiple decades. It’s the story of women who are not beautiful heroines, or sad victims, or boss bitches. They’re just very real.
Amanda Sloat
The Girls, by Emma Cline
The Girls is an exquisitely written coming of age story set in Summer 1969. The book is inspired by the experience of Charles Manson’s followers, but tells a much larger story about girlhood and female relationships.
