5 books of low-stress nonfiction for your summer reading list
Every summer reading season, I recall stories of completely inappropriate books I’ve toted to the beach or pool.
This year is no different. I’m currently reading a book I’ll share in an upcoming newsletter, and it’s not a flirty rom-com about a Malibu meet-cute – though I would love to read one of those if you have recommendations. (And by the way, we’ll be sharing a fresh helping of romance recs with you soon, too.)
That said, I do often misunderstand the assignment: I once spent a good chunk of a bachelor weekend sitting by a hotel pool reading Robert Crais’s “L.A. Requiem.” And when not reading by the pool? I read in my room.
This week, though, I’m focusing on a different summer reading tradition: Pop culture-infused nonfiction, which is always a good choice for hot weather: breezy histories, juicy memoirs and refreshing dives into films, music and more.
If you’re looking for a story to get lost in as your loved ones build sandcastles or do cannonballs in the pool, one of these may be just the thing.
“Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV” by Emily Nussbaum (Out now)
With prose as bracing as a chilled Chardonnay tossed in your face, the New Yorker critic Nussbaum delivers an essential book on the development of reality TV, which is not the faint praise it may sound like. Some pop culture books can feel like overlong web posts, but Nussbaum digs deep into the genre’s origins and often-queasy mix of high-flying rhetoric and lowdown showbiz chicanery. She writes about shows you’ll remember and some you won’t, crafting deft portraits of everyone from “Candid Camera” host Allen Funt and “Gong Show” impresario Chuck Barris to the inaugural “Survivor” cast and “The Apprentice” host Donald Trump. If you love reality TV, get it. If you hate reality TV, this is still the one you’ll want to read.
“The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War” by James Shapiro (Out now)
Known for his books about Shakespeare, Shapiro has in recent years shifted his gaze to include more recent history, as in his 2020 book “Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future.” “The Playbook” examines the political turmoil that erupted in the 1930s as the Federal Theatre Project attempted to employ actors and writers to bring plays to an American public struggling under the Great Depression, and the cultural battles that ensued will sound all too familiar to modern readers. Shapiro also dispels myths about a noted all-Black cast production of “Macbeth,” which Orson Welles was long credited for masterminding but the actual story differs from the legend.
“Hip-Hop Is History” by Questlove and Ben Greenman (Out now)
Whether leading the Roots, DJing and producing music or writing books, hosting podcasts and making Oscar-winning documentaries, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has already demonstrated a vast set of skills. Despite that, he remains a discerning fan of the things he loves. This book explores the development of hip-hop, spanning from its origin story in a 1973 Bronx rec room to the 2023 Questlove-produced Grammy salute to its first half-century music.
“The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982” by Chris Nashawaty (Out July 30)
Was summer of 1982 the best three months – heck, the best 8 weeks – in movie theaters ever? That brief period saw the release of eight science-fiction and fantasy heavyweights: “E.T.,” “Blade Runner,” “Mad Max: The Road Warrior,” “Star Trek: Wrath of Khan,” “Poltergeist,” “Conan the Barbarian,” “The Thing” and “Tron.” Nashawaty zips nimbly through the era’s creative clashes, cost overruns and box office bombshells (and bombs) and will still have you wanting more. (I added Paul M. Sammon’s “Future Noir” about the making of “Blade Runner”to my library queue.) And there are always the films: I can personally attest that at a recent Vidiots screening of Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” there was one man quietly bawling in my row. (We have an interview with Nashawaty coming, too.)
The Bookshop: A History of The American Bookstore by Evan Friss (out Aug. 6)
Readers of this newsletter might just be the target audience for this one — Allison K. Hill, our former book columnist and current CEO of the American Booksellers Association, is one of the interviewees. “The Bookshop” is deeply researched and packed with information about a selection of America’s bookstores from Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia bookshop to a lovingly rendered ode to the staff and regulars at Three Lives & Company in New York City. I’m reading this one slowly, because I want to make it last.
For more, go to the Books section for a range of bestsellers, interviews and more
Laurie Devore wrote part of her novel sitting on the beach in Venice
Laurie Devore is the author of the YA novels “A Better Bad Idea,” “Winner Take All,” and “How to Break a Boy.” “The Villain Edit” is her first novel for adults.
Q. Would you tell readers a little about your book, please?
“The Villain Edit” is about Jac, a down-on-her-luck romance author, who chooses to go on a reality TV dating show to revive her career. However, once these, she is confronted with Henry, a man from her very recent past who also happens to be a producer on the show. Jac soon realizes that Henry, along with the other producers, are casting her as the villain of the season, and this may not be the career comeback she had in mind.
Q. For those who don’t know, what is a “villain edit”?
The villain edit is a phrase popularized by reality TV to describe when a contestant on a show is being framed as the villain by the producers or editors of the show. The villain edit is not necessarily a moral judgement on the person who receives the edit – it is left up to the audience to determine whether the contestant is a true villain or is just receiving a bad edit.
Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?
For fellow fans of romance and women’s fiction, I always recommend “The Royal We” by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan. It is a delicious contemporary royal romance with fully realized characters and it ALWAYS makes me cry both happy and sad tears.
Q. What’s something – a fact, a bit of dialogue or something else – that has stayed with you from a recent reading?
I recently read “Piglet” by Lottie Hazell and there is a moment in the book that stopped me in my tracks. The main character’s life is crumbling around her and she escapes to a local greasy spoon-type restaurant to indulge in her binge eating habit. Once there, she is confronted with several lies she has told to cover up the mess of her life. While reading the scene, I was so horrified and caught up in the narrative, I felt like it was happening to me. Like a big movie setpiece, I think that scene will be on my mind for a long time.
Q. Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any titles or narrators you’d recommend?
I LOVE audiobooks and often take long walks so to enjoy listening to them. A recent favorite audiobook series of mine was “The Atlas Six” series by Olivie Blake, which has an incredible full cast of characters. I also love Kiley Reid’s “Come & Get It” audiobook, a laugh-out-loud satire of Southern college life I could not put down.
I was lucky enough that one of my favorite audiobook narrators, Stephanie Nemeth-Parker, read “The Villain Edit” and did an incredible job. It may be taboo to admit to laughing at your own jokes, but Stephanie’s reading amped everything up a notch and I couldn’t help it.
Q. Which books are you planning to read next?
This is a loaded question as I have SO many books on my TBR right now. A couple I have in the pipeline are “A Love Song for Rikki Wilde” by Tia Williams, “Honey” by Isabel Banta, and “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” by Rufi Thorpe.
Q. What’s something about your book that no one knows?
I was lucky enough to be able to go on a research trip to Los Angeles while writing “The Villain Edit.” I found it really helped me focus the tone and aesthetics of the book. Every day, I would walk down to the beach from my rented Airstream in Venice Beach and watch the sunset. I often took my laptop there with me and wrote on the beach during those evenings.
For more about the author, go to her website.
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What have you been reading this summer? Email epedersen@scng.com with “ERIK’S BOOK PAGES” in the subject line and I may include your comments in an upcoming newsletter.
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
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