Hannah has been on a great reading streak this summer and wanted to share her favorite titles from the last few months:
Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
A modern retelling of the Oedipus myth. This is a strange and mythical story full of strange and beautiful language. Unsettling and memorable and rich.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Aurora’s staff pick! Part mystery, part naturalist reflection, dry and unexpectedly funny.
Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller
My favorite kind of horror novel, where you spend the majority of the book not even sure if the horror is there at all or if it’s simply a (very) unreliable narrator.
Crabgrass by Tauhid Bondia
My seven year old introduced me to this comic series about two elementary school aged best friends and their families and classmates. Funny for all ages, and perfect for any Calvin and Hobbes fans!
The Children by Melissa Albert
I love a creepy book on a hot summer day, and this one is an atmospheric, smart, and scary with a lot of callouts to children’s literature I remember from my own childhood.
Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven
A family in the 60s turns their lives into the original scripted reality show. But it’s not all Leave it To Beaver off screen. When a terrible accident effects both the family and the show itself, all of the characters are forced to access what it is they really want. Set mostly in 1964 but with some real parallels to today.
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
A tradwife influencer wakes up in what appears to be the past, with a family almost, but not quite, just like hers. What’s really going on? Filled with so many unlikable, unredeemable, and unreliable character (in the best way!)
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
I first read this collection of short stories when it came out nearly a decade ago, and never really stopped thinking about it. Particularly memorable is the first story “The Husband Stitch,” which takes elements familiar for those of us who read Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark as children (IYKYK!) and blends them into something even scarier. This time I listened to the audio book, which was excellent.
The Author Weekend by Laura Zigman
A famous (and famously prickly) mystery author’s getaway weekend with her fans is ruined when someone is is murdered. Self aware and self referential and a lot of fun.
