Memorial Day marked the unofficial start of summer, and now many of us are looking for a good book to take on our summer vacations.
The Show spoke to Chandler-based book critic Mark Athitakis for some summer read recommendations.
Full Conversation
MARK BRODIE: Mark, when you think of a good summer read, what do you look for?
MARK ATHITAKIS: I think it differs from person to person. The conventional summer read is something that is very beach-ready. Aaron Hildebrand is kind of the classic example of something that is light, fluffy, substantive, has some conflict, but nothing that is going to make your heart race too much. So something pleasant for reading on the beach or reading on the plane on the way to the beach.
But publishing recognizes that it can be a lot of things to a lot of people. You see a lot of classic novel reprints that show up, or you see a lot of political biographies or autobiographies. (South Dakota Gov.) Kristi Noem maybe tried to write the book of the summer, and she perhaps did, but not in the way that she'd hoped for.
BRODIE: Well it’s getting a lot of attention, that's for sure.
ATHITAKIS: Oh, absolutely. And it’s unique. I will say this much: It’s unique in the sense that a lot of these political biographies or autobiographies are deathly boring, and are really meant to just be sort of calling cards for whatever campaign is coming up. So the fact that a story actually emerged from it that made actual news makes it remarkable in that respect, though, certainly not the way that she wanted.
BRODIE: Are we seeing a lot of political books coming out now as we’re ramping up into the election season?
ATHITAKIS: We are, and I know that just the shortlist would be Bill Clinton has another book coming out. Angela Merkel, the former head of Germany, has a book coming out. Neil Gorsuch, I believe has co-written a book. H.R. McMaster, Nancy Pelosi, there’s a new biography of Ronald Reagan that is coming out. So the appetite for books about politics and books that perhaps explain our current moment isn’t dissipating. I guess we haven't yet gotten too tired of it.
BRODIE: And another one coming out is, of course, a huge topic that still a lot of people were thinking about, Anthony Fauci is going to have a book coming out.
ATHITAKIS: That’s right. His memoir is called “On Call,” and it is embargoed, which is to say that the publishers are not saying a whole lot about what its contents are. They're not sending out advanced copies of it. So, we have to find out when the book actually appears, I believe in June, what its actual contents are. But we know that Fauci has a very long history working at the National Institutes of Health. He led the federal public health response to HIV/AIDS, Ebola, West Nile virus, Anthrax, and of course COVID. So he certainly has a lot of stories to tell, not just about the medical response to those issues, but how presidential administrations respond to that.
BRODIE: So in terms of fiction reading, you mentioned how it tends to be for the summer kind of, I don’t want to say mindless, but not the heaviest type of content. Is that kind of what you’re seeing again this summer?
ATHITAKIS: There always are going to be books like that there’s always going to be your pleasant beach-ready type novels about families in crisis, but there are also more meaty novels about families in crisis as well that are engaging.
BRODIE: And which ones are you specifically looking for this summer?
ATHITAKIS: There are two novels in particular that I’m interested in. One is Nicola Yoon’s “One of Our Kind.” Now, Nicola Yoon is an acclaimed (young adult) author, and this is her first novel for adults. And, so, the premise of this is an affluent Black family has been invited to move into a dedicated community for affluent Black families in Los Angeles. And the notion is whether you the family can successfully separate themselves from the politics and concerns and issues of the day. And in reality you can’t.
And it’s a summer read in the sense that it is very propulsively written. It takes a lot of cues from — people with longer memories who might remember novels by Ira Levin like “The Stepford Wives” or “Rosemary's Baby.” There's the idea that “oh, something is very bucolic and something is very utopian until something is not.” So it has that sort of thriller-ish aspect.
If you're a fan of the movie “Get Out,” it kind of recreates some of the vibes of that movie as well. So, it is a page turner, but that also has a serious message and a serious idea behind it.
BRODIE: And what's the second one you're particularly excited about?
ATHITAKIS: The second one I'm thinking about is Taffy Brodesser-Akner's “Long Island Compromise.” Now, she is the author of “Fleishman is in Trouble,” which was a tremendous novel and was adapted into a — I thought — really well done miniseries starring Claire Danes and Jesse Eisenberg. And she does a really nice job of imagining fractured families. So, if you like that sort of big, meaty Jonathan Franzeny-type of story.
And she has a great sense of humor as well. I mean, she has this very biting, sharp wit that comes very much out of the tradition of Jewish novelists, especially Philip Roth. And so this is concerning a family whose patriarch was kidnapped back in 1980, and in the present day the family is reckoning with it and realizing that there are more issues with it and frustrations with it than they realized.
A few years ago she had done — she’s a tremendous reporter and feature writer as well, and she did a great feature on Jonathan Franzen. And everybody likes to hate on Franzen a little bit, but she was semi-sympathetic toward him. And I think this is in some ways, kind of her big Franzen move. That she is writing this big story, all encompassing encyclopedic story of America through the lens of talking about one family.
BRODIE: Hmm. So there’s also a book I know you’re interested in that is maybe a little bit of nostalgia also, going back to the early ’80s and talking about a particular year and a lot of important stuff that happened.
ATHITAKIS: Chris Nashawaty’s “The Future was Now” is a book that kind of does my Gen X heart good because the premise of it is, in 1982, within the span of something ridiculous like six weeks, you had eight classic movies in the sci-fi genre that that showed up. You had “E.T.,” “Tron,” “Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan,” “Conan the Barbarian,” “Blade Runner,” “Poltergeist,” “The Thing,” “Mad Max: The Road Warrior.” And these are all movies that I think people of a certain generation — certainly for me, I was 11, 12 years old when these movies came out — you remember them.
But the book also talks a little bit about how it really changed the way Hollywood looked at genre. You have to remember that, aside from “Star Wars,” a science fiction nerd was still a four-letter word. If you were a nerd about something, if you’re interested in science fiction and fantasy — we were far away from the age of Harry Potter and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This sort of stuff was a niche interest. And this is the sort of thing that Hollywood didn’t see as something that was worth a sizable investment.
And and so to see this parade of not just well-made, generally well-written movies — I’m not a big fan of Conan — but capturing the imagination of theater audiences was really kind of a signal of changing not just the way Hollywood thought about what movies were worth producing, but also it certainly got Hollywood thinking about sequels, for better or for worse. So it reshaped the way that Hollywood thought about movies.
BRODIE: Sure, alright, we’ll leave it there. That is book critic Mark Athitakis. Mark, good to see you again. Thanks for coming in.
ATHITAKIS: Thanks for having me.
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