Given how rare it is that anyone has time to read for pleasure — especially when there are blockbusters to watch, jewels to buy, trips to take, music to listen to and ice cream to eat — the book had better be worth it. That’s why the stakes are so high in compiling a summer reading list: Choose the wrong text and you’ve squandered your moment in the sun.
Luckily for you, we’ve done the work. See below for nine titles we have personally read that won’t disappoint.
Nonfiction
- “When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion” by Julie Satow (Doubleday)
If anything, the title undersells the full scope of women’s influence on American fashion. Satow shows how females occupied every strata of the United States sartorial landscape, particularly in the half-century from the 1930s to the ’80s, when homegrown apparel makers emerged from the shadow of Paris and came into their own. Leading the charge — often from perches at such department stores as Bonwit Teller, Henri Bendel and Lord & Taylor — women helped dictate sales, merchandising, advertising and strategies for what was, even then, a colossal industry.
- “The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir” by Griffin Dunne (Penguin Press)
Perhaps you’ve heard of Griffin Dunne’s father, the novelist and longtime Vanity Fair columnist Dominick Dunne? Or maybe you’ve read a book by Dominick’s brother, the famed journalist and author John Gregory Dunne? Certainly, you’re aware of John’s wife (and therefore, Griffin Dunne’s aunt), the writer Joan Didion? Even if you’ve managed to remain ignorant of all three, that’s fine. This memoir will still be a gripping read.