What We’re Reading This Summer

James

by Percival Everett

In a novel that was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award, Percival Everett crafts a fuller story of Jim, the runaway slave in Mark Twain’s classic Huckleberry Finn. Sold to a group of traveling performers, Jim finds a place singing tenor with the Virginia Minstrels and even, for the first time in his life, earns a wage. But his ultimate goal is to reunite with his family, who have been sold to a breeding plantation. He and his new friend Norman desert the group to search for Jim’s family, hoping to discover what it is to truly be free. Everett’s intriguing tale of self-discovery, rugged individualism, and fierce independence against a backdrop of the antebellum South offers an important perspective that simply wasn’t available in Twain’s time.

The Crush

by Sandra Brown

Neurosurgeon Rennie Newton serves as foreperson on a jury that acquits notorious hitman Ricky Lozada of a violent murder. Thinking Rennie has done him a personal favor, Lozada develops an infatuation and pursues her romantically. Rogue cop Wick Threadgill is committed to protecting her, but he has his own score to settle with Lozada. Meanwhile, Dr. Howell, one of Rennie’s colleagues, is brutally murdered, opening up an avenue for Rennie’s professional advancement. Though Lozada’s shadow looms over the murder, Rennie becomes the prime suspect, and investigators begin uncovering the dark past she has spent years trying to keep secret.

Friends with Words

by Martha Barnette

Martha Barnette has made a career of exploring what we say and why we say it. As co-host of the radio show/podcast A Way with Words, she has fielded questions about grammar, slang, etymology, and weird idioms in multiple languages for more than 25 years. In this, her latest book, Barnette expounds and expands on some of her favorite questions from the logophiles who have called into the show. Alternately linguistic exploration and memoir, Friends with Words weaves etymological oddities and localized vocabulary — from messy culch in Maine to tasty jojos in Oregon — with the story of Barnette’s own long relationship with language. This book belongs on the shelf of every word lover.

This article is featured in the July/August 2025 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.