Top 10 Reads for Late Summer

Every month, Amazon staffers sift through hundreds of new books searching for gems. Here’s what Amazon editor Chris Schluep chose especially for Post readers.

Fiction

The MiddlemanThe Middleman

by Olen Steinhauer

A sweeping espionage thriller by the best-selling author, covering all sides of a domestic terrorist group, from their converts to the FBI agents investigating them.
Minotaur Books

If You Leave MeIf You Leave Me

by Crystal Hana Kim

A literary saga of two ill-fated lovers in Korea and the heartbreaking choices they’re forced to make in the years surrounding a civil war that still haunts us today.
William Morrow

French ExitFrench Exit

by Patrick deWitt

The celebrated The Sisters Brothers author brings us another darkly comic novel, this time about a wealthy widow and her adult son who flee New York in the wake of scandal.
Ecco

The Third HotelThe Third Hotel

by Laura van den Berg

A woman travels to Cuba and discovers her husband there wearing a white linen suit she’s never seen before — and he’s supposed to be dead.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Lake SuccessLake Success

by Gary Shteyngart

A deluded hedge-fund manager leaves billions behind in search of a simpler, more romantic life with his college sweetheart. Spoiler alert: There’s a good chance he won’t find it.
Random House

Nonfiction

Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public IconMarilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon

by Charles Casillo

A warts-and-all portrait of the complex woman who rose out of an abusive childhood, dealt with bipolar disorder, and turned herself into a bewitching, maddening, brilliant yet flawed star.
St. Martin’s Press

Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago

by Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz

The Road to Perdition author teams with an acclaimed young historian in a dual portrait of the gangster and the legendary Prohibition agent.
William Morrow

The Great American Read: The Book of BooksThe Great American Read: The Book of Books

This book profiles America’s 100 favorite novels, providing a snapshot of each one’s social relevance, film or television adaptations, other books and writings by the author, and little-known facts.
Black Dog & Leventhal

Arthur Ashe: A LifeArthur Ashe: A Life

by Raymond Arsenault

The first comprehensive, authoritative biography of “the Jackie Robinson of men’s tennis,” who, after breaking the color barrier, went on to become an influential civil rights activist and public intellectual.
Simon & Schuster

ATTENTION: Dispatches from a Land of DistractionATTENTION: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction

by Joshua Cohen

One of Granta magazine’s Best of Young American Novelists arrives with his first collection of nonfiction, the culmination of two decades of writing and thought about life in the digital age.
Random House

This article is featured in the July/August 2018 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.

Top 10 Reads for Early Spring

Every month, Amazon staffers sift through hundreds of new books searching for gems. Here’s what they chose especially for Post readers this winter.

Fiction

The Italian Teacher
(Random House)

The Italian Teacher

by Tom Rachman
Told through the eyes of the son of a great painter, and full of humor and humanity, Rachman’s novel illustrates a life lived in the shadow of greatness.
Viking

Tangerine
(G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

Tangerine

by Christine Mangan
Set against the backdrop of Tangier, Morocco, two former college roommates are reconnected in a debut novel that will remind readers of Paul Bowles’ masterpiece The Sheltering Sky.
Ecco

You Think It, I’ll Say It
(Random House)

You Think It, I’ll Say It

by Curtis Sittenfeld
An incisive collection of short stories from the beloved and bestselling author of Prep, American Wife, and Eligible.
Random House

The Only Story
(William Morrow)

The Only Story

by Julian Barnes
A man recounts his first true love—when he was 19 and his lover 48. This novel, set in London, is an exploration of devotion, time, and the human heart by a Man Booker Prize–winning author.
Knopf

Varina
(Soho Crime)

Varina

by Charles Frazier
Frazier returns to the setting of his breakout Cold Mountain in this epic tale of a woman who marries Jefferson Davis only to flee as the Confederacy and her marriage turn to tatters.
Ecco

Nonfiction

Enlightenment Now
(Liveright)

Enlightenment Now

by Steven Pinker
Following up on his best-seller The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker illustrates how the architecture of the Enlightenment is making the world a better place, even as we worry it’s all falling apart.
Viking

God Save Texas
(Knopf)

God Save Texas

by Lawrence Wright
A famed historian and long-time Texas resident, Wright explores the history, culture, and politics of Texas while holding all the stereotypes up to a lens.
Knopf

Book
(Bloomsbury)

Rocket Men

by Robert Kurson
Having written a best-seller set under the ocean (Shadow Divers), Kurson moves into space in an intimate, deeply researched study of Apollo 8 and man’s first trip to the moon.
Random House

Book
(Knopf)

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark

by Michelle McNamara
McNamara was a gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the Golden State Killer. This true-crime book will likely escape its genre and find itself in the mainstream.
Harper

The Best Cook in the World
(Harper)

The Best Cook in the World

by Rick Bragg
The beloved author of All Over but the Shoutin’ has written a food-based memoir — a loving tribute to his mother, the South, stories, tradition, and a disappearing way of life.
Knopf

This article is featured in the March/April 2018 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.

Top 10 Winter Reads

Every month, Amazon staffers sift through hundreds of new books searching for gems. Here’s what they chose especially for Post readers this winter.

Fiction

The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
(Random House)

The Largesse of the Sea Maiden

by Denis Johnson

A luminous collection of short stories about mortality and transcendence by the recently departed literary master.
Random House

The Immortalists
(G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

The Immortalists

by Chloe Benjamin

In the late 1960s, a mystic reveals the exact death dates of four children living in NYC. This debut novel explores the power of family and the tension between destiny and choice.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons

White Houses
(Random House)

White Houses

by Amy Bloom

The bestselling author imagines an unexpected and forbidden affair between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok in this work of historical fiction.
Random House

The Woman in the Window
(William Morrow)

The Woman in the Window

by A.J. Finn

This Hitchcockian thriller features an agoraphobic woman who sees a murder committed next door. Or does she?
William Morrow

Book
(Soho Crime)

The Widows of Malabar Hill

by Sujata Massey

The atmospheric, page-turning murder mystery is set in 1920s Bombay and introduces Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female lawyer.
Soho Crime

Nonfiction

Book
(Liveright)

The Road Not Taken

by Max Boot

A compelling biography of Edward Lansdale, a CIA agent who encouraged “hearts and minds” diplomacy in the Philippines and Vietnam but was ultimately ignored.
Liveright

Book
(Knopf)

Off the Charts

by Ann Hulbert

A profound, sensitive look at what it takes to make a child prodigy, and the unexpected ways that brilliance can play out in the long run.
Knopf

Book
(Bloomsbury)

Here Is Real Magic

by Nate Staniforth

A unique memoir by a magician who spent his entire life trying to understand the power of wonder, and how he eventually rediscovered it in his own life.
Bloomsbury

Book
(Knopf)

The Wizard and the Prophet

by Charles C. Mann

Through the opposing views of two 20th-century scientists, this book explores how we might face environmental and social challenges on an overcrowded Earth.
Knopf

Book
(Harper)

Doctor Who: The Book of Whoniversal Records

by Simon Guerrier

The must-have reference for fans of Doctor Who, this fully illustrated compendium contains facts, figures, and fun about science fiction’s longest-running TV show.
Harper

This article is featured in the January/February 2018 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.