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 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 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 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 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 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 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
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 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 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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
by Denis Johnson
A luminous collection of short stories about mortality and transcendence by the recently departed literary master.
Random House
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
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
by A.J. Finn
This Hitchcockian thriller features an agoraphobic woman who sees a murder committed next door. Or does she?
William Morrow
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
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
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
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
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
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