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 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
Top 10 Spring Reads
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 this spring.
Fiction
A Piece of the World 
by Christina Baker Kline
The best-selling author of The Orphan Train returns with a novel based on Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious painting Christina’s World.
William Morrow
Celine
by Peter Heller
A Brooklyn woman who specializes in finding lost family members heads to Yellowstone to investigate a missing photographer.
Knopf
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
by Lisa See
The best-selling author explores the lives of a mother from a remote Chinese village and her daughter, who has been adopted by American parents.
Scribner
Beartown
by Fredrik Backman
The new novel from the Swedish author of the delightful A Man Called Ove revolves around a small town that needs to win a junior ice hockey championship.
Atria
Mississippi Blood
by Greg Iles
A modern-day Southern epic, this final installment in the Natchez Burning trilogy delivers with a story of love and honor, hatred and revenge.
William Morrow
Nonfiction
Homo Deus
by Yuval Noah Harari
Two years ago, Harari’s book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind took the nonfiction world by storm. Homo Deus expands on the final chapters of that first book, exploring what it will mean to be human in the times to come.
Harper
Dodge City
by Tom Clavin
Get a closer look at one of the most turbulent towns in the West, featuring a who’s who of famous characters: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday, and many more.
St. Martin’s Press
South and West
by Joan Didion
This book from the master of the contemporary memoir is different from her normal fare. It consists of her research notebooks from trips to the U.S. South and West, offering an illuminating glimpse into her writerly mind.
Knopf
The Rules Do Not Apply
by Ariel Levy
New Yorker writer Levy was pregnant, married, and financially secure when she left for Mongolia in 2012. A month later, none of that was true. How does a person deal with that kind of loss? How can she pick up the pieces?
Random House
Killers of the Flower Moon
by David Grann
The author of The Lost City of Z has written a supreme example of narrative nonfiction, weaving a tale of 1920s oilmen, Texas Rangers, Native Americans, a nascent FBI, murder, intrigue, and conspiracy.
Doubleday