the summer reading edition.

Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out,” high-waisted Dazed and Confused jeans, and the unmistakable energy that only comes with the end of a school year. Whether we’re still in school or not, have kids or not, there’s an undeniable buzz to the days leading up to the summer solstice. There’s this paradox of constant movement with the anticipation of summer, but also a demand for retrospection recalling our last days of school where the excitement matches the nostalgia. This year for us is coming with a very end-of-series vibe as our son finishes his final days of primary school.

These past few weeks have been a flurry of birthday parties and sleepovers, as it seems both the kids and the parents have a collective case of senioritis. With the choice of four different middle schools to continue on to, the kids are all scattering in different directions—with my son being the only one heading off to the fairly competitive International School.

Saying goodbye has not hit him yet, and maybe it never will. Still, I can’t help recall when I was his age, when my family moved from downtown Manhattan out to Long Island. Leaving behind the classmates I had known since childhood to move into the home of a newly (and very young) deceased family member gave my transition a distinct Beetlejuice edge, where I was scared that ghosts were hiding in our new closets. While I am grateful my son doesn’t have to contend with this gothed-out version, his move is still a massive change for us all, and I can’t help but feel the unmistakable energy shift in the air right now.

Craving familiarity in these echoes from the past, I’ve been reaching for literary comfort, pulling old favorites from my shelves of marked-up and highlighted books, alongside a few new titles as I hide from my phone and pretend we’re living in another time.

If June feels like a paradox of emotions, then my summer stack absolutely reflects it as I toggle between cynical California prose, rock-and-roll memoirs, and sharp fiction.

Here is what’s on my summer reading list.

The Re-Reads & Comforts

So that’s it. I’ve already ripped through Didion and am on my first pages of Liza, loving it already. As noisy as the world gets, though, there’s still a wise comfort in these last days of school, as well as reading marked-up old books, discovering new ones, and the bittersweet hum of another summer solstice coming and going.

What are you reading this summer?