If the rumours are true and we’ll be having another wetter-than-usual summer, it is the perfect time to catch up on some meatier, more ambitious reads. Whether you’re in the mood for thrilling fiction, thought-provoking essays, or an audiobook to listen to while you do a wardrobe clean out (!), we’ve got great book recommendations for your 2022/2023 summer holidays. If none of these tickle your fancy, why not check every book list we’ve published in 2022?
FICTION
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
In this thrilling story, two friends join forces as creative partners in the realm of video game production. Success offers them recognition, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, in the end, a form of immortality. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a stunning and intricately imagined novel that spans 30 years and examines the multifaceted nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities at play.
But above all, it’s about our need to connect, to be loved and to love. Get a copy here.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Two British Black artists – one a photographer, the other a dancer – fall in and out of love, while working in a city that celebrates them one moment and rejects them the next.
Open Water explores what it means to be a person in a world that only sees you as a Black body, to be vulnerable when you are only appreciated for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. It is both an achingly beautiful love story and a powerful look into race and masculinity.
And as it’s written in second person, it really feels like you’re right there beside the characters when it unfolds. Get a copy here.
Luster by Raven Leilani
A hilarious and painful coming of age story you need to read. Leilani writes the story of Edie, a messy, broke and unemployed 23-year-old Black woman who gets involved with an older, wealthy white couple.
Through the novel we follow Edie’s sexual (mis)adventures, with her dry observations guiding us through the grim realities of office politics, online dating, city living, mental illness, and what it means to be young and Black and a woman in the 21st Century.
Outrageous, but also pretty relatable. Get a copy here.
Fools by Joan Silber
A collection of six stories, revolving around the lives of a group of loosely connected anarchists. Each story answers the question: When is it wise to be a fool for something? What makes people want to be better than they are?
While the settings are wildly different, the common message couldn’t be clearer. Whether they’re in New York or India, embedded in the Catholic Worker movement or Occupy Wall Street, the characters grapple with the cycle of winners and losers, the dupers and the duped, and the price we pay for our ideals. Get a copy here.
Idol Burning by Rin Usami, translated by Asa Yoneda
In the age of parasocial relationships, Usami tells a heartbreaking story of obsession and social media. Akari, a junior in high school, is fixated with J-Pop (Japanese pop) idol Masaki Ueno. When Masaki is accused of assaulting a fan, his fan base fragments, and Akari’s obsession with him grows.
Usami’s frank depiction of a deeply alienated young woman makes for stinging commentary on the toxicity of social media and fan culture.
Akari devotes her money, time and energy in futile efforts to assist her idol, all for what in return? Get a copy here.
The Old Lie by Claire G Coleman
Coleman’s Terra Nullius was one of our must-read books on the impact of colonialism –The Old Lie tackles similar themes, but it’s not a sequel.
This is a dystopian vision of the future, with Shane and Romany part of a multi-species alliance (‘The Federation’) engaged in an intergalactic war over the entire solar system. Human refugees, including those from Australia, want desperately to return home… but what will this country and Earth look like after this brutal, devastating war?
Coleman has a way of putting the colonizers in the shoes of the colonised, and artfully asking how it feels. Get a copy here.
NON-FICTION
Farm: The Making Of A Climate Activist by Nicola Harvey
In 2018, Nicola Harvey and her husband, Pat, left their careers and lives in inner-city Sydney to farm cattle in rural New Zealand. They thought it would be a fun and rewarding lifestyle shift, but quickly found themselves in the midst of intense debates and deep divisions about food, farming, and climate change.
In this deeply personal account, Harvey takes readers into the heart of the industrialised global food system, exposing the lack of action in her new farming community and the false fix we’re all being sold. Get a copy here.
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention by Johann Hari
Now that it’s the norm to watch one-minute videos attempt to explain complex topics, or listening to podcasts on double speed, our ability to pay attention is collapsing. But there may be a way to get it back!
Stolen Focus questions why we’re finding it so hard to focus – a challenge usually framed as a personal failing, but is really driven by external factors and corporates raiding our attention for profit.
Hari travels the globe to share ways we can reclaim our focus, both as individuals and as a society. Get a copy here.
Chokepoint Capitalism by Rebecca Giblin & Cory Doctorow
Academic Rebecca Giblin and author-activist Cory Doctorow say we are living in a new era of “chokepoint capitalism” – exploitative companies that build impassable barriers to competition, so they can take value that others create. You’ve likely been frustrated by the reality of this, even if you’ve never heard of the term.
Chokepoints are present everywhere, but creative fields illustrate just how bad the problem is. Giblin and Doctorow lay out exactly how the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook (sorry, Meta) and more have set up this unfair system, and what we can do to fight back. Get a copy here.
Tell Me Again by Amy Thunig
In this moving memoir, Dr Amy Thunig shares her journey throughout childhood and adolescence, growing up with parents who struggled with addiction and incarceration.
Thunig highlights the value of extended family and community networks when your loved ones are dealing with endemic poverty and intergenerational trauma (a lesson we’d all do well to learn), and explores how the stories we tell about ourselves in tough times can help keep us going.
Keep the tissues handy because Tell Me Again certainly tugs at the heart strings. Get a copy here.
Goodbye Again by Jonny Sun
Goodbye, Again is a collection of heartfelt, funny essays and writings to make you feel seen in a world where taking a break is viewed as a kind of failure. The pieces range from long meditations on topics like loneliness and being on the outside, to short humorous conversations and quippy one-liners.
Sun writes honestly about his struggles with feeling productive, as well as his difficulties with anxiety and depression that will connect with anyone who is trying to ‘create’ in this chaotic world. It also includes a recipe for scrambled eggs that may or may not make you cry – seriously. Get a copy here.
BETTER AS AN AUDIO-BOOK
The Dutch House by Ann Patchette, narrated by Tom Hanks
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark, modern fairytale about two smart but dysfunctional siblings who cannot overcome their past. Now, you could read this 2019 novel yourself… but why not have Tom Hanks read it to you?
Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together – often dwelling on their shared story of loss. But when they’re finally forced to confront those who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested. Listen here.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong’s first novel is a painful but extraordinary coming-of-age story about surviving personal and generational trauma. It takes the form of a young Vietnamese American writer’s letter to his illiterate mother, unearthing the impact of a family history that begins long before he was born in a war-ravaged Vietnam.
The book explores the complicated but undeniable love between a single mother and her son; the similarities to Vuong’s own life make the audiobook, voiced by the author himself, all the more beautiful. Listen here.
Liberation Day by George Saunders
If you love podcasts but are struggling to get into books, this is the one for you! These nine subversive, Black Mirror-esque stories are narrated by some very well-known voices, including Tina Fey, Jenny Slate, Jack McBrayer (Kenneth from 30 Rock) and Melora Hardin (Jan from The Office).
In ‘Ghoul’, Brian works in a Hell-themed, underground amusement park; in ‘Mother’s Day’, two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm; and in a not-too-distant dystopian future, a grandfather sends advice to his grandson via email in ‘Love Letter’. Listen here.
The Milky Way by Moiya McTier
This fascinating autobiography of the titular galaxy by astrophysicist and folklorist Dr Moiya McTier takes you on a journey of all the wondrous things humans have discovered. Having Dr McTier talk you through it all, rather than get stuck re-reading the same sentence over and over, really helps.
From the formation of this galaxy we call home, to its eventual death, find out everything you need to know about the unknown and what more there is to learn with the time we have left. It’s awe-inspiring, wondrous, and a reminder of how small your problems are in the grand scheme of it all. Listen here.
Leaving Isn’t The Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough
This memoir collection of essays really has everything in it: tales from growing up in an abusive cult; coming of age as a lesbian in the military, forced out by homophobia; living on the margins as a working class woman; and what it’s like to grow into the person you are meant to be.
If you’re in the mood for a good cry this is the right book for you. Reading her stories in her own voice, Hough will break your heart and then leave you with incredible hope for the world and the people in your life. Listen here.
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