Traveling by book

summer reading recs from the FTT

Reading after a long day at the beach in June

Frog Troublers, whether this summer has you exploring far-off locales, returning to favorite beaches, or enjoying some hammock time in your own backyard or neighborhood park, we hope you’ve got a nice stack of books to keep you company. Reading is a number one summer activity around here (along with swimming and eating popsicles), and we’ve put together a roundup of some of this summer’s favorite reads, with recommendations from Bea, Harriet, Richard, and Belle.

First up, Beatrice:

Akissi: Tales of Mischief by Marguerite Abouet and Matthieu Sapin is a fun and interesting comics series about the daily shenanigans of a young girl who lives in Africa (an unnamed country, but based on the author’s childhood in Côte d’Ivoire). She has a mom and dad who are always trying to set ground rules, an older brother who torments her, an older sister who isn’t around much, and a pet monkey named Boubou. It’s very funny and clever, and will teach you about a side of African life you may not know about.

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom by Nina Varela is a fantasy novel about a girl who has just moved to Florida—not Miami, not Orlando, but a boring, middle-of-nowhere town not even close to the ocean! She begins to have eerie dreams about a humongous temple, a woman who turns to ivory, and a girl with a gigantic sword. Juniper loves drawing, so she begins drawing the girl she saw over and over again. One night, just before bed, she looks at the drawing and says, “I wish you were here.” She wakes up to find the girl pointing the sword at her throat! I loved this adventurous story, and I think you will too.

Miss Quinces is a graphic novel by Kat Fajardo (available in both English and Spanish) about a Honduran-American girl about to turn 15 who shudders at the thought of having a quinceañera. She dreads the poufy dress, the expectation that she’ll wear pink, and people looking at her as she performs her speech. She’d rather just stay at home, quietly reading her books and eating snacks, or go to camp with her friends. But she has to go to the Honduras, where her cousins, tias, tios, and abuela live—and she starts to change her mind about what makes for a fun summer. This heartfelt story is about connecting to your family traditions—I loved it and so will you.

Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhhà Lai is a Newbery and National Book Award-winning novel in verse that I can’t recommend enough. It’s about a Vietnamese girl named Hà who has escaped war in Saigon and comes to Alabama on a ship with her family. She spends her days learning English, avoiding bullies, and making friends. As she says in the book, “Nobody would believe me, but sometimes I would prefer wartime in Saigon than peace in Alabama.” I loved how it was written in verse—poetry allows Lai to express so much emotion.

Harriet recommends…

The Rabbit and Bear series by Julian Gough (recommended to us by our friends Julie and Arley): “I don’t like these books—I love them! They’re so funny and I love the way Rabbit and Bear always help each other.”

The Lilly and Friends Collection by Kevin Henkes: “These books are about mice who are in families and go to school. I like how in Julius, the Baby of the World, Lily likes her brother by the end. Also, his name is Julius! There’s another book called Chrysanthemum about having a long name which I can understand. I don’t have the longest name in the family (that’s Beatrice), but my sister goes by Bea and I go by Harriet.”

Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows: “These kids are crazy.” (Belle adds: these are great read-alouds that will amuse adults too, and are a sweet window into cul-de-sac/neighborhood life and the funny trouble bored kids can get into.)

Richard recommends a single book—read on to find out why this is his “book of the summer”:

In 1934, Edward Powys Mathers, the father of the cryptic crossword, published a mystery novel called "Cain's Jawbone." Mathers published his puzzles under the alias Torquemada, which should give you some idea of his attitude towards his audience, and "Cain's Jawbone" contains an incredible, horrible twist: its 100 pages are out of order, and readers are required to reorder them to reveal the characters and plot. 

At the time, Mathers's publisher conducted a contest with a prize of 15 pounds to the first reader to determine the correct order of the book's pages. There were only two correct submissions. The book was republished in 2019 and a new contest conducted. This time there was only _one_ correct entry, even with the huge advantage of access to Google.

To date, only four people have ever determined the correct order of the book's pages. Did I mention that the book is intentionally written to make determining the correct order extraordinarily difficult?

I have now "read" the book three times and believe myself to be making significant progress piecing together its macabre, murder-soaked plot. Literary allusions appear on nearly every page, which makes me feel I might have an advantage over other solvers—never mind that the period references to English history and geography are opaque to me and require intensive Googling. Please wish me luck in this quixotic task.

Belle’s picks:

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Indian subcontinent lately. First up is Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan, a novel about the impacts of the Sri Lankan civil war on a family and their community. Ganeshananthan finds a perfect window into the daily life and altered life trajectories caused by a decades-long war: Sashi, a teenage girl and “inconvenient sister” to four brothers in an educated Tamil family. Sashi wants to be a doctor, but her studies and home life are disrupted immediately by the growing presence of Tamil Tigers whose violent tactics challenge her loyalty and understanding of her brothers, and the mysterious “K.,” a neighborhood boy whose historical identity is revealed as the novel progresses. I loved this unputdownable novel and look forward to reading it with students.

My favorite book I’ve read in a long time, and one I’d love to see get more attention in this country, is The Woman Who Climbed Trees by Smriti Ravindra (it was published earlier this year in both India and the U.S.). Smriti happens to be a graduate of our MFA program, but I would have loved this book even if I’d randomly plucked it from the library shelf (they do have a copy at Chatham Community Library!). On the surface, it’s about an arranged marriage that takes Meena, a 14-year-old girl, from the borderlands of India to Nepal, where she lives, according to custom and quite unhappily, with the family of her 21-year-old university student husband. But this book is also an almost indescribably inventive family saga that incorporates Bollywood spectacle, mythology, politics, and storytelling, as well as an incisive, funny, fearless look at female desire and the strength and understanding—or desire to understand—shared between generations of women. It’s also a wonderful audio book, if you enjoy listening to books on your travels!

I’ve just started Loot by Tania James, a book I meant to save for vacation but couldn’t help starting—in the literary world, this book has been about as hyped as the Barbie movie, appearing on every best-of and most-anticipated list. It’s a historical novel about imperialism in 18th and 19th century India, told through the life of Abbas, a young man and expert woodcarver who creates a mechanical tiger attacking a British soldier (a real historical artifact that inspired the book), which leads him on a surprising, multinational journey. I adore Tania James’s inventive, sharply funny writing and her richly-drawn characters (she is also author of the award-winning The Tusk That Did the Damage), so I’m sure I can recommend this one before finishing it.

And one to pre-order: Wilton Barnhardt, bestselling author of Lookaway, Lookaway, publishes Western Alliances on August 1. This novel will take you on some unforgettably wild and hilarious travels with Roberto Costa, the charming, handsome, dilettante son of a wealthy investment banker—in the summer of 2008, with the financial crisis looming in the background (yes, this book contains an incisive critique of unchecked American capitalism and greed). Roberto travels through Europe on artistic and romantic conquests while steadily working on a book he may never finish, variously followed by and dodging his mother, sister, father, and the consequences of family ambitions and choices. You’d better believe that Wilton, a friend, colleague, and the most peripatetic human I know, went to all of the locales in this book, and took pictures too, which appear as headnotes to the chapter. I’ve got my copy pre-ordered at McIntyre’s, where Wilton will read on August 19. See you there?

Oh, and one more: I just got a copy of Hetty Lui McKinnon’s Tenderheart, a gorgeous, all-vegetarian (and often gluten-free/vegan) cookbook inspired by McKinnon’s late father’s work and life as a vegetable purveyor and Chinese immigrant in Sydney, Australia. Most of these dishes are Asian-inspired, taking inspiration from a wide range of Asian cuisines, but they center entirely on the seasonality and personality of the veggies themselves. I’ve made some of McKinnon’s recipes from the New York Times before—they’re always great—but knew I needed the cookbook after reading two new soy-pickled tomato and charred zucchini and corn recipes in Emily Nunn’s Department of Salad (yes, I read a salad newsletter). McKinnon also writes a newsletter: To Vegetables, with Love.

But nothing beats having the physical copy of a beautiful book—this is the kind of cookbook that’s fun just to read and drool over the photos.

(Here’s one pet peeve about pretty much all cookbooks, though: why don’t the designers make the ingredient lists—especially the little 1/4, 2/3, 1/2 etc.—bigger? It’s annoying to have to cook with reading glasses!)

What are you reading this summer, Frog Troublers? We’d love to hear! Also, any plans this weekend? We’re going to the Barbie movie tonight and will tell you what we think!