Summer Reading Guide Summer Reading Guide

Greater Cincinnati’s best authors are ready to fill your beach tote.

BY MACKENZIE MANLEY

Summer ushers in seasonal wonders: slowing down, backyard cookouts, music festivals, creamy whip stands, melting your ass off, hammock hangs, vacay and various celebrations from Pride Month to Labor Day. But it’s also long been associated with reading; it’s when libraries host

Jessica Strawser

Jessica Strawer is no stranger to the kind of fiction often picked up by book clubs. In fact, she writes it. Strawser is the author of several novels: Almost Missed You, Not That I Could Tell, Forget You Know Me, A Million Reasons Why and The Next Thing You Know. Strawser’s works are often marked by domestic drama, page-turning thrills and smalltown secrets. Also the editor-at-large and columnist at Writer’s Digest, Strawser has a sixth novel, The Last Caretaker, due in November.

Strawser was the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County’s first writer-in-residence in 2019 and has earned bylines in the New York Times, Publishers Weekly and more.

Jessica Strawser’s picks:

The Daydreams by Laura Hankin (Penguin Random House, 2023)

“What Daisy Jones & The Six did for 1970s nostalgia, Laura Hankin’s The Daydreams does for everyone who came of age during the Britney/Justin/Christina era. It’s wildly entertaining, surprisingly twisty, fierce, smart and absolutely pitch perfect.”

The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley (Penguin Random House 2023)

“This book is the most fun you’ll ever have on a vicarious road trip. Come for the unlikely friendship between two memorable characters, stay for the antics, the suspense and the emotional kick that sneaks up on you when you least expect it.”

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (HarperCollins, 2022)

“If you tend to be contrarian and skip big-name book club picks, make an exception for this one. There’s nothing else out there like it. Believe the hype.” challenges and people stuff their tote bags full of books and head off to the beach, pool, park or anywhere with sweet, sweet air conditioning.

It’s also when magazines and newspapers release summer reading guides, which is exactly what you’re reading now. Spread out your beach towel, stake your umbrella, slather on some sunscreen and grab a drink. CityBeat has you covered. We caught up with four authors with local ties and asked them to suggest summer reads, but we didn’t limit the parameters to your typical beach read — the sort of breezy, easy reading many people associate with distant locations and time off work. Whether you’re into poetry, sci-fi or memoirs, you’re sure to find a good recommendation from an author you trust.

Read on for their picks, as well as 20 additional books written by regional authors to add to your reading lists this summer.

Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld’s latest novel, Romantic Comedy, is a New York Times Best Seller and was picked up by Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club. Released in early April, it’ll likely be a popular pick this season for beach reading. Sittenfeld currently lives in Minneapolis with her family, but she was born and raised in Cincinnati.

Along with Romantic Comedy, Sittenfeld has written six other novels including Rodham, Eligible, Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife and Sisterland, along with the collection You Think It, I’ll Say It.

Dr. Yalie Saweda Kamara

Dr. Yalie Saweda Kamara is the current Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate, a two-year position that she stepped into last April. The role promotes poetry throughout Cincinnati via reading, programming and more. A Sierra Leonean-American writer, Kamara has her hands deep in the Queen City’s creative writing scene; she’s also WordPlay Cincy’s director of creative youth leadership and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati.

Kamara is the author of two poetry collections, 2018’s A Brief Biography of My Name and 2017’s When the Living Sing. She’s also the editor behind the anthology What You Need to Know About Me: Youth Writers on Their Experience of Migration and has been the recipient of accolades including the 2017 Brunel International African Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for both the 2020 National Poetry Series and 2021 Cave Canem Poetry Prize.

Yalie Saweda Kamara’s picks: So Listen to My Voice, Bear Witness to My Story (WordPlay Cincy/Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library,

2023)

“This is a poetry collection that highlights the inner landscapes of three talented teen writers — Rimel Kamran, Cincinnati’s inaugural youth poet laureate — and poets Nola Stowe and Audrey Symon. Among the sources of joy and praise found in the chapbook’s pages are mothers, ballet, the Islamic faith, the natural world, bicultural identity, Midwestern geographies, memory and Joni Mitchell. Their poems luxuriate in the colorful, bold, kaleidoscopic and complex nature of the self, society, time, space and the future.”

The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women by Catherine McKinley (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021)

“This book celebrates the exploration of African female fashion and traces the histories of the continent’s complex and majestic material culture. Printed in a stately hardcover edition, it rejoices in the survival and diversity of diasporic dress by recovering historical and artistic narratives obscured and decentered by the vagaries of memory and colonial rule. Part historical document, part art object, this book’s delicate and detailed layering of image and text nourish the mind and eye in equal measure.”

A Sword in Both Hands by Dick Westheimer (Sheila-Na-Gig, 2023)

“It renders and investigates the war on Ukraine through a captivating experimentation of poetic form (found poetry, the duplex, the persona poem and the ghazal are among the forms that find a home in this collection); research on the

Curtis Sittenfeld’s picks: Hello, Molly! by Molly Shannon (HarperCollins, 2022)

“Both entertaining and poignant, the former SNL cast member’s memoir chronicles her Cleveland upbringing and the hard work and mischief that led to her stardom.”

Stepping Back From the Ledge by Laura Trujillo (Penguin Random House, 2022)

“Admittedly, this is not a light book, but it’s an honest and moving examination of the suicide of Trujillo’s mother and the steep price of family secrets. And several scenes are set in Cincinnati, where Trujillo lives.” social and natural worlds; and the study and excavation of public and private histories. Through the careful crafting of narratives, Westheimer implores the reader to engage with the fullness of a humanity that is threatened by oppressive forces, while also reminding the reader of a shared plight dictated by history. In short, the struggle of another can never truly be separated from that of our own.”

J.M. Clark

J.M. Clark loves talking books. After all, he’s an author and a bookseller. Alongside his wife, Clark runs the Tome Bookstore in Mount Washington. While the brick-and-mortar is slated to close on July 1, Clark (real name: Jeremy Spencer) and his wife Autumn Spencer posted a lengthy statement on Facebook on May 22, promising that they’d return, albeit in a new way –– and launching a GoFundMe to help do just that.

“Although we are bidding farewell to our Mount Washington location, we are thrilled to share that our book store will return in a newly imagined way,” reads an excerpt from the statement. “We have some exciting news to unveil within the next 30-60 days, as we finalize the details. Rest assured, our commitment to creating a vibrant literary experience remains stronger than ever.”

Clark is a member of Cincinnati Fantasy Writers and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He has authored The Palace Program trilogy and Three Rings.

J.M. Clark’s picks:

Fairy Tale by Stephen King (Scribner, 2022)

“This book is special in that it was written by Stephen King but is not meant to be scary. It’s an old-fashioned fairy tale that follows a young man from the present day into a world of dying magic and amazing characters.”

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (Tor Books, 2014)

“This book is the best I’ve read in the last few years. It’s sci-fi of the highest order. There are so many morality jewels about who we are on this planet and what may be out there, trying to get here.”

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden (Hollywood Press Upstairs, 2021)

“A thriller novel. Freida is one of the easiest writers to read. The words on the page just flow into your mind and understanding is instantaneous. There are twists in every chapter, which keeps you reading. I finished this book in a day, and I’m no speed reader.”