Whether you’re heading off to the actual beach, or if your backyard or patio will have to suffice this summer, it’s always nice to have a good summer book on hand. A good book can really add some fun and light to your downtime, and I think we could all do with a little bit of time being spent getting swept up in a storyline, no?
Here is the Scout Modern Summer Reading List:
The Stationery Shop
Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink.
Then Mr. Fakhri, with a keen instinct for a budding romance, introduces Roya to his other favorite customer—handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi’s poetry—and she loses her heart at once. Their romance blossoms, and the little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran.
Though this book is a romance, it truly is so much more than that. It’s a GREAT read, with characters you will think about far into the future.
The Flatshare
What if your roommate is your soul mate? Tiffy and Leon share an apartment. Tiffy and Leon have never met.
After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art.
Desperation makes her open-minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet.
Sound good? It REALLY is. One of our favorites!
Wow, No Thank You.
Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and has been friendzoned by Hollywood, left Chicago, and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know-how with her wife in a Blue town in the middle of a Red state where she now hosts book clubs and makes mason jar salads. This is the bourgeois life of a Hallmark Channel dream. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with "tv executives slash amateur astrologers" while being a "cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person," "with neck pain and no cartilage in [her] knees," who still hides past due bills under her pillow.
This book is hilarious. Full-stop. It is also a great book to read if you have a short attention span, or will need to pick up and put down as it’s a collection of essays.
Such a Fun Age
Kiley Reid’s debut, Such a Fun Age, will make you uncomfortable, enlighten you, and make you laugh—likely all at once. Emira Tucker is a 25-year-old living in Philadelphia with two part-time jobs (typist and babysitter) and no health insurance. One night the mother of the child for whom she babysits calls upon her in an emergency, and Emira—clad in her “going out” clothes—takes the toddler to a yuppie grocery store, only to be accused of kidnapping by a security guard and fellow shopper. You see, Emira’s employers are white, and she’s African American. The mother, Alix, is embarrassed by this situation and immediately takes the babysitter on as a project (unbeknownst to Emira) and becomes slightly smitten with her.
This book has been featured in a variety of Book Clubs (Reese’s, Marie Claire #ReadWithMC, Buzzfeed, Book Girl Magic, Well-Read Black Girl, WNYC Get Lit With All of It, Nerdette and more!) and provides a relatively light, but still topical and important read for the current social climate.
If you’ve read any of these books, or have some suggestions, please let us know!
Happy reading!