This Summer’s Essential Reading

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

A Wealth of Summer Releases From theNYT

Between our own list of thebest beach reads of all time(more on that below) and theNew York Times lists of novels and nonfiction out this summer, it’s apparent that we all want you to have a great upcoming reading season. Highlights from the list of novels include a newTaylor Jenkins Reidbecause what’s a summer without a TJR novel, the highly anticipated Flashlightby Susan Choi and King of Ashesby S.A. Cosbyand Katabasisby R.F. Kuang. And on the nonfiction list, we’ve got How to Lose Your Motherby Molly Jong-Fast, daughter of feminist icon Erica Jong, Blessings and Disastersby Alexis Okeowo, and The Dry Seasonby Melissa Febos. The good books can’t stop won’t stop and I’m pleased as punch about it. Check out the full list ofnovels out this summerand nonfiction out this summer.

Another Epic Fantasy Adaption Bites the Dust

Wheel of Timeissaying goodbye after three seasons. Amazon’s big-budget fantasy epic based on the Robert Jordan high fantasy series saw success with high viewership in its first season, but those numbers declined while the show remained high cost. I watched part of the first season when the series was well underway and while I ultimately transferred that TV time to my favorite recent SF/F adaptation,Silo , I enjoyed the stunning visuals and was warming up to the story as a whole. It just didn’t grip me the waySilodid, perhaps because the story and characters felt too familiar. So far, nothing has seen as much success asGame of Throneswhen it comes to big budget, big viewership SF/F adaptions, but we’ve got a whole host of works in the catalog to continue making attempts.

A Summer Reading List…for the Wealthy?

In this age of oligarchs where I deeply wish wealthy tech bros would stop subjecting us to their sociopathy, I kinda don’t know what to say about this summer reading list for the wealthy. To be fair, JP Morgan simply publisheda summer reading listwith no mention of it beingfor the wealthy–that’s the media’s doing. But CNBC notes that the list has "become the go-to selection of beach books for the wealthy," so here we are. I decided to share the list because I actually don’t hate it. In fact, Book Riot’s own Jeff O’Neal was in conversation with Professor Shigehiro Oishi, author of Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life, about his book, which is a JP Morgan selection. I’m not interested in reading most of these books myself, but there’s a memoir about buried childhood traumaI’ve heard good things about and a book of photos from the NASA archivesthat includes essays and commentaries by interesting people like Nikki Giovanni.

The Best Beach Reads of All Time

Need a beachy read for the summer? Our whole team of editorial staff and contributors got together to curate a list of50 of the best beach reads of all timefor your summer reading list. We considered not only our personal favorites, but also the beach reads canon. We also used the broadness of the category to gather a list that, we hope, has books for just about every kind of reader. So take a gander and get your summer reading list a glow up.