The Atlantic's Summer Reading Guide

"The pleasure of Heat Wave is its slow, mesmerizing drama... Never has a mother-in-law’s judgment seemed so deliciously understated—and so devastating in its conclusion." Picked by Atlantic Deputy Editor Jane Yong Kim

"It makes you want to delete everything you’ve ever written and start again, this time telling the truth." Picked by Atlantic staff writer James Parker

"Babalola’s story collection updates and retells romantic myths and fables from a bevy of cultures, tossing a reader into the richly imagined world of characters..." Picked by Atlantic associate editor Emma Sarappo

"Friday Black presents a warped reflection of our own reality that feels both horrifying and clarifying." Picked by Atlantic senior editor Lenika Cruz

"It’s a riveting critique of the first family of 20th-century liberalism..." Picked by Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer

"In the essays, the theorist and novelist plays a classic role: the foreigner who is alternately amused and appalled by American maximalism." Picked by Atlantic staff writer Megan Garber

"Clark recounts the lives of the Lamalerans with a deep respect, while also spinning a wondrous, thrilling story out of their struggles..." Picked by Atlantic senior editor Gal Beckerman

"Rendered with irony and based on skillful scholarship, Jähner’s book describes both a democratic rebirth and a moral evasion, uncomfortably and inextricably linked." Picked by Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer

"Mills Newman’s novel feels like a long party, punctuated by difficult questions: about white standards of beauty, what it really means to be a revolutionary, how to be an artist, and how to be a woman partnered with a man." Picked by Atlantic associate editor Maya Chung

"She describes Elena’s minute-by-minute experience so meticulously that I was almost able to comprehend—even just for a moment—the incredible multitude of perspectives that exist in this world at once." Picked by Atlantic senior associate editor Faith Hill