Reading Life #5: A meditation on the elusive joy of vacation reading

Plus, a crowd-sourced list of my most loved recommended books

Jun 15, 2023

I went to Florida for a long weekend with two girlfriends earlier this month. My parents have a condo there that they let us use for the weekend. We came from different states, so I had a solo travel day. I left on Friday morning, getting dropped off at the airport bright and early at 4:45am to catch my 6:05am flight. I knew I had six blissful hours of solo travel time ahead of me, and I had planned accordingly with my reading material (including a new release I was looking forward to that I shared in my Summer Reading Guide. Spoiler alert: I loved it!)

I boarded my flight and settled into my book, happily flipping pages until we touched down at La Guardia. My mind was focused entirely on my book, not wandering off to think, "Oh, I should throw in a load of laundry," or "I wonder what the internet has to say about this book." There was nowhere to go, nothing else demanding my attention. It's a wonderful feeling. For me, it results in a deeper and more rewarding experience than at home. I grabbed a coffee on my layover, boarded the next leg of my flight, and settled in for the three-hour journey from New York to Florida. I finished my book just as we touched down.

Many bookworms agree that one of the best reading experiences is travel reading (I recognize this is not the case for all readers, especially those who are anxious flyers or travel with children.) All that uninterrupted time with minimal screen distractions. It's a hard environment to come by these days; it feels like the last wild frontier.

It got me thinking: why does a book just hit better when on a plane? And how can I recreate that experience at home?

We're inching into the depths of summer reading season. A time of year when we all hope to carve out more uninterrupted reading time, so here are a few guidelines I’m trying out in the coming months to help me foster more reading experiences like this at home during this season of longer and warmer days:

Batch household chores. A joy of being on vacation is that you're free from the daily responsibilities of household chores. I work from home and find myself doing small chores throughout the day. This can be helpful, but it was bleeding into my relaxation time because I felt like there was always something else to do. So, I decided to set some boundaries. For example, I now only do laundry on the weekends. So, if it's a Wednesday at 5pm and I'm sitting down with my book, I don't have to contend with the thoughts of "Oh, I should throw the laundry in." Because I know there is time carved out for that on Saturday mornings. I can put that out of my mind and enjoy the relaxation time.
Turn off the dang screens. Easier said than done, right? This one seriously takes some self-control and commitment and can be so hard. A few weeks ago, someone shared with me that they have a small TV that's unenjoyable to watch at their summer home. It works to their benefit because it makes them not want to watch TV. I love this idea. It got me thinking about how to make the screens in my house less enjoyable. For me, this means deleting Instagram more regularly. I'm now deleting it after work to free up my evenings.
Commit to a smaller TBR. One of the reasons that vacation reading works so well for me is that I have a curated selection of books with me, and those are the only ones I can select from. I've thought about what I'll be in the mood for while on my trip and picked titles I'm looking forward to. So why not take that practice into everyday life? I've started selecting 3-4 books to have on deck and picking them like I do when selecting vacation reads. What will I be in the mood for this week? What do I have going on at work and in life? So, what will I have the mental capacity for in a book? What books am I excited about that I've been holding off on for no reason? And voila, a curated reading stack for the next week or so.

A Curated Book List

Since I've been thinking about great reading experiences this month, I wondered, "What books have I recommended that people have read and loved?" So I posed the question in my Instagram stories and was delighted at the 100+ responses.

Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of overlap in the responses. It was heartwarming to see since I often recommend books on my Instagram page but rarely know how many people picked up the book as a result of my recommendation. It fostered a sense of community and yielded great conversations in my DMs.

So, I rounded them all up here in one list. The next time you are looking for something to read, consider this a heartfelt recommendation from me to you. And be sure to let me know what you think after!

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny

These Impossible Things by Salma El-Wardany

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

French Braid by Anne Tyler

My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin

Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas

The Summer Demands by Deborah Shapiro

Out of Love by Hazel Hayes

All Our Hidden Gifts trilogy by Caroline O’Donoghue

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

Games & Rituals by Katherine Heiny

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

Mid-month reading check-in

The Guest by Emma Cline. I loved Emma Cline's debut, The Girls, and this follow-up novel did not disappoint. It's a terse novel about a young woman who is no longer welcome at the lavish home of her most recent beau. She debates going back to the city, where she has nothing left. Instead, she spends the week on Long Island pretending to be someone she isn't while she waits for the annual Labor Day party to reconcile with him. I loved the setting of this book; it had the perfect summer feel to it, with long, hot sandy days on the beach. I also loved how vague it was and the story's feeling of slight suspense. It propelled me to keep reading and find out how things would unfold. This one reminded me of some of my other summer favorites: Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky, and it also had a shade of The Paper Palace to it. An easy 5-star read for me.

A Perfect Vintage by Chelsea Fagan. I couldn't put this down while I was on vacation last week! Lea, a 36-year-old designer, runs a business helping launch boutique hotels. Her latest is a 10-week project in Loire Valley, France, helping Alain and his sons launch their new hotel. Her cousin and niece decide to join her for the summer, and a few different love interest plot lines develop, including one between Lea and Alain's youngest son, 24-year-old Theo. I loved the setting of this one. Being dropped into the French countryside at a chateau for the summer was perfect. I enjoyed the characters and loved how Fagan wrote the romance plots. They didn't feel cliche or trope ridden. Just intriguing. It reminded me of The Idea of You (but far less steamy) meets Call Me By Your Name. A must-read for summer!

You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. I've been diving more into money and mindset as I've grown my photography business this year. As with all non-fiction books, there are good points to take away and lots of fluff around them. Most of Sincero's points resonated with me in this book - she harps on mindset, which is crucial to mastering most things. I don't love her voice; I had the same irritation when I read You Are a Badass, but she got me thinking about how I think about money. This one reminded me of Big Magic and The Creative Act, with many similar mindset themes.

Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan. I got off rom-coms last month but was in the mood to pick one up, so I dove into this highly anticipated new release. I loved Monaghan's debut, Nora Goes Off Script, and sadly this one did not live up to it. Which, honestly, was to be expected. This was a cute if not predictable, clean romance. But there were still things to enjoy. The narrative jumps back and forth from the present day, where Sam and Wyatt are adults, to their summers together as teenagers. I was swept into the current-day timelines because I wanted to see how things would pan out, but less so the flashback timelines. I wanted more depth from this story. The book is already short and veered a bit into YA territory. Which is OK! But for me personally, those things don't work in a rom-com. But, overall, a quick and breezy summer read that fans of Every Summer After will enjoy.

And currently reading: I started an advanced copy of The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue two nights ago and am enjoying it. I read O'Donohue's All Our Hidden Gifts YA trilogy earlier this year and loved it. So I've been eager for her adult debut to publish (it publishes on June 27). I've seen it compared to Sally Rooney, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Katherine Heiny. And those are big shoes to fill, but so far, I can see the comparison.

A few books I recently added to my TBR

Three by Valérie Perrin. This book was one of those cases where you see it in passing somewhere, and then you start seeing it everywhere! I saw a copy at my local bookshop a few weeks ago and mentally noted it because it sounded good (and a comparison to Donna Tartt). Then I saw it in a roundup by

Emma Lavelle

, whose book recommendations I always love. And it also popped up in a recent roundup that

Sara Hildreth

posted. So I picked up a copy, and it's currently at the top of my TBR stack. It's chunky and feels like a perfect summer read to get lost in.

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley. This is our book club pick this month, and I'm looking forward to reading it! It's about a group of middle-aged friends coming together to celebrate life's milestones. And now there is a secret that threatens to topple their yearly ritual. It sounds like Happy Place but with a slightly older cast. I've never read anything by Steven Rowley, but I always hear great things, so this sounds like a fun beach read to chat through my local bookworms.

Wild Things by Laura Kay. This queer rom-com about a group of friends who move to the idyllic countryside was already on my radar, but after reading a glowing review by Casey McQuiston in the NYT Book Review this weekend, I bumped it up. She praised its witty banter and sparking dialogue, so this will be the next rom-com in my queue when the mood strikes.

That’s all from me! Do you love a particular section of this newsletter? Wish something was different? I would love to hear from you as I continue to build this subscriber-only series of issues.

I would also love to hear what you’re reading and loving. Feel free to leave a comment below!