James' Summer Reading

The Long List

Books that were recommended that I have already read or that formed part of a longer list of recommendations from the same person

An open trade paperback novel lies face-up on a pale wooden patio table, pages slightly curved, with a slim, sand-colored bookmark peeking from the center. Around it, three other books form an informal semicircle, each with different, professional-looking cover designs in soft blues and warm yellows. A clear glass of iced tea with condensation beads sits to one side, leaving a faint ring on the table. Dappled late-morning sunlight filters through unseen leaves above, casting an intricate lace of shadows across the scene. Photographic realism, captured from a slightly elevated angle, with the background falling into gentle bokeh of a sunlit, out-of-focus garden. The mood is serene, studious, and inviting, ideal for a curated summer reading blog.

Fiction

  • Soldier of the Great War, by Mark Helprin
  • Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie
  • The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
  • What Can We Know, by Ian McEwan
  • The Whalebone Theatre, by Joanna Quinn
  • Beloved, by Toni Morrison
  • Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
  • The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
  • American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins
  • The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb
  • The Physician, by Noah Gordon

Non-Fiction

  • Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, by Chris Miller
  • Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari
  • Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks, by [author]
  • DisneyWar, by James B. Stewart
  • Den of Thieves, by James B. Stewart
  • Young Elizabeth: Elizabeth I and Her Perilous Path to the Crown, by Nicola Tallis
  • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman (Review)
  • Billion Dollar Whale, by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright
  • The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein
  • How the Irish Became White, by Noel Ignatiev
  • Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown
  • Deep Work: Rules for Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport
  • Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, by Lucy Mangan
  • Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey, by V. S. Naipaul
  • The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite, by Robert D. Kaplan