summer syllabus
for people who don’t want mushy beach reads
I’ve never been one for a typically ‘beach read,’ and at 34, I am safely assuming I never will be. Regardless, I have made an active effort to choose summer reading materials that move me, make me feel something, or allow me a bit of fun. I sat on too many slumpy reads in the winter, and had to remind myself that life is too short to read books that you’re not enjoying. Enjoyment is not synonymous with ease for me. I’ve always wanted a thick, difficult book on a beach to get lost in. Or, if I’m feeling particularly eager, something that challenges me to reconfigure the context and understanding of an era I thought I understood. I’ve chosen the latter a lot this year, and have compiled a great list of propulsive, enjoyable, and informative reads for the summer.
In the vein of having a Slow Summer on the newsletter, I’m sharing these summer reading recommendations. I’m in the midst of moving my newsletter hosting site, which will be completed by the end of summer. I’ll be sure to provide clear dates so those using the Substack app will have a heads up for any changes, but I promise AnthroDish Essays will be back to provide missives on food, health, and culture once the new system is set up.
Now, onto the recommendations: four fiction, four non-fiction.
Audition by Katie Kitamura
I packed this as a backup book on a short vacation to Montreal, and read it swiftly throughout the four days. This is as much about the plot as it is about the structure of the book itself, which is a device I will be unpacking for a while. It is predicated on two people, a man and a woman, meeting for lunch at a restaurant. Their relationship to each other is unknown, and the story unravels around the performances poured into various identities people hold for each other.
Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
The premise is straightforward: one day, all the white people walk out into nearby bodies of water, never to return. The book asks what it means to be Black in a world without white people. The concept was illuminating, and became a point of discussion with my husband, in that we have a mixed race son who looks white. The complexities of being biracial, mixed, or multiracial are so deeply explored through character work in this book, and I think it is one of those stories that sticks with you, due to all the ghosts that linger when whiteness is removed physically, but still present structurally.
Valley of the Moms by Hannah Selinger
I am not usually a reader of thrillers or murder mysteries (I blame my background in forensic anthropology ruining a lot of the ‘fun’ some people seem to have with it). That said, I do not think that Valley of the Moms embodies the typical genre, but figures out a way to create a new offering within what can be a tired trope. This book is fun, based on a seemingly silly concept: a mother is murdered after speaking out against the actions of her kid’s school’s PTO. And yet it was rich with subtext around social inequities, policing, and how much those in power will do to ensure they remain in power. As someone who has never quite fit in with her own PTO and school community, it felt refreshing.
If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga
There is exquisite writing, there is a beautiful and heartbreaking story about an American-Egyptian woman trying to find her place in her parents homeland, and there is a use of novel structure and craft that continues to impress me. I think this is one of the most brilliant books of our era, in how it told this story, and how it forces your hand to think more about racial ambiguities and the realities of being from multiple places, lands, and histories in one body.
On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of my Appetites by Alicia Kennedy
Told from a personal memoir lens, the book offers an exploration of not only how individual taste preferences are formed, but how cultural and social attitudes around food, ingredients, and systems are built through time. With each chapter focused on a specific ingredient, there is a powerful analysis of how taste cannot be separated from land, politics, and sociocultural experiences. It opens up questions for how we want to build a future worth living in, and how the value of food has a hand in creating that world.
Entangled States: A Life According to Quantum Physics by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
Physics can be daunting, but it can also be a world of possibilities if you have the right teachers for it. In Padavic-Callaghan, this memoir is written in such a way that physics is woven into the tapestry of life, bringing fascinating insights into everyday phenomenon, and making sense of their own significant life events. Using ultracold atom labs as a way of assessing social gendered expectations and being nonbinary, or meditations on quantum memories unveiling how our own uncertain memory devices function throughout our lives, it is such a brilliant and unique approach to physics writing. I learned so much!
Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
Someone I know who had read this had said that Girl on Girl felt “obvious,” putting a narrative on a time period that many millennial women grew up in and think we know. That’s a disservice to this cultural exploration of the aughts and the damning nature of post-feminism. Gilbert is rigorous in her analysis of the aughts, from the raunchy comedies of the era to the more violent, gut-wrenching increase in violence relating to sex. It was a hard read at times, but it provided a very clear lens to reframe how I understood much of my own youth (the “I’m not like other girls” of it all). I could have dealt with less Kardashian, but alas, they are pivotal to much of post-feminism. Enraging, but ultimately a helpful and motivating read.
Sucker Punch: Essays by Scaachi Koul
This book has enough humour to make it feel like it could be a ‘summer’ read, but it is jam packed with a firm re-assessment of the 2010s. It tackles the idea of the feminist personal essayist, their role in the 2010s, and how those very writers are unearthing new observations and layers to their experiences through visiting old ideas. Reflections on marriage, race, femininity and gender roles, divorce, and the underpinnings of a culture that is swallowing up any progression it was allegedly working toward become exposed through Koul’s writing. It is personal, but it also speaks to a particular millennial experience of figuring out what the fuck to make of the world we find ourselves in now.
AnthroDish News
Mysteries of Ancient Medicine in Canada and America! The new series I appear in as a health expert is out in full on National Geographic TV, AppleTV, Fubo, and Disney in the US, and airing Fridays at 9pm EST on SuperChannel for Canadians!
Catch up on AnthroDish podcast, with the most recent episodes on my YouTube channel if you like video, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or my podcast website. I’m really excited about this season, it’s been some of my all-time favourite conversations and directions.
Immediately put a hold on Valley of the Moms at the library!