What’s on your summer reading list? Do you gravitate towards juicy beach reads that you can get through despite whatever degree of heat exhaustion you might be experiencing? Do you reach for something that takes place in a winter setting to recall what it feels like not to be covered in sweat whenever you set foot outside? Do you blast audiobooks while waiting in beach traffic? For inspiration, we asked some of Providence’s coolest (and warmest!) readers, favorite business owners, and writers how they approach summer reading and what they’re cracking open this summer. Check it out!
Alex Maddalena (he/him), owner of Big Feeling Ice Cream
Beach reading reigns supreme. I prefer going to beaches with no cell service to avoid the temptation to check your phone. This poses a challenge now that I have a business, but I am learning to carve out time for myself so I can feel like a Normal Person. You know, one that reads on the beach and has a nice time. That kind of person.
Julia Sanches (she/her), literary translator
My favorite reading situation, no matter the time of year, is in the morning, preferably before I’ve looked at my phone and my brain has started buzzing with information, in a comfortable armchair by a window, with a cup of coffee. In the summer, I love to do this outside, but it has to be in the week or two after it gets warm enough and before the mosquitoes start eating me alive.
Erin Vachon (they/them), writer and editor
I recently bought a hammock to put under my favorite tree, so I’ve peaked at comfy reading. An iced beverage, a pillow, and a book stack? Heaven. I’m plotting an overnight marathon read this summer, packed with snacks and a fire. If it’s successful, the world might not see me again until fall, ha!
Elisa Gabbert (she/her), poet and essayist, author of Any Person Is the Only Self
As in any other season, my favorite time to read is early morning, with coffee, while it’s quiet, as the light creeps in. But a special pleasure of summer is reading outside on our deck in the late afternoon/ early evening, with a drink.
Robin Hashway (she/her), yoga teacher at Providence Power Yoga, mom
In theory I would lounge on the beach for hours, but more realistically it’s reading while soaking my feet in the kiddie pool! K Chess (she/her), novelist, author of Famous Men Who Never Lived I like to go for a long walk with an audiobook after work. A cool breeze and good sneakers. Maybe one of those little ice cream carts run by an old lady, and three dollars in my pocket.
K Chess (she/her), novelist, author of Famous Men Who Never Lived
I like to go for a long walk with an audiobook after work. A cool breeze and good sneakers. Maybe one of those little ice cream carts run by an old lady, and three dollars in my pocket.
Lucas Mann (he/him), coowner, Riffraff Bookstore and Bar
Definitely the beach, usually after being in the water with our kid, having a drink and reading while she plays in the sand.
Amber Jackson (she/her), owner of Black Leaf Tea
I like to be outside in a quiet space with good snacks and a cold drink. I love popping cold grapes while I’m reading.
John-Francis Quiñonez (they/them), GM at Big Feeling, Resident at Dirt Palace, CoGuardian of Lost Bag & Showrunner of SWEET! Reading series, Author of “Keep Your Little Lights Alive”, Board Member of Binch Press/Queer.Archive.Work
A quiet café, or really any sun-dappled room around 7am.
What’s your favorite spot in Providence to read?
Lucas Mann
Self-serving but honest answer: Riffraff Bookstore and Bar
K Chess
The Woonasquatucket River Greenway – walking on the path with headphones or sitting on a bench with a paperback.
Amber Jackson
In the yard of my apartment building or at India Point Park. Somewhere that I can lay my blanket in the grass and get comfortable for a little while.
Robin Hashway
Does Roger Williams Park count? Bring a snack and a blanket and set up near the temple of music.
John-Francis Quiñonez
Reprise Coffee or the Train in or out of Providence
Alex Maddalena
A patio read cannot be beat. But if I’m out and about, I’ve had some great reading marathons at Bolt Coffee’s RISD location. Feels like a quiet oasis on the outdoor patio (when school’s not in session).
Erin Vachon
For outdoor reading, I chill at Roger Williams Park. For indoor reading, I love RiffRaff.
Elisa Gabbert
Honestly, my couch. I’m too distractible to read in public, I just end up people-watching.
Julia Sanches
It used to be Fortnight (RIP); it’s now, predictably, Riffraff.
What’s your all-time favorite summer read?
Elisa Gabbert
I read Lonesome Dove last summer and it was perfect—so awkward to take on a plane, but strangers looked at it and smiled at me like I had a beautiful dog. Every day for weeks, I couldn’t wait to spend more time with my cowboy friends.
Erin Vachon
Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy practically devoured me one summer. He once said his book’s strange creatures and landscape were close to things he saw in the Florida Everglades. The weird is never that far away. I would go on these super long hikes in RI parks, and I could see what VanderMeer meant, how otherworldly our world really is.
K Chess
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Always bet on Long John Silver!
John-Francis Quiñonez
Four Reincarnations by Max Ritvo. I don’t revisit books all that often, but this collection is a Talisman that I keep track of at all times.
Julia Sanches
I’ve never really understood seasonal reads. I can read the gloomiest book on earth in the middle of the hottest summer day, or vice-versa. But I’d say that two of my all-time favorite reads full-stop are Marlen Haushofer’s The Wall (translated by Shaun Whiteside), about a woman who finds herself stranded in the Austrian mountains after an invisible wall comes down around her, cutting her off from the rest of the world and her life; and Bear by Marian Engel, a frankly bizarre Canadian novel from the 1970s, which involves a librarian traveling to a remote island to assess someone’s archive, only to strike up a relationship with the resident bear. Both books are about the relationship between women, their womanhood, and animals, so I guess I have a type.
Alex Maddalena
Unfortunately, none of my answers check the box of a “summer beach read.” I never go for page-turners myself, but I use the opportunity of slowing down to dive into books that require a bit more attention. Perhaps that could be perceived as no fun at all, but you can pry my English degree away from my cold dead hands! That being said, last summer I read Septology by the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, and it altered my brain chemistry forever. It follows an artist living in a remote part of Norway as he starts a new painting. But while his thoughts wander he starts to see a doppelganger of his around town who appears to be living a parallel life to himself—one where he never became an artist. It forces him (and the reader) to think about how certain decisions can alter your trajectory, which is something I’ve been weighing while getting my business up and running. I’ll never forget reading it on the beach in Little Compton, finishing a section, putting the book down, and just contemplating life while looking at the waves. Books are cool like that.
Robin Hashway
Summer days absolutely require urban fantasy like Kim Harrison or Jim Butcher. It seems like every summer there’s a new installment to catch up on! Amber Jackson My current read! Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray. It’s a fun, historical novel that’s easy to read and visualize in your head. It also uses real historical figures like Jessie Faust and W.E.B. Du Bois. I LOVE historical drama and mess that reads like a daytime drama or an episode of The Real Housewives.
Lucas Mann
In terms of fond memories from my own life, going way back I read Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove one summer and it was an immensely enjoyable experience. More recently, I finally read Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy over a couple weeks in the summer, and loved every second of it. Great books that take their time are perfect for hot days, I think. They feel hazy, like a perfect fever dream.
What are you reading this summer?
Julia Sanches
I am currently reading Box Hill by Adam MarsJones, which is so far a very fun combination of anxious and sexy (things could take a turn, I’m only some thirty pages in). I picked it up because it happened to be in my backpack, although I’m not sure how it got there. So, let’s blame the universe. Esther Yi’s Y/N has been on my TBR list for what feels like forever. I’ve worked with Deborah Ghim, the author’s editor before, and I’m working with her now again; I trust her taste implicitly. Finally, I’m excited to read We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Camara, translated by Robin Myers, whose writing and translation work I love. I often find myself picking books based on who translated it; I recommend it as a strategy!
Alex Maddalena
I am currently halfway through reading Moby Dick, which I’ve read twice before. I decided to join some other buddies with English degrees on a read-through so that we can meet up and talk about it together, which always makes it more fun. It’ll be my first time reading it since moving to Providence, and it’s been a lot of fun imagining neighboring New Bedford and Nantucket in the early chapters of the book. I hope to make it to the 24-hour reading of Moby-Dick at the Whaling Museum. Queequeg hive, rise up! I’ll also use this opportunity to plug a book I just finished: A Breath of Life by Clarice Lispector. She remains one of the most beguiling and mysterious writers…ever. Full of strange style and wisdom. And the more I think about it, the more I’m realizing that I channel her tone of voice for my writing on Big Feeling’s instagram descriptions. It all circles back to Clarice for me. The “GOAT,” as kids say these days.
Elisa Gabbert
I just started reading Danube by Claudio Magris, a weird literary travelogue; my husband and I want to take a Danube river cruise someday. And I just finished Paradoxx, a very funny and brain-twisty memoir by fellow Providence writer Kate Colby, and before that, It Lasts Forever and then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken — a novella exploring climate grief through the lens of a zombie apocalypse.
Erin Vachon
Since we recently lost Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o, his novel Wizard of the Crow is on my summer list. Alina Stefanescu’s poetry collection My Heresies. The re-release of Wendy Ortiz’s Bruja: A Dreamoir. Eileen Myles’ Inferno: A Poet’s Novel. Then Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume I, (and maybe Volume II).
Robin Hashway
Current read is One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. I know I heard about it on a podcast, but can’t remember which one. It’s powerful and sad and angering and I can’t stop listening.
Lucas Mann
I recently finished it, but Melissa Febos’s The Dry Season was a great summer read. I was lucky enough to chat with her when she came through Riffraff in June, and getting lost in her prose in preparation for that was a delight. Similar to reading the Cusk novels, it’s nice to spend a lazy, hot day in the company of a really smart mind taking her time, describing every detail of the world sumptuously. Next, I’m very excited for a new collection of David Wojnarowicz’s writing called Memories That Smell Like Gasoline. Amber Jackson Other than my current read, I’m excited to start reading This Could Be Us and Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan.
John-Francis Quiñonez
I read almost exclusively poetry these days. Deliberate shout out to some beloved Trans Authors: Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf, Reprise by Golden, Phantasmagossip by Sara Mae, Sky Responds to Our Holler by Zenaida Peterson. I am joyously anticipating the forthcoming first chapbook from Providence Organizer & Powerhouse Naffisatou Koulibaly – out later this summer.
K Chess
We Are A Haunting by Tyriek White, which I impulse-bought at Riffraff. Real Americans by Rachel Khong because a friend loved it. Emma by Jane Austen because I have already watched Clueless a lot. The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher, spotted in a Pride book display, because who could resist that title? •