The best way to while away a summer day in sweltering Miami? Reading, says Lissette Mendez, director of programs and strategy for Miami Book Fair. And she believes that curling up with a book this summer could provide an important opportunity to learn something new about yourself, your place in the world or how you can help create a better one for all. Try it under an umbrella at the beach or in a cozy, air-conditioned space, recommends Mendez.
“Whenever I’ve been on a quest to understand myself or my place in the world, I’ve turned to books, both fiction and nonfiction. As a woman, a feminist, an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, a mother, an exile, a refugee, a Cuban and a person of mixed cultures, heritage and race, I’ve learned who I am in great part through the books I’ve read,” she said.
(Courtesy of Lissette Mendez)
Lissette Mendez
Part of what makes summer reading so magical is its transportive ability, taking you far from what you know and who you’re familiar with.
“I am constantly reading and recommending books that fall completely outside of my experiences, because that’s been the way I’ve gotten to know the worlds that I don’t inhabit, bodies that don’t look like mine and ideas not common in the spaces I’m used to,” said Mendez.
A bibliophile whose reading routine is “a book on paper, a book on digital and an audio book all going at the same time,” she says reading a work of fiction can illuminate truths present in your daily life.
“One of my graduate school professors, the critically acclaimed John Dufresne, has a
(Penguin Random House)
book on writing that posits that ‘fiction is the lie that tells the truth.’ Fiction allows me to feel, think and understand through the ‘lie,’ what people in similar situations might be experiencing,” she said. “Reading is a meditative practice for me. I’ve really seen how a lifetime of reading has created a deeper understanding of everything in ways that I might not even fully comprehend.”
Ready to pair the summer heat with a page turner? Here are our top 10 picks that come highly recommended by Mendez, as well as by The New York Times and Reader’s Digest.
“The Apartment” by Ana Menéndez
This novel highlights the power of community in the face of exile and displacement as it chronicles the history of tenants living in one South Miami Beach art deco apartment building.
“This book is perfect for anyone like me who has walked the streets of South Beach, looking into the windows of art deco and 1950s-era apartment buildings, catching glimpses of people at their dining tables or adjusting a lampshade, anyone who has made up stories or at least wondered about their lives, their joys and sorrows,” Mendez said.
“Vanishing Maps” by Cristina García
(Knopf)
Mendez says with 1992’s “Dreaming in Cuban,” Cristina García paved the way for a new generation of Cuban American and Cuban diaspora writers. This year’s follow-up, “Vanishing Maps,” reprises beloved characters to document four generations of the del Pino family and their globe-spanning search for identity and home.
“This book should please García’s longtime readers and introduce a new generation of readers to her fluid, languid prose and spellbinding storytelling,” said Mendez.
“The Stolen Coast” by Dwyer Murphy
This quick-paced page turner will keep readers on their toes as a pair of former lovers get caught up in a plan to pilfer millions in raw diamonds in a sleepy, seaside Massachusetts town.
“Whodunits entertain but also peel back the curtain on humans’ motivations and desires to be more, have more and feel good, regardless of what they have to do to get what they want,” Mendez said. “Murphy’s intricate plots and unexpected twists kept me hooked on his last book, and I’ve already got this one in my bag.”
(Penguin Publishing Group)
“The Faraway World: Stories” by Patricia Engel
A New York Times editors’ choice, the stories of “The Faraway World” espouse universal themes like grief, acceptance and the compromises love necessitates, as Engel paints portraits of life throughout the Latin American diaspora. Mendez says the author explores the lives of “immigrants, exiles and first-generation Americans; the people who have settled in Miami – our families, our friends and ourselves. She has a great ability to embody her characters in a way that makes them so complete and real, I often feel as though I’m reading reportage, not a novel.”
“The Trackers” by Charles Frazier
The New York Times calls Charles Frazier’s “The Trackers” one of this summer’s best new books, in part because of the historical novelist’s exceptional ability to draw parallels between times long gone and the present moment. “The Trackers” transports readers to locales like small-town Wyoming, uniquely Floridian swamps and rowdy San Francisco nightclubs to tell a story about the ingenuity and struggles as experienced by Americans living during the Great Depression.
(Simon & Shuster)
“The Town of Babylon” by Alejandro Varela
A finalist for last year’s National Book Award for fiction, the debut novel of New York-based author Alejandro Varela follows the life of a Latiné, a gay public health professor who winds up at his 20-year high school reunion. In this poignant, heartbreaking, yet funny work recommended by The New York Times, Varela explores what it means to be queer, a person of color and an immigrant among the white picket fences of American suburbia.
“Loot” by Tania James
A Reader’s Digest pick for this summer, Tania James’ “Loot” employs the backdrop of late 1700s Europe and India to weave a complex work about ambition, love and colonialism. Abbas is a young woodcarver whose artistry draws the attention of Tipu Sultan. When Tipu’s palace is ransacked by the British military, Abbas’ awe-inspiring work – a giant, wooden tiger – goes missing, and Abbas himself travels to the English countryside to retrieve it and return it to its rightful place.
“The Mythmakers” by Keziah Weir
(Harper Collins)
Keziah Weir, Vanity Fair’s senior editor, makes her long-form fiction debut with “The Mythmakers,” an intriguing tangle of plotlines and settings that explores the boundaries separating a creative muse and a creator. When journalist Sal Cannon reads a short story that seemingly reveals details from her own life, she embarks on a journey to uncover “the story behind the story,” as Reader’s Digest explains.
“The Housekeepers” by Alex Hay
This Reader’s Digest recommendation pairs an exploration of the power politics of gender and class with a heist plotline to create a fun, rapid-fire novel you won’t be able to put down. In Alex Hay’s debut, a recently fired housekeeper, Mrs. King, gathers a diverse crew of women to aid her in pulling off one grandiose act of revenge. While Mayfair’s high society is absorbed in revelry at a costume ball, Mrs. King and her team aim to rob the estate of every last possession.
“The Second Ending” by Michelle Hoffman
There are few reading experiences more rewarding than seeing good characters receive what they deserve. In Michelle Hoffman’s “The Second Ending,” another Reader’s Digest pick, a musical prodigy turned jingle writer has a chance run-in with a successful classical musician, a duet that leads both artists along paths to joy, second chances and harnessing the miraculous power of music.
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