A Summer Reading List in Epigraphs

10 Recommendations in Quotes

It’s August in publishing, which means New York City has emptied out and the slowdown of the “publishing summer”, a moment in time which seems to shrink every year, is finally, gloriously upon us. In the spirit of thinning out and slowing down, here is a summer reading recommendation list with no descriptions, no waxing poetic endorsements, only 10 book recommendations for the summer, their covers, and their epigraphs (those little quotes that come before the book starts). Why organize a list by epigraphs? Only because epigraphs have been on my mind this week, as I noticed all the books I’m working on have coincidentally incredibly good epigraphs. But as you’ll see in this list, not all good books have good epigraphs (maybe the expression should be “don’t judge a book by its epigraph”, but somehow I doubt that will catch on).

1.     The Last Summer in the City by Gianfranco Calligarich

The first great disaster to befall mankind was not the flood but the drying out.

—Sandor Ferenczi

As he rose and fell

He passed the stages of his age and youth

Entering the whirlpool

—T.S. Eliot

Summer Read Rating 10/10

Epigraph Rating 9/10: I recommend and read this book seemingly every summer. Epigraph wise I would do without the T.S. Eliot quote, but it does give good context to the first quote, which is a pitch perfect tone setter.

2.     You Are Here by David Nicholls

She was sure of his having asked his partner whether Miss Elliot never danced? The answer was ‘Oh, no, never; she has quite given up dancing. She had rather play. She is never tired of playing.’ —Jane Austen, Persuasion

Summer Read Rating 10/10

Epigraph Rating 6/10: Romantic comedy writer chooses Jane Austen quote, it’s a solid, above average epigraph, but nothing groundbreaking.

3.     A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson

Someone is dead.

Even the trees know it.

—Anne Sexton, “Lament”

Summer Read Rating 10/10

Epigraph Rating 6.5/10: Epigraph points for using “dead” in a murder mystery/thriller, but docked a few points because the book in no part takes place in the woods.

4.     Number9Dream by David Mitchell

It is so much simpler to bury reality than it is to dispose of dreams

—Don DeLillo, Americana

Summer Read Rating 10/10

Epigraph 8.5/10: Great quote, perfect setup for the dream-fueled, electrifying novel. A surefire recommendation for anyone in a summer reading rut.

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5.     The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The absurd does not liberate; it binds.

—Albert Camus

Summer Read Rating 10/10

Epigraph 2/10: Just because the book is great doesn’t mean the epigraph is. This one is kind of random and doesn’t really make a lot of sense—while also giving the feeling that there might be a hyper specific meaning/inspiration behind it for the author.

6.     Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Summer Read Rating 10/10

Epigraph 0/10: My desire to recommend this book will not be thwarted just because it doesn’t have an epigraph. Surprisingly many books don’t.

7.     Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

To mould me Man, did I solicit thee

From darkness to promote me?

—Paradise Lost, X, 743⁠–⁠45

Summer Read Rating 9/10

Epigraph Rating 10/10: Never forget that the origins of this novel came from a summer vacation. An epigraph as time-tested as the novel.

8.     The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

We look before and after,

And pine for what is not:

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught;

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

—Percy Bysshe Shelley, “To a Skylark”

Summer Read Rating 10/10

Epigraph Rating 7.5/10: Maybe in 200 years I’ll feel the same way about this epigraph as Frankenstein’s but using poetry and famous poets always feels like epigraph shortcut. An extra half point for using something from Mary Shelley’s husband.

9.     Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpiece of architecture for wild beasts to fight in.

—Voltaire, The Complete Letters

Cleopatra: I will not have love as my master.

Marc Antony: Then you will not have love.

—from the 1963 disaster film Cleopatra

[Dick] Cavett’s four great interviews with Richard Burton were done in 1980…Burton, fifty-four at the time, and already a beautiful ruin, was mesmerizing

—“Talk Story” by Louis Menand, The New Yorker, November 22, 2010

Summer Read Rating 10/10

Epigraph Rating 4/10: One of the great summer reads of all-time, this epigraph is all over the place as if trying to capture all the component parts of the novel (and there are many). Perhaps fitting for a novel that, as Walter explains in the afterword, was put into and taken out of a drawer several times and was a decade plus in the making (well worth it).

10. Editorial Assistant Book Club (the “EABC”) August 2024: Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Remember how you made me crazy?

—Don Henley, “The Boys of Summer.”

Summer Read Rating: ???

Epigraph Rating 5/10*: This month I invite you to join in and read Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Long Island Compromise, a book that two separate people independently have told me is a “great American novel”. Taffy is one of the best writers of celebrity profiles turned novelist. Her first novel Fleishman Is in Trouble (later excellently adapted into a television show starring Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan, and Claire Danes) was rightfully one of the most discussed and interesting novels to come out in 2019. *I’m not “crazy” about this epigraph, but the epigraph rating is subject to change after reading.