Nine Books To Bring On Your Late Summer Vacation

Maybe it’s just that I’m planning a mid-August vacation this year, but it seems to me that a lot of people are waiting until the final month of summer to hit the beach, hop a flight, or just delete Slack and spend a week pretending to be an unbothered billionaire.

If you’re among the many planning a late summer getaway — or if you’re just hoping to get those Goodreads numbers up before football season completely nukes your nights and weekends — here are nine books to keep you busy.

Daikon by Samuel Hawley

What if the Allies planned to drop a third nuclear bomb on Japan? What if the plane carrying that bomb crashed somewhere in Japan and the bomb didn’t detonate? That’s the premise of Hawley’s novel, one of the most exciting books of 2025. “Daikon” largely tells the story of Keizo Kan, a physicist whose wife and daughter have been lost to Imperial Japan’s increasingly futile war efforts. Blending military history, science, and suspense, “Daikon” is the kind of page-turner begging to be tossed on a sandy towel.

Workhorse by Caroline Palmer

I’m genuinely shocked this book isn’t at the top of everyone’s list. Imagine if “The Devil Wears Prada” had a baby with “Gossip Girl,” and that baby then grew up to work in journalism and go through alcohol-induced psychosis. “Workhorse” tells the story of Clo Harmon, a striving editorial assistant at a prominent New York fashion magazine, who falls into the orbit of her wealthy desk mate, Davis Lawrence. Palmer, a former Vogue editor and Manhattan socialite, paints a darkly funny picture of New York’s literati in this exceptional debut, equal parts shocking and delightful.

The Last Kings Of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China by Jonathan Kaufman

You didn’t think this list would be just fiction, did you? Come on now! Kaufman explores two centuries of history through the interlocking stories of the Kadoories and the Sassoons — two Iraqi Jewish families who sought new opportunities on the Chinese frontier and, in the process, helped create Shanghai and Hong Kong and, in many ways, laid the foundation for our globalized world. “The Last Kings Of Shanghai” takes readers through the tumult of the Opium War and the glamour of the Roaring Twenties, climaxing in the stunning tale of how the rival families joined forces to save 18,000 Jews from the Nazis.

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead earned critical acclaim for “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys,” two novels dealing with the African American experience in the Antebellum and Jim Crow South, respectively. Those are fine books, but a bit too serious for the lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer. So save them for the winter and instead reach for “Harlem Shuffle,” the first in Whitehead’s now-complete Harlem Trilogy. Ray Carney is a furniture salesman and family man whose part-time work fencing stolen goods has left him “bent, not crooked.” Things bend further when Ray’s scheming cousin Freddy enlists his help in robbing the nicest hotel uptown. Turn the AC down, and you’ll feel transported to the steaming Harlem of the 1960s.

Hope I Get Old Before I Die by David Hepworth

This is one of the coolest books I’ve ever read. Hepworth sets out to answer the question that many of us have pondered in passing: How did we wind up with this glut of aging rock stars, and are they even having any fun? Weaving history and pop-culture criticism together with ample British wit, Hepworth explains exactly how rock and roll and the music industry evolved and shaped each other, and how the end result — impossibly priced arena rock concerts headlined by septuagenarians — both explains and shapes the state of our society. 

A Man In Full by Tom Wolfe

Can you have a reading list without a Tom Wolfe book? Not in this house. You can’t go wrong with anything the white-suited wonder wrote, but this is his best novel. Don’t let the 742-page doorstop deter you: You’ll fly through this portrait of late-90s Atlanta, a satirical odyssey that weaves together politics, class, race, and college sports. Charlie Croker is the titular man in full, an aging football star and struggling businessman who’s found himself on the wrong end of a collector’s notice. His attempt to claw his way back to the black puts him at odds with the social-climbing Raymond Peepgrass, the downtrodden Stoic Conrad Hensley, and plenty of other colorful characters. Bonus: The Netflix adaptation is pretty good.

In The Shadow Of The Sword by Tom Holland

As with the aforementioned Tom, you’d be safe plucking any of Mr. Holland’s volumes off the shelf. A popular historian who doesn’t neglect actual history, Holland has written excellent books on the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity. But this volume, on the rise of Islam, is, if not his best, then his most original. Using careful textual analysis, Holland casts doubt on the standard account of the rise of Islam, questioning the accuracy of Muhammad’s story while showing how early Muslims expanded their religion through war and conquest. It’s like the nonfiction “Satanic Verses.” It’s actually pretty crazy he doesn’t have a fatwa against him.

Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

A recently divorced Manhattan doctor is navigating dating apps, parenthood, and professional neuroses when his wife disappears. Dazzlingly written, funny, and occasionally shocking, Brodesser-Akner’s debut is a probing portrait of modern life that doesn’t pull punches with its protagonists. You’ll laugh, you’ll wince, you’ll be glad you don’t live in New York. If you like it, skip the Hulu adaptation starring Jesse Eisenberg — fine, but not worth it — and pick up Brodesser-Akner’s truly deranged but breathtakingly brilliant second novel, “Long Island Compromise.”

Football by Chuck Klosterman

I can’t really describe this book because Klosterman’s writing defies description. If you’ve read him, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, you should rectify that as soon as possible. He is insanely smart and incredibly droll, and he thinks differently from anyone else in the world. This book, his latest, is a love letter to the American game, an encomium to TV broadcasts, college ball, all-star quarterbacks, and more. Pull this one out when the heat and humidity get really oppressive, and you find yourself yearning for a crisp weekend with football on TV.

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