Issue #213: How to Fall Back in Love with Reading and 13+ Bingeable Books

Get out of your reading slump.

📚 The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai: Desai’s latest novel follows two outsiders whose lives intersect in unexpected ways, across New York and India. I’ve also got my eye on Joan O’Leary’s A Killer Wedding and admittedly stalled out halfway on Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know (all out today), but may pick it back up since I’m curious to see how it ends!

🎥 ‘Big Bold Beautiful Journey,’ in theaters: This new movie, with its presumptuous title starring Colin Firth and Margot Robbie, has all the red flags of being cloyingly sentimental, but I mostly enjoyed it, largely thanks to Kogonada’s direction (‘After Yang’ and “Pachinko”). If you’re a film nerd, you might also enjoy Kogonada’s visual essays on Richard Linklater and time, and Ingmar Bergman’s use of women and mirrors. I’m also eager to see ‘The History of Sound,’ starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.

💿 ‘I’m Only Fucking Myself’ album by Lola Young: Raw, self-assured, and a little bit brutal, Lola Young’s new album carries her smoky, unpolished voice through honest and angry lyrics and catchy beats.

I’m also intrigued by the new limited series “Black Rabbit” on Netflix, but don’t fully buy Jason Bateman’s new bad guy persona… have you seen it?

In a word, this summer has been frenetic. I wouldn’t change a thing, but it’s also been among the most energizing/exhausting seasons I’ve ever experienced, in terms of sheer number of social plans. In the midst of finishing my master’s in August, I filled every crevice with daily get-togethers with friends, and attended festivals and camping trips most weekends. All this is to say that slower activities—things like reading, meditation, just sitting with myself—took a back seat.

Issue #170: 17 Books That Completely Changed Me

I’ll share my fall plans soon (!), but things are looking a lot more flexible, with fewer social plans and more time to allot to these slower spaces. Making that switch isn’t quite as easy as it sounds, and the past few days have felt like hitting the brakes while I’m still accelerating, but reading is among my favorite ways to get back in touch with myself, as well as rebuild my capacity for attention, creativity, and insight (as this podcast episode points out). Below, I’ve shared some of the tips I use for getting back into reading, as well as 13+ tried-and-true bingeable books if you’re looking for your next read: