Of Cats and Men

Author Q&A

Essay on Summer Reading

For the past several years I’ve lived in a beach community, so summertime reading definitely takes place by the water. I love to reread favorites during the summer – books I can skip around in, and revisit like I would an old friend. Stephen McCauley’s The Object of My Affection is a novel I always return to with a great sense of homecoming. Also Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I do read short stories on the beach. I love something I can delve into and experience fully in one sitting. Allan Gurganis describes his pleasure in novellas and short stories as “something you can start after dinner and finish before bedtime.” Which also works for the beach: a short story is a world you can step into as soon as you first sit down in the sun, and step out of with a satisfied sigh by the time you’re ready for a swim. There are so many collections that I love. Anything by Alice Adams, Lorrie Moore, or Alice Munro. Katherine Mansfield is always dazzling. I love The Ice at the Bottom of the World by Mark Richard, Cowboys are my Weakness by Pam Houston, and The Brutal Language of Love by Alicia Erian. Also Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry by Elizabeth McCracken, and Last Days of the Dogmen by Brad Watson.

–Nina de Gramont