Recommendations: summer reads
In a full circle moment, I present book recommendations from the Felix team. With a holiday spanning from July to October, I don’t believe any of the time-related excuses anymore. We don’t have exams around the corner. Forget your UROPs, summer internships, and imaginary self prescribed work. Try immersing yourself in a book. I promise you won’t regret it. And if you do, I’d be thrilled for you to write all about it for Books next year.
Juliette Flatau, Graphic Design
Antarctica, Claire Keegan
Why would a book called Antarctica be a great summer read? Because rules are arbitrary! This book of short stories explores the roles of women in love, mirroring each story to the changing seasons. While the first story ends harrowingly, the rest paint more gentle picture of women in love and the pain that it can leave them with.
Lila Harrison, Sports Editor
On The Calculation of Volume, Solvej Balle
One for fans of Groundhog Day who love vast descriptions of adult life. I was particularly captivated by Balle’s depiction of a relationship in a beautifully simple way.
Charlotte Probstel, Societies Editor
The Domesticated Brain, Bruce Hood
Have you ever thought why men communicate little, yet women are great at it? How PTSD in mothers affect their newborns’ hormonal levels? Why we help strangers? Merely opening the book to three random spots enabled me to answer these three questions. The Domesticated Brain by Bruce Hood, a renowned psychologist, touches on human behaviour with a sprinkle of evolution, a handful of history and a bucket full of science and real-life evidence. It discusses how alcohol affects our decision-making, why we change our minds, why not knowing is stressful, and how we can get into someone’s head. It is a book that someone interested in biology, psychology, a little economics and leadership may be interested in. It focuses a lot on child behaviour as an example of natural human behaviour and grows into adult psychology – basically, how we have domesticated ourselves due to society
Mohammad Majlisi, Editor-in-Chief
Pretentiousness: Why it Matters, Dan Fox
An extended essay that dives into what exactly pretentiousness is across a variety of perspectives, Pretentiousness: Why it Matters deals with the fact we need to pretend in every aspect of our social lives. Its bold assertion that there is nothing wrong with being pretentious, going so far as to say it is a necessary procedure for culture to progress and develop, is an important reminder to break free from the ideals of conformity and forced “authenticity”. It’s perfectly acceptable to have bold interests and to have a grasp for “higher” forms of culture because it is in this effort that new ideas are synthesised and our rich cultural history is established. A much needed primer and guide into why one shouldn’t necessarily try not to “act above their station” and instead act as pretentious as possible at all times.
David Latimer, Puzzles
This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Two agents become nemeses in a causality-wrangling war in time, communicating exclusively through gloating letters. I saw this book heavily talked about online a few years ago and lodged it in my brain. I got to reading it this year and it was excellent. The book is presented as an alternating string of accounts from characters Red and Blue – with each written by different authors. The sci-fi in this book feels soft and rounded and very beautiful, and the quality of language is excellent. I would recommend to both sci-fi fans and sci-fi haters.
Marsela Marku, Science Writer
When Rape Goes Viral: Youth and Sexual Assault in the Digital Age, Anna Gjika
This is an insightful and devastating book on a new issue that continues to be more relevant than ever. I think it is worth a read for everyone, especially men.
Oscar Mitcham, Environment Editor
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers
This book, the first of four by Chambers in the Wayfarers series, is an excellent and kind piece of speculative fiction. It follows Rosemary, a new recruit to the crew of the spaceship Wayfarer. If you’re struggling to find hope and want a comfortable easy read, you should read Chambers. It is a testament to how much her writing that I have recommended her twice now in these sections (I do read other authors, I promise!), but I found Chambers when I needed her writing and I recommend her here again here because I cannot be the only person who is a little worried about the world right now.
Aditi Mehta, Books Editor
The Common Reader, Henry Oliver
Okay, so I’m cheating a bit here given my instructions to the team. Neither a book nor strictly a summer read, my recommendation is Henry Oliver’s Substack The Common Reader, after Virginia Woolf’s namesake novel. These articles are a must-read for anyone looking to think more deeply about books, readers, and reading itself. I am always in awe of someone with such rich knowledge and expertise about a subject, and even more appreciative of those who share it. Sign up to the newsletter. It is something any reader, aspiring or seasoned, should have in their back pocket.
