Emma's Summer Reading Dating Game

When you go on vacation, you're not just going to pack one book, like some sort of neanderthal. No, you're going to pack a tidy stack of books, with visions of yourself plowing through novels as quickly as you might have before you had children. Just me? In any case, whether you're vacationing alone or with your family or in your living room or on a beach, here are a few great pairings for summer reading. And yes, I like to imagine the two books holding hands.

Written by Emma Straub

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia & Beach Read by Emily Henry

These are two of my favorite recent page-turners that follow characters to new locales only to discover that trouble will follow you anywhere. Mexican Gothic is creepy and dark, and Beach Read is funny, but I loved them both, and I think you will, too.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walters & Furious Love by Sam Kashner & Nancy Schoenberger

Sexy Hollywood, two ways! Jess Walter's novel takes place partially in Italy, where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were filming Cleopatra. Furious Love is the non-fiction memoir of their tumultuous love affairs--twice married, children, hotels, jewels.

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz & Dream Girl by Laura Lippman

These two new literary thrillers are like peanut butter and jelly. Both are about successful novelists whose lives unravel. Juicy, page-turning, delicious.

Bad Marie by Marcy Dermansky & French Exit by Patrick DeWitt

Do you wish you were going to France this summer? Same! These are two of my favorite novels in which characters go to France--both are hilarious, slightly wicked, and totally wonderful.

Intimations by Zadie Smith & Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri

Sometimes you need a book you can read in one sitting. How about one by a genius? Zadie write Intimations during the early months of quarantine, and Jhumpa wrote Whereabouts in Italian, and then translated it into English.