Our summer reading lists
If you see us on our summer trips or throughout the DC area, these are the books in our bags and on our minds!
Blog & Art editor Erin is still working through a backlog of AWP purchases and eclectic thrift store finds:
“My Year of Meats” by Ruth L. Ozeki; “Blackouts” by Justin Torres; “I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness” by Irene Solà; “Slow Guillotine” by Teo Rivera-Dundas; “Trespasses” by Louise Kennedy; and “I Have Some Questions for You” by Rebecca Makkai.
Nonfiction editor Bex will be wandering through essay collections and memoirs from a variety of unique perspectives.
“Refuge” by Terry Tempest Williams; “Teaching a Stone to Talk” and “An American Childhood” by Annie Dillard; “Can You Tolerate This?” by Ashleigh Young; “Memorial Days” by Geraldie Brooks; and “The Glass Eye” by Jeannie Vanasco.
Fiction editor Emily may have the most diverse taste this summer—from dystopian fiction to essential nonfiction to an epic poem!
“Where the River Runs Gold” by Sita Brahmachari; “Ancillary Justice” by Ann Leckie; “Ace and Aro Journeys” from The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project; “Genocide Bad” by Sim Kern; “Moo” by Jane Smiley; and “Ædnan” by Linnea Axelsson.
Assistant fiction editor YJ will be “booked and busy” with 14 volumes, including literary journals Blue Mesa Review and the Mississippi Review.
“Carmilla” by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu; “Babel” by R.F. Kuang; “No Gods, No Monsters” by Cadwell Turnbull; “Karen Memory” by Elizabeth Bear; “Hum” by Helen Phillips; “Ghostroots” by Pemi Aguda; “Exit Zero” by Marie-Helene Bertino; “Emma” by Jane Austen; “Th Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands” by Sarah Brooks; “The God of Gumiho” by Sophie Kim; “The Antidote” by Karen Russell’; and “The Naming Song” by Jedediah Berry.
Shay, managing editor and catmother, has both English and French books ready to go.
“The Governesses” by Anne Serre; “Combats et métamorphoses d'une femme” (A Woman's Battles and Transformations) by Édouard Louis; “Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead” by Barbara Comyns; “A Manual for Cleaning Women” by Lucia Berlin; “Avalon” by Nell Zink; and “True Biz” by Sara Nović.
Editor-in-Chief Satori is diving into some atmospheric fiction as well as an exploration of the human organ trade!
“The Hellhound Heart” by Clive Barker; “The Memory Police” by Yoko Ogawa; “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan; “The Red Market” by Scott Carney; “The Girls’ Gude to Hunting and Fishing” by Melissa Bank; and “A Visit from the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan.
So to Speak returns in August 2026 for the fall semester—until then, happy reading & stay cool!