ADRIAN MA, HOST:
You've seen all the summer blockbusters. You've watched everything on Netflix and scrolled through the entirety of social media. What else is there to do? Well, here's a wild idea - how about cracking a book? And if you're wondering where to start with that, good news because NPR's Books We Love has tons of recommendations, including fiction reads from some of our co-workers. We'll kick it off with a suggestion from one of our WEEKEND EDITION colleagues.
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SHANNON RHOADES, BYLINE: Hey, I'm Shannon Rhoades, WEEKEND EDITION senior editor. And a book I love is a collection of short stories. I just want to press it into your hands now, and it's from the British author Graham Swift. It's called "Twelve Post-War Tales." And that post-war reference is a little deceptive because these are really stories about what lingers - how historical events, wars, economic forces shape our personalities, our lives in ways that we're not even aware of. As one character reflects, they say that we remember everything. Everything - it's all still there. It's just that we don't have the key, the passport. And that's what Graham Swift pulls off. He gives us the passport, cracking open characters' lives, sometimes in the span of just a few pages, and in ways that will linger with you, too.
And what's a recommendation, if not an invitation for more? So while I have you, watch the movie "Mothering Sunday." It's an adaptation of another Graham Swift book, and it is gorgeous. Happy reading. Happy watching.
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KAYLANI SAXENA, BYLINE: Hi. My name is Kalyani Saxena, and I am an associate producer with Here & Now. And the book that I'm going to be talking about is "The Raven Scholar" by Antonia Hodgson.
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SAXENA: I want to start by saying that epic fantasy is hard to do really well. Often, there's a lot of worldbuilding and multiple characters, and it can feel really overwhelming really fast. But "The Raven Scholar" makes it look like a breeze. This story takes place in Orrun, where a fierce competition to replace the emperor is about to take place. Suddenly, a contender is found dead before the tournament can even begin. And Neema Kraa, a scholar with some admittedly dubious morals, is tasked with finding the killer. You know, this is a tale of murder, tragedy and familial betrayal, and it's firing on all cylinders. It's too smart for its own good and layers multiple mysteries with characters that defy their own archetypes. I read a lot of fantasy, and the year is still young, but to me, "The Raven Scholar" feels like the 2025 fantasy novel to be.
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CORY TURNER, BYLINE: My name's Cory Turner. I'm an education correspondent here at NPR. And the book I'm dying to tell you about is "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" by Stephen Graham Jones.
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TURNER: His earlier books - "Mongrels" and "The Only Good Indians" - are harder to put down than a long tear of duct tape. And "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" may be his best yet.
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TURNER: The story is chiefly concerned with the events of January 23, 1870, when the U.S. Army massacred more than 200 members of the Blackfeet Nation - most of them women, children and the elderly. And Jones has given us a hero, or antihero, for the ages - a Blackfeet man named Good Stab who is determined to avenge the wrongs of the past, even if it takes him several lifetimes. See, "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" is a bloody good thriller and a fearsome accounting of America's past, stitched inside the corpse of "Bram Stoker's Dracula." All from Stephen Graham Jones, one of our very best horror writers and one of our very best writers.
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ELENA BURNETT, BYLINE: My name is Elena Burnett, and I'm a producer on All Things Considered. The book that I cannot stop recommending is "My Friends" by Swedish author Fredrik Backman. It tells the story of a painting. We find out about its artist and his friends who become the subjects of the painting. We learn about the childhood summer filled with pain and laughter that inspired it, and we follow a young woman called Louisa as she learns how the painting came to be. The book is a deeply personal exploration of art, pondering what we sacrifice of ourselves to bring beauty into the world and what we gain when others find a home within it.
Now, as I read, I had to set the book down countless times and just take a moment to myself to marvel at the way that Backman captured the rebellion of joy, the ferocity of devotion and the cruelty of indifference. And just a word of warning - "My Friends," just like every other Backman book, will break your heart into a million little pieces. But more importantly, I promise, I promise, I promise it will repair you with restored faith in the small miracles of just being human.
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MA: Those recommendations, again, are "My Friends," "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter," "The Raven Scholar" and "Twelve Post-War Tales." For a full list of books we've loved so far this year, visit npr.org/summerbooks.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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