I love a good, slim book. I like the way they feel in my hands. I enjoy being able to read a book in two or three days, too. Slim books are undemanding that way, and the good ones are equally rewarding. They are better for their brevity. They’re also more affordable.
Claire Cameron, author of the bestselling memoir How to Survive a Bear Attack, is also fond of short books.
“As a reader,” she writes on her Substack, Books I Love, “I can stay inside a book this length without coming up for air. I submerge… I want to be able to read a book in one sitting.” Some books work best, she believes — such Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, winner of the 2024 Booker Prize — when devoured in a gulp.
“Short books become especially important when life is busy,” she points out.
I agree wholeheartedly with Claire Cameron. On all those fronts. For many folks, summer is often a busy season. That’s why this year, for those of you who love lawn chair reading as much as I do, I’m recommending a delicious stack of good, slim books.
I’ll start with a short novel, released earlier this year, that completely bowled me over — Ben Lerner’s Transcription. At 130 pages, this book packs a wallop. The novel is an erudite, dreamlike meditation about fathers and sons, friendship, memory, and the technologies we’re allowing to shape our lives. Some say it’s plotless, but that’s not entirely true. Whatever the case, it’s addictive from the get-go; when I’d finished it, in a day or two, I immediately knew I wanted to reread it. Transcription should be on the shelves at your local independent bookshop. Treat yourself to one of the best books of the year.
Another exceptional short book (a lean 160 pages), recently released, is the great Julian Barnes’ latest (and last), Departure(s). A blend of fiction and memoir, it’s a beautifully written, kind-hearted account of a couple’s second chance at love, later in life, while the biographical part of the book sees Barnes’s reckoning with the blood disorder he has been living with since he was diagnosed in 2020. In a way, it’s a hard book. Because of his illness, Barnes has said this will be his last. But it’s also incredibly rewarding. Altogether, Departure(s) is elegant, funny, heart-wrenching, and deeply philosophical — the last literary act from a classy, mischievous, masterful writer.
Another short excellent book by Barnes I would recommend is The Sense of An Ending, winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize.
Booker Prize juries are fond of slender books that pack a punch, it seems. Claire Keegan’s flawless novella Small Things Like These and Penelope Fitzergald’s endlessly charming The Bookshop also took home the award. Keegan’s gem is 114 pages; Fitzgerald’s a mere 123. When it comes to fine literature, less is invariably more.
When a skilled poet writes an essay, it’s often lean, clean, and lyrical. Sadiqa de Meijer’s dazzling collection of essays In The Field is proof of that. This was my top pick from last year’s crop of books. At 159 pages, de Meijer’s exceptional book — which fits neatly in my back pocket — is an ideal summer read.
When I was a teenager, I was an usher at a movie theatre. One of the best summer movies of the ’80s was playing when I started: Stand By Me. Like most everyone else, I loved the film. The movie was a faithful adaptation of the Stephen King novella, The Body, which I bought and wolfed down later that summer. I have loved the novella ever since. It is nostalgic, hilarious, gritty, cool, heartfelt, and true. The Body clocks in at 179 pages. If you have access to a dock, read this one with your feet in the lake.
About a month ago, I met with an occupational therapist for a wheelchair assessment. While at my home, she couldn’t help but notice all the books by Anne Tyler. (I have a ridiculously large collection of her books — hardcovers, paperbacks, first editions, UK, American printings, and so on.) After the assessment, my occupational therapist asked me to recommend a book by Tyler, one she should start with. I told her to try Tyler’s latest, last year’s Three Days in June. She wrote that down. A week went by. And when we met again, she told me she’d picked up the book at the library, read it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Three Days in June, Tyler’s twenty-fifth novel, is her shortest: 165 pages. It is edible, it is delightfully good, and my OT loved it. So, there you have it — another slender, joyful summer read.
To top-up this tasty summer stack, I would have to mention three more titles: The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, James Baldwin’s transcendent novel Giovanni’s Room, and Tove Jansson’s classic The Summer Book. And a special treat come mid-July — a new book by Sigrid Nunez! It’s called It Will Come Back to You, and it’s her first collection of short stories. Nunez is one of the finest writers of our time, a new favourite author of mine, and this book inches just past 200 pages. Unhesitatingly, I recommend you keep an eye out for this title. Like a tall glass of ice-cold lemonade, short stories are often just what’s called for on a hot, sunshiny day.
“The beach is not the place to work, to read, write or think,” Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes in the opening of Gift from the Sea. “I should have remembered that from other years. Too warm, too damp, too soft for any real mental discipline or sharp flights of spirit. One never learns.”
So true. Lindbergh’s 1955 classic seaside meditation is a wise, beautiful book about love, marriage, peace, solitude, creativity, and inspiration. Possibly the perfect summer read, Gift from the Sea is beloved for very good reason. Add this one to your stack.
And happy summer reading!