The Book Swap Blog
August 1, 2026
Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for your support with our first season! While we gear up for Season 2, we wanted to share some recommendations of books we’ve been enjoying during these long, leisurely summer days. We also asked two of our most-voracious-reader friends, Carolyn Silberstein and Pinar Gurler, for their latest picks. Hopefully it will give you some inspiration for what to bring along wherever your downtime takes you.
Happy reading, Cassandra & Liza
Country People, Daniel Mason
A delightfully droll and heart-warming new novel from the best-selling author of North Woods. Miles and his family leave the moneyed, competitive world of Silicon Valley for a year in pastoral Vermont where his wife has accepted a post as a visiting professor at a small liberal arts college. Miles plans to use the time to finally complete the PhD dissertation he’s been revising for more than 20 years but is easily distracted by local novelties. Incredibly amusing descriptions and observations of an outsider navigating new terrain, with charming explorations of themes such as marriage, parenthood, loneliness, and community, and littered with a long and sundry parade of quirky, endearing characters. Mason is a supremely deft writer with an enviable vocabulary whose prose seems to unspool with effortless glee. The perfect light, literary summer read.
Cassandra’s Picks
In the Distance, Hernan Diaz
The debut novel by the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Trust. In the early 1800s, Hakan is sent by his father from his homeland in Sweden to the United States in the hope of a better life. He arrives in San Francisco - a mere adolescent with no money, no friends or family, and not speaking any English. The novel chronicles the rest of Hakan’s life as he makes his way through the lawless Wild West across the country to New York. Hakan must learn to survive on his own in a hostile land full of violence, tricksters, and unrelenting deprivation and becomes a legend on the frontier. An introspective novel about grit with a singular protagonist you’ll never forget and an innovative perspective on myth versus reality of the United States, the West, and Hakan himself. Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Honestly, We Meant Well, Grant Ginder
Can the perfect family vacation solve all your existing problems at home? That’s the crux of this delightfully engrossing read. The author’s latest book So Old, So Young was a huge hit this year so I decided to check out one of Ginder’s earlier novels. This one piqued my interest because of its amusing title and image of a Greek beach. But it brings a lot of depth to its destination spot. This is a funny novel that covers academia, marriage, family dysfunction and regrets. Bonus points for an evocative portrait of modern Greece and deft use of some classic mythology.
Liza’s Picks
June Baby, Shannon Garvey
I endured a lot of rainy days this summer so I took solace in a book that had such a strong sense of place that I could practically feel my toes in the sand while reading. It’s a coming-of-age novel by a debut author. The main character, Ruth, has been escaping to Block Island for years ever since losing her mom. It’s always been a place that nurtures her creativity but she has not become the writer she wants to be. This year, she’s facing more heartbreak and explosive family secrets. For fans of Lily King’s books Writers and Lovers and Heart the Lover.
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
I’m probably the last person to have read this Pulitzer-Prize winner but if you have been holding off for some reason, run to your local bookstore. Kingsolver delivers a majestic tale with a narrator you’ll love and worry about so much. It’s a retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic David Copperfield and captures childhood poverty and drug addiction in rural America so poignantly. If you have already read this novel, there is great news. Kingsolver’s next book Partita also sounds fabulous and will be out October 6th.
Dogs, Boys, And Other Things I’ve Cried About, Isabel Klee
This tender memoir can be summed up very simply. People can rehabilitate dogs but people must learn to rehabilitate themselves. The author finds herself, during the pandemic, volunteering at a local animal shelter. As time goes on, she discovers that the relationship she creates with these sad, abandoned and misused creatures is something that she both loves and is good at. Conversely, her relationship with men is much more complicated. As she morphs into a tender and talented foster mom, she finds herself falling in and out of relationships with men. Eventually she learns to change, not only the lives of the animals she loves but her own life as well. I cried lots as I followed her journey.
Carolyn’s Picks
Whistler, Ann Patchett
The deeply touching story of the relationships between a rather unusual and complex family. Daphne, a much admired English teacher at a New York private girl’s school reunites with Eddie Triplet, a book editor who was briefly her stepfather as a child. Daphne’s mother divorced Eddie years ago much to her and her sister’s dismay. The adult relationship between Daphne and Eddie becomes a deeply beautiful father-daughter story as Daphne cares for him as he battles cancer. Pachett, once again weaves a poignant story with sparkling prose.
The Calamity Club, Kathryn Stockett
Oxford, Mississippi - 1933
An abandoned Meg Lefleur is doing her best to survive the difficult conditions of her small southern orphanage. When Birdie, the down-to-earth sister of a local volunteer, arrives to help out, Meg finds a valuable friend. While living at the outwardly affluent home of her sister’s family, Birdie meets a plethora of down and out characters struggling to cope with the Depression. Ultimately, this ragtag group of women come up with an unusual plan to make the money they so desperately need. Meanwhile, fellow orphan, eleven year old Meg, is taken in by a couple with a back story of their own. Meg forms a sweet friendship with her foster father, as they both try to cope with their trying circumstances. The book's ending is a testament to the power of love and female friendship. Reality may be brutal, but human beings are endlessly resilient.
Daughters of the Sun and Moon, Lisa See
Three young women from diverse backgrounds are sent from China to the Wild West of California in the late 1800s. This story follows these incredible women as they struggle to survive in a society that considers them commodities. Dove, small-footed and beautiful, is destined for a prestigious marriage in her beloved village. Contrary to her dreams, her father is tricked into sending her to California, where she hopes to be married to an important man. Petal, poor and big-footed, is sold by her father for enough money for rice seeds and finds herself in the hold of a ship. Finally, Moon is married to a doctor of Chinese medicine. Based upon facts and historic reality, See weaves a mesmerizing tale of these three very different women, who find each other and the strength to fight back with heart wrenching resolve.
The Frenzy, Joyce Carol Oates
Nine short stories from the prolific writer dealing with the unknown, fear, life-altering changes and isolation with protagonists facing their own dark side and subconscious. Complications of a human’s tangled mind in the face of crises or unrelenting situations are explored in each story, leaving the reader to deal with the emotional turmoil and questioning not only the approach but how one would deal with each situation. Definitely a page turner and Oates at her best in describing despair.
Pinar’s Picks
I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman
A 1995 science fiction book written by the Belgian writer and first published in French, the story of 39 women and a girl held prisoner in a cage and guarded by male guards. The youngest has no memory of the life before and the remaining do not know why they are caged. They flee one day, into a world which they do not know, and rebuild their lives wandering in a seasonless environment. Poignant, fascinating and original, the book creates powerful images of solitude and the unknown. The book became a phenomenon on Tik Tok years after and got reprinted in English in 2022. Truly haunting and profound.
The Land and Its People, David Sedaris
A collection of 28 essays dealing with family, friendship, caregiving, aging, travel and day-to-day experiences written in Sedaris’ witty, dry humor. Quite funny, sometimes contradictory but always relatable, the book is full of comments you may not always want to say out loud but laugh at all the same when you hear from others. Audacious and intelligent, very fun to read - maybe because it borders on cranky.