(Bloomberg View) -- It doesn't matter how much you read -- there is always a special place, just on the horizon, where you'd like to spend more time reading. Most people call this "summer." And the kinds of things you read there are often very different from the digest on your phone or laptop. Books, yes, but ones that can pull you away from reality, or change the way you look at it, or both. Here are the books that the writers of Bloomberg View are reading this summer.
The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest
By Cixin Liu
Chinese science fiction, or Chinese ghost story, or maybe even Chinese reinvention of the novel? These are the works of fiction I am most enthusiastic about since Elena Ferrante and Karl Ove Knausgaard. I say read a plot summary of the first volume before starting the book, unless you are inclined to read it twice, as I did. -- TYLER COWEN
Reamde
By Neal Stephenson
Just how much trouble could opening a ransomware file get you into? Neal Stephenson's "Reamde" starts from there and expands into an ocean-spanning thriller with escalating groups of bad guys. The Chinese kids who built the ransomware for fun and profit are the least of them. Stephenson's novels are known for playing with big ideas about technology and society, usually by taking the reader into a science-fiction or historical setting. "Reamde" is more of a romp, set in our world. That world does, however, contain its own subcultural nooks and crannies, and Stephenson enjoys making them at once strange and familiar. And if you want to lie in the sun without worrying about glare on the page, I recommend the Audible version. – VIRGINIA POSTREL
Camino Island
By John Grisham
The Godfather Notebook
By Francis Ford Coppola
In summer I escape my cares by reading commercial fiction, so I would of course recommend the latest from Scott Turow ("Testimony") and John Grisham ("Camino Island") -- each of whom this year has chosen to step outside his usual courtroom wheelhouse, with simply splendid results. I have not yet put my hands on the new Daniel Silva ("House of Spies"), which I am sure will be as outstanding as usual.
But my vacation reading always includes nonfiction as well. Most years I would be deep in science, history or biography. My project this summer, however, is to finish my study of "The Godfather Notebook," a page-by-page reproduction of Francis Ford Coppola's original notes on how to turn the novel into a film. The remarkable detail of his commentary, some handwritten, some in various typescripts, provides a fascinating look within the imagination that crafted one of the greatest movies ever made. Also, it's grand fun. -- STEPHEN L. CARTER
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
By Jerome K. Jerome
"We were all feeling seedy, and we were getting quite nervous about it. Harris said he felt such extraordinary fits of giddiness come over him at times, that he hardly knew what he was doing; and then George said that HE had fits of giddiness too, and hardly knew what HE was doing. With me, it was my liver that was out of order. I knew it was my liver that was out of order, because I had just been reading a patent liver-pill circular, in which were detailed the various symptoms by which a man could tell when his liver was out of order. I had them all."
So begins Jerome K. Jerome's 1889 classic "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)". If you are yourself feeling a bit seedy this summer, the witty account of a boating holiday is exactly the tonic you need. Despite its venerable age, the humor is fresh and its charms eternal. At a time when many people feel they need a little vacation from the present, this book is just the ticket. -- MEGAN McARDLE
The End of Europe
By James Kirchick
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Americans have taken for granted that Europe would remain whole and free. However, events over the last year, from Brexit to Russian meddling in the French elections, prove this is a fragile proposition. James Kirchick's "The End of Europe" is an essential primer for understanding how and why the optimistic vision of a post-Cold War Europe is in peril. Kirchick combines original reporting and incisive analysis to explain why Europe is now coming apart. The book shines in its emphasis on overlooked details of this recent history, such as Russian operations against Estonia and the spy scandal that nearly destroyed U.S.-German relations after Edward Snowden gave journalists reams of documents from the National Security Agency. -- ELI LAKE
Testimony
By Scott Turow
Private Empire
By Steve Coll
I'm one of those people who are always reading two books at the same time. On the fiction side, Scott Turow has done the impossible: Making the International Criminal Court in The Hague interesting. In real life, the court is a slow-moving disaster. Yet in "Testimony" it is a hotbed of intrigue and infighting involving a massacre of Roma people in former Yugoslavia and the travails of an American prosecutor who, like Turow, is a former federal attorney and corporate lawyer.
On the nonfiction side, I'm recommending a book published four years ago that is ever-so-relevant right now: Steve Coll's "Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power." Coll, one of the most distinguished U.S. journalists of his generation, has authored an exhaustive yet gripping history of a global corporate behemoth, and of course one main figure is its former chief executive officer Rex Tillerson, now the U.S. secretary of state. The book details Exxon's cultish obsession with spreading its version of capitalism across the globe and also its downside: As one descendant of John D. Rockefeller puts it, this creed includes a "lack of interest in listening to outsiders, an assumption that they know the answers." Perhaps that helps explain Tillerson's dismal first months on the job, with his massively understaffed department often being cut off at the knees by President Donald Trump's tweets. Tillerson may just find out that conquering the world's oil markets is far easier than bringing a government bureaucracy to heel. -- TOBIN HARSHAW
Year of Yes
By Shonda Rhimes
I've read many of Funny Lady Books like those by Tiny Fey, Mindy Kaling and Caitlin Moran. Shonda Rhimes, the creator of TV shows including "Scandal" and "Grey's Anatomy," tops them all in humor, sass and intelligence with "Year of Yes." It is part memoir and part self-help book about coming to grips with the anxiety that made Rhimes practically a shut-in even as her career soared. (The title refers to challenging herself to accept invitations that terrify her.) The personal fix-it prescriptions are inspiring if not entirely relatable for mere mortals. But it's a great read for the same reason Rhimes's shows are joyful entertainment: She shapes the English language like a master craftsman. -- SHIRA OVIDE
The Goldfinch
By Donna Tartt
Ever get the sense that life is too little to bother with, and yet too much to bear? Such is Theo Decker's burden, the Goldfinch's protagonist who commands readers' attention for 962 breathtakingly fast-paced pages. The supple prose in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Donna Tartt roundly refutes a world riveted by soulless 140-character tweets. The length of the book challenges the superficial, but immediately defies the doubters, sucking them in from page one. Tartt richly rewards readers who open their minds and hearts to Theo's journey after tragedy to a place of peace and self-discovery. But this is not about symmetrical solace: In the pained but philosophical words of Theo, “A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand, we don't get to choose our own hearts. We can't make ourselves want what's good for us or what's good for other people. We don't get to choose the people we are.”
Wiser words for those who care to take a bit of weight with them in their beach bag summer reading fare. For your bravery and trepidation, The Goldfinch delivers soundly. -- DANIELLE DiMARTINO BOOTH
The Fifties
By David Halberstam
We're living in an age of disruption, uncertainty, and confusion about the future. Old models and institutions seem to be falling by the wayside. That's caused some to yearn for the simpler times of the past. But what did the past feel like to those who were living through it? In that light, my two recommendations are for David Halberstam's "The Fifties," an account of America in the post-war 1950's when everything felt new, and "From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store," a look at when physical retail felt like the future rather than the past. Despite the tumult of the present, we will emerge from this period someday with our own set of new values and institutions, and these books have helped me to think about what that might feel like. -- CONOR SEN
Flaubert in the Ruins of Paris
By Peter Brooks
Gustave Flaubert could've been somebody. So begins Peter Brooks' "Flaubert in the Ruins of Paris." Brooks takes a comment Flaubert made to a friend in 1871, amid the physical and political ruins of the Paris Commune, that if only readers had understood "Sentimental Education," Flaubert's novel that had flopped two years before, the violence that consumed France that terrible year could've been avoided. It's a shockingly immodest claim, verging on ridiculous. But in scrutinizing it from a multitude of angels, Brooks provides insights on art, morality, history, class and politics, and on the vicious currents that sometimes flow through a democratic culture. -- FRANK WILKINSON
Karl Marx: A Life
By Francis Wheen
I've been looking at its spine at bedtime every night for the past couple of years (there's a bookshelf next to my side of the bed), and apparently bought it 17 years ago in London (it says "Chiswick, 2000" in my handwriting on the title page). A few days ago I finally pulled Francis Wheen's biography of Karl Marx off the shelf and started reading. It's been highly entertaining so far -- so much so that it made me wonder whether somebody had ever tried to make a movie about Marx's early years. It turns out somebody has, with Raoul Peck's "The Young Karl Marx" due to premiere in the U.S. this fall. In the meantime I'll continue with the book, which for me is a long-overdue education in the life and ideas of somebody I really ought to understand better. And just in case it starts corrupting me, I've got Nicholas Phillipson's "Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life" at the ready. -- JUSTIN FOX
All The Birds In The Sky
By Charlie Jane Anders
"All The Birds In The Sky" isn't my favorite book of the past few years (that would be "Seveneves," by Neal Stephenson), or the most profound (that would I guess be "Raven," by Tim Reiterman). But its amalgam of fantasy and sci-fi is exactly right for a summer escape. The book tracks the relationship of a witch and a tech prodigy from nightmarish childhood to nightmarish adulthood by weaving together elements of YA, apocalypse porn, Silicon Valley satire and, why not, romance. Somehow it all works together, thanks to Anders's engaging style, humor and impeccable pacing. The end is maybe just a bit too tidy, bumping it from Dostoevsky's league. But you're reading a book on the beach. Just enjoy it. -- MARK GONGLOFF
Let There Be Water
By Seth M. Siegel
As you recline under the sun this weekend, bring the subject of water along in your beach bag. Siegel dives into the subject of the global water crisis and how it can be fixed, if the world were to follow and embrace the Israeli model. He became intrigued by a 2012 report by the National Intelligence Council concluding that the world is entering into a "prolonged water crisis," concluding that in less than a decade countries important to the U.S. and to global security will be at risk of a "state failure." Built on meticulous research and interviews with 220 people -- including many world leaders -- he explains how a tiny nation in the middle of the desert has so much clean water that it exports it, even to neighbors that may not like them very much. Its a fascinating and detailed study that intertwines history, politics, technology and sociology, addressing a subject that is crucial to every living person. – SHELLEY GOLDBERG
All year long I download books that I want to read, promising myself that I'll get to them over the summer. And every year I read, at most, one of them. You know how it is. So call this my best-of-intentions-summer-reading list:
Killers of the Flower Moon
By David Grann
I'll read anything by Grann.
Giant of the Senate
By Al Franken
I hear it's funny.
Before the Fall
By Noah Hayley
Every summer list needs a best-selling thriller.
Late to The Ball
By Gerald Marzorati
About an old guy who wants to be a good tennis player. Sounds like me.
Thomas Jefferson, The Art of Power
By Jon Meacham
Was Jefferson really as full of himself as he's made out to be in the musical "Hamilton"? Want to find out. -- JOE NOCERA
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Disclosure: Turow is a friend and I have been editing his op-ed pieces for two decades, including the smartest thing ever written about the O.J. Simpson trial
For more columns from Bloomberg View, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/view.
With assistance from Editorial Board
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