LitHub's Re-Reads of the Summer

Of the books suggested in LitHub's The Lit Hub Staff’s Favorite Summer (Re-)Reads Or, the Books at the Bottoms of our Beach Bags, I have read only two of the novels

I read Under the Volcano during my stay in prison and now think maybe I need re-read it. I had read of its being this great novel, had seen part's of the Albert Finney movie, and finished not exactly bowed over but liking the book all the same. Perhaps reading it outside of a prison might lead to a reaction more like this:

Under the Volcano was written to be reread: Lowry, whose booze-sodden, allusive modernism blossomed in the isolation of his own alcoholism, wrote the book so you could start reading at any point, the “story” built around not much more than the tidal pull of Firmin’s sadly compelling consciousness. And if there is sunshine in the book, it is there to render the shadows that much darker: the nearby mountain, the Second World War, the end of a marriage, the nearness of death, the oblivions of alcohol… Obviously, it’s the perfect beach read! (Look, my son’s middle name is Lowry.)

I do wholeheartedly agree about The Talented Mr. Ripley. My reading this book did not suffer from my being imprisoned or having seen the movie version - Highsmith just rolls over such distractions. So I can only agree with Emily Temple's assessment:

...It’s a book that reminds you how easily beautiful exteriors can hide deteriorating insides. But really, it has everything you could ever want in a summer novel: steamy Italian beaches, complex love triangles, travel, boating excursions, murder, impersonation, murder, escaping by the skin of your teeth and feeling pretty good about it, actually. But more importantly, it is compelling in the best way: Ripley is an intoxicating character, even (especially) in his amorality, and you find yourself wanting him to succeed, no matter what he does—and more than anything else, wanting to keep reading, no matter what’s going on around you. And not for nothing, I think of it every time I’m squirming around on the floor of my apartment, trying to catch the sunlight on my body, so that my stomach isn’t too pale when I meet my friends on the beach. That’s a normal thing to do, right?

I have heard of  Richard Hughes's A High Wind in Jamaica and of Renata Adler and The Valley of the Dolls, but while I have heard of and Salman Rushdie I have never heard of his The Ground Beneath Her Feet. I have heard of but not read André Aciman or his Call Me By Your Name. Others mentioned are:

• Sarah Schulman, After Delores
• Sharma Shields, The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac 
• Melissa Bank, The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing
• Rachel Ingalls, Binstead’s Safari
• Margarita Liberaki, Three Summers