The AIR MAIL Summer Reading List
From Ann Patchett’s tender tale of reconciliation to Jenny Jackson’s juicy seaside romp, here are the 10 books our editors are taking with them on their travels this summer
These Boots Were Made for Walking
In an excerpt from Too L.A., Lili Anolik’s new collection of the novelist’s letters, Eve Babitz unleashes a fiery tirade against an unidentified boyfriend who dared to insult her shoes
The Missing Miracle Worker
In 1950, Joe Gaetjens helped the U.S. pull off the greatest upset in World Cup history. Fourteen years later, a Haitian death squad came for him
Diamond in the Rough
A new edition of Dawn Powell’s 1942 novel, A Time to Be Born, seeks to rehabilitate its author, whose society tales skewered the New York milieu and earned the admiration of Hemingway and Vidal
All You Need Is George Martin
The genteel record producer did not look the part of a revolutionary. But as a commemorative new book makes clear, his wildly innovative work with the Beatles changed pop music forever
Rebecca Ressler
The owner of Hollywood Books has turned her small, finely curated bookstore into a Los Angeles literary hot spot, drawing guests such as Kaia Gerber and Petra Collins
The Tweet Escape
San Francisco gave away $70 million in tax revenue to lure the nascent social-media company to its bleakest neighborhood. Was it worth it?
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss: the five Cambridge grads who spied for Stalin, how birds evolved from dinosaurs, and a W.W.II novel following two Black U.S. soldiers and a Jewish boy
WAGs Just Want to Have Fun
Victoria Beckham, Shakira, Georgina Rodríguez … In time for the World Cup, a look at the wives and girlfriends of soccer players who have long stolen the spotlight from the beautiful game
The Soul Singer from North London
With songs like “Father Figure” and “Careless Whisper,” George Michael became the first white solo artist to lead the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart—re-drawing the boundaries of the genre forever
Slouching Towards Istanbul
What a decade in Erdoğan’s authoritarian Turkey taught me about the long, bloody shadow of America’s foreign wars
The Hardest Day’s Night
With photographs by Jim Marshall, a new coffee-table book revisits the charged, melancholy night the Beatles played the last concert of their final tour
In Contempt of Court
A.I. models incorrectly predict that most Supreme Court cases will be decided along party lines. The real culprit isn’t the algorithm—it’s us
The Royal Treatment
From The Crown to Love Story, Hollywood’s enduring fascination with the Windsors and the Kennedys has cemented their mythos for the next generation—but at what cost?
Fire Island Time
A new coffee-table book looks beyond the island’s reputation as a queer summer utopia, revealing it, for the first time, as a creative hub that influenced artists from Richard Avedon to Wolfgang Tillmans
Murder, They Wrote
This month in mysteries: James Comey’s new espionage thriller and the latest installment in Anthony Horowitz’s meta-mystery series
The Duke Hunter
Andrew Lownie’s biography of the Yorks helped bring down the former Prince Andrew. With new allegations in the forthcoming U.S. paperback, the scourge of the royals is still in hot pursuit
The Spammer Becomes the Spammee
After receiving one too many fake-book-club scams, I clicked reply
Hail, Caesar!
Roddy McDowall came to fame with How Green Was My Valley and starred alongside Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, but The Planet of the Apes is what cemented his legacy
Mayday!
Cambridge’s most infamous party girl tips her hat to Dafydd Jones, the society photographer whose latest book captures more than 40 years of the school’s hedonistic May Balls
