With summer soon upon us, I’m again piling up a selection of intriguing books to read during the quieter weeks ahead. I am delighted to share my 2025 summer reading list.

The recommendations come almost entirely from Belmont Day community members who consistently inform and fuel my love of reading. The titles are my best attempt to look at different types of books across genres, intended to align with the escape of summer and the professional development that comes with a break from the demands of the school year.

There are thirteen books—one for each week between Memorial Day and Labor Day. If you are wondering—yes, I try to read my entire list each summer. And, no, I haven’t yet succeeded, as you’ll see at the bottom of this list.

While I may only get through some of them, the effort is valiant, and the reading is always entertaining, thought-provoking, and important. Perhaps this will be the year?! There’s only one way to find out—let’s get started. Enjoy your summer reading, everyone!

Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie

Before the pandemic, my teaching responsibilities included a whole trimester of teaching seventh grade English. As we ready ourselves for the 2025-26 school year, I am pleased to return to that teaching model to add poetry and another novel alongside my teaching of Shakespeare. Next year, the book I will be adding is Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. A text in the genre of magical realism, Rushdie wrote these stories for his son while the author was in hiding due to the fatwa placed on him by Ayatollah Khomeini. Haroun is a joyful, child-centered look at the power of free speech and the love of family. He also asks: What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true?

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson

I gave Larson’s latest as a gift to eighth grade social studies teacher Emma Alexander following her excellent work on Capstone this year because it captures so much of what I love about Capstone: the deep dive and thorough exploration of a singular topic with present-day resonance.

You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It’s Making the World a Weirder Place, Janelle Shane

There is a lot pulling me toward this book. First is the relevancy and immediacy of a force working its way into our lives, and, more importantly, our children’s lives. Second, this book comes highly recommended by the president of the National Association of Independent Schools. Finally, Adam Grant, author of Think Again, a personal favorite, offered this blurb on the book’s cover that made the topic so much less intimidating: “I can’t think of a better way to learn about artificial intelligence, and I’ve never had so much fun along the way.” Sign me up!

The Fox Wife, Yangsze Choo

Set in Manchuria in 1908, Choo’s novel brings us back to what Amazon describes as the “last years of the dying Qing Empire, where a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.”

Permission to Feel, Mark Brackett

A recommendation from our incoming Assistant Head of School, Divya Muralidhara. Divya spoke to it as a guiding text to help us better understand children’s social-emotional lives in a world where those skills are becoming increasingly crucial and less taught.

The History of Sound, Ben Shattuck

Among the many folks at BDS offering a good book recommendation, The History of Sound comes from Heather Woodcock. She describes it as “feeling close to home.” A collection of stories with that kind of resonance? Can’t wait to read it this summer.

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, Ilyon Woo

A recommendation Blair Fross, director of school-year auxiliary and specialty programs, (which is justification enough to get on this list), Master Slave Husband Wife is the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography that details the incredible story of the Crafts, a husband and wife who “achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.”

Reset: How to Change What Isn’t Working, Dan Heath

Several years back, I read Dan and his brother, Chip Heath’s book, Made to Stick, as a companion to Malcolm Gladwell’s mega bestseller, Outliers. Dan is back now with Reset, which, I suspect, will serve as a great partner to Gladwell’s new Revenge of the Tipping Point. Both speak to the lessons we’ve learned since those earlier publications and provide insight into what the future holds for organizational leadership.

This Is Happiness, Niall Williams

An intricate portrayal of community (and, yes, a second Blair Fross recommendation!) set in Ireland and written with a voice that could place you there if you close your eyes. I lived in Ireland a lifetime ago. I look forward to the return trip by way of Williams’ novel.

The Art of the Sonnet, Stephanie Burt & David Mikics

In addition to teaching Haroun next year, I will also teach Shakespearean sonnets as a prelude to Romeo and Juliet. I will spend some of my summer in London and Stratford-on-Avon studying Shakespeare on his home turf—no better poetic accompaniment than the sonnet for my trip.

The Marvellers, Dhonielle Clayton

A recommendation from our fifth grade students and their Head Marvellers, fifth grade teacher Vaniecia Skinner, director of innovation Annie Fuerst, and school librarian Amy Sprung. A middle-grade adventure and fantasy novel, The Marvellers is a story of a student of magic who seeks to bring her own culture to a school where she yearns to fit in. Extract the magic, and the experience sounds and feels awfully familiar. I can’t wait to read this and learn alongside fifth grade next year.

The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami

Borrowed directly from the Amazon review: “Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.”

The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World, Allison Pugh

I see this as a partner text to You Look Like a Thing and I Love You. Recommended by middle school head Liz Gray, The Last Human Job, examines the impact of artificial intelligence. As described by Amazon: “With the rapid development of artificial intelligence and labor-saving technologies like self-checkouts and automated factories, the future of work has never been more uncertain, and even jobs requiring high levels of human interaction are no longer safe. The Last Human Job explores the human connections that underlie our work, arguing that what people do for each other in these settings is valuable and worth preserving.”

BONUS BOOK!

Orbital, Samantha Harvey

The Booker Prize Winner from last year’s list … never got to it. I’m hoping the second time’s the charm. Happy reading, everyone!