Summer Reading

by Hilma Wolitzer

Can reading change your life?
Following her acclaimed novel The Doctor's Daughter, award-winning author Hilma Wolitzer has now written a stirring tale about friendship, romance, inspiration, longing, and, especially, the love of good books. Summer Reading offers a seductive glimpse into the intersecting lives of three very different women.
Summer in the Hamptons means crowded beaches during the day and lavish parties in the evening, but Angela Graves, a retired English professor, prefers the company of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Charlotte Bronte. Her only steady social contacts are with the women in the reading groups she leads, among them, is wealthy Lissy Snyder, a beautiful newlywed who hosts the twice-monthly meetings of the Page Turners and takes pains to hide a reading disability and her emotional neediness. Hamptons local Michelle Cutty, Lissy's housecleaner, eavesdrops on the group's discussions-of books and gossip-when she's not snooping through Lissy's closets.
All three women secretly struggle with troubling personal issues that threaten the tenuous balance of their lives: Lissy, abandoned by her father in childhood, is now the unwilling stepmother of her husband's hostile children; Michelle, resentful of the moneyed arrogance of the jet-setting, seasonal "invaders," can't secure a commitment from her fisherman boyfriend; and solitary, bookish Angela still bears the shameful memory of a disastrous love affair that took place long ago.
As Angela encourages the Page Turners to identify with the literary heroines of Trollope and Flaubert, the books-in fact, the act of reading itself-will influence the tough choices the women must make. Stunningly evocative and richly imagined, Summer Reading explores the meaning and consequences of living an authentic life. "From the Hardcover edition."

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Summer, Womens, Books About Books, Womens Fiction, Relationships

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Hilma Wolitzer (b. 1930) is a critically hailed author of literary fiction. She is a recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and a Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. Her first short story appeared in print when she was thirty-six. Eight years later she published her first novel. Her novels and stories have drawn praise for illuminating the dark interiors of the American home. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Lorna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summer Reading by Hilma Wolitzer was not as good as I hoped but nor was it as bad as I feared. In fairness, this is not a genre that I usually read but this author has been receiving a lot of buzz on Goodreads lately and a digital copy was available at the library, so I thought why not. Immersed in a very long and cold Colorado winter, the cover was very appealing. And a review on NPR was favorable so while the snow was falling, I escaped to the Hamptons to join the Page Turners Book Club, sipping mango iced tea and munching creamy little sandwiches sans crusts in a screened-in gazebo.

The book is narrated by three very different members of the Page Turners Book Club whose lives intersect in surprising ways throughout the summer. Retired English professor, Angela Graves, moderates reading groups while actually preferring to be in her quaint cottage surrounded by her beloved books acquired over the years. And wealthy newlywed Lissy Snyder hosts the Page Turners Book Club twice a month in her spacious home in the Hamptons. Lissy is self-conscious about a reading disability that she tries to mask from everyone. It is also narrated from the point of view of local resident and housecleaner, Michelle Cutty who loves eavesdropping on the book club relishing the latest gossip when not snooping throughout the Snyder household and trying on outfits in Lissy's closet. As the summer progresses, we are part of the unique and individual struggles of each of the three women and how they may, or may not, be resolved over the summer.

There is a booklist of the books assigned to the Page Turners Book Club by Angela for their summer reading including Villette by Charlotte Bronte, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. Although there are literary references to these books and authors, there certainly is not a lot of depth.

Emma sought to learn what was really meant in life by the words "happiness," "passion," and "intoxication"--words that had seemed so beautiful to her in books.

----- GUSTAVE FLAUBERT, Madame Bovary

[Jillian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two words sum up my feelings about Summer Reading: God-awful. I mean, does it get any worse than this? Not only is there no plot at all, but there are three completely boring view points! Not one of these woman managed to interest me in any way at all. To be worse, there was no point to having these three woman narrate. Sure, their lives are all connected somehow, but they barely interact! Angela was just a crazy old lady. Lissy was your typical woe-is-me rich wife. Michelle was the disgruntled servant. None of the characters brought anything new to the table. There were at least three or four uninteresting subplots that did nothing for this already bland story. Frankly, I was relieved when I got to the last page of this. Ugh! I know they saw not to judge a book by its cover, but in this case I should have. Don't read! Seriously, it's not worth the paper it's printed on. Trees cry when they realize they're going to be made into paper that Summer Reading is going to be printed on.

[Suzanne Macartney · Rating 4 out of 5]

More serious in tone than Karen Joy Fowler's bookclub novel, but asks unflinchingly about the role of literature in our lives. How's that for light summer reading? And yet it is. Not overlong, not overserious and kept me up late to finish it. Privileged women meet & lives intersect with the book club. Women who work for a living (gasp!) are also featured. Wolitzer touches lightly on social class & the choices women make. A lot of bang for a little summer reading.

----------------------------------------------------
Learned of this new book from a review on the NPR by Maureen Corrigan:
"One of those [book]groups, hosted by a blonde billionairess named Lissy Snyder, calls itself The Page Turners. Its members pay a lot of attention to style and less to substance: For its ostensible discussion of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, for instance, The Page Turners has its meeting catered by Fiesta on Wheels, complete with margaritas piñatas stuffed with bookmarks."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

There has been a lot of books written lately that have you reading about reading itself, and that explore the idea that there is a greater purpose behind the books we read. "The Jane Austen Book Club", "The Thirteenth Tale" are just the first two such books that come to my mind. "Summer Reading" gives you a reading list at the end that makes it seem that to throughly understand the book you must do a little background reading. After reading "Summer Reading" and seeing how the characters; for the most part; were unimpressed with, and at times frustrated with, the characters in the given novels I had no urge to read "Villette" or "Mrs Bridge" for example.
I gave this one three stars because it wasn't totally unenjoyable, yet not a great and unforgettable 5 stars. I felt some sort of connection to Angela's need to sometimes hide in the sheltering confines of a book. I agreed with Wolitzer's idea that we read for more than just the literary persuit of great works of literature. Sometimes you read for escape, for relaxation.Maybe it does in fact teach us how to live (or not live--depending on the story). Then as Angela points out why would an avid reader not have the perfect life as a result of having seen it all in the pages of a book?
Even if the characters were not believeable or found to be poorly developed I think that the story still holds merit in that it makes you ask yourself why you read and lets face it the title is "Summer Reading" which in most cases means a fast, easy read with characters who are never meant to be loved and remembered for their deeper meanings.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comparisons with The Jane Austen Book Club are probably going to run throughout the reviews, so I will keep it to a minimum and say that this book, while similar in what it is trying to do (weave together the lives of characters through books), is done in a completely different manner. I thought this book was smarter, and while I enjoyed reading it, I basically forgot everything about it when I finished. I hope this happens to other people sometimes. It was good, but not a book I would recommend, but I also wouldn't recommend The Jane Austen Book Club.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not going to lie. I thought this was going to be closer to a cheese puff book than a roast beef book. Not too far from the end, it got me in the gut and made me cry. This is multi-layered, has multiple narrators (which I really like), and tells the stories of what could be real people. Thoroughly enjoyable except for the part that made me cry.

[Keanes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just okay. Wish they had focused on the reading, not the drama. Liked Michelle the best. Disjointed and disappointing.

[Alison Horn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's title says it all. Perfect beach read!

[Linda Selbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listen to the story and found it fairly enjoyable. I didn't have to focus very much on it and was able to listen while I fell asleep or while I was in the car. Not the best book I've ever read, but also not the worst

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book about a book club and the troubles of the people in it: Hamptonians(?), rich, poor, and the professor who leads it.

[Elizabeth Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heading off to a weekend far from screens of any kind -- tv, computer, cell phone, etc. -- I picked up a couple of beach reads from authors I'd never tried before. Last up, Hilma Wolitzer's Summer Reading: A Novel. I added Wolitzer's latest book to my Amazon wish list after reading a review in the NYTimes, so I snapped up this novel because it seemed a perfect fit for my objective of finding beach reads, and am I ever glad I did! Wolitzer's novel is set in the beach towns of the Hamptons and told from the points-of-view of three women. Angela Graves is a former English professor who retired to a small cottage in a Hamptons village and who picks up extra money by leading book groups. Lissy Snyder is the newlywed trophy wife of a megabucks corporate type whose summer home has a cutesy name and who is hostess for one of Angela's book groups. And Michelle Cutty is a Hamptons native who works -- grudgingly -- as Lissy's housekeeper and gets an earful of book talk when she serves fancy drinks and upscale snacks to the book group. The books read and discussed over the summer -- which Wolitzer thoughtfully provides as a list at the end of the book -- help trigger important changes for each of the three women. Angela is lonely and needs to find friends. Lissy lacks self-confidence, especially with her step-children, and needs to find strength. Michelle is drifting through her life and relationship and needs to decide what she wants out of life. Wolitzer gives each of her characters a distinct voice and attitude, and she manages to make all three very different women quite appealing. For Lissy, especially, that was a huge challenge -- born rich, kinda vacuous, sort of a plaything -- and Wolitzer succeeds in making her both sympathetic and interesting. Wolitzer loves her characters, which is my current favorite attribute for a novelist, and in that she reminds me of Nick Hornby and Richard Russo. However, the woman writer she most reminds me of is Elinor Lipman. What a summer treat to find a brand new writer with a nice fat backlist just waiting to be read!

[Areli Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book for me is okay. I like it but I am just looking for more and it did not give that “more” I am looking for. It is written in a beautiful and creative way. The story is just okay for me. It is a simple and light read which tells us things about life, love, self-realizations, and our relationship with other people.
The characters are all different from one another, but somehow in their life experiences and some feelings they are alike. They are experiencing issues about acceptance from other people, self-acceptance, and betrayal. I think they are pretty relatable women because their thoughts and what they do are what actual women think and do, especially when it comes to family and love. It’s good that the author achieved character development in this novel. The alternating point of views also helped in looking deeply into the characters’ lives, emotions, and thoughts.
What I like most about this novel is that it really makes any reader of it realize that literature can change lives. I believe that literature is really powerful. It inspires people. It makes people aware, sensitive, and reflect on life.
I also love how it touches the subject of living your life to the fullest and to the way you want it to be and not on how others expect you to live, and to do the things you want to do with passion and with no hesitations.
It also says (though not in the direct way) that we should be thankful of what and who we have, and to be not insecure with other people around us. We should not be thinking that other people are perfect and are living a perfect life with the perfect persons. We all have our struggles in life, so we should not say that, “I wish I was him/her.”
It is a good novel, but I think it can be better. The writer, I believe, can do so much more to make this book a better one.
I am looking forward to reading more novels by Hilma Wolitzer because I can see that she has a good potential in writing.
If you want a simple, light, funny, creative, relatable, and inspirational read, then I think you should give this book a try.

[Awwwtrouble · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed one of Wolitzer's books a few years ago, a quiet contemplative study of a life, and decided on a whim in a library to give this a try. I started reading this, then entered it into GoodReads and was surprised the rating was so low, but decided not to read any of the reviews, beyond a quick skim that indicated low raters felt nothing much happened in the book. Wolitzer is a skilled writer, and it is true that not much actually does happen. But she draws you into the lives and motivations of her three central characters, and I felt they were real people. Things do happen, and reasonably satisfying endings happen for all, so it wasn't a bad read overall. Perhaps simply too slight to be truly satisfying, and maybe some of the endings were a bit too pat. I'm typing this having just finished the book, and on reflection I might become a little dissatisfied with the ending. I remember in the other book that I thought the author was building toward a predictable twist but veered away at the last moment - here I think she went with twists for every story, but in ways not entirely predictable - certainly not in the more dramatic possibilities, but in small twists that resolved the stories. I'd read more of Wolitzer, though probably not more than one a year.

[Christi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe if I had read the books the book club was reading, I'd be able to draw more comparisons or see more parallels to the character development. The three main characters have very little interaction and mostly live in three distinct worlds that only cross paths during the meeting of the book club where Angela is the leader, Lissy is the hostess and Michelle is the caterer/housekeeper.

This book was just meh.
I guess it's supposed to show the differences in the classes living on Long Island during the summer? I found the characters to each be self-absorbed, judgemental and boring.
They were more alike than they'd probably admit. They may not have common interests or salaries or educations but they all live in a world that revolves around them and the rest of the world are just passing planets.

It really bugged me that the Angela, the English teacher lady suspected that Lissy, the housewifey chick, had a reading disability and didn't take the time to talk to her one-on-one and work with her. She was totally just running these book clubs for the cash, the excuse to re-read books she liked and to be surrounded by women.

It was a very quick read. Thankfully.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you liked The Jane Austen Book Club, you'll probably enjoy this book, too, which follows three different women who are of different stations and classes of life. It's easy reading, but with more substance than I expected, making it very enjoyable.

Yes, the three engaging storylines are all tied up neatly by the end, but the book asks and ponders some decent questions about literature and its affect on our lives. It uses a number of classic novels (and Harry Potter) to propose that 'literature teaches us how to live authentic lives' (an indirect quotation from the novel). Do the characters actually learn how to live by reading? I think the answer is yes, though I appreciate how their lives are only slightly (yet significantly) altered. The outcomes are realistic, not complete transformations.

I recommend this book: a great light read that still makes you think!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book...would it be fluffy like a lot of beach books I read in the summer with sultry characters and tawdry premises or would it provoke thinking about the dictum "art as life" or even "life as art" and examining philosophically the role books play in our lives? It was i-n-b-e-t-w-e-e-n, neither serious, nor light, but rather straddling both worlds of gravitas and mindless escape. I read this book in between writing a paper and completing a project for two grad school classes and wanting to get the fuck out of a master's program and just be a pampered housewife like one of the characters in this novel. You know how people say, watch it on DVD rather than go to the movies on this one? This is that story enjoyed by TIVO on the independent film channel.....which you'd rather watch in the comfort of your blue screen while still being able to pause and attend to immediate needs of ice cream and the bathroom before returning to making your brain reflect and ponder.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

How could I pass up a novel with a title like that? Again, the author seems favored by the NY Time which I often find to be more of a guarantee than the Pulitzer which gave us such winners as Shipping News and other pleasurable reads that I couldn't stay awake thru. Well, this one totally stank - her other book which was a cut above mediocre was definitely better than this one, which might be why the Times said "triumphant ... her best book yet" if they're working relatively. Anyway, it was trite and empty and overdone, with a small amount of potential (the more and more cliched concept of using a book club discussing classics as a format for the current issues the characters are dealing with) that was totally ignored, it seems, by the author. I wanted to get into some light stuff this summer (my days of planning on reading Proust are way over) but I think I need to break out of that, it's like eating cotton candy for dinner.

[Elizabeth Bullock · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was horrible. The characters are shallow and poorly developed. The plot was lame.

The story follows three women, of different social classes, during a summer in the Hamptons. The characters' stories intersect through the meeting of a book club that is run by a former literature professor.

By the end of the book, I could barely stomach any of the characters. Trophy wife Lissy continues to be a shallow snob, grasping for any contact with the more famous Hampton-ites. Angela, the professor, has a really sick obsession with a family that she nearly destroyed (but it's possible that I was supposed to have sympathy for her). Michelle, who works as a maid in Lissy's vacation home was the only tolerable character, but only because she wasn't as horrible as the other two. There is far too little material in the book that makes the reader want to care about any of the women.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 1/2 stars. Easy to read, but painful at times. The author chose three connected women in vastly different stations of life, but all in the Hamptons in summer. A chapter apiece type of set-up. Which is fine. Not so fine was how everything had to be tinged by sex. It pervaded every aspect of the story but was completely unnecessary. As if it was really the author who has sex pervade every part if her life. Weird. And the older retired professor woman was really so pathetic that I can't imagine a character like her truly existing in real life. Most of the characters seemed a bit like caricatures. Not fully developed humans. I don't know. I guess people like this must exist, but sheesh. Ok. Not worth more of my time. Why did I finish it? Because I have a hard time abandoning books. And because I wanted to see Lissy and Michelle end up ok. (the other 2 main characters). Which I think they did.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story follows a group of people in, or surrounding, a book club.
Angela is retired English professor who is hired to run the book club. Lissy has become it's unofficial leader. Michelle is Lissy's maid, she picks up bits and pieces of the book club but isn't a member.

Each woman's story is told, each is complicated in it's own way. Lissy is a rich, paranoid, newlywed. Angela has a scandal in her past that she wants forgiveness for. Michelle is hoping for a commitment from her longtime boyfriend.
Each of them sees inspiration in the books that they read, ways that they think the actions of the characters in the book could improve their own lives.

Things get a bit chaotic towards the end and, as an animal lover, I'd rather have completely skipped over one part of the end of the story. But everyone's story was neatly wrapped up by the end.

[Katie O. · Rating 2 out of 5]

If your idea of summer reading is beach- or pool-worthy fare of the romance, drama, adventure, or chick lit variety then this book is not for you. Yes, it's story arcs over the course of one summer - with ample flashbacks/memories - but that's it in terms of warmth & sunny attitudes.

Of course, if you prefer a humid slog from the doldrums right into the summertime blues, then this is the book for you. It's a tepid torpor of unrequited everything. A few sparks of lightning are quickly drowned by waves of 'misery loves company.' Spoiler alert: The one happy-go-lucky free soul gets run over by a truck.

Why did I keep reading? I just couldn't believe anything summer in the title could be so ice cold all the way to the end.

[Lynette Burnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose "Summer Reading" because I needed something to listen to in the car now that I have an audiobook habit, and I enjoy books about book clubs. While this book has a book club discussed in it, it's primarily about the lives and loves of the three main characters: Angela, the retired English professor who leads the book club; Lissy, who hosts the book club; and Michelle, the Frida Kahlo lookalike maid who works for Lissy and serves at the book club. Each of these women are at different stages in life, and their stories are very different. That worked for me because it was easy to keep all the stories straight, and it kept it interesting to me. Overall, I enjoyed this take an a book club story.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was light and fluffy yet very enjoyable. I wouldn’t classify it as “literature”. It is what the title claims- summer reading. A few days after finishing it I’m having a hard time remembering the characters- there was the bisexual, older female English professor who leads the book group, a beautiful, young woman married to a successful businessman who has a summer place in the Hamptons (he commutes by helicopter!) who hosts the book group----she’s dyslexic. Shocking!--, there’s the working class woman who serves the women at the book club. We get a peek into each woman’s life. It’s a fun book.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

On page 91...not as good as I'd hoped it would be. Will stick with it, though, in hopes that it will pick up. After all, there's a "Lissy Snyder," a "Cynthia Ann," and a "Charlotte." Those closest will understand the significance. :-D Holy cow...there's even a Miranda! It's about a retired English professor and a book club...

Final report: A serious yawner. Slow, not much of a plot, some action at the end, some good connections to other books. Disappointing to say the least. Don't waste your time on it!

[Patty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not sure I ever read one of Wolitzer's novels before, although I know her name and have read positive reviews. What I had read about this book made me curious enough to pick it up

I enjoyed this book, but I am not sure it has inspired me to read another one by Wolitzer. This is partly my fault: this is the third novel I have read about rich women and I just couldn't take it. But Wolitzer did not make me care much about the characters in this book.

So I have no idea who to recommend this to.

[Marisa Turpin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this book last night after dinner and stayed up late trying to finish it. I finished the last 50 pages today during lunch. It was a light summer read. It revolves around 3 women who are in a summer reading club in the Hamptons. Lissy is the hostess. She is dyslexic and never really reads the books. Angela is the retired English professor who leads the group. Michelle is Lissy's maid who eavesdrops on the group, tries on Lissy's clothes and rifles through her diary. Each lady has her own relationship woes that are all tidily solved by the end. You know, unlike in real life.

[Linda Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to this book., maybe reading the book would have made it more enjoyable. I didn't feel empathy for any of the main characters. I would think that the point of the book was to draw parallels between them and the characters in the books that were chosen for summer reading. Maybe because I felt the main characters in the summer reading books were not sympathize either, this book didn't do it for me..

[lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was a dissapointment...it revolves around a number of women who belong to a reading group..or waiting on people in the reading group..all characters seem to have a bit of sadness in their lives...will they get over it in the end??? will they move on???will it be a happy ending??? you decide..though..i'm not recommending you take the time to find out.....it's not that interesting...

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three story lines connect the lives of a Hamptons' summer book group. Every main character is self-centered and the trophy wives and the token town girl each ultimately depend on a man for validation. The spinster college professor takes the stereotypical alternate route. A quick read with some interesting scenes and an excellent reading list but a disappointment in the end.

[Pooch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weaving the lives of three women in the Hamptons, Hilma Wolitzer develops a true summer read. Light, not too compelling yet fun, this book is a surface study of three very different women. Their commonality is in the decisions and consequences women face with ensuing growth and a happy-ever-after ending.