Anti-Prime, Non-Beach

The summer of independently-bought wintry reads.

I mentioned in a previous post that my summer reading routine has been a bit thrown off by the void created by Elin Hilderbrand’s pseudo-retirement. Every summer for as long as I can remember (the so-called “Queen of the Beach Read” has written 31 novels at a pace of roughly one per year, so it’s been….a while), I highly anticipated the release of Elin’s newest novel, all of which (except for a handful set on St. John) take place on the magical island of Nantucket. The release always occurred right around the time of my birthday, so it always felt like a present wrapped up in a big shiny bow (shoutout to the two readers of this Substack who have both gifted me with signed copies of Elin’s books over the years)!

All of that is to say, without a much-anticipated Nantucket novel anchoring my summer reading list, I’ve felt a bit adrift (seems I can’t even write a sentence without evoking sailboats bobbing in the ocean). Perhaps that is why, while I’ve read one or two “beachy” books since Memorial Day, I’ve also found myself selecting some rather, shall we say, wintry reads.

Enter Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall. I started this book while on vacation in South Carolina and remained engrossed the entire time. When I say this is a “wintry” read I don’t mean to imply it’s Anna Karenina or anything. The writing actually feels quite jaunty, despite a more serious subject matter. I don’t like to give too much away in terms of plot when recommending books, but just know that it’s a family saga/love triangle set on a farm in 1960’s England.

It should be said that I experienced a lot of this chilly novel on a particularly perfect (and hot) vacation day. I started with my usual morning run along the beach, followed by my favorite sandwich and coffee in the co-op, followed by an hour or two floating in the ocean, returning to shore only to get back to the characters within these pages.

Whenever I think of this book, despite some of its devastating plot points, I’ll also remember this quintessential, happy beach day—and vice versa. I love this about books, how they can connect us to points in time like this, and maybe that’s what I loved so much about the rhythm of Elin’s summer releases: I began to associate each one of them with a certain exotic vacation, or extra-long pool day, or difficult year of life that I managed to pull through. Just as summer turns to fall, winter turns to spring.

Before I close (and before I attempt any more poetic sentences) I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Broken Country was my first-ever purchase from Charlottesville’s newest bookstore, Commerce Street Books. Although I already have one beloved independent bookshop in town (shoutout New Dominion), I will happily have two or two thousand, because there is absolutely no such thing as too many independent booksellers in this world (just too many of the other B-word).

Have a lovely weekend reading, friends, whichever season of books you prefer.