Summer Scaries

Reading the gloom away

For the several years I practiced law in New York, I recall the “Sunday Scaries” featuring prominently in my friend group’s lexicon. We counteracted the sense of doom that descended on Sunday mornings with long brunches, brown bag beers in Thompson Square Park, and generally staying out as late as we could in an effort to stave off what was inevitably coming for all of us: Monday.

Now that I am in a completely different job, city, and phase of life, I feel fortunate that I no longer feel the Sunday Scaries as I once did. Of course, I prefer the weekends to weekdays like any normal person, but the doom associated with going back to work is largely gone. That being said, I also happen to work at a school, which means that the tempo of busy-ness is largely dictated by the ebb and flow of the academic calendar. Despite not getting winter break or spring break like my students do, summertime does mean a bit of a respite from the pace I’m keeping up the rest of the year. Everyone and everything is a bit more relaxed. My team goes on vacations, I work from the pool some afternoons, and the ease of getting around in a college town when the kids are gone reminds us that we are in the thick of sweet, sweet summertime.

For these reasons, on this gloriously beautiful Sunday of Labor Day weekend, it feels to me as if something is ending. It’s the scariest of Sundays because it portends the return of the hustle, the wondering if you need to bring a jacket to dinner, the winding down of summer reading. Regardless of the book, summer reading just hits different, in the best possible way.

If you’re looking for one last joy ride of a book before the leaves start to fall, Salty by Kate Myers embodies the fun and frivolity of this season. Set (mostly) aboard a luxury yacht in various tropical settings, every time I picked up this novel I felt as if I was jetting off to vacation. The writing is so clever and funny that, only a few pages in, I made it a point to add Myers’ first novel, Excavations, to my TBR.

I know that, when the time comes, I will welcome the coziness of autumn and its accompanying reading with a (hot) coffee and a blanket. For now, I plan to drown the scaries in pool water, cold brew, and juicy reads.