Monthly Lit Hits: Grub's Infinite Reading List

Lit Hits: What We're Reading in June

Here at Grub HQ, we're always talking about the books that keep us up at night, the novels we can't put down, the memoirs that call to us over our morning coffees. Every month, we'll share our staff's latest literary obsessions to add to your own never-ending reading list.

Alison, Grub's Director of Programs and Marketing, has been reading a lot of John Cheever in preparation for a gin-soaked pop-up book club and just finished the tiny masterpiece So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell. Next up, she's finally hopping on the Queen of the Night train.

Programs and Advocacy Manager Jonathan recently reread Marie-Helene Bertino’s collection Safe as Houses, which does some fantastic experimenting with dramatizing internal conflict.

Head Instructor Chip enjoyed a little book of lectures by James Salter that just came out, The Art of Fiction. It’s not so much a craft book as an idiosyncratic collection of thoughts and reminiscences; it’s not helpful at all, but it’s an interesting and illuminating read. He's also reading Douglas Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach: A Metaphorical Fugue on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll, perhaps one of the most pretentious books he's ever read — yet it comes by it earnestly, and it’s actually pretty awesome. It’s not exactly a beach read, but if you’re into logical paradoxes and strange loops, you’ll love it.

Alysia, our Boston Literary District Director, is reading one book to blurb and one book to review — both memoirs. Additionally, she's reading the great Our Young Man by Edmund White.

Development Assistant Grant just finished Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, which would be at the top of the syllabus if he ever teaches a class on masculinity. He's currently struggling through Room by Emma Donoghue. Though he thought he would love it, the voice is too cloying. It's like eating an entire tray of double fudge brownies on each page — very sweet, but leaves him with a sugar crash and a stomach ache.

Eve, Grub's Executive Director, loved #Muse16 presenter Kaitlyn Greenidge's We Love You, Charlie Freeman, which she's eagerly awaiting discussing with her book group later this month. She's still trying to make full sense of the high-concept, fast-moving, at times hilarious and at times deeply disturbing plot. Now she's diving into an advance copy of Grub's own Kathy Sherbrooke's forthcoming novel Fill the Sky.

What are you reading? Share your current literary love with us on Twitter @GrubWriters using #GrubbieLitHits.