Summer is coming to an end, and lists of must-read books are long. Here are some reads worthy of making the cut.

The Opposite of Loneliness (2014) by Marina Keegan

This is my current answer to the commonly asked question, “What’s your favourite book?” (For context: I’m an English major and work in a bookstore). This book is a collection of works from the magna cum laude Yale graduate, Marina Keegan, who tragically died in a car crash just five days after her graduation.

A combination of fiction and non-fiction pieces, Keegan manages to perfectly capture the essence of youth in each one.

While maintaining her meticulously designed characters, driving pace, and thoughtful prose, she preserves her youthful energy. She writes about surprise pregnancies, gluten allergies, and getting stuck in a career you don’t enjoy, to name a few, all the while demonstrating her literary mastery.

Her fiction stories are incredibly original and authentic; they read as though you are gossiping with a friend over coffee about the latest and greatest happenings of their life. She fills the short stories with believable characters, all of whom feel like they could have been cut from your own life and pasted into Keegan’s story.

Her non-fiction essays convey an engaging, lyrical voice that immediately draws you in.
The title essay, “The Opposite of Loneliness,” received more than 1.4 million hits in 2012 upon being published in the Yale Daily News.

This unforgettable assemblage of work expresses the universal battle of trying to harness our potential to make a lasting impact – a feat accomplished by Keegan in this final work of hers.

This is Where I Leave You (2009) by Jonathan Tropper

Tropper delivers a smart, insightful narrative dripping with Nick-Hornby-like humor as the newly divorced Judd Foxman attempts to navigate through his family turmoil.

After the death of his father, Foxman and his dysfunctional family adhere to the family patriarch’s final wish: to sit Shiva (a Jewish tradition in which the family mourns together under the same roof for seven days and seven nights).

This brings the four Foxman siblings—including Judd; his bitter sister, Wendy; his playboy younger brother, Phillip; and his no-nonsense older brother, Paul—under the same roof for the first time in years – and yes, it is as hilarious as it sounds.

Old grudges resurface, long-kept secrets are exposed, and Judd’s life takes another unexpected turn: his ex-wife is pregnant, and it is either his child or his “radio-shock-jock” boss’.

In his poignantly hilarious novel, Tropper explores all the corners of the male psyche—from rage, to lust, to sweetness—with alarming precision, while still maintaining colourful characters and witty dialogue.

Tropper will soon tackle the big screen this fall when his novel is adapted into a movie version starring a fantastic ensemble cast including Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, and Jane Fonda. Bonus: Tropper wrote the screenplay for the movie.

My Salinger Year (2014) by Joanna Rakoff

A memoir about literary New York in the late 90s, My Salinger Year follows the 23-year-old Rakoff after she drops out of graduate school to pursue writing poetry.

Rakoff works as an assistant for the literary agent responsible for J.D. Salinger.

At night she lives in her shoddy apartment and in flat-out poverty on the edge of the “artistic lifestyle” with her socialist boyfriend, Don. Don is a struggling writer, looking for “the right representation” for his debut novel – which is proving harder than he originally anticipated.

During the day, Rakoff works at an office run by Dictaphones, typewriters, and old-time literary agents who take too many cigarette breaks.

Within the wood-panelled, book-saturated, cigarette-smoke-hazed office, she types letters to clients on behalf of her boss. On the off chance that she finishes these letters, she is to type a copious amount of form letters to mail to those writing to J.D. Salinger, stating that the letters cannot be passed on to Salinger because he has requested for his mail not to be forwarded to him.

As she reads the heart-wrenching letters written by everyone from war veterans like Salinger to teenagers who feel a personal connection with Holden Caulfield and his dislike for the “phonies” of the world, Rakoff finds she begins straying from the form letter and explores her own voice by acting as Salinger’s.

Speckled with glimpses of one of the most iconic American literary figures of the 20th century, Rakoff paints a portrait of an ambitious young woman looking to break into the literary world while trying to figure out exactly who she is and what she wants to accomplish. My Salinger Year conveys not only the coming-of-age experience as one might expect, but also the changes within our culture during the late 20th century.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000) by Dave Eggers

Brought to you by the brilliant mind who wrote The Circle, You Shall Know Our Velocity, and A Hologram for the King comes Dave Eggers’ claim to fame: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

This critically acclaimed memoir opens with the Eggers family dealing with the mother’s stomach cancer and the father’s lung cancer.

Following the deaths of his parents, Dave—with the help of his older sister, Beth—is forced to act as both a brother and a parent to their much-younger sibling, Toph. The siblings steer through the delicate balance of hands-off parenting and being too clingy, wanting Toph to be as well-adjusted as possible.

As what often accompanies coming-of-age stories, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius also takes Dave through the world of women and alcohol, which he often describes as being surreal or dream-like.

Eggers switches back and forth between a very cynical prose and a very excited, almost overflowing prose within the narrative, driving it forcefully forward at a brilliant pace, while transcending formal boundaries in the most comical way possible.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2000) by David Foster Wallace

Admittedly, I was drawn first to this novel because it’s authored by David Foster Wallace; I had always wanted to read Wallace without taking on the mammoth that is Infinite Jest.

Within the novel, Wallace briefly chronicles snippets of the lives of various men with incredible precision and detail, painting a portrait of each individual by describing everything from an overheard conversation, to recording an interview conducted with the man, to describing the way a celebrated American poet lounges in his chaise by his pool.

Each story is filled with such detail that it feels as though, if only in that moment, you know the protagonist intimately, illustrating the sheer genius and untouchable creativity of Wallace. He pulls out a new trick with each successive story, solidifying his place as a startlingly brilliant rebel to literary conventions.

Not to mention this book is hilarious. Wallace fills each story with such audacious dark humour that I often found myself laughing audibly, and subsequently explaining my sudden laughter while trying to pull myself together.