I read Animal at the start of the year (so some plot details are a little hazy) but going through my highlights reminded me why I loved it: Lisa Taddeo knows exactly how to deliver a punch-to-the-gut line. 

The story is about a woman, Joan, who leaves New York City after a man shoots himself in front of her. She moves to California in search of Alice, a woman she believes will help her understand her traumatic past. “For the first time in a long time I was going somewhere for a reason”. There are a lot of themes operating throughout Animal: violence, gender, power, trauma, sex and rage. It’s dark, weird and at times perplexing. But there is something about it and the way Lisa Taddeo writes that got under my skin and had me until the end. I felt totally immersed in the setting – the canyons, the winding roads, the mountains – and in the narrator’s interiority, even in the uncomfortable moments.

Cat’s Cradle is about a man named Jonah’s ambitions to write a book about what “important Americans” had done on the day when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Research for the book leads him to Dr Felix Hoenikker (the inventor of a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet), the doctor’s three children and a strange island.

I didn’t really know what to expect from the synopsis and a book billed as satirical, science fiction written 60 years ago. But I think it holds up; the themes and commentary still feel relevant and I really enjoyed the paradox of absurdity and realism. I also find the dry, sarcastic, directness of Vonnegut’s writing strangely soothing, so good for a left-field, end-of-year read.

I don’t know that this belongs on a relaxing summer reading list but I’m throwing it in anyway. Written by investigative journalist and writer for The New Yorker Patrick Radden Keefe, Empire of Pain goes deep on one of the richest (and I think you will agree after reading the book, most duplicitous) families in the world: the Sacklers. For years their name was associated with esteemed institutions like Harvard, Oxford and the Lourve. They were well-known philanthropists and highly influential people, but the source of their wealth was always a little mysterious…until it came out that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing OxyContin. 

There are plenty of documentaries, shows and books that chronicle America’s opioid crisis to choose from. But if you really want to dig into the family’s backstory and their motivations, I recommend this. It’s like Succession for investigative journalism nerds (me).

This was the first Ottessa Moshfegh book I’d ever read and it won’t be the last (have since ordered My Year of Rest and Relaxation). I got about three pages into it and fell in love with the way she writes. 

Homesick For Another World is a book title I wish I thought of first and a collection of 14 short stories. Each one has very different characters and settings, but there is a common theme of human imperfection. The narrators tend to be weird, very flawed, generally unlikeable and probably the kind of people you’d hate to live next door to. But that’s what makes the collection interesting. ‘A better place’ and ‘Bettering myself’ were my favourite stories. It might be too much of the same note to read in one go, but perfect if you want to get through a bit of fiction on your break without committing to a whole novel.