You can read; we know that because you're here. (Unless Siri is dictating this post to you while you drive, in which case: nice work, Siri!) But it's also a long holiday weekend, which means you need to get the hell off the Internet—once you've devoured and then shared every single article on this site, of course—and go read a book. But which book? The latest and greatest by a lit-fiction wunderkind? A dusty old tome from Harold Bloom's approved list? Sure, if that's what does it for you. Then again, there's great stuff happening in the fringes, and there's no recommendation like the recommendation of a trusted friend. And we're friends, right? So if you're heading to the beach, or even just looking for a new title for the coming week's bus commute, let WIRED propose your next great paper (or e-ink) adventure. See you in the afterword!
High Rise, by J.G. Ballard
This is a good book to read if you want to wreck your marriage: The citizens of an apartment complex run amok, and it’s not long after their devolution into violence that men start doing the rapey shit that men do when social niceties vanish and people start eating their dogs. As the book progressed, I cast a warier and warier eye on Kindly Husband—a gloomy suspicion that lasted for several days. Highly recommended. —Sarah Fallon
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Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel
Fun Home the musical might have taken home a Tony this year, but Fun Home the (comic) book is still better. It's an autobiographical graphic novel that transforms the unique—a gay child comes to terms w the suicide of her closeted gay dad—into the universal. We all want to be loved for who we are, don't we? Also, there are pictures. Enough said. —Jessi Hempel
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Leviathan Wakes, by James S.A. Corey
This is science-fiction for me: smart, imaginative, hard-boiled when it needs to be, and as much about the prose as the plot. It takes place in a near-enough future, when we've gotten off the planet but not all the way out of the solar system, so humans on Earth and Mars and out past the asteroid belt have adapted to their variously-gravitied environments; as hostilities between Earth and Mars ramp up, a spaceship captain from the former and a detective from the latter come together to solve a series of mysteries that are as grisly as they are terrifying. It's also the first book in a (so-far) five-book series that only gets better and more expansive as it progresses, and is being adapted into a garguantuan-budget show on Syfy this fall, The Expanse. Read it now, tune in later. —Peter Rubin
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Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth History, by Greil Marcus
Ever feel like you’ve been cheated? You won’t after reading this smart-as-hell cultural history. Marcus unearths a strain of principled resistance and refusal leading from the dadaists to the Sex Pistols’ supernova of heroin and mucous. And while the subject matter can get heady, Marcus is such a lyrical and terrifying writer that Lipstick Traces qualifies as an honest-to-god page-turner. —Jason Tanz
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It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War, by Lynsey Addario
I worked with Lynsey for years when I was the International Picture Editor at The New York Times and TIME, and her memoir is riveting. From her kidnapping in Libya to the birth of her son, it’s a compelling look into the life of a war photographer—so much so that Stephen Spielberg is turning it into a movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence(!). —Patrick Witty
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Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo
How recent should a summer read be? And how summer read-y? Because if it can be a few years old and totally depressing, I nominate this tragic story of life inside a Mumbai slum, minus the Slumdog Millionaire Hollywood gloss. It’s non-fiction book, but it reads like a novel. It’s the farthest thing from a beach read, but the story will stick with you long after the summer ends. —Issie Lapowsky
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Light, by M. John Harrison
A stunning read in which you'll find the best description of an alien invasion maybe ever: "They produced food no one could eat, outlawed politics in favor of the kind of bureaucracy you find in the subsidized arts, and buried enormous machinery in the subcrust which eventually killed millions." —Jason Kehe
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Skyfaring, by Mark Vanhoenacker
Vanhoenacker is a 747 pilot with a poetic streak. The book teaches you about the physics of flight, complete with tidbits like the fact that altitude is more concept than hard fact, but the writing makes flying feel as amazing at it really is: a journey around the world while flying over it. —Alex Davies
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Girl In A Band, by Kim Gordon
When Sonic Youth broke up after Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore’s marriage disintegrated, it was a sudden closing bookend on a legendary career in experimental rock music. But the emotional turmoil of the ensuing years has at least yielded a worthy creative endeavor in Gordon’s memoir. Jumping through time to tell stories of her youth in Los Angeles, the formation of Sonic Youth in New York, and her life with Moore, it’s an insightful and assured glimpse into the life of one of the most important rock musicians of the past 30 years. —K.M. McFarland
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The Martian, by Andy Weir
Being stranded on Mars has never been as funny as it is in The Martian. For years, fiction has treated NASA employees as noble national heroes; they're still that here, but in Andy Weir's hands they're also potty-mouthed bureaucrats and mad scientists. The writing can get a little cumbersome, but imagining the actors who will play each character in Ridley Scott's forthcoming adaptation—particularly Kristen Wiig as NASA PR maven Annie Montrose and Jessica Chastain as Ares 3's Commander Lewis—will help you through. —Angela Watercutter
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