Cool, Sharp and Conversation-Worthy
The Chic Shores summer reader wants something cool, sharp, and conversation-worthy. Whether they’re traveling to the Hamptons (or wishing they were,) meeting friends for an al fresco brunch, or shouting over music at a rooftop hotspot, they want stories that spark lively conversation. These books should be their must-haves accessories for their beach bags and evening cocktail looks.
YOU HAVE A NEW MEMORY by Aiden Arata
“If, like me, you have trouble metabolizing the present, and you want your media to transport you out of reality, this book will heal you. It will horrify you, comfort you, and fill your bleak future with hope. Aiden’s writing is proof that being smart and sincere doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive.” –Phoebe Bridgers, singer-songwriter
An open-hearted interrogation of our digital selves, braiding cultural criticism, memoir, and narrative musings into an exploration of identity, girlhood, media, tech, nature and “finding the depth and beauty in the fucked-up world we live in” from a writer, artist, and influencer (Phoebe Bridgers).
YOU HAVE A NEW MEMORY is a deeply human inventory of the digital sphere, a searing analysis of the present and a prescient assessment of the future. In her highly anticipated debut, Aiden Arata brings us raw reportage from the liminal space between online and offline worlds, illuminating how we got here and where to go next.
With high-res, cosmic vision and razor-sharp wit, this kaleidoscopic collection of essays artfully explores what it means to exist on the internet. Arata exposes influencer grifts from the perspective of a grifter, digs into the alluring aesthetic numbness of stay-at-home girlfriend content creators, and interrogates our online fetishization of doom to grapple with the real-world apocalypse.
Arata is the wry, unexpected voice we need to navigate existing simultaneously as creators, consumers, and products in our increasingly braver and newer world.
YOU DIDN’T HEAR THIS FROM ME by Kelsey McKinney
“You Didn’t Hear This From Me touches on everything from the historical concept of gossip as a sin to the “Shitty Media Men List” and the effect of the COVID pandemic on information-sharing, all in the effusive yet thoughtful voice that Normal Gossip fans are sure to recognize from McKinney’s time with the podcast.” –Vogue
“Gossip is the only cultural tradition I care about, and Kelsey McKinney has written its Bible” —Samantha Irby, #1 NYT bestselling author
From the host of the Normal Gossip podcast, a delightfully insightful exploration of our obsession with gossip that weaves together journalism, cultural criticism, and memoir.
As the pandemic forced us to socialize at a distance, Kelsey McKinney was mourning the juicy updates and jaw-dropping stories she’d typically collect over drinks with friends—and from her hunger, the blockbuster Normal Gossip podcast was born. With listenership in the millions, Kelsey found herself thinking more critically about gossip as a form, and wanting to better understand the role it plays in our culture.
In You Didn’t Hear This From Me, McKinney explores the murkiness of everyday storytelling. Why is gossip considered a sin, and how can we better recognize when it’s being weaponized? Why do we think we’re entitled to every detail of a celebrity’s personal life? And how do we define “gossip,” anyway? As much as the book aims to treat gossip as a subject worthy of rigor, it also hopes to capture the heart of gossiping: how enchanting and fun it can be to lean over and whisper something a little salacious into your friend’s ear.
With wit and honesty, McKinney unmasks what we’re actually searching for when we demand to know the truth—and how much the truth really matters in the first place.
THE OTHER LATA by Kirthana Ramisetti
“Fans of Inventing Anna will be taken in by this compulsive mistaken identity romcom that’s as insightful as it is satisfying.” –Bianca Marais, international bestselling author of The Witches of Moonshyne Manor
Somewhere in New York City, Lata Murthy knows there is another person with her name living a much more interesting life. That’s because Lata often receives the other Lata’s emails: invites to Hampton soirees, fundraising appeals from the New York City Ballet and reminders about sample sales at Soho boutiques. Lata’s own life—working in digital content, watching Food Network marathons, spending recklessly on clothes she can’t afford—feels pathetic in comparison. So, one day she decides to take on this other Lata’s identity and jumps headfirst into the glamorous New York lifestyle … but not without consequences.
At first, it all feels like a fairy tale. All of Lata’s NYC dreams come true: she gets a higher-paying job, moves into a chic Chelsea apartment and is embraced by an elite friend group that includes Rajeev, an up-and-coming fashion designer intent on making a splash at New York Fashion Week. But Lata doesn’t just catch the attention of the handsome fashion designer—she also incurs the wrath of the mysterious woman she is impersonating. And this Other Lata wants Lata to pay…but in the oddest of ways. Other Lata’s blackmail seems designed to humiliate Lata in front of her wealthy new circle, and Lata has no choice but to submit to her demands if she doesn’t want to lose her new friends and lifestyle.
Despite Other Lata’s machinations, Lata and Rajeev’s romance finds ways to blossom. But when Other Lata’s demands change from mischievous to illegal, Lata must find a way to extricate herself from Other Lata’s control once and for all.
FIRST TIME, LONG TIME by Amy Silverberg
“The consummate L.A. story…. Silverberg is a witty, charming storyteller with a bold, unique voice that makes the writing leap off the page and into your heart.” –Roxanne Gay, author of Bad Feminist and Hunger
“[T]he funniest debut book of the year.” —Debutiful
For readers of Emma Cline and Melissa Broder, “a brilliant novel about becoming more the person you’re meant to be,” following an untethered, sardonic young woman who falls for an older man and begins to lose herself (Roxane Gay).
Aspiring writer and all-around naive person Allison expected her life to finally take shape when she moved to Los Angeles. After years grieving her brother’s untimely death and allowing her mercurial father’s feelings and desires to infect her own, she feels ready to become the main character in her own story again. But in LA, as with anywhere else, she’s rudderless, unable to write and barely scraping by as an English teacher.
So when she has a serendipitous run in with famed radio personality Reid Steinman, an idol of her father’s and her late brother’s, she’s eager to see where their relationship might go, and who she might become. Caught in his thrall, she falls back into her old self-effacing patterns, struggling to maintain the boundaries of her own identity. Suddenly, an unanticipated lifeline emerges: an intoxicating tryst with Reid’s adult daughter, Maddie. She’s forced to balance her romance with Reid with her gnawing desire for the intoxicatingly charming Maddie, as it becomes increasingly evident that she and Allison’s late brother share more than a few qualities.
Through candid self-awareness, keen observations, and deliciously wry humor, First Time, Long Time asks, what happens to a young woman’s goals when she becomes involved with a famous man whose needs seem so much louder than her own? And how might she move forward when so much in her past remains unresolved?
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