Summer Reading List
Summer is a bracingly honest season for readers: it's too hot to pretend to be clever, so you just read books you actually like. TIME asked some of its favorite writers what they read when they read for fun
J. Courtney Sullivan picks The Wife by Meg Wolitzer
The Wife, Wolitzer's slim jewel of a novel, is the sort of book you could easily read in one sitting but wish would last all summer. Set partly at Smith College in the 1950s, it chronicles the life of a talented writer (and Smith grad) whose dreams are subsumed by those of her famous novelist husband (he's also her former professor). I admire Wolitzer's humor and her ability to create tightly packed, pitch-perfect sentences. The Wife is a brilliant take on marriage, motherhood and ambition, as well as a reminder of how far American women have come.
Sullivan's debut novel is Commencement
Listen to the extended interview: J. Courtney Sullivan talks to TIME about her summer reads
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