Summer and long vacations are great opportunities to luxuriate in a good read. Petra Mayer, an editor at NPR Books, joins Here & Now‘s Robin Young with some of her picks. Mayer also introduces the new NPR feature “Read Watch Binge” which recommends books, podcasts, and TV shows to fans of particular movies.

Interview Highlights: Petra Mayer

The Girls, Emma Cline

“What’s very interesting about it is when you think about Charles Manson, you think about how dynamic he was. But this sort of flips the dynamic. Emma Cline comes at the story from the perspective of a teenage girl.

It’s spooky. It’s definitely going to send a chill down your spine. “

Central Station, Lavie Tidhar

“You really do get a sense of the way it smells and tastes. The way the air feels like. It’s this sort of dusty, bustling space port  with all kinds of people, returning Martian spacemen and data vampires and antique book sellers and cyborg soldiers all mixing together in the streets, probably having a beer together.”

Jane Steele, Lyndsey Faye

“This is a very meta take on Jane Eyre. If you imagine the original Jane she gets kicked from pillar to post by unsympathetic grown ups, and jerk men, and mean school masters and this Jane, a lot of the reviews call her a serial killer. But she’s not a serial killer really. She’s prone to very dramatic solutions to her problems. She’s not afraid to push get someone drunk and push them into a river.”

Books Discussed in the Segment:

Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi

The Girls, Emma Cline

Modern Lovers, Emma Straub

Central Station, Lavie Tidhar

The Paper Menagerie, Ken Liu

Jane Steele, Lyndsey Faye

More Books Petra Recommends:

Heat and Light, Jennifer Haigh

Hot Dog Taste Test, Lisa Hanawalt

The Everything Box, Richard Kadrey

Take Our Here & Now Poll:

We’re talking about books with @Petramatic on today’s show. How are you reading this summer?

— Here & Now (@hereandnow) July 6, 2016

Guest

Petra Mayer, NPR Books editor. She tweets @petramatic.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit NPR.