9 Summer Reads

If spending parts of your vacation with a mother or mother-in-law (who can occasionally get on your nerves) is dampening your enthusiasm for a summer getaway, you'll likely end up feeling all warm and fuzzy for them by the end of The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine. Aliana Bronsky's eccentric and darkly acerbic novel is about Rosa Achmetowna, a Soviet mother-from-hell who, after failing to conjure up a remedy to rid her 17 year-old daughter of a pregnancy, falls instantly in love with her new granddaughter, leading to even greater discord in the family. Hilarious, shrewd and tragic, the dysfunction in the Achmetowna family may help you escape, or appreciate your own (slightly crazy) family this summer.