Some books seem made for summer. Not because they are light, short or effortless to read, but because they ask for something that is often in short supply during the rest of the year: time. Time to study a photograph carefully, follow an extraordinary life, step inside a troubled mind, question our obsession with success, or discover that a seventeenth-century nun may still have something to say about the way we live today.

Our summer reading selection brings together architecture, graphic design, fiction, essays, philosophy and cultural history. These ten titles are remarkably different, yet united by the same ambition: to look at the world from a different perspective. Some invite reflection; others gently dismantle the expectations we place upon ourselves. There are books so beautifully designed that you will want to leave them open on the coffee table, and others that compel you to pause for a moment before turning the next page.

These are our recommended reads for a holiday where travelling can also mean staying exactly where you are.

01_Walter Gropius: An Illustrated Biography, by Leyla Daybelge and Magnus Englund

Founder of the Bauhaus, pioneer of the Modern Movement and mentor to generations of architects and designers, Walter Gropius is such an influential figure that he is often reduced to his buildings, his theories and the school that transformed twentieth-century design. This monumental illustrated biography, published by Phaidon, restores the complexity of the man behind the legend.

The book traces his traumatic experiences during the First World War, his relationship with Alma Mahler, the founding of the Bauhaus in 1919 and the death of his daughter Manon. It also explores his departure from Nazi Germany, his years of exile in London and his subsequent move to the United States, where he lived and worked until his death in 1969.

More than 375 documents — letters, telegrams, drawings, photographs, sketches, posters and printed ephemera — come together to create a richly layered visual biography. Yet the book’s greatest achievement is its portrayal of Gropius not only as one of the twentieth century’s defining architects, but also as an extraordinary connector of people: someone who nurtured, encouraged and promoted the talent of those around him.

An essential read for anyone interested in architecture, design and cultural history.

02_NASA Graphics Standards Manual

Few logos capture the technological optimism of the twentieth century as precisely as NASA‘s famous “worm”. Designed by Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn, the bold red wordmark formed part of an ambitious visual identity system developed during the 1970s.

The NASA Graphics Standards Manual reproduces the original guidelines used to apply that identity across stationery, publications, uniforms, vehicles and spacecraft. Far more than a book for graphic designers, it offers a visual account of an institution seeking to speak with one unified voice after successfully sending humankind to the Moon.

This hardback reissue reproduces high-quality scans of the original manual and includes additional material explaining both the birth and eventual disappearance of the system, later replaced by NASA‘s previous “meatball” insignia. Its typographic clarity, careful use of space, rigorous grid systems and remarkable consistency demonstrate that even a corporate identity manual can become an enduring piece of visual culture.

An ideal addition to the library of anyone fascinated by graphic design history and beautifully crafted editorial objects.

03_The Adversary, by Emmanuel Carrère

On 9 January 1993, Jean-Claude Romand murdered his wife, his children and his parents before attempting to take his own life. The investigation uncovered an almost unimaginable truth: for nearly twenty years he had pretended to be a successful doctor, while in reality he spent his days driving aimlessly, walking through forests or sitting in motorway service station car parks.

Emmanuel Carrère approaches this true story without seeking easy explanations. Rather than simply reconstructing the crime, he investigates the void upon which Romand built his entire existence, asking what happens when a person’s identity depends entirely on the perception of others.

Often compared to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, The Adversary is a brief, unsettling and morally complex work of non-fiction. Carrère refuses to turn the murderer into a compelling anti-hero or comfort the reader with definitive psychological conclusions. Instead, he observes deception, fear and horror with remarkable restraint — a distance that makes the story all the more disturbing.

A compelling read for anyone looking for non-fiction that lingers in the mind long after the final page.

04_A Lot of People Have to Die, by Victoria Martín

Victoria Martín‘s debut novel explores female friendship, the frustrations of adulthood and the gap between the life we imagine for ourselves and the one we actually end up living. Its protagonists have known each other since school, but the passing years have reshaped their ambitions, their relationships and the way they see one another.

With awkward humour, sharp irony and a refreshing lack of solemnity, Martín portrays precarious jobs, personal crises, worn-out relationships and that distinctly contemporary feeling of having somehow arrived too late to the life we were told we would have.

Behind its provocative title lies a dark comedy about friendship as both a refuge and a place of rivalry, dependency and resentment. Martín never idealises her characters; instead, she allows them to be contradictory, selfish, vulnerable and genuinely funny. A perfect read for those who prefer humour that exposes life’s bruises rather than disguising them.

And if you haven’t yet seen the Movistar+ series inspired by the book, we highly recommend it.

05_Instrucción de novicias, by Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita

What can seventeenth-century nuns teach us about work, friendship, ambition or the desire to be recognised? Far more than we might imagine.

Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita — creators of the podcast Las hijas de Felipe and both PhDs from Brown University — transform more than fifteen years of research into Baroque culture into an insightful, accessible and often very funny essay. Drawing on letters, autobiographies and convent archives, they reconstruct female spaces where nuns wrote, debated, worked, organised themselves and built remarkably sophisticated emotional and intellectual networks.

The book neither romanticises cloistered life nor reduces the past to a collection of curious anecdotes. Instead, it connects those historical experiences with contemporary issues, from meritocracy to the pressures placed on women’s appearance. History, literature and pop culture coexist effortlessly in a volume that proves scholarly writing can be rigorous without ever becoming inaccessible.

06_The Extras, by Delphine de Vigan

In her theatrical debut, Delphine de Vigan shifts the spotlight away from the leading roles and towards those who usually remain in the background. The extras — essential yet almost invisible presences on every film set — become the true protagonists of the story.

The French author reflects on the place each of us occupies in society and on the almost universal desire to be seen and acknowledged. With humour, tenderness and quiet melancholy, she transforms the everyday experience of waiting into a stage where hopes, disappointments and entire lives gradually unfold.

There is something of Chekhov and Beckett in the play. On the surface, very little seems to happen, yet beneath the conversations and silences lies a profound question: are we the protagonists of our own lives, or merely supporting characters in a story that always seems to be unfolding somewhere else?

A delicate and thoughtful work that reminds us the invisible can often contain an entire world.

07_Gandhi on Non-Violence, by Thomas Merton

Gandhi‘s philosophy of non-violence is often mistaken for passivity or resignation. Through this carefully curated selection of texts, Thomas Merton dismantles that misconception, revealing the political, ethical and spiritual depth of Gandhi‘s thinking.

For Gandhi, resisting without violence did not mean accepting injustice. It meant confronting it through a form of moral discipline capable of transforming both the oppressed and the oppressor. Truth, responsibility, freedom, political action and respect for life emerge here as inseparable elements of the same philosophy.

At a time marked by instant confrontation, polarisation and constant noise, this book reclaims a demanding idea: peace is not the absence of conflict, but another way of moving through it.

A concise, thoughtful and particularly timely read for anyone wishing to reflect on the kind of influence and strength we choose to exercise in the world.

08_The Book of the Tao, by Laozi

Traditionally attributed to Laozi, the Tao Te Ching is one of the founding texts of Taoism and one of the most influential philosophical works ever written. Its short chapters, composed of images, aphorisms and paradoxes, revolve around the Tao — the Way —, virtue, simplicity and wu wei, a concept often translated as “non-action”.

Yet non-action does not mean doing nothing. Rather, it suggests avoiding unnecessary force, resisting the urge to impose our will upon the world, and learning to act without violating the natural order of things.

This is not a book to be read from beginning to end in one sitting. It invites readers to dip in, return to it, and allow its ideas to settle over time. Its defence of flexibility over rigidity, emptiness over excess, and doubt over certainty makes it an ideal companion for the summer months — especially in an age obsessed with productivity, opinions and constant acceleration.

09_The Sweetness of Life, by Milena Busquets

Ten years after publishing This Too Shall Pass, Milena Busquets returns to the world of that novel while its film adaptation is being made. Revisiting the places, characters and emotions that inspired the original story triggers a cascade of reflections on time, happiness and the curious distance that gradually separates us from our former selves.

In The Sweetness of Life, Busquets turns Cadaqués into something far more than a setting. The golden light, the winds, mornings spent at the Casino, restaurants by the sea, actors, producers, flirtations and books all combine to create a deeply sensory landscape where reality and fiction constantly blur. Everything feels light, almost carefree, yet beneath that luminous surface remains the awareness that even our happiest days are destined to disappear.

Busquets writes about a paradise that can only truly be recognised once it has been lost. With her characteristic blend of intelligence, irony, beauty and melancholy, she reconstructs a time when everything still seemed possible. It is an especially fitting summer read: elegant, concise and bathed in Mediterranean light, yet driven by a quietly unsettling question that feels profoundly universal.

Are we capable of recognising that we are happy while happiness is actually happening?

10_The Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin on the Siberian Taiga, by Sylvain Tesson

Before turning forty, writer and adventurer Sylvain Tesson decided to spend six months alone in a cabin on the shores of Lake Baikal in Siberia. The nearest village lay 120 kilometres away. There were no roads, no neighbours and, during winter, temperatures regularly fell below minus thirty degrees Celsius. He brought books, cigars and vodka; nature provided everything else: space, silence and solitude.

The Consolations of the Forest is both the diary of that extraordinary experience and a meditation on the possibility of stepping away from the relentless noise of contemporary life. His days become beautifully simple: chopping wood, fishing, walking through the forest, watching the lake, reading and waiting. Rather than presenting isolation as an idyllic fantasy, Tesson also records the cold, the loneliness, the fear and the emotional upheaval that emerge when there are no distractions left behind which to hide.

He observes the landscape with the precision of a naturalist and writes about it with the sensitivity of a poet. In his cabin, time ceases to be a commodity to be optimised and returns instead to its oldest rhythm: that of daylight, the seasons and the shifting ice. The result is a beautiful celebration of simplicity and an invitation to ask ourselves how much we really need in order to live.

An ideal book for a holiday in which switching off means more than putting away your phone — it means learning to pay attention to the world once again.

Reading to make summer last a little longer…

These ten books all share the ability to broaden the way we see the world. Perhaps that is the greatest promise of reading: returning to the same place after a holiday and discovering that something — however small — has quietly changed.

Happy reading, and have a wonderful summer!

(*) Cover image: Jess Loiterton (Pexels).

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