As part of Summer Reads, Alexandra Naughton shares what she’s looking forward to reading this summer.

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Summer to me feels like chapbooks and graphic novels, which are good to read on the train and on a stoop while drinking iced tea.

1) Dystopian’s Codependent Syndrome by Paul Murufas

Drugs, tarot readings, loneliness, and wayward traveling comprise some of the themes of this poetry chapbook from Mess Editions. This book feels like Oakland and summer and it’s killing me again.

2) Sadmess by Ana Carrete

I really like Carrete’s online writing and I am excited to leaf through Sadmess, handmade by Carrete herself. Sadmess is such a perfect title for a book of poems and I wish I had thought it up first.

3) Never Ending Summer by Allison Cole

A graphic novel from Alternative Comics that Amy Berkowitz loaned me when I was feeling heartbroken and it helped me to get over it. Rereading this book feels like stale sunbaked emptiness and wanting to take a midnight bike ride.

4) Terror Matrix by Zoe Tuck

This is a beautiful little book from Timeless Infinite Light full of stabbing lines like “the bagel and sweaty glass carafe are here for me in ways they’re not for you” and “lake for bloody grace i said fill me a scrip for this to raise the dead.”

5) 18 Levels of Hell by Teppei Ando

Go to hell with the second illustrated book on this list based on Chinese mythology, published by Murder Dollhouse. Fantastically morbid drawings depicting the kind of suffering we can only hope to endure specifically designed for the sins we’ve committed.