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July 21, 2014鈥擶orks of history鈥攏arrative, graphic, literary, and imagined鈥攖op my summer reading recommendations this year, in addition to a suggestion for a taste of lighter fare.

The one book I wish everybody would read this summer is Greg Grandin鈥檚 , a superb work of narrative history about an actual slave revolt that took place in 1805 on a Spanish ship called the Tryal. This revolt, in which 72 slaves commandeered the ship for 53 days at sea, was the real-life basis for Herman Melville鈥檚 floating Gothic masterpiece of a short novel, 鈥淏enito Cereno.鈥� Grandin is also the author of the deservedly acclaimed 2009 book, Fordlandia, about Henry Ford鈥檚 doomed attempt to create a utopian settlement in the Amazonian rainforest.

The 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I dominates the offerings from every major publishing house this year. One standout is a graphic novel called  by Max Brooks and illustrated by Caanan White that dramatizes the history of the 369th Infantry Regiment. This highly decorated African American regiment鈥攄ubbed 鈥渢he Men of Bronze鈥� by their French allies and 鈥淭he Harlem Hellfighters鈥� by their German enemies鈥攕pent 191 days in combat, longer than any other American unit, white or black. As Brooks and White detail in panel after vivid panel, The Hellfighters gamely fought a two-front war: against the enemy 鈥渙ver there鈥� and racial prejudice everywhere.

In , Jacqueline Winspear, author of the best-selling 鈥淢aisie Dobbs鈥� mystery novels, has written an evocative historical novel that chiefly focuses on the British home front during World War I. Winspear鈥檚 heroine, a teacher, marries her farmer fianc茅 just as the war breaks out and soon finds herself plunged into an unrelenting daily grind of hoeing, hop-picking, and messy animal husbandry when her husband volunteers for overseas service. With the eye for early 20th-century period detail that has made her 鈥淢aisie Dobbs鈥� books so popular, Winspear captures the exhaustion of farm labor, as well as the constant anxiety that haunts her heroine, always fearful that a letter of condolence would be delivered in that day鈥檚 mail.

Kevin Birmingham鈥檚  is a fascinating account of how James Joyce came to write Ulysses and how this outrageous novel鈥攆irst published in 1922 by brave Sylvia Beach, owner of the legendary Shakespeare & Company bookshop in Paris鈥攆inally came to be deemed 鈥渓iterature鈥� in a landmark federal obscenity trial in 1933. (It certainly helped that the U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey was unexpectedly moved by the bawdy lyricism of Molly Bloom鈥檚 soliloquy.) Birmingham also offers a rich vision of expatriate artistic life in Europe after the war.

Finally, for pure suspense fun in the Gone Girl mode, pick up Jean Hanff Korelitz鈥檚 . Korelitz鈥攖he author of the novel-turned-movie, Admission, about admissions office insanity at Princeton University鈥攊s a sharp social observer and a deft dispenser of unexpected plot twists. Her heroine here, Grace Reinhart Sachs, is a marriage counselor who鈥檚 hip to the faintest whiff of marital infidelity and duplicity. Too bad, Grace doesn鈥檛 subject her own husband to the sniff test before it鈥檚 too late. You Should Have Known is an enormously entertaining cautionary tale that reminds us that smart women (precisely because they鈥檙e blinkered by their own brain power) sometimes can make the most foolish choices.

More by Maureen Corrigan

Maureen Corrigan鈥檚 forthcoming book, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures, has been named by Publishers鈥� Weekly as one of the top ten non-fiction titles to look out for this fall. It will be published on September 9, 2014. She is critic-in-residence at Georgetown鈥檚 , where she teaches courses in the , American Public Intellectuals, Women鈥檚 Autobiography, and Hard-boiled Mystery Fiction. In the fall of 2014, Corrigan will be teaching Journalism and Literature of Washington, DC, with , and Detective Fiction. You can find more of her book reviews on .