Top books to read this summer, according to Ann Patchett and Maureen Corrigan

Ann Patchett:

All right, two.

“Who Is Government?” Michael Lewis, I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. One, it is a pure pleasure to read. He has a great group of authors that he’s working with, Geraldine Brooks, Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, whole group, each one writing about a specific person in a particular branch of government, the Food and Drug Administration, the IRS, the Department of Justice, and talks about the work that they are doing and the enormous impact it makes on all of our lives.

And we never knew that these people were doing these amazing things. This is absolutely the book for right now. And it pairs beautifully with another book I love, John Green’s “Everything is Tuberculosis.” John Green, our most famous young adult author, is obsessed with tuberculosis, tuberculosis in history, but also tuberculosis here and now.

Why is it that this completely curable disease is still killing so many people, and what will happen when we no longer are giving money to the World Health Organization to save those people’s lives?