Summer is almost here, and your summer reading list should include something light, fun and certaily cool.

Here are two great coffee table reference books and one fiction anthology to take you on a time traveling pulpy guilty pleasure journey for the sheer love of reading:

The Art of Pulp Fiction by Ed Hulse

El Hulse’s The Art of Pulp Fiction: An Illustrated History of Vintage Paperbacks, shows how the rise of the mid-century paperback novel needed some very alluring…and sometimes lurid…art to attract readers. The book features the history behind the pulp covers, and the books they adorned. It also shows of a gallery’s worth of beautifully detailed and hand-painted works that went into the makings of these covers. This included comic-book style art on novels of old west adventure, war tales and science fiction, to travel poster-worthy covers of more affordable reissues of famous classics by Alexander Dumas or Robert Louis Stevenson. There are some of the racier covers of noir detective classics from Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, as well as the hard-core action of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories. Most notable, however, is the quality and workmanship that went in each of these covers, regardless of the contents held within these books. No CGI. No AI. Just beautiful detailed art.

Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird edited by Jonathan Mayberry

Speaking of Conan, some of the first Conan stories appeared in the anthology magazine Weird Tales, as well as stories by several other notable horror, science fiction and fantasy authors. This compilation came out in 2023 with a century’s worth of new and vintage weirdness, by authors as diverse in style as Tennessee Williams, Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov. There is some cool poetry by authors like Anne Walsh Miller and Marge Simon along with some nifty illustrations and and concept designs. Weird Tales help spawn some of the greatest authors in the genre, and these fantastic tales, some familiar and some new, are very much worth of a read. Keep it on hand all summer for a weird escape.

These Fists Break Bricks by Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali

I have featured some of the unique horror fiction by Grady Hendrix before, but his collaboration with film historian Chris Poggiali, These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World is very different. This takes you back to the late sixties when Kung Fu stars in Hong Kong were women, and into the international explosion in the early 70s when Bruce Lee hit the big screens. There are plenty of movie posters and ads to enjoy (some of which I want to find full sized posters), featuring Lee, Church Norris, Angelia Mao, Jackie Chan and more. There are Kung Fu Classics like Enter the Dragon, and not-so-much classics like Kung Fu Exorcist and create features like King Kung Fu. There are movies with 1970s Blaxploitation stars like Warhawk Tanzania and Jim Kelly, as well as and some movies that starred Bruce Lee’s sister, Julie Lee, herself a formidable fighter. There were plenty the Bruce Lee rip-offs as well. This book also takes look a the cultural backlash from some saying it was encouraging violence among some young viewers. Of course it influenced folks, Kung Fu, was featured in everything from major Hollywood productions like Marco Polo and Shogun to some of the popcorn weirdness that defined the 80s like Bloodsport and The Last Dragon. And if it wasn’t already cool enough, it includes a forward by Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, and unapologetic lover of the genre. Was everybody Kung Fu fighting? Well, they should have been, because it is awesome.

Grab a cold one (I won’t ask of what), lounge on the patio or in an easy chair after dark, and practice your love of reading some cool, sexy and sleek looks at the stories, art and movies of a much more kick-ass time.