From Hollywood stories to wartime tales to a comedic look at aging, Zoomer’s summer reading list has you covered.

The sound of silence – both a classic Paul Simon tune and the response would-be biographers received when pitching their services to pen the 76-year-old soon-to-be-retired troubadour’s life story. That is, until celebrated rock journalist and author Robert Hilburn came along, interviewing Simon’s confidants and peers – as well as the artist himself – for Paul Simon: The Life.

The cover for Paul Simon: The Life with a photo of a young Paul Simon and a second book cover for Calypso which features a photo of a piece of wood with scores in the formation of eyes, nose and a mouth added in black marker.

Meanwhile, famed humorist David Sedaris, 61, channels his feelings about aging in chapter headings like “Still Standing” and “And While You’re Up There, Check on My Prostate” for his latest essay collection Calypso, which expounds on life, loss and growing older.

The book cover for Warlight featuring two people standing on a frozen lake with a dog and the title displayed in the sky above them.

Award-winning The English Patient novelist Michael Ondaatje returns to the shadow of the Second World War in Warlight, about two siblings uncovering their parents’ secrets in post-war London.

Two book covers. The cover for The Ghost Keeper featuring the back view of a woman being hugged by a man with the book title written in white in the foreground. The second book cover for he features a top hat with he written in lower case on the front of the hat.

Natalie Morrill’s celebrated debut, The Ghost Keeper, explores how one Austrian man’s life is uprooted by the rise of the Nazi party, while John Connolly’s novel He transports readers back to Hollywood’s Golden Age, recreating the lives and bond shared by two gifted performers who, once united, made cinema history as the duo known as Laurel and Hardy.

A version of this article appeared in the June 2018 issue with the headline, “Books,” p. 12.