Are You Ready for a Lit Girl Summer?

On a recent sweltering afternoon in downtown Manhattan, a group of designer-clad women stood chatting on the sidewalk, all holding the It accessory of the season. It wasn’t a handbag, nor a piece of jewelry, but a novel. They had assembled in front of the beloved West Village store Casa Magazines, a mecca for fashion and design glossies and the location of Miu Miu’s Summer Reads, a pop-up where customers could indulge in popsicles, gossip, and of course, books. Voracious readers could choose between Forbidden Notebook and A Woman, two novels each “selected for its author’s brave and powerfully influential status as female creator,” according to the brand.