The Best of Summer Reading
I love fall, but May might be my second favorite month of the year, behind November. I think it might be because it’s a transition month—I love the changes of seasons, and as long and hot as summer is here, I still enjoy something about the moving from the school year into the more relaxed summer months. Every May I start thinking about what we’re going to do in the summer, what camps or VBS programs the boys will do, and we start looking forward to lazier mornings and movies on hot afternoons. It is not a shock at all that my other favorite part of May is looking forward to the books that will be on my TBR list for the summer. I texted two dear friends this past week who are also big readers and said I’m realizing how seasonal reading is for me. I read year round, but what I want to read absolutely changes as the seasons of the year change. In the fall I find myself hungry for something a bit more dense, some of the more classic works of literature or theology that have stood the test of time. I think it probably comes from so many years of being a student, fall signals to my brain it’s time for learning, time to really re-engage with the headier content that’s out there. But as we inch closer to summer I start craving the lighter novels that suck you in and let you fly through them. Publishers know this is pretty typical, it’s hard to sit down and read Jane Austen or Victor Hugo when kids are home, you’re poolside or at the beach. But fun novels (that aren’t necessarily just fluff, many of these have incredibly interesting characters, plot twists and depth of emotion and substance) have summer written all over them. Which is why so many of these types of books are published between February and July each year. Every year bloggers, podcasters, authors and publishers come out with their “Summer Reading Guides” where they highlight and share the books they are most excited about for that particular summer. I live for these summer reading guides, they’re marked on my calendar, I read them with my library site open in front of me to put books on hold, it’s a whole event in my world. (Go ahead, I’ll wait while you laugh!) But the problem with these summer reading guides is that because all the books are new the hold times and wait lists at libraries are LONG usually (I’m currently number 76 in line for a book I can’t wait to get my hands on that doesn’t even release until June 1…I’m not the only one in Jacksonville waiting for this one). So I thought I’d share with you all today a list of books that are perfect for summer reading that are NOT being published this spring, which means there shouldn’t be much of a wait list at any library or they should be available in paperback now. When I went to put this list together I had my ideas in mind and then texted my dear friend and book twin Jill (we have scarily similar taste). I asked her what she’d put on a summer reading guide and she sent me a list that was pretty much identical to the ones I’d chosen. So that’s at least two of us saying “just pick any of these, I promise you can’t go wrong!” Whatever you pick up, may your summer be full of fruity cocktails, lazier mornings and delicious novels to dive into on long afternoons!
1. Beach Read by Emily Henry—This was the number one book I thought of when I thought “summer read” and it was number one on the list Jill sent me too. It was released last summer and even the name of it makes you think it would be perfect for this season. It’s not as fluffy as you might think though. January Andrews is a best selling romance author who no longer believes in love, and Augustus Everett is a literary fiction writer who wants to write the great American novel. They are opposites who end up living next door to one another while trying to write their new books. They decide to try and switch places—he will write a romance novel and she will try her hand at literary fiction and write a “serious” book for him. Along the way they both have to confront their pasts, their feelings for one another, and hope that someone has a manuscript to turn in when fall arrives. Warning, there are some spicy scenes, but this is a fun read with some great characters who have a lot of depth. (Henry’s newest book The People You Meet on Vacation just released this past month and will be everywhere this summer. I was at the front of the library list for that one so I’ve already read it, it also was delightful, but I think I liked Beach Read even better).
2. Next Year in Havana (and it’s follow up When We Left Cuba) by Chanel Cleeton—Chanel Cleeton is a fantastic historical fiction author who roots her stories in real life events with fictional characters. I loved these books and flew through them both. Next Year in Havana centers on Marisol Ferrerra and her grandmother Eliza Perez. The story goes back and forth between Cuba in 1958 and modern day as Marisol has returned to Cuba for the first time to scatter her grandmother’s ashes. There she learns of her family’s past as sugar barons and their roles in the political climate when Castro was coming to power. When we Left Cuba is the story of Eliza’s sister Beatrice and how the CIA recruits her after her family has escaped to America to go back to Cuba and infiltrate Castro’s inner circle. This was a time I didn’t know enough about in our country’s history so I spent a lot of time on google looking things up as I read, if I can learn and enjoy a great story that’s the best of both worlds!
3. Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center—Katherine Center is one of those writers that doesn’t really ever disappoint. Her stories always involve interesting characters and situations that pull at emotions without weighing you down with a heavy story. Cassie is the only female firefighter at the firehouse in her Boston neighborhood and lets just say the rest of the guys aren’t thrilled to have to share their space with “a lady” despite the fact that she can do the job as well as any of them. There’s romance, there’s tricky family dynamics, the setting of a firehouse was fantastic (and not something I’d ever read before) and I found myself rooting for Cassie the whole time.
4. Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid—The big book of the summer of 2021 is her brand new title coming out June 1, Malibu Rising. I cannot wait to get my hands on it, it’s getting fantastic reviews, but again I’m like number 75 on the wait list. So while I wait, let me recommend some of her other works, because I literally haven’t ever read one of hers that I didn’t enjoy. (She’s the author of the run away smash hit Daisy Jones and the Six which was excellent and the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo which I also loved). Jill immediately responded to my text with this title, Maybe in Another Life, and it’s the one I’d chosen out of her list of books as well to highlight, although you can’t go wrong with any of them. Hannah Martin is a 29 year old who still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She moves back home to Los Angeles to live with a friend and on her first night there they go to a bar where she bumps into her old high school flame, Ethan. Just after midnight, her roommate asks Hannah if she’s ready to leave the bar. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan? In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate? I promise you won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough to find out what happens!
5. The Mother in Law by Sally Hepworth—This was immediately one that I put on the list and was in the top 3 titles Jill texted me for her list (I told you we have eerily similar reading taste!). I have shared about this book on here in the past and even had a few of you tell me you read it on my recommendation and loved it, so it’s not just me who liked this one! In the opening chapter Lucy and her husband Ollie find out that Ollie’s mother Diana has died and it looks like it’s a suicide. But as the police investigate the scene things are looking more and more suspicious. There’s a bottle of drugs in her hand but zero evidence of those drugs in her body. The will had been changed at the very last minute. There was a note but it was left in a strange spot. And there are 4 family members who all would have had very different reasons for being angry at Diana. This one jumped back and forth between the past, unfolding the family story over the years and the present as the police investigation is on-going. There’s nothing gory, creepy or anything that kept me up at night (which is why I don’t usually read mysteries!). Definitely a fun summer beach read! She has a new one out this spring but I’m SUPER far down on the waitlist so it’ll be awhile, but a dear friend read it already and said it was great.
6. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty—This is an “old” one, published in 2014. I have read every book Moriarty has published and I’ve loved almost all of them, but this is my favorite. You know there’s been a death, at a school fundraiser, but what we don’t know as you journey through this book following three women who are all harboring secrets, telling little lies, is who is dead and why. Was it murder? An accident? The lies they once tried so hard to keep hidden begin to unravel as more and more details are revealed. I read it years ago and still would put it on any summer must-read list!
7. The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson—This 2017 release was one of my favorites from that year. Jackson is a southern writer who has an incredible sense of setting in her books. This is a story set in the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality - the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are. Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother's (Birchie’s) affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she's pregnant after a one night stand at a comic book convention. Yet just when Leia thinks she's got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie's been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family's freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows. Jackson writes so well, I’ve read a few of hers and she promises to keep you turning pages!
8. Anything by Marisa de los Santos (Love Walked In, Belong to Me, I’ll Be Your Blue Sky) —Marisa is the queen of a book with charming characters yet with substance. She tackles all kinds of issues of love, family, belonging and community with a light touch, that will have you flying through pages, maybe shedding a tear or two, but will leave you smiling in the end. Exactly what a perfect summer book ought to do!
9. This Tender Land by William Kent Kruger—This one falls outside the typical book I think of when I think of summer reading, but it’s a book that is perfect for these months. In my list of books I loved the most in 2020, This Tender Land was the book I named as my absolute, very favorite of the year. i read it over Labor Day weekend last year and it’s an amazing journey. This novel captivated me from the very first sentence and set me on an adventure I never knew I wanted to go on. Set in the Great Depression, four kids embark on the Mississippi River in a canoe to escape the horrible boarding school they were in. They’re searching for family down south and along the way they encounter a delightful cast of characters in Hooverville Camps, farms, towns and even a traveling tent revival crew. Over the course of a summer these four grow as individuals and as a family, proving that sometimes family isn’t the blood in our veins but the relationships between us. It’s the perfect summer adventure for anyone.
Friends, I hope this list has something on it that looks good to you! I recently listened to a podcast on kids and screen time and one of the biggest tips was to utilize their screen time to do something that fills you up—whether that’s cooking dinner alone, power napping or reading. We all sit down after lunch to silently read for 30 minutes (or if I had non-readers, they’d get an audio book for 30 minutes) and then I try and pick up my book again when they get their screen time each afternoon. You’d be amazed at how many books you can get through in only 30 minutes a day! Let me know what else you’d add—what books scream “summer reading” to you? What’s on your list for this upcoming season? Happy page-turning my friends!
