Kick off the summer with a curated guide to the best summer reads. Anyone can browse a best seller list, but those lists don’t help you decide if those are the right books for YOU.
That’s why I put out this guide every year. These are my hand-picked top reads for the season. I’ve read every book in it, front to back, and can tell you why each title may or may not be the right book for YOU. Amazon has millions of books, your local bookstore has thousands, but this guide has just 30 handpicked titles—-that’s 5 books each over 6 categories–so you can bypass the duds and go straight to the good stuff.
This guide is so much fun to put together and I’m so happy to share it with you. I hope you find some amazing titles to read this summer.
ADDICTIVE SERIES
you'll wish they would never end
Still Life (Chief Inspector Gamache Mysteries, No. 1)
In the idyllic small town of Three Pines, Quebec, where people don’t even lock their doors, a beloved local woman is found in the woods with an arrow shot through her heart. The locals believe it must be a hunting accident, but the police inspector senses something is off. The story is constructed as a classic whodunit but it feels like anything but, with its deliberate pacing, dry wit, and lyrical writing. A stunningly good first novel. Still Life is the first in a series that keeps getting better. Great on audio.
More info →Cinder
A Share in Death (Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James Book 1)
The Likeness
In the second of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series, which can be read in any order, detective Cassie Maddux is pulled off her current beat and sent to investigate a murder. When she arrives at the scene, she finds the victim looks just like her, and—even more creepy—she was using an alias that Cassie used in a previous case. The victim was a student, and her boss talks her into trying to crack the case by impersonating her, explaining to her friends that she survived the attempted murder. The victim lived with four other students in a strangely intimate, isolated setting, and as Cassie gets to know them, liking them almost in spite of herself, her boundaries—and loyalties—begin to blur. A taut psychological thriller that keeps you guessing till the end.
More info →GRIPPING NOVELS
that will keep you up all night
I Let You Go
The Forgetting Time
All the Missing Girls
Before the Fall
No One Knows
COMPELLING NOVELS
you should definitely read by the pool
Eight Hundred Grapes
Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice
The Year We Turned Forty
One True Loves
The Knockoff: A Novel
ENGROSSING BOOKS
you won't be able to put down
The Nest
Jane Steele
The Gilded Years
Before We Visit the Goddess
The One-in-a-Million Boy
BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN NOVELS
that will suck you right in
​The Madwoman Upstairs
Last Ride to Graceland
Everyone Brave is Forgiven
Glory over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House
Flight of Dreams
SPELLBINDING STORIES
that will inspire you to thrive
Lab Girl
Magic and Loss
Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person
The Light of the World: A Memoir
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