The best of the best summer reading for 2014, Non-Summer Reading

The Sea of Tranquility

by Katja Millay

I blew through this novel from my YA summer reading list over the weekend, even though it's almost 400 pages. If you loved Eleanor & Park, read this next. It's not a read-alike, but it has enough in common with E&P to make it a safe bet. One of the best books I've read this year.

Rules of Civility

by Amor Towles

This gorgeous novel can almost be categorized as literary fiction, which too many readers dismiss as inaccessible. Don't make that mistake. This Gatsby-esque novel pulls several shocking plot twists, and I deﬁnitely didn’t see that ending coming.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

by Winifred Watson

I’ll bet you weren’t assigned this breezy Cinderella-ish story set in 1930s Britain back in English class. When a placement agency sends unemployed Miss Pettigrew to the wrong address, she spends the day of her life with a glamorous nightclub singer, extricating her hour by hour from one scrape after another. Miss Pettigrew is light, charming and utterly delightful.

I Capture the Castle

by Dodie Smith

Claims to fame: this is the “original YA novel,” with one of the best narrators in English literature. We hear the story of this eccentric 1930s English family—struggling to make ends meet in a tumbledown castle—through the eyes of 17-year-old Cassandra—bright, witty, and wise beyond her years. Replete with love, magic, writer’s block, and bear costumes.

Eleanor & Park

by Rainbow Rowell

Ten years ago, I finished this short novel on a weekday afternoon when I was supposed to be working, because all I wanted to do was finish this book.

The best of the best summer reading for 2014, Non-Summer Reading

The Sea of Tranquility

Rules of Civility

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

I Capture the Castle

Eleanor & Park

Find your next read with:

100 Book recommendations
for every mood

The best of the best summer reading for 2014, Non-Summer Reading

The Sea of Tranquility

Rules of Civility

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

I Capture the Castle

Eleanor & Park

Find your next read with:

100 Book recommendations for every mood

100 Book recommendations
for every mood