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15 backlist books that feel like summer

Library lovers, take note: these backlist selections hold big summer reading vibes while carrying much shorter library wait times than our new-for-2023 selections

We just released our 2023 MMD Summer Reading Guide, and I’m so proud of what we created as a team! This year’s edition is absolutely fabulous, and packed with FIFTY new-for-2023 titles to suit a wide variety of summer interests, moods, styles, and preferences. I’ve read every single book in the guide, cover to cover, which means this year I’ve spent A LOT of time reading brand new and forthcoming books for this purpose.

I LOVE new fiction for summertime, and vetting these books is a privilege and a pleasure. But I also know myself as a reader—and as a reader, I’m happiest when I curate a healthy mix of old and new titles for my reading life. That’s why we incorporate many (that is, well over 100) backlist selections into our Summer Reading Guide, and talk about older titles on the blog and podcast all season long.

Backlist titles have demonstrated at least a little bit of staying power, they’re not as influenced by the current publishing trends, and—importantly for our community of readers—they come with much shorter hold times at the library!

With that in mind, I hope you enjoy these backlist selections from 2022 and prior years: these books boast big summer vibes, as well as the much shorter library wait times that comes with older summer reading selections.

Backlist books that feel like summer

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Every Summer After

Every Summer After

Author:
This second chance romance alternates between the present day storyline and the six summers when Persephone and Sam first met at the lakeshore cabin, fall in love, and fall apart due to betrayal. Percy punishes herself by keeping everyone at a distance; she never plans on going home again. But when Sam’s mom dies, there’s no way she can stay away from Barry’s Bay. Their connection is as strong as ever—but they’ll have to decide whether they’re ready to take a risk and confront the past. More info →
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A Room with a View

A Room with a View

Author:
You simply can’t beat a book that turns on a stolen kiss in the Italian countryside. Read this slim novel about the awakening of sheltered Englishwoman Lucy Honeychurch (who is definitely in the running for Most Adorable Name in Literature) at the hands of an Englishman with little regard for convention, all while her uptight aunt is doing her darnedest to keep Lucy "proper" in society's eyes. (Psst—The movie version is fabulous.) More info →
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Call Me by Your Name

Call Me by Your Name

Author:
In this 2007 novel, Elio wistfully reflects many years later about the summer he fell in love with Oliver in the Italian Riviera. This sun-drenched story of obsession, lust, and heartbreak features a torrid summer romance, and is saturated with the joy, pain, angst, and uncertainty of first love. It also features a strong sense of place, with characters lounging in the sun, playing tennis, and sipping wine on the terrace in scenes drawn so vividly you just might feel you are right there with them, soaking up the Italian sunshine. More info →
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Prodigal Summer

Prodigal Summer

A 2015 Summer Reading Guide selection: Kingsolver returns to her native southern Appalachia in this evocative novel, following three couples over the course of one life-changing summer: a wildlife biologist who returns to her home county to work, a widowed farmer's wife at odds with her husband’s family, and a pair of feuding neighbors. Her emphasis on the natural world will feel familiar to lovers of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Verdant, lush, and vivid. More info →
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The Greengage Summer

The Greengage Summer

Author:
This classic coming of age tale from the author of In This House of Brede was first published in 1958. When 13 year old Cecil’s mother gets sick while the family is vacationing in France, she and her four siblings are sent to stay with an entertaining Englishman at a second-rate hotel in the Champagne region, where they wander and explore the countryside as the summer idles by. The book is written from Cecil's point of view, as she recounts the adventures of that unusual and memorable summer. More info →
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Atonement

Atonement

Author:
The story in McEwan's 2001 historical novel hinges on a life-altering lie told by a 13-year-old girl and its devastating ripple effects. The first act unfolds at a garden party on a sweltering summer day, before shifting to battle scenes at Dunkirk and the nursing wards in wartime London. It's impossible to discuss this novel—and the myriad reasons readers either love it or hate it—without depriving future readers of the thrill of discovery. But I'll say this much: McEwan's narrative structure impresses, thrills, and provokes, and his characters and their fates linger long after you've read the final page. More info →
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The Hotel Nantucket

The Hotel Nantucket

Hilderbrand’s beach reads are always enjoyable but this one is notable for introducing me to a new favorite pen. The titular hotel’s Gilded Age glory days are long gone: it’s a real dump (and in a fun plot twist—haunted!) when London billionaire Xavier Darling buys it sight unseen. The new owner hires local restaurateur Lizbet Keaton to make his hotel the best property on the island, if not the whole Eastern seaboard. And that means The Hotel Nantucket has to wow Shelly Carpenter, the influencer who’s become a national obsession for her blog Hotel Confidential. The influential critic regularly reviews hotels for her eighteen million followers and awards each property anywhere from one to five keys. The staff is energized by this audacious goal, because no hotel has ever earned five keys from Shelly Carpenter. To earn the coveted fifth key, they’ll have to do everything right. Super fun, and I especially enjoyed the ghost story element! More info →
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Instructions for a Heatwave

Instructions for a Heatwave

During a record-setting heatwave, the patriarch of an Irish family clears out his bank account and disappears, leaving his family to puzzle out where he went, and why. Reminiscent of The Dry, for its oppressive, atmospheric heat, and Ann Patchett's Commonwealth for its fraught sibling relationships. More info →
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The Shore

The Shore

Author:
Brian and Margot live a dream life with their teen daughters Liz and Evy in a beach town on the Jersey Shore, as year-round residents who make their living renting vacation homes to tourists. But when Brian is diagnosed with a rare and personality-altering brain tumor, everything changes. While Margot tries to keep their bustling real estate business afloat, the girls adjust to caretaking for their father and continuing to do normal teenage stuff like trying new summer jobs and trying on new personas. A moving, heart-wrenching, and ultimately hopeful story of love, family, and grief in a tourist town. More info →
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One Crazy Summer

One Crazy Summer

It's the summer of 1968, and Delphine and her younger sisters are on a journey in more ways than one as they leave home in Brooklyn and set out to visit their estranged mother in California. When the girls arrive, they find a mother who is radically different from how they imagined she would now be like. Unenthusiastic about seeing them and seemingly annoyed by their presence, she sends them off to a Black Panthers summer camp to get them out of her hair. This is the story of a young girl trying to make sense of the world (and family) around her, forced to grow up too fast to cope with the difficult circumstances she finds herself in, set against the backdrop of the civil and political unrest of 1968 Oakland. If you enjoy this story, don't miss the rest of the Gaither Sisters trilogy. More info →
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Chances Are…

Chances Are…

Author:
In this short novel, three college friends come back together for the first time in years, reunited in Martha's Vineyard, where they spent a life-changing Memorial Day weekend together nearly forty years before. That was the weekend that one of their friends—a friend they were all at least a little bit in love with—disappeared over the weekend, and they've been thinking about her ever since. Surprisingly suspenseful but full of tenderness, too. Russo crafts a story of male friendship, family tragedy, and how the past is never really past. More info →
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The Summer I Turned Pretty

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Author:
Isabel "Belly" Conklin lives for summers at the beach with her family—and her mother's best friend and her sons Jeremiah and Conrad. They've always been her summer companions, extra brothers to annoy her from June through August. But this summer, everything changes as Belly experiences a love triangle plot reminiscent of Sabrina. Jenny Han writes such delightful YA romance novels: humorous and charming, totally swoon worthy. This is the first in a trilogy you can easily finish in one week at the beach. More info →
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Haven Point

Haven Point

Author:
A 2021 Summer Reading Guide selection: a sweeping family saga about three generations of women and the summer home that divides and unites them. In the book’s opening pages a hurricane barrels towards the coast of Maine, but that’s not so unusual to the denizens of Haven Point, the snug community tucked into the rocky shoreline where three generations of Demarest women have found joy and suffered tragedy. Grandmother Maren has come to love the tight-knit community she married into, while her daughter and granddaughter found it to be snobbish and suffocating. The story unfolds in three timelines, set in 1944, 1970, and 2008, each closely following one generation of women, and illuminating the devastating secret that must be revealed before the hurricane makes landfall. Taking readers from the wartime corridors of Walter Reed hospital to the contemporary summer singalongs in the rec hall, this wistful debut is perfect for those who want to follow characters through their lifetimes, examine complex family relationships, or enjoy a good redemption story. More info →
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Sag Harbor

Sag Harbor

Whitehead's humorous coming of age story takes readers to 1985 Manhattan, where 15-year-old Benji Cooper, the only Black student at his prep school, attempts to fit in with his classmates. Trying to break free of his label as a bona fide nerd proves exhausting, but escape comes every summer when Benji's family stays in Sag Harbor, along with a whole community of upper-middle class Black families in their social circle. With freedom from school, parents, and the perception of his peers, Benji thinks this summer might be the perfect time to reinvent himself. Travel to the Hamptons with Benji for summer vacation vibes, teenage angst, and Whitehead's stunning writing style. More info →
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One Italian Summer

One Italian Summer

Author:
My favorite Rebecca Serle to date! When twenty-something Katy loses her mother to cancer, she loses her best friend in the world, and she has no idea what to do next. She makes the difficult decision to travel to the Amalfi Coast—painful, because she and her mother had planned to take this trip together. At a charming hotel in Positano, Katy imagines what her own mother's visit must have been like many years before, when she first visited the hotel in which Katy is finding solace. But then—Katy's mother appears, in the flesh, though she isn't yet Katy's mother, because she's just thirty years old. This was touching and tender and I inhaled it in a day. Audiophiles take note: Lauren Graham narrates this one. More info →
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Do you have any favorite books that feel like summer? Please share them in the comments section!

P.S. 20 novels that will transport you to the shore and 20 backlist favorites from 10 years of the Summer Reading Guide.

15 backlist books that feel like summer

45 comments

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  1. Anna says:

    The Hotel Nantucket was so good on audio. The ghost story feature added a whimsical layer. Highly recommend this as a summer beach read!

    • Jennifer says:

      Aww! A Room With A View has been a favorite of mine since I was 16. I never thought of it as a summer read, but you are right, it definitely would work as a “feels like summer read!”

  2. Paulette Fagen says:

    One Summer After is my favorite novel by Rebecca Serle, too. I read 3 books set in Positano, all released in 2022, and it was the best, by far. I also loved Every Summer After. I’ve marked both books for re-reads. Thanks for the list, Anne!

  3. Anne Bunfill says:

    I’ve loved so many of these , especially Prodigal Summer and Every Summer After! So happy to add some new ones to my TBR!

  4. April Schmick says:

    One Crazy Summer (and the other Gaither Sisters stories) are favorites of mine. They are great on audio! The narrator brings the three sisters to life and I just loved little Fern!

  5. Kay Sutcliffe says:

    I loved One Crazy Summer and its companion stories, too! There were so many things I could relate to growing up in the sixties and seventies.

  6. Robin says:

    Thanks for these Anne and team … I love a good backlist! Question for you though … where are the books with women over 40 as the lead? Like a second “coming of age” when we step into the post parenting life. That’s the story I’m searching for. Thanks!

      • Anne Bogel says:

        I love the idea of not just a “seasoned protagonist” list but a collection of books that capture a very specific season of life. Several of the titles here feature 40+ females as central characters: The Shore, Prodigal Summer, Haven Point, The Hotel Nantucket, and especially Fellowship Point. (In The Shore the mother is actively planning for that hinge moment you describe, but she’s not *quite* there yet.)

  7. Heather says:

    Summer Sisters by Judy Blume – one of Blume’s adult novels as opposed to her YA ones. It’s a tale of female friendships and is set in the summer on Martha’s Vineyard. It’s a re-read favourite of mine!

    • Betsy says:

      That sounds really good! I just watched the new documentary about Judy Blume ( a must if you’re a JB fan) and am curious to read her adult novels.

  8. Chelsea Siler says:

    Amy Mason Doan’s books spark with summer energy- The Summer List is a favorite, but Summer Hours and Lady Sunshine are also gems. They are rich with nostalgia, bittersweet friendship, and lakeside/coastal settings that truly feel like summer.

  9. Trish Litterski says:

    A favorite summer read of mine is The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. Published in 1972 and translated from Swedish, this lovely short novel takes place on a small island in the Gulf of Finland. Wisdom (from a grandmother to her 6 year-old granddaughter and vice versa) family, humanity, nature, the sea, strong sense of place…lovely summer reading indeed!

    • Sally Shughart says:

      Trish, I love this book too! My husband is Swedish and Tove’s words so accurately described the summers there. And I just loved the relationship between the grandma and the little girl. Precious.

    • Nina Wegener says:

      Her children’s book series about Moomins are absolutely delightful. Moominsummer Madness would be perfect for a summer read.

  10. Ruthie says:

    Thanks, Anne, for this wonderful list! I’ve been wanting to read some Colson Whitehead, but have no brain at this point for anything “heavy”. Delighted to learn about Sag Harbor. Even the blurbs for all of the entries on this list are evocative of summer!

  11. Emma says:

    Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury!
    I always start a yearly re-read on the first day of summer. It spans the summer of 1928 in a small town, and it is absolutely beautiful.
    The description is beautiful – “The summer of ’28 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma’s belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding–remembered forever by the incomparable Ray Bradbury.”

  12. Molly Putnam says:

    Every Summer After was unreadable to me. Loved Haven Point, Prodigal Summer, and Hotel Nantucket. Will have to try that Maggie O’Farrell!

  13. Casey Martin says:

    A great flight pairing for A Room With A View is Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians. It’s actually based on A Room With a View and I found his update delightful. I read the first chapter last summer and when I went to log it as “Currently Reading” on Goodreads, I realized it was based on the classic. So I stopped and read A Room With a View first, then went back to it. My reading experience was so much richer, and they both had great summer vibes!

  14. Bonnie says:

    Did you recommend buying an extra cannister/bowl for the Cuisinart ice cream maker? I seem to remember someone recommending that. I have toyed with the idea of getting one of those, and I think I’m really going to do it this time. We have an ice cream maker but I don’t think we’ve ever used it.

  15. Marie-France Noel says:

    Marguerite Duras – The Little Horses of Tarquinia (origibal title Les petits chevaux de Tarquinias) 😍

  16. Juliee says:

    Thank you for so many good suggestions! A favorite summery read for me is Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons. I don’t often re-read books but this one is so good I happily make an exception.

  17. Claire says:

    Can’t wait to read One Crazy Summer on my kindle. I ordered it a few years ago because I loved the cover!

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