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
A Room with a View
Call Me by Your Name
Prodigal Summer
The Greengage Summer
Atonement
The Hotel Nantucket
Instructions for a Heatwave
The Shore
One Crazy Summer
Chances Are…
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Haven Point
Sag Harbor
One Italian Summer
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.
45 comments
The Hotel Nantucket was so good on audio. The ghost story feature added a whimsical layer. Highly recommend this as a summer beach read!
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!”
Every single one of these sound great. Off to the library website to place some holds!
The Greengage Summer is on my list of all-time favourite books!
Happy to hear it!
One Crazy Summer (the whole series actually) was so good on audio.
That’s good to know!
It didn’t make the list, but Our Italian Summer by Jennifer Probst was REALLY good!
I agree. Great listen for a family car trip and even the adults in the car were invested.
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!
Obviously, I meant One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle. 🙄😁
And Every Summer After by Carley Fortune.
I’ve loved so many of these , especially Prodigal Summer and Every Summer After! So happy to add some new ones to my TBR!
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!
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.
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!
I would recommend Vendela Vida’s books (especially The Lovers for the summer).
I’d be interested in this topic, too!
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.)
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!
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.
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.
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!
Never heard of this book or author. Sounds so appealing. I’m going to look for it. Thanks!
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.
Tried to add 4 of these to my TBR, and they were already on there! Safe to say I love a good summer read
I always enjoy being reminded of books my past self thought sounded like a good idea. 🙂
Apparently I’ve been missing out. There’s even a movie about this author! Look what The Guardian has to say about this book in particular:
‘A masterpiece’: why Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book is as relevant as ever at 50
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/01/tove-jansson-the-summer-book-50-masterpiece
Her children’s book series about Moomins are absolutely delightful. Moominsummer Madness would be perfect for a summer read.
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!
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.”
I haven’t read this in ages!
Yes! And I start the fall by reading The October Country. Wonderful!!
Every Summer After was unreadable to me. Loved Haven Point, Prodigal Summer, and Hotel Nantucket. Will have to try that Maggie O’Farrell!
The Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland just oozes summer vacation vibes.
I haven’t read that one!
I enjoyed Haven Point so much I stayed up to 2 AM to finish it in one day.
Wow!
I’ve never heard of Greengage Summer! And I love France! Meant to be.
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!
That’s a great idea! Both books are a fun read.
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.
Marguerite Duras – The Little Horses of Tarquinia (origibal title Les petits chevaux de Tarquinias) 😍
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.
Can’t wait to read One Crazy Summer on my kindle. I ordered it a few years ago because I loved the cover!