15 backlist favorites from 15 years of the Summer Reading Guide

Take My Hand

by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

A timely and gripping work of historical fiction loosely inspired by the real-life groundbreaking court case of Relf v Weinberger. In 2016 Memphis, distinguished Black doctor Civil Townsend prepares to retire. First she must journey to her hometown of Montgomery to make peace with the past and tell the truth of it to her own daughter. In alternating timelines, Civil reveals all that unfolded in 1973, when she was a young and idealistic nurse, stepping into her first job at a reproductive clinic serving Black women in her community. She cared deeply for the girls under her care, but grew alarmed at what she was called upon to do: administer experimental and perhaps unnecessary treatments to young patients without their understanding or consent. When the unthinkable happens to one patient and she is sterilized without consent, Civil becomes involved in a landmark lawsuit. A moving story and a testament to fiction’s power to influence hearts and impact lives. For fans of Kaia Alderson’s Sisters in Arms and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

by Laura Hillenbrand

Unbroken tells the true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete turned World War II bombardier. Hillenbrand has called Zamp’s life “almost incomprehensibly dramatic,” and she masterfully unfurls his story, which begins with his plane failing and crashing into the Pacific during a routine search mission. (After you finish, pick up Hillenbrand’s previous biography Seabiscuit, which is about so much more than a racehorse.)

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

by Shannon Chakraborty

City of Brass author Chakraborty kicks off a new trilogy with this spirited tale of a renegade pirate captain—who happens to be a middle-aged mother simply trying to enjoy her retirement. But after a former crewmate’s daughter is kidnapped, Amina reluctantly accepts one last job and pulls her long-retired crew together again to help. The historical fantasy unfolds on the high seas of the twelfth-century Indian Ocean and bursts with period detail and magical adventures. From the book’s touching dedication to the detailed author’s note and acknowledgments, I found this imaginative tale and irresistible protagonist unique, exciting, and just plain fun. For fans of Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows and Brandon Sanderson's Tress of the Emerald Sea.

The Language of Flowers

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

This title comes from the Victorian Era’s literal language of flowers, which they relied on to convey feelings rarely spoken of: ardor and friendship, jealousy and envy, infidelity and grief. We meet Victoria Jones on her eighteenth birthday: the day she is emancipated from foster care. Though fluent in the language of flowers, Victoria uses her flowers to communicate distrust and discord. But as she strikes out on her own, she comes to learn that the language of flowers is more complicated than she was taught to believe. This beautiful debut is easy-reading, yet has depth and feeling. Ultimately, it’s a redemption story. And who doesn't love a good redemption story?

There Are Rivers in the Sky

by Elif Shafak

The award winning British-Turkish novelist Shafak delivers an ambitious and gorgeous novel revolving around three fascinating individuals, the Tigris and Thames rivers, and the ancient poem The Epic of Gilgamesh. The sweeping narrative begins in King Ashurbanipal's Mesopotamian court and ends in modern-day London, with the central thread revolving around the life of a boy known as King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums, from his birth by the Thames in 1840 to his death by the Tigris in 1876. The memorable characters, separated as they are by time and space, may not at first seem to have much in common, but they are connected by something small, crucial, eternal: a single drop of water.

The Martian: A Novel

by Andy Weir

When a deadly dust storm cuts their mission short, astronaut Mark Watney’s crew makes an agonizing decision to return to earth without him. They saw his biosigns go flat: they believe they’re leaving his body behind. But Watney is very much alive, and now he must find a way to survive on Mars, in a damaged station, with limited food and no communication. Next step: to cobble together a rescue plan. Think Cast Away, in outer space. Funny, thrilling, and surprisingly plausible.

Run for the Hills

by Kevin Wilson

Wilson deftly combines the heavy and the light in this found family story of four scattered half-siblings who meet for the first time and pile into an old PT Cruiser to go find the father who abandoned them long ago. Wilson’s stories often feel larger than life, yet the emotional heart feels real and relatable. Quirky, warm, and bighearted, with a multigenerational cast and road trip hijinks galore. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s no spoiler to say I found this coast-to-coast adventure to be an utter delight.

The One-in-a-Million Boy

by Monica Wood

I NEVER would have read this if a trusted bookseller hadn't pressed it into my hands and said READ IT: the plot summary would have made me put it right down. But it's one of my favorites of the year. I went into this novel knowing nothing and I liked it that way, so I'll just say Wood explores themes of love, loss, and identity through a quirky 11-year-old boy who loves making lists, a wily 104-year-old woman, an absentee father, a Boy Scout project, and the Guiness Book of World Records. Perfect for fans of The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and A Man Called Ove.

The Dry

by Jane Harper

"You lied. Luke lied. Be at the funeral." Federal Agent Aaron Falk is summoned home with these words after his best friend Luke dies in a heartbreaking murder-suicide, turning the gun on himself after killing his wife and 6-year-old son. Falk obeys—but he can't believe his best friend could have done such a thing, and so he starts digging, dragging long-buried secrets back to the surface. The setting is the drought-ravaged Australian Outback, and the brittleness and heat are almost palpable. Imagine an Australian Tana French, and you've got this stellar debut about right. (Psst—we're talking with the author in the MMD Book Club this summer.) Publication date: January 10.

The Wedding Date

by Jasmine Guillory

Guillory’s debut was inspired by frustration: she wanted to read more books about people like her and her friends: single, with jobs, and living in cities (instead of quirky small towns like you often see in romance). Oh, and she wanted to see Black women in the pages. Enter The Wedding Date. Drew and Alexa meet cute in a broken-down elevator; sparks are flying within seconds. Drew’s in town to watch his ex marry his best friend (ouch). He doesn’t have a date, so he asks Alexa to come along—and pretend to be his girlfriend. But soon the fake relationship starts to feel surprisingly real. But they both have big jobs they love, in different cities. Drew’s track record with women isn’t great. Alexa is Black, and Drew is white. In short: it gets complicated. But it’s a rom-com, so they’re going to see it through. Heads up, readers: this is seriously racy in parts.

Ask Again, Yes

by Mary Beth Keane

If you love dysfunctional family novels, this is one doozy of a story—and a must-read. When two rookie cops who meet at the NYC Police Academy strike up a friendship, it sets in motion a tragic chain of events that echo through the decades, through the lives of their children and their children’s children. I found this book exceptionally difficult to read—it’s depressing and dark and triggers abound—yet I was eager to find out what would happen next to these doomed families, and the astonishing developments of the last 75 pages vaulted this to my best-of-the-year list. A poignant story of grace, forgiveness, and redemption, for fans of Atonement and Little Fires Everywhere.

The Jane Austen Society

by Natalie Jenner

This charming debut is sure to delight Austen fans. Jane Austen lived out her last days in the sleepy village of Chawton, and in the days just after World War II, her legacy still looms large. Times are hard, and we meet several villagers burdened with their own private sorrows, who are doing what they’ve always done: turning to the works of Austen for solace. When a local business attempts to buy the Austen property and raze her cottage, the villagers band together to preserve her legacy. At one point, a character muses that Austen’s works present “a world so a part of our own, yet so separate, that entering it is like some kind of tonic.” The same can be said of Jenner’s wonderful book. Don’t miss Jenner’s 2022 novel Bloomsbury Girls, out May 17; audiophiles should know Juliet Stevenson narrates. For fans of Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Charlie Lovett’s The Last Book of the Grail.

Chirp

Firekeeper’s Daughter

by Angeline Boulley

A powerfully layered YA debut that adroitly balances a thrilling crime plot, a fake relationship, and a thoughtful exploration of identity and belonging. 18-year-old hockey star Daunis dreams of leaving her small community on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and making a fresh start in college. But after she witnesses a terrible crime, Daunis is persuaded to go undercover to nail the dealers whose deadly new drugs are ravaging her Anishinaabe community. While seeking justice for her best friend, Daunis also grapples with burgeoning feelings for her handsome hockey player crush and navigates often-tense relationships within her own family. (While sensitively handled, triggers abound, including murder, suicide, sexual assault, and racism.) Native American narrator Isabella Star LeBlanc’s brilliant performance captures the pulse-pounding first-person narrative drive and the new-to-me Ojibwe phrases and practices in this brilliant YA debut. Narrated by Isabella Star LeBlanc.

The Guide

by Peter Heller

Seasoned wilderness writer Heller tries his hand at the thriller genre in this follow-up to The River. “The virus from three years back that kept mutating, the superbug that finally broke out of India.” Though not a sequel, The Guide picks up Jack’s story several years after The River ends, and spoilers to the previous book’s ending are embedded in the plot. Jack has graduated from Dartmouth and come home to Colorado. Now he’s taken a summer job as a fly-fishing guide at a luxe resort that caters to celebrity clientele. He’s lucky, it seems—it’s rare for a guide to leave mid-season, but his predecessor did. Jack is paired with Allison, a country music star born and raised in East Tennessee who loves to fish for the same reasons Jack does—to enjoy the full absorption the sport requires. Jack’s first clue that something is amiss is the camera. Totally fascinating—the first book I’ve read that incorporates covid into the plot in a necessary and artful manner.

What Alice Forgot

by Liane Moriarty

Alice is 29, expecting her first child, and in love with her husband—or at least she thinks she is, but then she bumps her head and wakes up on the gym floor, to find that she’s actually a 39-year-old mother of 3 who’s in the middle of divorcing the man she’s come to hate. She doesn’t know what’s happened to her these past 10 years, or who she’s become. She’s about to find out. Interesting, readable, and surprisingly thought-provoking. I inhaled this like it was chick lit, but found myself mulling it over for weeks after I finished.

15 backlist favorites from 15 years of the Summer Reading Guide

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summer reading starts May 16th