Ahhhh summer reading…I am going to need lots of books to take to the pool, to the beach, to read while traveling, and in my favorite reading chairs.
So, I spent the last couple of days surveying what’s coming out this summer and reading first chapters and previews.
As expected, I found several books I’m excited to read. My list of 12 new books includes historical fiction about a literary figures, a couple of psychological thrillers, a love story, a fairy tale about war, and memoirs from a refugee and a veteran/politician. I’ll be returning to Russia (via book) and France. All and all, I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about one of my seasonal reading lists!!
I hope you’ll join me in reading some of these books. You can click on the titles or pictures to find out more and purchase on Amazon. (Publishers notes are in quote boxes.) I’ll post links to my reviews (no spoilers) as I read through my list.
Another Side of Paradise: A Novel
A notorious drunk famously married to the doomed “crazy Zelda,” Fitzgerald fell hard for his “Shielah” (he never learned to spell her name), a shrewd yet soft-hearted woman—both a fool for love and nobody’s fool—who would stay with him and help revive his career until his tragic death three years later. Working from diaries and other primary sources from the time, Sally Koslow revisits their scandalous love affair, bringing Graham and Scott gloriously alive in this compelling page-turner saturated with the color, glitter, magic, and passion of 1930s Hollywood and Sheilah’s dramatic transformation in London.
This book is right up my alley as I love F. Scott and imagining the story behind literary history and figures. The book reminds me of the style of The Paris Wife. UPDATE: I loved this book; see my post here.
The Summer Wives: A Novel
A book about love, class, money, power, and some mystery, set on an island, with “summer” in the title. Perfect!!
The Death of Mrs. Westaway
“On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money.”
This is the highly anticipated new novel by the author of The Women in Cabin 10. I know everyone will be reading and talking about it this summer, so I don’t want to be left out! UPDATE: I read this and liked it – here is my post.
How to Walk Away: A Novel
The book is promoted as a “a love story about finding joy in the darkest of circumstances.” I read the first chapter of this book where a woman loses everything she has hoped for in an instant. I really wanted to keep reading it, so I will! UPDATE: I just read this book & here’s my post.
The Subway Girls: A Novel
“The Subway Girls is the charming story of two strong women, a generation apart, who find themselves up against the same eternal struggle to find an impossible balance between love, happiness, and ambition.”
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others…
The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave readers guessing until the very last page.
The Lost Vintage: A Novel
This is another that I read the first chapter of and wanted to read more. The wine element will be interesting. (The main character is studying to be a M.W. – masters in wine -which is a designation only held by about 300 people in the world.)
“Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turning novel about a woman who returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy and unexpectedly uncovers a lost diary, an unknown relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since World War II”
UPDATE: YES I LOVED THIS ONE TOO…READ MY POST HERE.
This is a disturbing mystery, suspense where a woman comes home to find strangers moving into her house. Her ex husband has obviously sold it without her knowledge and has fled the country. I read the first chapter and was intrigued to read more! UPDATE: Here is my post after reading!
A Terrible Country: A Novel
A wise, sensitive novel about Russia, exile, family, love, history and fate, A Terrible County asks what you owe the place you were born, and what it owes you. Writing with grace and humor, Keith Gessen gives us a brilliant and mature novel that is sure to mark him as one of the most talented novelists of his generation.
The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War
I am a bit skeptical of this book, supposedly written as a fairy tale. But it was intriguing enough to make my list…
A great war, a great love, and the mythology that unites them; The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War is a lyrical adaptation of a beloved classic.
Set against the shattering events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at the tale’s heart are an American schoolteacher―dynamic and imaginative―and an Irish musician, homeless and hated―who have survived bloodshed, poverty, and sickness to be thrown together in an English village. Together they quietly hide from the world in a small cottage.
And to keep myself well rounded I need add some non-fiction:
The Fox Hunt: A Refugee’s Memoir of Coming to America
The Fox Hunt tells one young man’s unforgettable story of war, unlikely friendship, and his harrowing escape from Yemen’s brutal civial war with the help of a daring plan engineered on social media by a small group of interfaith activists in the West.
The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations
“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here. Maybe I’ll have another five years. Maybe, with the advances in oncology, they’ll find new treatments for my cancer that will extend my life. Maybe I’ll be gone before you read this. My predicament is, well, rather unpredictable. But I’m prepared for either contingency, or at least I’m getting prepared. I have some things I’d like to take care of first, some work that needs finishing, and some people I need to see. And I want to talk to my fellow Americans a little more if I may.”
UPDATE: I read this one already! Here is my post on it.
I really hope you will join me in reading some of these books this summer. Let me know if you do!
RELATED POSTS:
My Fall Reading list with links to my favorites.
Last Summer’s Reading list with links to my favorites.
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Hi,
I am an English teacher and previewing books for a class I’m teaching next year called Award Winners. The book I’m reading won the Spur award. It’s really good. Check out Double Wide.
Thanks JoAnn; I will check it out.