summer book review

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THE SUMMER BOOK

by Tove Jansson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 28, 1975

Ms. Jansson, who wrote those "Moominland" fancies for children, has directed her inventive hook-and-button plain talk at some adult concerns. In this series of brief dialogues and adventures of Grandmother (85) and Sophia (ten), the second childhood parallels the first in new awarenesses and incipient rebellion; but on the lonely way of the aging, hobbled by physical frailty, there are moments of sudden, inexplicable sadness. Grandmother and Sophia for the most part are honest contemporaries; they forage on their nearly isolated island, plot and explore, solemnly converse and flare up at one another: "Shall I tell [your father] how you were brave?" asks Grandmother. "You can tell it on your deathbed so it doesn't go to waste," says Sophia. "That's a bloody good idea," decides Grandmother. But while the family (the father is there but not heard from) goes about island survival and diversions—the lights of Midsummer Eve, drought, a flood and storms, an alien neighbor—Grandmother tentatively exposes herself to feelings about life and its endings: "Unless I tell [a tale from my youth] . . . it gets closed off and then it's lost." She is puzzled by an elderly friend's calm: ". . . don't you ever get curious? Or upset? Or simply terrified?" Old woman and child edge toward their own thresholds, and at the close Grandmother is resting and waiting. Spindrift perceptions, fresh and penetrating.

Pub Date: April 28, 1975

ISBN: 978-1590172681

Page Count: 184

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: March 29, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1975

LITERARY FICTION

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BOOK REVIEW

by Tove Jansson ; translated by Thomas Teal ; Silvester Mazzarella

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BOOK TO SCREEN

THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD

by Claire Lombardo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019

Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet...

Four Chicago sisters anchor a sharp, sly family story of feminine guile and guilt.

Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. In the opening scene, Liza Sorenson, daughter No. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sister’s wedding. “There’s four of you?” he asked. “What’s that like?” Her retort: “It’s a vast hormonal hellscape. A marathon of instability and hair products.” Thus begins a story bristling with a particular kind of female intel. When Wendy, the oldest, sets her sights on a mate, she “made sure she left her mark throughout his house—soy milk in the fridge, box of tampons under the sink, surreptitious spritzes of her Bulgari musk on the sheets.” Turbulent Wendy is the novel’s best character, exuding a delectable bratty-ness. The parents—Marilyn, all pluck and busy optimism, and David, a genial family doctor—strike their offspring as impossibly happy. Lombardo levels this vision by interspersing chapters of the Sorenson parents’ early lean times with chapters about their daughters’ wobbly forays into adulthood. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Grace perpetrates a whopper, and “every day the lie was growing like mold, furring her judgment.” The writing here is silky, if occasionally overwrought. Still, the deft touches—a neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstone—delight. The class calibrations are divine even as the utter apolitical whiteness of the Sorenson world becomes hard to fathom.

Pub Date: June 25, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-385-54425-2

Page Count: 544

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019

LITERARY FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

SEEN & HEARD

HOUSE OF LEAVES

by Mark Z. Danielewski ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2000

The story's very ambiguity steadily feeds its mysteriousness and power, and Danielewski's mastery of postmodernist and...

An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale.

Texts within texts, preceded by intriguing introductory material and followed by 150 pages of appendices and related "documents" and photographs, tell the story of a mysterious old house in a Virginia suburb inhabited by esteemed photographer-filmmaker Will Navidson, his companion Karen Green (an ex-fashion model), and their young children Daisy and Chad.  The record of their experiences therein is preserved in Will's film The Davidson Record - which is the subject of an unpublished manuscript left behind by a (possibly insane) old man, Frank Zampano - which falls into the possession of Johnny Truant, a drifter who has survived an abusive childhood and the perverse possessiveness of his mad mother (who is institutionalized).  As Johnny reads Zampano's manuscript, he adds his own (autobiographical) annotations to the scholarly ones that already adorn and clutter the text (a trick perhaps influenced by David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest ) - and begins experiencing panic attacks and episodes of disorientation that echo with ominous precision the content of Davidson's film (their house's interior proves, "impossibly," to be larger than its exterior; previously unnoticed doors and corridors extend inward inexplicably, and swallow up or traumatize all who dare to "explore" their recesses).  Danielewski skillfully manipulates the reader's expectations and fears, employing ingeniously skewed typography, and throwing out hints that the house's apparent malevolence may be related to the history of the Jamestown colony, or to Davidson's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a dying Vietnamese child stalked by a waiting vulture.  Or, as "some critics [have suggested,] the house's mutations reflect the psychology of anyone who enters it."

Pub Date: March 6, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70376-4

Page Count: 704

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000

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by Mark Z. Danielewski

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The Summer Book

57 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Vignette Summaries & Analyses

Vignettes 1-5

Vignettes 6-10

Vignettes 11-14

Vignettes 15-18

Vignettes 19-22

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

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Summary and Study Guide

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson is a novel written as a series of vignettes; it was published first in 1972 in Swedish and later translated to English. Although Jansson is best known for her children’s series, The Moomins , she also wrote for adults and has become the best internationally known Finnish author. The Summer Book is a work of realistic literary fiction. It follows a young girl, Sophia , and her grandmother , who are spending the summer on an island in the Gulf of Finland with Sophia’s father (Grandmother’s son). The novel explores themes of healing from loss , as Sophia and Father have recently lost Sophia’s mother. Age-related restrictions are depicted through both Grandmother and Sophia, as is the nature of grandparent-grandchild relationships , which is presented through the unique bond that has formed between the two protagonists.

This guide uses a digitized version of The Summer Book that was translated by Thomas Teal and published by Pantheon Books in 1975.

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Plot Summary

The Summer Book is a series of 22 vignettes, so it contains neither a typical plot structure nor a consistent chain of events. “The Morning Swim” introduces Sophia and Grandmother, who walk out onto a forbidden ravine. While on the ravine, Sophia wants to go swimming but is scared of the deep water. The second vignette depicts Sophia waking up in the middle of the night to find double reflections in the windows, and she wakes Grandmother who explains they are double-pane windows. These first two scenes introduce the characters and context of the story.

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In “The Magic Forest,” Grandmother carves abstract animals from driftwood, creating an exhibit of her carvings in a patch of scraggly woods—the magic forest. Sophia helps Grandmother collect bones from the beach for her collection, but when they find a seal skull and add it to the exhibit, Sophia has a strong emotional connection. Grandmother comforts her until she falls asleep. “The Scolder” takes place on a chilly morning while Grandmother and Sophia are walking along the beach. The scolders—a type of duck—are in their mating season, and they see one that has died. Sophia is upset; Grandmother tries to make up a nice story about the dead scolder, but Sophia wants the truth. Grandmother says the bird was too busy performing its mating call and flew into a rock. Sophia walks around the beach looking for items that have washed up on shore, and she forgets about the dead scolder.

Sophia invites a new friend to stay with her on the island, but the friend, Pipsan, is anxious. Sophia, who only likes Pipsan because of her hair, is annoyed by her fear. She goes to Grandmother for advice and begins referring to Pipsan as “Berenice,” believing it sounds more sophisticated. When Berenice’s hair is damaged by the saltwater, Sophia loses all patience with her. Grandmother steps in and shows Berenice kindness, while Berenice impresses Grandmother with her skillful drawing. The next scene, “The Pasture,” depicts Grandmother and Sophia discussing the existence of Hell. Sophia declares that it is real, while Grandmother maintains that it is not. Grandmother feels life is too hard for Hell to exist, but Sophia does not think life is difficult. Grandmother uses the conversation as a chance to teach Sophia the concept of tolerance, and the two of them bond over singing an inappropriate song.

“Playing Venice” follows Grandmother and Sophia as they create a mock-version of Venice on the beach. Grandmother carves buildings from driftwood, and they pretend a small family is living in one of the palaces. A storm develops in the night and destroys the play city, so Grandmother carves a new palace and pretends the family is fine so that Sophia will not be upset. In “Dead Calm,” Grandmother, Sophia, and Father visit an island—The Cairn—on a pleasant day. Grandmother sneaks away from the mattress where she is supposed to relax and explores the island with Sophia. Sophia’s family finds a kitten, Moppy, and takes care of it in “The Cat.” Sophia longs for Moppy to be sweet and cuddly, but the cat is partially feral and is a skilled hunter. Family friends, the Övergårds , exchange their domestic cat, Fluff, for Moppy, but Sophia loves Moppy and ends up trading back the cats. The next vignette, “The Cave,” shows Sophia and Grandmother crawling on a small trail through a thicket back to a cave Sophia has found. Grandmother feels ill, vomits, and must rest for a while. When they get to the cave, Sophia says that God lives in the back of the cave, and Grandmother gives her empty medicine box to Sophia for God to live in. They find mushrooms in the cave and have them for dinner that night.

The next two vignettes, “The Road” and “Midsummer” contrast with the others as they do not focus on the relationship between Grandmother and Sophia. “The Road” depicts a bulldozer clearing a path for a road, but when it gets near the beach, it gets stuck. Eriksson , a family friend, arrives in “Midsummer” and takes the family out salvaging items from a shipwreck, but he keeps everything for himself. “The Tent” returns to Grandmother and Sophia. Sophia stays in her father’s tent in a ravine, but she wakes in the middle of the night to visit Grandmother. Sophia helps Grandmother reminisce on the days she was a Scout leader, and Sophia feels brave enough to return to the tent for the rest of the night. A businessman builds a house on a neighboring island in “The Neighbor,” and Grandmother and Sophia visit the island. Grandmother breaks into the locked window, but she and Sophia run and hide when a boat appears. The new neighbor, Malander, and his son, Christopher, find the hiding pair by tracking them with a dog. Malander invites Grandmother and Sophia inside for a drink, and he and Grandmother converse politely until she decides it is time to leave. Sophia is uncomfortable and demonstrates poor social skills, but she can remember the name of the dog—Delilah.

In “The Robe,” Sophia visits Father’s robe, which is old and smelly and kept in the attic. She is going through a defiant phase and will only eat sandwiches. The family runs out of bread and butter, so Father goes on a supply run. A storm hits, and Sophia fears something bad will happen to Father. She gets sick and asks Grandmother to bring down the robe. Sophia falls asleep in the old robe, and Father returns home. Father buys numerous non-native plants and landscapes the yard in “The Enormous Plastic Sausage.” A short drought occurs, and Father uses all the freshwater on the island to water his plants. He buys a large plastic bladder and fills it on a nearby island, but it starts raining as he arrives back on their island. Father is featured again in “The Crooks,” when he spends the night partying on a yacht that stopped at the island without inviting his family. Next, “The Visitor” begins with Father planning for Grandmother and Sophia to stay with another family while he leaves for a business trip, but he did not tell Grandmother. Although his plans change, Grandmother still feels downtrodden, and her mood does not turn around until she is visited by an old friend, Verner . Verner is experiencing similar oppression from his family, and he has stolen their boat to come and see Grandmother.

Sophia, who has developed a fear of small creatures, dictates a book about them to Grandmother in “Of Angleworms and Others.” Dictating the book serves as a method for Sophia to process her feelings over the loss of her mother. “Sophia’s Storm” is another allegorical vignette depicting Sophia’s process of healing from grief. She prays for something interesting to happen while she and her family are on an island, and a severe storm hits, forcing them to take shelter in an abandoned building. Once Grandmother points out how dangerous the storm is, Sophia feels intense guilt. Grandmother lies and says she asked for the storm first, so that Sophia will feel better. In “Day of Danger,” Grandmother shares anecdotes of her own grandmother’s superstition, and Sophia decides she is superstitious and stresses because she found Father’s knife and pen crossed. Grandmother helps Sophia by collecting plants and other material to make a protection elixir, which Grandmother keeps in her coat pocket. When she sends the coat for cleaning, Father sprains his ankle.

In the final vignette, “August,” the family prepares to leave the cabin for winter. Grandmother leaves detailed instructions for anyone who may get stranded on the island. In the night, she wakes and, refusing to use the chamber pot, goes outside to relieve herself. She has a cardiac event, and briefly confuses the beating of her heart for a motorboat. She sits on a stump to rest.

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The Summer Book (New York Review Books Classics) Kindle Edition

• Print length 186 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher NYRB Classics
• Publication date August 8, 2012
• File size 2466 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• See all details

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About the author, product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008LO2G40
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYRB Classics (August 8, 2012)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 8, 2012
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 2466 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 186 pages
• #878 in Romance Literary Fiction
• #1,006 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction
• #1,070 in Biographical Fiction (Books)

About the author

Tove jansson.

Tove Jansson (1914-2001) was born in Helsinki, and was an illustrator and political cartoonist for the left-leaning, anti-Fascist magazine Garm. She created a long-running comic strip and a series of children's books featuring the much-loved hippopotamus-like character, Moomintroll. She is also the author of eleven novels and short-story collections for adults, including The Summer Book and The True Deceiver. In 1994, she was awarded the Prize of the Swedish Academy.

Photo by Hans Gedda [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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The Summer Book

By tove jansson , introduction by kathryn davis , translated from the swedish by thomas teal.

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In The Summer Book Tove Jansson distills the essence of the summer—its sunlight and storms—into twenty-two crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia’s grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental and wise, if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous and volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent. Together they amble over coastline and forest in easy companionship, build boats from bark, create a miniature Venice, write a fanciful study of local bugs. They discuss things that matter to young and old alike: life, death, the nature of God and of love. “On an island,” thinks the grandmother, “everything is complete.” In The Summer Book , Jansson creates her own complete world, full of the varied joys and sorrows of life.

Tove Jansson, whose Moomintroll comic strip and books brought her international acclaim, lived for much of her life on an island like the one described in The Summer Book , and the work can be enjoyed as her closely observed journal of the sounds, sights, and feel of a summer spent in intimate contact with the natural world.

Download the Reading Group Guide for The Summer Book . Tove Jansson, introduction by Kathryn Davis, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal

Additional Book Information

Series: NYRB Classics ISBN: 9781590172681 Pages: 184 Publication Date: May 20, 2008

Tove Jansson was a genius. This is a marvelous, beautiful, wise novel, which is also very funny. — Philip Pullman

[Jansson's] writing is all magical deception, her sentences simple and loaded; the novel reads like looking through clear water and seeing, suddenly, the depth. — Ali Smith

This slim, magical, life-affirming novel tells the story of a young girl and her grandmother, who spend their summer together on a small, isolated island in the Gulf of Finland. Absent of sentimentality, full of love and humor and wisdom, this is a tale about how much fun two people can have in the middle of nowhere, when they are practicing social isolation in earnest. —Elizabeth Gilbert, The New York Times

The Summer Book is pure loveliness. The movements of tides and winds and boats and insects loom larger for our narrator than the currents of history, and the profound quiet of the setting—I'm reminded of Akhil Sharma's description of a prose like "white light"—allows us to hear Jansson's unsparing and ironic tenderness, a tone that remains purely her own, even in translation. —Garth Risk Hallberg, The Millions

Jansson's clear prose — capable of sentiment without being sentimental — contains multitudes. The Summer Book is bright but dense; it is slim enough to read in a day but holds a whole world between its covers. —Powell’s Books

Poetic understatement, dry humor and a deep love for nature are obvious throughout her oeuvre. . . . The book is as lovely, as evocative as a film by Hayao Miyazaki. — Time Out New York

The Summer Book manages to make you feel good as well as wise, without having to make too much effort . . . [it] says so much that we want to hear in such an accessible form, without ever really saying anything at all. — The Independent

Jansson allows little room for sentimentality, her novel is unerringly wise, funny and quite simply put, stunning. —Charlotte Delattre, bookseller at Desperate Literature (Madrid), British Airways High Life Magazine

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A thing of beauty is a joy forever

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson | Book Review

In  The Summer Book,  Tove Jansson distills the essence of the summer—its sunlight and storms—into twenty-two crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia’s grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental and wise if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous and volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent. In The Summer Book, Jansson creates her own complete world, full of the varied joys and sorrows of life.

Each chapter in The Summer Book is a separate vignette detailing the lives of Sophia and her elderly grandmother on a remote Finnish island during the summer.

This book is not your ordinary novel. There is little plot.

Table of Contents

Summer on the island.

Sophia and her grandmother are interesting characters. Sophia is difficult and selfish, but very smart. Her grandmother is cranky. Sometimes they really get on each other’s nerves!

Each chapter describes the flora and fauna inhabiting the island. We also find out how Sophia feels about other children, cats, and God.

Grandmother has physical issues. She walks with a cane and her legs cause her pain. Sophia spends much time running around the island on her own.

The only other regular character who appears is Sophia’s father, but he drifts in and out of the story and never says a word of dialogue throughout the book.

Sophia’s mother has apparently recently died, but there are no discussions about that. Grandmother and Sophia both cheat at cards, argue about God, and even do a little breaking-and-entering.

Final Analysis

As each chapter closes, we do not find out what happened later. The book really describes living alone on an island. They are truly isolated.

Despite their disagreements, it is obvious how much Sophia and her grandmother love each other.

In this wonderful video, Tove Jansson’s niece Sophia explains the importance of this book to her:

Further Reading

Here is a wonderful New Yorker article about Tove Jansson:

Inside Tove Jansson’s Private Universe

The Yale Review wrote about Tove Jansson’s Genius.

If you liked this review you might enjoy my reviews of Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki and The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden.

Thank you for reading The Literary Lioness!

About Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson (1914-2001) was born in Helsinki, and was an illustrator and political cartoonist for the left-leaning, anti-Fascist magazine Garm . She created a long-running comic strip and a series of children’s books featuring the much-loved hippopotamus-like character, Moomintroll . She is also the author of eleven novels and short-story collections for adults, including The Summer Book and The True Deceiver . In 1994, she was awarded the Prize of the Swedish Academy.

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Quietly Hostile: Essays by Samantha Irby

Pro-tip: Don't even try to drink anything while working your way through this gut-busting essay collection by the TV writer and essayist who gets real about everything from her QVC habit to her maladjusted pandemic puppy. Life can get messy, and Irby is all for getting down and dirty about it and in that, we all win.

Late Bloomers by Deepa Varadarajan

Recently divorced Suresh and Lata are trying to find love again after a 36-year marriage. Suresh keeps striking out on the apps, while Lata relishes her independence until a handsome academic comes calling. Meanwhile, their children have their own romantic struggles that they’d rather keep hidden from their parents. But the truth will out, and when it does, a hilarious comedy of errors ensues.

The God of Good Looks by Breanne Mc Ivor

Former model Bianca Bridge has always wanted to be a writer, so when the notoriously tyrannical Obadiah Cortland hires her to run his makeup magazine, she jumps at the chance. But when a powerful ex-lover threatens everything she’s made of herself, she finds support where she least expects it.

Girls and Their Horses by Eliza Jane Brazier

Calling all former horse girls: This is the thriller you've been waiting for. Heather Parker signs her daughters up for show jumping lessons at the tony Rancho Santa Fe Equestrian, where a borderline-abusive head trainer and his broodingly handsome star rider rule over a cast of cliquey teens and their hovering Barn Moms. But there's something darker going on than perfecting their form, and pretty soon, the Parkers find themselves involved in a lot more than competitions.

Save What's Left by Elizabeth Castellano

This beach read will make sure you never want to buy a beach house. When Kathleen Deane's husband Tom decides to leave their 30-year marriage and safe-but-drab Kansas life to find himself, Kathleen does him one better and buys a little beachfront cottage in Whidbey, an artsy seaside community. But when she gets there, she discovers a monstrosity of a McMansion going up next door, and goes on the offensive against its many code violations (and eyesores) with her busybody neighbor Rosemary. In this hilarious farce, we realize that paradise really is anything but when you actually live there.

The Only One Left by Riley Sager

If parents want their kids to stay away from steep cliffs, just hand them this summer's Sager blockbuster. It's 1983 and in-home caregiver Kit gets assigned to care for the notorious Lenora Hope, who massacred her entire family one bloody night in 1929, as the lore goes. But they were never able to prove it, so Lenora has been cloistered in her cliffside mansion ever since. Rendered mute by a series of strokes, she can only communicate to Kit by painstakingly typing on a typewriter. But when Lenora starts to trust Kit enough to tell her what really happened that night, things take a dark turn toward one of Sager's signature gasp-inducing twists.

Excavations by Kate Myers

Elise, Kara, Z and Patty are four women all working on the same remote archaeological dig site in Greece, but that's about all they have in common. Kara’s a put-together conservator about to call off her wedding, while Patty would do about anything to find love. Z ends up on the dig after getting dumped and fired, and Elise, the best excavator on site, has got no more rhymes-with-ducks left to give. So when they uncover something at the site that could change history forever, they've got to decide whether they can put their differences aside to make a real difference.

Goodbye Earl: A Revenge Novel. by Leesa Cross-Smith

You don't have to know The Chicks' song of the same name to love this deliciously devilish tale. It follows best friends Rosemarie, Ada, Caroline, and Kasey from the halcyon high school days of ruling their idyllic small town of Goldie, to a wedding weekend over a decade later when they all reunite to find little has changed — and everything has. This novel is as sweet as Southern tea, and you might find it carries poison just as well.

The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships by Ali Bryan

The residents of Crow Valley take karaoke so seriously that even an escaped murderer on the loose can't derail the championship competition. And no one loved it more than the late Dale, prison guard, firefighter and wizard at the mic. A year after his death, five residents get caught up in more drama than flubbed lyrics and wardrobe malfunctions in a madcap romp that will have you laughing all the way to the last page.

@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-o9j0dn:before{margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-right:0.625rem;color:#ffffff;width:1.25rem;bottom:-0.2rem;height:1.25rem;content:'_';display:inline-block;position:relative;line-height:1;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}} All the Best Books to Read Next

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Book News & Features

Here are 19 books our critics are excited for this summer.

Meghan Collins Sullivan

Memorial Day is often considered the unofficial start to summer. Many kids are entering the last weeks of school, pools start to open, and vacations from work are on the horizon. It's a time of the year that many associate with a somewhat slower pace affording, maybe, a little more free time to read. We asked some of our regular book critics what soon-to-be-published titles they are most looking forward to reading this summer. Here's what they said.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

As a book person, is there anything more alluring than a book about people who are obsessed with books? I was immediately intrigued by the premise of Ink Blood Sister Scribe : Estranged sisters are reunited when mysterious forces threaten their family's library of magic books. It took only a few pages for this stellar debut to put me completely under its spell. Genres entwine to form the cleverly paced narrative as we travel from thriller to murder mystery to romance, while always keeping a foot in the deliciously fantastical. (May 30) — Caitlyn Paxson

A Quitter's Paradise by Elysha Chang

When Sarah Jessica Parker launched her literary imprint SJP Lit, she promised it would publish "big-hearted literary and commercial works ... inclusive of ... underrepresented voices." The first book on the actor's imprint is Elysha Chang's debut novel A Quitter's Paradise , a drolly comedic tale about a young Taiwanese American scientist doing all the wrong things at work and in her personal life, while trying to avoid what her parents' immigrant story and her mother's death might mean to her. Reminiscent of Rachel Khong's Goodbye, Vitamin and Weike Wang's Chemistry , Chang's debut seems to check all of Sarah Jessica Parker the Publisher's boxes. (June 6) — Leland Cheuk

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

When I learned Isabel Allende's new book, The Wind Knows My Name , is set in my hometown of Nogales, Ariz., among other places real and mystical, I put it on the top of my reading list. Allende's artistry shapes a lyrical romanticism around social political history and global turmoil. I'm eager to find what she discovers in our borderlands. (June 6) — Marcela Davison Avilés

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

As Erpenbeck fans go, I'm a latecomer. It took her "memoir in pieces" Not a Novel for me to see the novelist-historian. Her sentences are ascetic and plainspoken, easily mistaken as needle drops, when really they're short stories. They stretch far into the horizon. "I can still picture the hand of a friend of mine who died of cancer," she once ended a speech about time. Her newest, Kairos, translated by Michael Hofmann, marries her philosophy of time with her childhood in East Berlin. It's somehow both Sebaldian and anti-Sebaldian. In historical clarity, it brims. (June 6) — Kamil Ahsan

The Talk by Darrin Bell

Darrin Bell is 6 years old, playing alone, when a police officer yells at him to freeze. He doesn't share the disturbing event for years. The Talk is Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist Bell's debut graphic memoir, a stunning account of a young Black man navigating his way through Los Angeles and Berkeley in the 1980s and '90s, into life as a successful professional and father. The illustrations, fluctuating from the whimsically cartoonish to the painterly, are as multi-tiered and engrossing as Bell's narrative voice. Like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis , this epic portrait of an artist is destined for iconic status. (June 6) — Tahneer Oksman

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

I can't wait to get my hands on S.A. Cosby's All the Sinners Bleed . The setting is a county in rural Virginia with Confederate sensibilities that aren't completely in the past, the new sheriff in town is Black, and a serial killer is afoot. Cosby's last novel, Razorblade Tears, rocketed right from President Barack Obama's 2022 "summer favorites" list onto my stack of most-admired fiction. Based on those unforgettable characters, I anticipate in Cosby's new book a highly propulsive story with issues of social justice at its heart. (June 6) — Barbara J. King

Loot by Tania James

The legendary Tipu Sultan, Tiger of Mysore, was killed by British armies in 1799. Among his many creations was a life-size wooden tiger automaton mauling a British soldier. Tania James' latest novel, Loot , gives us a spirited imagining of this tiger's origins and how the British besieged and looted Tipu's capital. With carefully engineered plotlines and epigrammatic flourishes, James molds the tiger's fascinating, fictional journey from India to London's Victoria & Albert Museum — and the singular lives of those who were connected with it. It's a historical novel I've been looking forward to because it subtly problematizes the very historicity of what has been enshrined in the grand halls of eternal record. (June 13) — Jenny Bhatt

The Fear of Too Much Justice by Stephen Bright and James Kwak

Americans have begun to see the gross injustices in our criminal "justice" system, which favors wealthy white people over Black people, other people of color, and poor people. We have one of the largest prison systems in the world, and some of the longest sentences. Stephen Bright, co-author with James Kwak, has spent his life shining a bright light on these problems and addressing them through the courts. He's trained generations of lawyers, including Bryan Stevenson. I look forward to this book for what is sure to be a searing, no-holds-barred analysis about where we stand and how we can go forward. (June 20) — Martha Anne Toll

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

Charity works at a horror simulation tourist trap based on a cheesy 1980s teen slasher movie, Camp Mirror Lake . It's all fun and games until the staff start going missing. Something monstrous is stalking Charity and her terrified friends, and it won't stop until they're all dead. Like any good horror movie, this one is full of twists and turns, with one heck of a kicker at the end. (June 20) — Alex Brown

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon

When I first heard of The Archive Undying I was stoked — in our age of AI discourse and terrifying robot dogs, it's exciting to see a writer exploring these concepts in a way that's fresh and nuanced. That the book is also about bodies — how we use them, how they betray or disappoint us, and how we survive in them nonetheless — only made me more excited. I can't wait to dive in headfirst and explore Emma Mieko Candon's Downworld. (June 27) — Ilana Masad

Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen

Owner of a Lonely Heart offers indelible insights on biological and surrogate motherhood, informed by the author's upbringing in a chaotic yet emotionally repressed family led by a Vietnamese refugee father and a second-generation Mexican stepmother in white-centric Grand Rapids, Mich. Referencing yet subverting the swaggering lyrics of a 1983 Yes song , Nguyen's memoir, a taut, contemplative sequel to Stealing Buddha's Dinner , reconciles the apparent gaps in her family history with the need for sufficient space and time to redefine the past. (July 4) — Thúy Đinh

Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery

In Nothing Special , Nicole Flattery — known for bringing young women's stories to life — chose to explore the fascinating moment in the '60s when Andy Warhol composed his unconventional book, a, A Novel, by recording the conversations and experiences of his many famous friends at The Factory. Here, 17-year-old high school dropout Mae is one of the girls tasked with transcribing these tapes. I'm eager to delve into this story. What happens to a young girl coming of age in New York City when innocent voyeurism and the famous space known for art, celebrity and debauchery clash? (July 11) — Keishel A. Williams

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A curse, magic, an old movie director whose career vanished, an unfinished cursed film, Nazi occultism and a woman who discovers she has special powers may sound like a wild mix of elements. But Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of the most unique and exciting voices in contemporary fiction, so when it comes to Silver Nitrate , each of these things only makes me want to read the novel even more. Moreno-Garcia makes darkness shine, and this one promises to be very dark. (July 18) — Gabino Iglesias

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Three sisters stuck in a cherry orchard, far from the excitements of society. Sound familiar? Can't wait to see how Ann Patchett channels Chekhov in her new novel, Tom Lake. Set during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sisters seek shelter on their family's Michigan farm and, for entertainment while picking cherries, persuade their mother to tell them about a summer-stock romance decades earlier with a now-famous actor. Patchett, beloved bookseller and chronicler of people thrown together in patched families and hostage situations, turns her attention to love — youthful, marital, fleeting, enduring. (Aug. 1) — Heller McAlpin

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

As one of the brightest stars in the literary firmament, YA superstar Elizabeth Acevedo has won a slew of the book world's most coveted prizes, including a National Book Award and Carnegie Medal for Poet X . Spanning the past and present and locations from Santo Domingo to New York City, Family Lore , her first novel for adults, is a lush and lyrical Dominican American drama about four supernaturally gifted sisters on the occasion of a living wake for one of them. It's also one of the author's most personal creations — inspired in part by her eight inimitable aunts and fascination with how culture and traditions are made. (Aug. 1) — Carole Bell

Witness: Stories by Jamel Brinkley

Jamel Brinkley's 2018 debut, A Lucky Man , was one of the best books of the year, filled with short stories that deftly looked at family, identity and desire. His follow-up collection, set in New York City, contains stories about people who choose to speak on behalf of others — or fail to do so. Brinkley is immensely talented, making this one of the year's most anticipated works of American fiction. (Aug. 1) — Michael Schaub

Mobility by Lydia Kiesling

Lydia Kiesling's debut novel, The Golden State , sucked me in with its tight portrait of a woman on edge in a town on edge — it unspools over 10 days as a young mother decamps to a town in the high desert of California with secessionist dreams. In Mobility, Kiesling applies her sharp pairing of politics and the personal to a wider scale, encompassing decades in the life of a hapless onetime foreign service brat named Bunny. As Bunny languishes in Azerbaijan as a 1990s teenager oblivious to the global scramble for oil, stumbles into an oil career in Texas in young adulthood, and grapples with our climate-wrecked future, Kiesling explores individual complicity with late capitalism. (Aug. 1) — Kristen Martin

Time's Mouth by Edan Lepucki

Edan Lepucki's third novel, Time's Mouth , is a time-travel story that feels shatteringly real. It bounces from goddess-praising feminism to Reichian therapy, from a cult in the woods to the suburban side of Hollywood, exploring parenthood — often, but not always, motherhood — from a new angle in every chapter. Like all of Lepucki's work, it's both gripping and moving, and promises at least one burst of cathartic tears. (Aug. 1) — Lily Meyer

Fever House by Keith Rosson

Keith Rosson has been quietly, humbly releasing a string of exceptional novels via small indie presses over the past few years. But with his upcoming book Fever House , he's making the leap to Random House. Accordingly, he's bringing the heat. Fever House skimps not one bit on weirdness, darkness or suspense: It's a whirlwind mystery that involves rock stars, mob enforcers, cursed body parts and conspiracies. Rosson's books have always wielded a punk-rock edge — he's also a graphic designer who's worked with Green Day and Against Me! — and Fever House is no different. What sets it above and beyond his past offerings is a global scope that hurls his genre-slashing ambition into the stratosphere. (Aug. 15) — Jason Heller

23 books to read this summer

Whether you’re traveling or catching the sun at home in the coming months, here are 23 books we’ve enjoyed this year that make for good summer reading.

‘Age of Vice’

By Deepti Kapoor

Fiction | This lush thriller swings back and forth through time and up and down the social ladder, from the hovels to the palaces of contemporary India. On the first page, a Mercedes speeding through Delhi careens off the street and kills five people. That deadly accident ricochets through one of India’s most powerful crime families — and from there the intrigue never pauses to take a breath. (Riverhead, $30)

Review: Deepti Kapoor’s thriller starts 2023 with a bang

‘Alexandra Petri’s U.S. History: Important American Documents (I Made Up)’

By Alexandra Petri

Fiction | Washington Post columnist Petri shows what happens when a gifted comedic writer takes bona fide pieces of history and uses them as occasions to go brilliantly bananas. The titles of these 84 short texts include “Richard Nixon Tapes But Just the Parts Where He’s Yelling at Checkers” and “The Team at Build-a-Bear Responds on the Thirteenth Anniversary of 9/11.” (Norton, $27.95)

Review: Alexandra Petri saves U.S. history as only she can: By making it silly

‘The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions’

By Jonathan Rosen

Nonfiction | We know how this haunting story will end: with a murder that made national headlines. Rosen was friends with the eventual killer, Michael Laudor, from the time they were 10 years old. Throughout this book — part memoir, part manifesto — Rosen asks uncomfortable but crucial questions, some of them unanswerable, all of them compelling, and the result is an incisive but intimate tour de force. (Penguin Press, $32)

Review: Michael Laudor was a Yale golden boy. Then a psychotic break led to tragedy.

‘Birnam Wood’

By Eleanor Catton

Fiction | In the decade since Catton published her gargantuan Booker Prize-winning novel, “The Luminaries,” she dabbled in film, adapting the latest version of “Emma” (2020) for the silver screen. Her new novel is a sleek contemporary thriller featuring a group of guerrilla gardeners that dramatizes political, technical and environmental crises with delicious wit. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28)

Review: In ‘Birnam Wood,’ the end of the world creeps up fast

‘Collected Works’

By Charles Portis

Fiction | An ex-Marine from the Texas Panhandle adopts a performing chicken on a long bus ride home from New York. A touchingly ineffectual pseudo-religion turns out to harbor real cosmic truth. A hard-nosed, narrowly reformed antiques smuggler finds unlikely love in rural Mexico. These are the sorts of things that occur in the singular novels of Portis. “True Grit” and the rest of his funny, strange novels are gathered here, along with his essays and journalism. (Library of America, $45)

Review: Charles Portis, model outsider, gets the canon treatment

‘Confidence’

By Rafael Frumkin

Fiction | “Confidence” begins with a scrappy underdog down on his luck. Frumkin’s narrator, the spiky but vulnerable Ezra Green, meets fellow grifter Orson Ortman, the handsome and magnetic Jay Gatsby to his Nick Carraway, and the two try to con the wellness industry. This social satire in the form of a crime novel is a propulsive, cheeky, eat-the-rich page-turner to satisfy the craving for a well-crafted caper. (Simon & Schuster, $27.99)

Review: ‘Confidence’ skewers the rich in a most satisfying, clever way

‘The Covenant of Water’

By Abraham Verghese

Fiction | The author of “Cutting for Stone” delivers a rich, heartfelt novel, a lavish smorgasbord of genealogy, medicine and love affairs, tracing the evolution of a family in India from 1900 through the 1970s. The family’s dark secret? “In every generation … at least one member has drowned unexpectedly” — even though those who sense they are afflicted with “The Condition” try their utmost never to get wet. (Grove, $32)

Review: ‘The Covenant of Water’ is a rich, heartfelt novel

‘Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir’

By Lucinda Williams

Nonfiction | The great singer-songwriter Williams still considers herself a rebel at age 70, and her memoir tracks her early life and her late path to fame. She was born in Lake Charles, La., the grandchild of Methodist preachers on both sides, and lived in 12 different towns by the time she was 18. Songwriting was a way for her to process her traumatic early years, to talk about it without really talking about it, even if she didn’t always realize it. (Crown, $28.99)

Review: Lucinda Williams hit fame at 45. Her memoir explores the before and after.

‘The Guest’

By Emma Cline

Fiction | The second novel by Cline (her debut was “The Girls”) is a quintessentially American tale that explores desire and deception from the point of view of a 22-year-old escort named Alex. The story opens in late August, when Alex has fled danger in New York City to find refuge in the Hamptons. We follow her with a mixture of thrill and dread as she lurks around the island, appearing wherever hosts are too polite to question her presence. (Random House, $28)

Review: Emma Cline sets a smoldering thriller in the Hamptons

‘Happy Place’

By Emily Henry

Fiction | “Happy Place” may be Henry’s most serious novel to date, but this book from the queen of romance still deserves a place in your beach bag. When a group of friends convenes in Maine for vacation, one couple — still not over each other — can’t bear to let everyone know they’ve broken up. “Happy Place,” in typical Henry fashion, brings readers wit, charm and heart, satisfying to the last page. (Berkley, $27)

Review: ‘Happy Place’ shows that Emily Henry is still queen of romance

‘King: A Life’

By Jonathan Eig

Nonfiction | The most compelling account of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life in a generation, Eig’s new biography draws on more than 200 interviews, including with scores of people old enough to have known or observed King, and numerous accounts gathered by other journalists and scholars, some of them never published before. The result is a deeply reported psychobiography, infused with the narrative energy of a thriller. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $35)

Review: A major new bio of Martin Luther King Jr. balances saint and sinner

‘Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages’

By Carmela Ciuraru

Nonfiction | “The problem with being a wife is being a wife,” Ciuraru writes in her new book, which tracks the marriages of five literary couples, including Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl. A tour de force that focuses on “how women have defined themselves through or in opposition to men,” the book delves into these colorful relationships as a way to show how not to be married. (Harper, $32)

Review: Lessons on marriage from five spark-filled literary pairings

‘Lone Women’

By Victor LaValle

Fiction | Sci-fi and fantasy lovers will enjoy LaValle’s latest novel, which strays from his typical urban settings and ventures into the Great Plains. The story’s heroine, Adelaide Henry, sets out from Southern California in 1915 to live in Montana, lugging a trunk that contains a literal demon. LaValle adroitly intertwines the eerie fairy tale with early-20th-century historical realism. (One World, $27)

Review: ‘Lone Women’ recasts the American frontier narrative

By Jessica George

Fiction | In George’s striking debut novel, 25-year-old Maddie, a Londoner of Ghanaian descent, strives to find her place in the world as she balances the pressures of filial duty with a yearning for independence. With its lively self-referential tone, its many lists and texts, “Maame” has a Bridget Jones vibe, but with richer substance. (St. Martin’s, $27.99)

Review: In ‘Maame,’ a dependable daughter finally gets to live her own life

‘Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma’

By Claire Dederer

Nonfiction | How badly must an artist behave before he is canceled? Should any artist be canceled, ever? Is there a proper way to balance our admiration for their work with our loathing of their deeds? These are the questions Dederer considers in this vital, exhilarating book. She shows the queasy, perhaps unresolvable back-and-forth we engage in when we consider these issues. (Knopf, $28)

Review: Turns out, your favorite artist is a creep or a criminal. Now what?

‘My Father’s House’

By Joseph O’Connor

Fiction | O’Connor’s new novel is a gripping drama featuring the unlikeliest of heroes, one whom the reader roots for every step of the way. It’s based on the true story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, an Irish envoy to the Vatican who assembled a ragtag group to smuggle Jews out of Italy during World War II. This is a hugely satisfying book, from its explosive opening to its bittersweet end. (Europa, $27)

Review: In the gripping ‘My Father’s House,’ a priest takes on the Nazis

‘Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World’

By Malcolm Harris

Nonfiction | Palo Alto: land of Stanford University, heart of Silicon Valley. In his new book, Harris does for the city of 70,000 what Mike Davis’s classic “City of Quartz” did for Los Angeles, looking past the fables about the place to its darker underbelly. Harris narrates the town’s evolution and influence throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and theorizes, above all, that it is defined by its rapacious, exploitative approach to capitalism and profit. (Little, Brown, $36)

Review: A new history unveils the exploitative origins of the tech giants

‘The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos’

By Jaime Green

Nonfiction | Humanity has entered its singleton era, searching for life in a universe where we fear there is none. In this wide-ranging and delightful survey, science journalist Green argues persuasively that it’s the search that matters; looking for friends among the stars is what defines us as human. Inventing aliens — in science and in fiction — gives us a vantage point from which to see ourselves anew and figure out where we’d like to go next. (Hanover Square, $32.99)

Review: In the search for extraterrestrial life, we are the real aliens

‘Romantic Comedy’

By Curtis Sittenfeld

Fiction | Sittenfeld’s novel is set in the writers’ room at “The Night Owls,” a show modeled on “Saturday Night Live.” Its narrator, Sally Milz, is a misanthrope who has given up on the idea of romantic partnership. But when a pop star hosts the show, sparks fly and complications ensue. Sally is hyper-aware of the conventions of romantic comedy, and she knows full well that real life is no fairy tale. But could it be this time? (Random House, $28)

Review: ‘Romantic Comedy’ finds love in an SNL-like place

‘Small Mercies’

By Dennis Lehane

Fiction | Lehane’s latest novel visits a setting similar to that of his powerful “Mystic River” (2001). “Small Mercies” takes place in Boston in 1974, when a federal judge has ordered the busing of students to desegregate the city’s public high schools. The suspenseful story tracks a fearless mother’s search for her missing daughter. Lehane’s sociological precision gives this book a gravitas seldom found in crime novels. (Harper, $30)

Review: Dennis Lehane’s masterful new novel revisits the terrain of ‘Mystic River’

‘The Terraformers’

By Annalee Newitz

Fiction | This work of science fiction takes place in such a distant future — 60,000 years from now — that its author is free to imagine an entirely different Earth. The result is a thrilling world that will leave readers stunned. This generously overstuffed tale has enough ideas and incidents to populate half a dozen lesser science fiction books. (Tor, $27.99)

Review: ‘The Terraformers’ is a dazzling look at the distant future

‘The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder’

By David Grann

Nonfiction | Grann, a master of narrative nonfiction (including “The Lost City of Z” and “Killers of the Flower Moon”), takes to the sea in this relentless, horror-filled story of an 18th-century disaster. “The Wager” is a maritime tale in which everything goes wrong over and over — and over — again. It’s a tightly written, relentless, blow-by-blow account that is hard to put down. (Doubleday, $30)

Review: Anything can go wrong at sea. On this voyage, everything did.

‘The White Lady’

By Jacqueline Winspear

Fiction | Winspear, whose Maisie Dobbs detective series has achieved cult status, brings fans a new character to love: Elinor White, the enigmatic war hero at the center of this stand-alone novel. Elinor’s war with London’s most-feared crime family opens the door for Winspear to write about the dark side of post-World War II Britain. (Harper, $30)

Review: Fans of Maisie Dobbs now have a new heroine to admire

An earlier version of this article misidentified the publisher of "Maame," by Jessica George. It is St. Martin's, not Grove.

The beach read of the summer is actually not a rom-com. 'One Italian Summer' centers on a mother-daughter relationship, and I couldn't put it down.

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• "One Italian Summer" incorporates magical realism and romance into one atmospheric story.
• It's a popular " beach read " pick for this summer.
• Here are three reasons I recommend this summery read.

Rebecca Serle's last novel, " In Five Years ," was an incredible, finished-in-one-sitting romantic read that I absolutely adored. So when her latest novel, " One Italian Summer ," was released, I couldn't wait to get back to Serle's ethereal and atmospheric writing. 

Unlike "In Five Years," " One Italian Summer " isn't really a romance book, though there are moments of passion sprinkled throughout. It's a contemporary novel that follows Katy to the Amalfi Coast after her mother's passing. The story uses elements of magical realism to bring the past to life as Katy explores Italy, grapples with her grief, and aches to understand her mother through the country that she once roamed herself. 

I read "One Italian Summer" over one sunny weekend and here are three reasons I think it's the perfect beach read.

1. The novel's sunny setting compels you to read outside.

In the wake of her mother's passing, Katy is completely lost. As Carol was the "great love of her life," she feels like she doesn't quite know who she is or what to do in a world without her mother. The one thing Katy is sure of is she will still embark on the trip they had planned: to visit the Italian city where Carol spent the summer before she met her father. Katy leaves alone and takes off for Italy with a need to rediscover herself.  

When Katy lands in Positano on the Amalfi Coast, "One Italian Summer" takes on an atmosphere of salty air, chilled wine, and tanned skin that's so palpable, it would shock me if Serle hadn't spent a summer there herself just to capture it properly. 

I loved getting lost in the world Katy was slowly taking in. Between boat trips, impeccably described food, and sun-soaked narratives, this novel begs to be read with the sun on your face, whether it's from a sandy beach or a patio chair, which was exactly how I spent my time while reading this book.  

2. It's a short read that's easy to put down and pick up.

Soon after Katy's arrival, she encounters the impossible — her own mother, perfectly preserved from the summer she'd spent in Italy nearly 30 years before. Serle has used magical realism like this before in "In Five Years" and it's my personal favorite use of fantasy because it's casual, exists without many (or any) rules, and nestles into the story with an air of passive indifference. 

Despite this appearance of her mother, " One Italian Summer " is certainly not the most eventful novel I've ever read, with many of the plotlines casually waxing and waning between Italian meals and Katy's struggles to grapple with her grief. This lack of urgency throughout made this book easy to put down but easy to pick up every time I wanted to resume my virtual escape to Italy.

3. The important messages of the story don't reveal themselves until the end, which kept me engaged to the last page.

I loved the final messages of "One Italian Summer," which went far deeper than coping with grief. Instead, my two favorite quotes truly summarize what I got out of this novel: "Even inaction is a choice" and "There is more to life than just continuing to do what we know. What got you here won't get you there."

"One Italian Summer" is about loss, but it's also about change, both willing and unwilling, and the choices we make — or purposefully do not — that shape who we are. Once these themes revealed themselves, I felt that each event or scene from earlier in the book had greater meaning and I understood how they cumulated to the final takeaways of the novel.

The bottom line

"One Italian Summer" may not be the most eventful novel I've ever read, but with a combination of an incredibly atmospheric setting, Serle's fabulously illusory writing, and a satisfying emotional ending, it's still one of my favorite beach reads of 2022 . 

I also listened to the audiobook version of this novel , which contributed even more to its sunny disposition and emotional narrative — I recommend giving it a try if you're someone who needs a lot of action to keep the pages turning.

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Summer Reading Book Looks at Climate Change Through the Lens of 60 Women

“A mosaic that honors the complexity of the climate crisis like few, if any, books on the topic have done yet ... a feast of ideas and perspectives, setting a big table for the climate movement, declaring all are welcome.”

That is how Rolling Stone magazine describes “All We Can Save,” the book selected for this year’s summer reading program as part of the Duke Common Experience .

Each year since the 2001-2002 academic year, incoming first-year students are expected to read and be prepared to discuss a book. The program was expanded last year to encourage the entire undergraduate community, as well as staff and faculty, to participate.

Each October, there is an open nomination process for book titles. This year, there were more than 50 suggested books from staff, faculty, students and alumni. The 11-member search committee whittled it down to 11 and then to six, says Ben Adams, senior associate dean of students for QuadEx.

“All We Can Save” was one of several nominated by Jason Elliott, assistant director of engagement and communications in the Office of Sustainable Duke .

“We thought that this year was a perfect opportunity to select a book on climate and sustainability given Duke’s climate commitment. A significant number of our students are very engaged in climate and sustainability efforts and we know it’s top of mind for a wide range of students, departments and organizations,” says Adams. “This is a great opportunity for the campus community to have a shared experience with the subject."

Climate sustainability is one of President Vincent Price’s top priorities .

Elliott said he’s excited about this book because it brings to the table so many different perspectives and voices about climate change that are told in ways that go beyond science. “All We Can Save” is written through essays, poetry and art by 60 women from around the world who are at the forefront of the climate movement.

“The whole point of the program is for students to have a common touchstone experience,” says Adams. “Climate and sustainability are central to who Duke is and who we hope to be and there's a wave of momentum across our campus for this work. Our office wants to help our new students be a part of the energy and conversation as early as possible, and we think this book is the best way to engage as many voices and experiences as possible.”

As in previous years, Duke will mail first-years a copy of the book as a welcome gift. Those coming from other countries will receive a link.

Previous year’s books include “The Measure” by Nikki Erlick (2023), “ Point of Reckoning ” by Ted Segal (2022), “ Such a Fun Age ,” by Kiley Reid (2021) and “ Know My Name ” by Chanel Miller (2020).

Elliott, who carries the book with him, reading it between meetings and when he can grab a spare minute, believes the short chapters will make it an easy read regardless of whether you are a STEM student or studying art history.

“Climate sustainability touches all of us and impacts all of us whether we know it or not,” says Adams.

Elliott is already looking for ways to incorporate the book into the fall semester.

“It's not just like, you read it during the summer and talk about it at orientation, then you're done. We have to keep thinking about how this might go into classes or other conversations across campus,” he says.

Buy Bestselling Books At Up To 50% Off During The Amazon Great Summer Sale 2024: Limited Time Offer

Discover the world of literary excellence through amazons bestselling book lists. the amazon great summer sale brings you an excellent collection at up to 50% off so you can immerse yourself in captivating stories, insightful non-fiction, and thrilling adventures..

Best Deals On Bestselling Books From Amazon

Uncover hidden gems, explore new worlds, and dive into the depths of imagination with captivating reads. Whether you are looking for a page-turner or a thought-provoking tale, there is a book out there for a variety of tastes and preferences. Embark on this literary journey  with us as we explore the bestselling books on Amazon during the Amazon Great Summer Sale . From classics like Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment to modern interpretations of mythology like The Palace Of Illusions by Chitra D. Banerjee, you can find something that resonates with your style. 

Unlocking Worlds: The Profound Importance of Books in Our Lives

If you are not much of a reader, then this sale with the irresistible prices on a wide variety of books is a great place to start. Reading is not only educational in the literal sense, it is a powerful tool. From intellectual stimulation to personal development, emotional well-being, insight, and so much more. Books play a crucial role for several reasons:

1. Information : Books are a bank of knowledge and information, providing insights into various subjects, cultures, and experiences. They educate, inform, and broaden perspectives.

2. Imagination and Creativity : Books stimulate imagination and creativity by presenting new ideas, worlds, and possibilities. They encourage readers to think beyond their own experiences and envision new realities.

3. Language and Communication : Reading books improves language skills, vocabulary, and communication abilities. It enhances writing skills and helps develop a deeper understanding of language nuances.

4. Personal Development: Books can inspire personal growth and development. They offer guidance, motivation, and encouragement, helping individuals navigate life's challenges and discover their potential.

5. Entertainment and Relaxation: Books provide entertainment and relaxation, offering an escape from everyday life. They can be a source of joy, comfort, and solace.

6. Empathy and Understanding : Reading books, especially fiction, promotes empathy and understanding by allowing readers to see the world from different perspectives. It fosters compassion and tolerance.

7. Academic and Professional Growth: Books are essential for academic and professional growth, providing the foundation for learning and development in various fields.

Overall, books are invaluable tools that connect us to the world and each other. So let's delve into some of the top deals on books during the  Amazon Great Summer Sale . 

Top 7 Amazon Deals On Bestselling Books: Buy At Up To 50% Off! 

1. the palace of illusions: 10th anniversary edition by chitra banerjee divakaruni   [paperback] .

Celebrate a decade of magic with "The Palace of Illusions: 10th Anniversary Edition" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. This edition features bonus content from the author, making it a must-have for both new readers and longtime fans. Experience the epic tale of love, betrayal, and empowerment like never before in this beautifully crafted anniversary edition.

2. 100 Quotes That Will Change Your Life By Library Mindset [ Paperback]

Embark on a changing path with "100 Quotes That Will Change Your Life." From timeless wisdom to modern insights, this collection is a treasure trove of inspiration and motivation. Whether you're seeking a new perspective or a spark of encouragement, these quotes will empower you. 

3. Ikigai For Teens: Finding Your Reason For Being By Héctor García And Francesc Miralles [ Hardcover]

Uncover the secret to a fulfilling life with "Ikigai For Teens: Finding Your Reason For Being." This empowering guide introduces teenagers to the Japanese concept of Ikigai, helping them discover their passion and profession. This book will guide teens on a journey of self-discovery and purpose. Find your Ikigai and unlock the key to a meaningful and joyful life. 

4. The Book of Mirdad: The Strange Story of a Monastery Which Was Once Called The Ark By Mikhail Naimy [ Paperback]

Step into the mystical world of "The Book of Mirdad: The Strange Story of a Monastery Which Was Once Called the Ark. Follow the journey of Mirdad, a mysterious being, as he passes on profound teachings on love, life, and the nature of existence. Discover the secrets of the ancient monastery and unlock the mysteries of the human soul. Prepare to be enlightened by this amazing story of the search for truth and meaning.

5. Pegasus World Atlas: A Journey Around the World - Discovering Countries, Cultures, Landmarks, And Geography In The Ultimate World Atlas For Kids By Pegasus Team [ Paperback]

Embark on an epic journey around the world with the "Pegasus World Atlas"! This ultimate world atlas for kids is packed with facts,  illustrations, and detailed maps that bring countries, cultures, landmarks, and geography to life. Whether you're exploring the wonders of the Amazon rainforest or marvelling at the Great Wall of China, this atlas will take you on an adventure across the globe. Perfect for young explorers and curious minds. 

6. Crime and Punishment By Fyodor Dostoevsky [ Paperback ]

Dive into the dark depths of the human psyche with Fyodor Dostoevsky's masterpiece, "Crime and Punishment." A desperate student who commits a crime to prove his theory of the extraordinary man. A timeless classic that hunts into the problem of the human condition, a must-read for anyone seeking a profound literary experience.

7. The Book Of Rumi: 105 Stories And Fables That Illumine, Delight, And Inform By Rumi [ Paperback]

Step into the mystical world of Rumi with 'The Book of Rumi: 105 Stories and Fables.' Let these enchanting tales illuminate your mind, delight your soul, and inform your journey. Explore the wisdom of Rumi's timeless teachings, beautifully curated for modern readers seeking inspiration and insight.

Indulge in these wonderful reads and lose yourself in the pages of these bestselling books on Amazons! From gripping novels to inspiring memoirs, explore a world of imagination and knowledge with these must-read titles. And with up to 50% off during the Great Summer Sale, there's never been a better time to stock up your reading list. Don't miss out on these incredible deals! Shop now on Amazon.

Disclaimer : The images used in this article are for illustration purpose only. They may not be an exact representation of the products, categories and brands listed in this article.

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Summer reading: 50 brilliant books to discover

From family sagas to political memoirs, the best recent books to accompany your summer break, plus page-turning paperbacks and children’s and YA books

Leading writers recommend their picks

Page-turning paperbacks

Top children’s and ya books.

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld Sittenfeld has imagined the lives and loves of both Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton in bestselling novels. This time her subject is Sally Milz, a self-deprecating scriptwriter on a Saturday Night Live-style TV show. When Sally meets Noah, a pop star she assumes to be out of her league, the ensuing romcom is lifted by Sittenfeld’s sharp writing and eye for amusing detail. A perfect beach companion.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray From the author of Skippy Dies, this epic, many-layered tragicomedy of an Irish family in crisis is as pleasurable to read as it is emotionally devastating. We enter into the mind of each family member in turn as long-held secrets, repressed desires and the bad choices of the past detonate in the present.

A House for Alice by Diana Evans A sequel to Evans’s 2018 novel Ordinary People, A House for Alice opens on the night of the Grenfell fire, then follows Alice – longing to return to her native Nigeria – and her three daughters as they reckon with a city and a country in crisis. You don’t need to have read the earlier novel to enjoy this tender yet political tale, though one of its pleasures is reconnecting with Melissa and Michael several years on.

The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan The follow-up to Exciting Times is a sharp sendup of modern romance. Two spiky protagonists, head-in-the-clouds pianist Celine and commitment-phobe Luke, stumble into an engagement. Both are bisexual – and have double the doubts. As the wedding draws closer and friends and ex-lovers complicate things further, Dolan plays with narrative form and expectations in a deliciously tart comedy studded with one-liners.

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin A chunky high-concept mystery from the author of vampire blockbuster The Passage. On the isolated island of Prospera, the elite live out charmed lives, rebooted when they become old and weary. But the servant class are getting restive, and one day a cryptic message appears: “The world is not the world.” A page-turning inquiry into what makes a good life, with twists aplenty and cinematic action sequences.

August Blue by Deborah Levy Levy’s elegantly ludic investigation into selfhood, mother love and meaning plays out across Europe, from Parisian cafes to Greek islands to the streets of London. A concert pianist who can no longer play spots her doppelganger in an Athens flea market: all that she has repressed begins to return, as she riddles over the mysteries of her origins and desires.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward Ward has carved out a unique gothic space where the fantasy, thriller and horror genres meet, and this tale of ardent friendships, grisly crimes and literary rivalry is her best yet. Horrific discoveries on the New England coast blighted a teenager’s coming of age; those events, and their repercussions, are constructed both as memoir and fiction in a twisty psychodrama of denial and desire.

The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman The Suede bassist’s madcap adventures of the rebels, dreamers and reprobates who make up a young theatre troupe in Elizabethan England are written with wit, invention and a luxuriantly gorgeous prose style. This is historical fiction that’s larger than life and twice as much fun.

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin Set to become an HBO series starring Jodie Comer, this sexy, madcap novel follows Greta, whose transcribing job for a therapist leads her into an obsession with one of his clients. What unfolds seems initially predictable, albeit in an eccentric, entertaining way. But as Beagin brings her characters and their pasts into clearer focus, the novel reveals a surprising, heart-wrenching core.

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton Catton’s follow-up to the Booker-winning The Luminaries pits a group of young guerrilla gardeners against a billionaire with secret plans for a New Zealand national park. Ecological peril, political expediency, personal ambition and the generational divide are thrillingly debated in a novel of both action and ideas.

Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks This scorching, lyrical debut, soaked in dub reggae, draws on the author’s life as a music-loving young woman in the late 70s and was shortlisted for the Women’s prize. Against a backdrop of racism and police brutality, we follow Yamaye from London to Bristol to Jamaica, through love, loss and peril, as she chases her dreams and connects with her heritage.

The World and All That It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon Beginning with the arrival of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, this globe-trotting, century-spanning epic is a story of love and war, intimacy and history, as two men – a Bosnian soldier and a Sephardic Jewish pharmacist – find each other in the world’s tumult. Hemon revels in languages and storytelling, in a tour de force of narrative exuberance.

Penance by Eliza Clark Out at the beginning of July, the second novel from the author of Boy Parts is a fiendishly nasty investigation into online fandoms, broken Britain, the depravity of teenage girls and the voyeuristic appetite for true crime. A 16-year-old was murdered by her peers on the eve of the Brexit vote. Now a washed-up journalist lays out the “truth” at the heart of the story – but has a hunger for content led to a moral vacuum? Chilling, clever and unputdownable.

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes An impossibly deep trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, shedding light on the beginnings of life on Earth; a marine biologist with a difficult family background is caught up in the quest to know more. This beautifully composed novel of human frailty and cosmic wonder travels into deep space as well as to the ocean depths, through human connections and profound solitude, finding enlightenment and new mysteries on the journey.

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff Everyone thinks that Geeta killed her no-good husband. They ought to shun her, but they have no-good husbands they’d like to be rid of too. Longlisted for the Women’s prize, this witty feminist revenge thriller exuberantly melds black comedy and zippy dialogue with the grim realities of rural life for Indian women.

The New Life by Tom Crewe Based on the lives of 19th-century thinkers who sought to change medical and public opinion about homosexuality and women’s rights, this incredibly assured debut spins intimate dramas from the fight for autonomy in life and love. A fresh take on the historical novel, with desire at its heart, written with a charged certainty that the personal is political.

Victory City by Salman Rushdie Rushdie’s 15th novel, completed before he was attacked in New York last summer, is a joyfully extravagant alternative Mahabharata: the story of the rise and fall of a medieval Indian empire told by a semi-divine heroine who lives for hundreds of years. It’s a mashup of myth and fairytale, comedy and melodrama, celebrating women’s agency and the enduring power of storytelling.

Kala by Colin Walsh In an Irish seaside village with a dark underbelly, a group of friends reunites, 15 years after one of them disappeared. Then a body is found ... Tana French fans will relish the stylish prose and slowburn menace of this impressive debut.

The Short End of the Sonne nallee by Thomas Brussig , translated by Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson Michael and his friends live in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, so close they can hear western conversations from the observation platform. Newly translated into English, this is a charming comedy of mid-80s East Germany; funny and tender, it damns totalitarianism through its warm focus on ordinary, riotous teenage life.

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis The book Ellis was born to write? An autofictional journey into the dark heart of both the author and modern society, first published as a serial podcast, it takes us back to 80s LA, where Bret and frenemies are finishing high school. A serial killer is on the loose, and closeted desire makes the world a shifting, treacherous place. This is an atmospheric investigation into our shadow selves.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue Sometimes the most passionate love stories are platonic. As sharply witty as it is warm-hearted and wise, this coming-of-age story about an Irish graduate and her gay best friend captures the intensity of friendship, the brittle craziness of youth and the desperation of gunning for an arts job in a recession.

Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin In this clear-eyed, moving debut, inspired by Pin’s mother’s experiences as a refugee after the Vietnam war, a family flee their village by boat – but only the three teenage siblings make it through various camps and on to London. A tender and illuminating portrait of displacement, endurance and family love, this is history told from the inside.

Tomás Nevinson by Javier Marías , translated by Margaret Jull Costa In the final novel from the late, great Spanish author, a spy is coaxed out of retirement and on to the trails of three women, one of whom may be an IRA terrorist working for Basque separatists. A meditation on thought and consciousness, identity and disguise, the gloriously rolling sentences offer the deep pleasures of a brilliant mind apprehending the world in real time.

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie A tiny novel that contains multitudes, this is the story of two medieval mystics, the rambunctious Margery Kempe and the anchorite Julian of Norwich, and what happens when these two extraordinary women cross paths. Lightly done but intensely felt, it’s mind-expanding stuff.

Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood Fifteen stories from the inimitable Atwood, jumping from ageing to aliens to apocalypse with her trademark spry wit. At the centre is a sequence exploring the long marriage between Tig and Nell, and the widowhood that follows. Bracing, darkly funny and cheerfully unsentimental.

Time Come by Linton Kwesi Johnson Indelible in the minds of many for his performance of Inglan Is a Bitch on The Old Grey Whistle Test, the resonant Jamaican-British poet has also written essays, articles and speeches. This collection charts his career in prose.

Quantum Supremacy by Michio Kaku Will a new generation of computers designed to harness the power of subatomic particles be able to cure cancer, unlock the secrets of fusion power and stop ageing? Physicist Michio Kaku thinks so, and sets out his stall in this resolutely upbeat book.

God Is an Octopus by Ben Goldsmith When his teenage daughter was killed in an accident on his farm, the conservationist Ben Goldsmith was poleaxed by grief. This is his moving account of how reconnecting with nature helped him rebuild a capacity for joy.

The Power of Trees by Peter Wohlleben The German forester became an unlikely celebrity with 2015’s bestselling Hidden Life of Trees. Here he shows us that the way to help forests thrive is to leave them alone – and in doing so, reap the climate benefits these natural carbon sinks provide.

Radical: A Life of My Own by Xiaolu Guo In Chinese writing, the “radical” is the part of the character that lends it meaning; Guo charts her own quest for meaning and purpose in this kaleidoscopic memoir that follows her from London to New York and back again.

Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder by Dacher Keltner Twenty years of research has convinced this psychology professor that a little awe goes a long way. Here he sets out the various types, from “moral beauty” to “collective effervescence”, and offers tips for finding it, not just on mountaintops, but in everyday life.

The Wager : A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a forensically researchedn historical yarn that mixes Mutiny on the Bounty with Lord of the Flies. In 1740, a ship leaves Britain on a secret mission against Spain and is wrecked off the coast of Patagonia. Two years later, separate groups of survivors wash up, with contradictory stories of terrible crimes. Packed with literary references from Coleridge to Melville, this is a thrilling account of adventure, endurance and the ravages of imperialism.

An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and Other Radicals by Polly Toynbee Is there a conflict between personal privilege and progressive politics? In an attempt to answer that question, the Guardian columnist subjects her illustrious family and herself to an unsparing analysis, spiced with anecdote and humour.

The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery by Adam Gopnik What does it take to become a master magician, a great painter, a brilliant baker or just someone who can drive? The New Yorker critic embarks on a study of craft – from the celebrated to the unsung.

End Times by Peter Turchin From the man who predicted the rise of Trump – or someone very like him – a remarkably clear, data-driven explanation of why societies fall into crisis, and how to engineer a soft landing.

Reach for the Stars by Michael Cragg In the early 2000s so-called British bubblegum swept all before it, with bands such as S Club 7, Boyzone and Blue shifting millions of units. This oral history fizzes with gossip and insight into the surprisingly hard grind of being a jobbing pop star.

Is This OK?: One Woman’s Search for Connection Onlin e by Harriet Gibsone What is it like to come of age with the internet? And can relationships conducted online ever compare to the real thing? Journalist Gibsone’s candid memoir is comic and dark by turns.

The Earth Transformed: An Untold History by Peter Frankopan In this follow-up to the magisterial Silk Roads, the Oxford historian seeks to show the environment’s inescapable influence on history – from the volcanos whose ash clouds caused crop failures in antiquity to the climate challenges of the present day.

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Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks by Scott Shapiro Matthew Broderick’s teen hacker in the 80s movie WarGames is an odd starting point for a new era in world affairs, but that’s what first turned the US government’s attention to the increasingly urgent problem of cybersecurity. In a series of vivid case studies, Yale professor Scott Shapiro surveys the strange new landscape of hacking and its unlikely practitioners.

Foreign Bodies: A History of Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations by Simon Schama As we enter an age of zoonosis – with more viruses jumping from animal to human than ever before – the historian takes us on an erudite tour of past responses to pandemics, offering plenty of lessons for the next one.

To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music and Mystery of Connie Converse by Howard Fishman The distinctive voice of Connie Converse, an obscure 50s folk singer who disappeared in the 1970s, captivated writer Howard Fishman when he first heard one of her records at a party. He attempts to trace her story, and find out what really happened to her.

The Great White Bar d by Farah Karim-Cooper Should we consign pale, male, stale Shakespeare to the scrapheap? Absolutely not, argues Farah Karim-Cooper, who believes a race-conscious reading of his work enriches it and restores his status as a playwright for all.

In Her Nature: How Women Break Boundaries in the Great Outdoors: A Past, Present and Personal Story by Rachel Hewitt Hewitt, an avid runner, charts the neglected history of female sporting pioneers including the Edwardian mountaineer Lizzie le Blond. In doing so she tells a story of barriers and belittlement, the legacy of which continues to this day.

Transitional by Munroe Bergdorf The model and trans activist on growing up, getting famous, being vilified and carrying on despite it all. Life, she argues, is a process of continual transition – no matter what your gender identity.

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer What to do with artistic heroes like Pablo Picasso, Roman Polanski and Michael Jackson, whose personal lives and crimes seem to stand in such contradiction to their sublime art? Dederer’s exploration offers up no easy answers, but the journey is never less than illuminating.

Don’t Think, Dear: On Loving and Leaving Ballet by Alice Robb Once a student at America’s top ballet school, now a journalist, Alice Robb looks back at the demanding, obsessional world that captured her childhood dreams, and the charismatic figures who shaped it.

Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict by Elizabeth Day The host of blockbuster podcast How to Fail explores the joys and pitfalls of friendship – including the stresses of trying to maintain as many as possible. Could a modest address-book cull be the socially responsible way to start your summer?

Johnson at 10 by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell If you can bear to revisit a period of misrule still painfully raw in the collective memory, Seldon and Newell’s meticulous book offers eye-opening insights into the workings of the Johnson administration from the people who witnessed it first hand.

Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken What happens if you eat a diet made up of 80% ultra-processed food – pre-packaged snacks and meals with long chemical names among the ingredients – for a whole month? Having done just that and seen the results, public health doctor van Tulleken explains the toll these products are having on our collective health.

One Midsummer’s Day: Swifts and the Story of Life on Earth by Mark Cocker The humble swift is the lens through which nature writer Mark Cocker presents the natural world in all its dazzling interconnectedness. Or perhaps not so humble – these are the birds, after all, that think nothing of nipping over to Germany in a single insect-hunting trip, and have been reported at heights of 4,400 metres. A natural wonder indeed.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver A triumph of voice: this Women’s prize-winning reboot of David Copperfield, set amid the poverty and opioid addiction of Appalachia, features an unforgettable young hero battling to survive.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Precocious coders and best friends Samson and Sadie get into the video game-making business – but will their relationship ever move beyond creative collaboration? A hugely enjoyable novel about lives and loves mediated by technology.

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a multi award-winning debut about a dangerous affair across the political and religious divide.

Bad Actors by Mick Herron The latest in the Slough House series about inept MI5 secret agents sees Herron on top form, slashing through Westminster shenanigans and Russian thuggery with elegance and wit.

Send Nudes by Saba Sams Funny, sly and surprising tales of young womanhood from the BBC National short story award winner – perfect poolside reading.

Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries All you could ask for in terms of juicy titbits from the length and breadth of the beloved actor’s career; brickbats and bouquets for fellow performers, snippets of Labour politics and the filming of Harry Potter.

Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson The Baillie Gifford prize winner splices memoir with sharply observed cultural criticism in this unique meditation on ageing, art and personhood.

Landlines by Raynor Winn In a follow up to the bestselling Salt Path and Wild Silence , much-loved wild walkers Raynor and her husband Moth undertake their toughest challenge yet – the Cape Wrath Trail – in the face of Moth’s deteriorating health.

The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole Who knew Britain had rainforests? There may not be parrots, but a rich and precious heritage of ancient woodlands replete with mistletoe, fern and moss clings on, fed by our damp Atlantic climate. This book is a call to see the exotic in our own isles, and cherish it.

Spare by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex This eye-popping memoir lays bare Prince Harry’s childhood trauma, his grudges and his gripes – as well as a rather intimate bout of frostbite. Too much information? Not for eager readers, who have made it the bestselling book of the year so far.

Art Makes People Powerful by Bob and Roberta Smith A thick, satisfying art activity book that invites children of 6+ to discover their own powers of creation, painting fierce placards or drawing their own feelings and visions of a better world.

The Thames and Tide Club : The Secret City by Katya Balen, illustrated by Rachael Dean When Clem finds a mysterious object and triggers some seriously strange weather, she and her mudlarking buddies must go on an underwater adventure to return it. A delightful illustrated quest story for 7+, from a Carnegie-winning author.

The Case of the Lighthouse Intruder by Kereen Getten, illustrated by Leah Jacobs-Gordon Fayson doesn’t like her wealthy cousins, but when she’s sent to their Jamaican island for the summer, she might just get the chance to realise her dream of becoming a detective. Like Enid Blyton with a social conscience, this marks the start of an addictive new series for 8+.

The Swifts by Beth Lincoln, illustrated by Claire Powell At birth, each Swift is given a definition from their ancestral dictionary, and must grow up to embody their name – except Shenanigan Swift, who doesn’t believe in destiny. When Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude is and outrageously witty attacked at a family reunion, will Shenanigan succeed in finding the culprit? Fabulously illustrated, this clever, comic debut is perfect for 9+ Lemony Snicket fans.

Greenwild: The World Behind the Door by Pari Thomson, illustrated by Lisa Paganelli When Daisy Thistledown’s mother goes missing, Daisy obeys her mum’s last order and escapes into Greenworld, an eco-paradise she must fight to defend. This magical fantasy breathes new life into classic tropes while offering 9+ readers a cornucopia of wonder, peril and time travel.

Friends and Traitors by Helen Peters Sidney’s school has just been evacuated to a rural stately home, where clever Nancy is working as a housemaid. Then the girls discover that the earl is hiding something sinister in the stables. Concealed passages and fiendish plots abound in this second world war mystery, perfect for 9+ Robin Stevens readers.

Cupid’s Revenge by Wibke Brueggemann Tilly can’t stand living in a houseful of “creative types”, and now she’s worried about her grandad, who has Alzheimer’s, moving in. Love is not on the agenda – until she meets gorgeous Katherine Cooper-Bunting, her best friend Teddy’s crush, and winds up in the same amdram production. This sweet, believable queer romance for 14+ is frank, funny and poignant.

This Summer’s Secrets by Emily Barr Long ago, grim secrets were hidden at Cliff House. Now, as teenage Senara finds herself drawn into the house’s affluent world – and, possibly, a first romance – those secrets begin to work their way into the light. A sun-splashed Cornish thriller with a dark heart, ideal for YA fans of E Lockhart.

The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar Bengali-Irish baker Shireen is thrilled to be in the Junior Irish Baking Show – but less so to find her ex-girlfriend Chris is too. Can Shireen give her parents’ bakery a boost while working with Chris at close quarters – and what about the charismatic Niamh? Jaigirdar’s fourth novel is a sugar-dusted YA treat with a sharp spice of realism.

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron Charity Curtis loves her summer job as “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake, where guests pay to be terrified in a cult horror re-enactment. But when her co‑workers start disappearing, Charity will have to put her skills to work for real in this pulse-pounding horror, best suited to slasher flick aficionados of 14+.

Explore all the books in the Guardian and Observer’s summer reading lists and save up to 15% on RRP. Visit guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

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