It has been a great summer for reading. I have been carving out some me time, which has led to a lot of reading. I try to listen to a book and read another one simultaneously. I love listening to audiobooks while driving, running errands, going for a walk, or needlepointing.
I always have an ever-growing list of books I want to read, and whenever I visit the bookstore, I try to pick up a new book. Two of my favorite places for book recommendations are Reese’s Book Club and Read with Jenna. They have never steered me wrong and have a wide variety of book genres. When I want to listen to audiobooks, I try to borrow them from the library. If I want to book as soon as possible and the wait is too long at the library, I will buy the audiobook on Libro.fm, the independent bookstore audio app. There are so many ways to get or read a book.
I have read many good books this summer. There are at least two that I would read again and have recommended to everyone. My favorite genres are beach reads and YA. They are fun reads that keep your attention, usually have twists and turns, and have gripping plots.
This summer, I decided to read all of Curtis Sittenfeld’s books. I fell in love with her writing when I read A Romantic Comedy. So far, I have read that and engaged; I have seven more books to go. Along with her books, I finished reading all of Emily Henry’s books and some other random books.
The Summer of the Book (New Books You Will Want to Read):
The Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley 5/5
The Fire Keeper’s Daughter is a YA novel about a Native American girl in high school. It explores her relationship with her family and other members of her tribe. She wants to find out if the cause of her uncle’s death is accurate and why others on the reservation are dying. You won’t want to put down this book, as it has lots of twists and turns.
The Bookshop by Evan Friss 4/5
The Bookshop is a nonfiction book about, you guessed it, the history of bookshops. It is a fascinating retrospective of where bookshops started and where they are now. Many interesting stories about bookshops helped bring now-classic books to the masses. They discuss how book printing evolved from the printing of Bibles to the printing of novels, from being expensive specialty gifts to being in everyone’s home. The beginning of the book dragged a little, but once you get past that, it is an engaging book with tons of fascinating history about the metamorphosis of books and the bookshop.
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez 5/5
Say You’ll Remember Me is one of the best books I have read this summer. I finished this book in under a week. This book is about a woman who finds a cat and brings it to the vet, where she meets the handsome vet who will change her life. This book explores family relationships, love, and the complexities of life. I couldn’t put this book down, and the ending left me teary-eyed with joy.
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry 5/5
This is the perfect beach read with romance and secrets. This book is about a woman who writes for a magazine and aspires to be a book author. She gets the break of a lifetime when a woman who has not been seen in years asks her and another man to come in for an interview to write her autobiography. This was an excellent book that I loved reading.
Landline by Rainbow Rowell 3/5
Landline is about a woman who is a writer for a comedy TV show. It is about her relationships with her husband, her co-writer, whom she has known since college, her mother, and her half-sister. This book explores her relationship problems with her husband, as she must stay home to finalize a show pitch with her co-writer, rather than join her mother-in-law on Christmas vacation. As this struggle unfolds, she is staying at her childhood home. While there, you go back in time on the landline phone with her to one winter, when she and her husband, then her boyfriend, are in different states and talk on the phone often. This was a good book that kept me engaged, but it wasn’t one of the best I’ve read.
The God of the Wood by Liz Moore 3.5/5
The God of the Wood was one of the books I listened to. It is about a family that owns a lot of land in Upstate NY and houses a summer camp on the property. It is a story about their daughter being forced to go to the camp. This book is about family secrets, a mystery, and more. I thought it was a good book, but it dragged a little towards the end. I skipped through part of the book and felt I did not miss any key points.
