summer reading ideas
A couple of weeks ago, I asked you to share a few of your recommended books for summer reading in the comments of this post. What a list!! I've added almost all of them below and grouped them by general "categories." Hope you find a few you enjoy!
Fiction
All That Is by James Salter
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Babylon Rite by Tom Knox
Beauty by Robin McKinley
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler
Child of the Morning by Pauline Grege
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Cruelest Month: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Defending Jacob by William Landay
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Divergent by Veronica Roth
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
The Drifters by James Michener
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Fall on Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
For One More Day by Mitch Albom
The Garden of the Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer
Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Homemade Love by J. California Cooper
Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Inferno by Dan Brown
The Island by Victoria Hislop
J D Salinger Boxed Set by J D Salinger
The J M Barrie Ladies' Swimming Society by Barbara J. Zitwer
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman
The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Moonlight and Vines by Charles De Lint
Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Nearer the Sky by T. Greenwood
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
The Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The Peculiar Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Proper Order of Things by Tara Benwell
Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguo
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith
The Seamstress by Maria Dueñas
Secrets Over Sweet Tea by Denise Hildreth Jones
She Got Up Off the Couch and Other Heroic Acts from Moreland Indiana by Havel Kimmel
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
Small Island by Andrea Levy
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Unnatural Habits a Phryne Fisher Mystery by Kerry Greenwood
Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Written in Red by Anne Bishop
Self-Help
Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott
Magical Journey by Katrina Kenison
Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne
The Toa of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Women Food and God by Geneen Roth
Non-Fiction
The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller
Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes by Shauna Niequist
Clean Food by Terry Walters
Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover's Guide to Vegetable Gardening, Including 50 Recipes, Plus Harvesting and Storage Tips by Will Galloway
Many Lives Many Masters by Brian Weiss
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Mended by Angie Smith
Mosiac of Thought by Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmerman
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Saturday Night Widows by Becky Aikman
Use Your Words by Kate Hopper
Memoirs/biographies/autobiographies
Dancing with Max by Emily Colson
End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
Fire Season by Philip Connors
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Grace of Silence by Michele Norris
Hannah's Gift by Maria Housden
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jennifer Lawson
The Potty Mouth at the Table by Laurie Notaro
Running with Scissors a Memoir by Augusten Burroughs
Satuday Night Widows by Becky Aikman
The Tao of Martha: My Year of LIVING; Or, Why I'm Never Getting All That Glitter Off of the Dog by Jen Lancaster
This I Know: Notes on Unraveling the Heart by Susannah Conway
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? By Jeanette Winterson
Wild Comfort by Kathleen Dean Moore
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Highway by Cheryl Strayed
Young Adult
Angelfall by Susan Ee
Beautiful Creatures Series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George
The Ender Quartet Box Set by Orson Scott Card
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The FitzOsbornes in Exile: The Montmaray Journals by Michelle Cooper
The Heart is Not a Size by Beth Kephart
The Immortal Instrument by Cassandra Clare
The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Book One by Ann Brashares
Son by Lois Lowry
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Poetry
Norton Anthology of Poetry by Ferguson et al.
Writing Poetry from the Inside Out: finding your voice through the craft of poetry by Sandford Lyne
A little note from Liz: I'm excited to dive into a few of these books this summer, and I hope you will join me. Please note that I haven't read most of them and am in no way recommending each of them. Rather, this is a list of books from my blog readers and Pinterest followers that I hope will give you a variety of possible books to choose from. You can read more about the books if you follow the links to Amazon. Some people wrote a bit about why they recommended their books, and you can read that in the comments of the original post here. If the recommended book seemed to fall far outside the realm of "summer reading" or was out of print/difficult to find, I didn't include them, but I did try to add as many as I could. You can find all the recommendations in the original post.
liz lamoreux
Reader Comments (6)
Great list! Thank u!
I highly recommend The Guernsy Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. A true gem.
i almost forgot about your request to provide a book recommendation! great list! xo
This is a great list and I have read a few of the same books. I am reading Paris by Edward Rutherford. I think it will take me most of the summer.
Lets Pretend This Never Happened -- Warnings: *Will induce stars-in-your-vision laughter. *Do not attempt to eat food while reading, you will choke from said laughter. *Reading this at work will cause co-workers to come into the breakroom to ask what is 'wrong'.
Seriously, this may be the funniest book I've ever read. I definitely gave this 5 of 5 stars.
this is a fantastic list!!! I look forward to checking out some of the names on it!
thanks for pulling that all together!