Our magazine’s readers love books, too, and they are always happy to share their suggestions. Genres vary as much as summer destinations, but that just means everyone who seeks will find a summer book to fit their taste.

Michelle ~ An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls #1) by Hank Green. This thrilling book makes a statement about the importance of popularity via social media and how it has taken over many lives.

Brian ~ Rock me on the Water: 1974-The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television and Politics by Ronald Brownstein. What a year! You’ll remember or learn about many of the momentous things during that year.

Anya ~ Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin: The Fifth Season. The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky. Her writing on racism in a sci-fi/futuristic setting is fresh, imaginative, and very engaging.

Jo ~ The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman: The Invisible Library,  The Masked City, The Burning Page, The Lost Plot, The Mortal Word, The Secret Chapter. Excellent historical fantasy! A somewhat sentient library keeps the universe in balance via librarians who are part spy, part academics, and part superheroes.

Katy ~ The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena. A neighborhood dinner party ends with the disappearance of a child and the search to find her reveals secrets at every turn.

Joanne ~ Dusk Night Dawn by Anne Lamott. Short essays that show how to come to grips with these times of our life.

Abril ~ West with Giraffes: A Novel by Lynda Rutledge. A beautiful buddy story about an incredible journey. You’ll want a giraffe after reading this!

Christina ~ Home Made: A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up, And What We Make When We Make Dinner by Liz Hauck. The author spent two years cooking dinner once a week with boys in a home for wards of the state. Amazing portraits of the boys, deeply compassionate, humble, and surprisingly funny.

Dave ~ Prave: The Adventures of the Blind and the Brittle, by Dave Bahr. It’s the story of my late wife, Priscilla, and myself living with different disabilities (I’m blind and she was in a wheelchair with brittle bones). It was indeed a hell of an adventure and a love story, with advocacy.

Janelle ~ Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality by Debbie Cenziper and Jim Obergefell. I think the title explains this excellent book.

Sue ~ The Bookshop at Water’s End by Patti Callahan Henry. What a great plot — you won’t want to stop reading this story of secrets, love, and friendship.

Laura ~ Black Dog Zen: The Wisdom in Short Stories & Perception by Laura A. Kitch, tales of awareness with morals, and The Weight of Light by Laura A. Kitch, a “Big Chill” type adventure of people coming back together.

B.G. ~ True Love, A Novel by Sarah Gerard. Where do you find love? That’s what Nina wants to know, and this is the engrossing story of where she looks and whom she explores.

Eli ~ How Y’all Doing? Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived by Leslie Jordan. This autobiography is side-splittingly funny and so warm, just like Leslie. You want to high-five him and hug him!

Shari ~ The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. A young woman makes a deal with the Devil to live forever, but there’s a big downside. Excellent read!

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow. A very good fantasy story about a girl who finds a book that opens doors of adventure, romance, and danger.

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce. A nice story about two women who establish a friendship while on an adventure of a lifetime.

Eric ~ American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race by Douglas Brinkley, You may think you know the whole story, but there was so much more to pulling off this incredible feat.

Jill ~ Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. This is a beautiful book about human isolation and the power of nature. I look forward to next year when the movie is expected to debut!

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I loved this book covering four generations of families. The main characters are strong women, driven by their maternal instincts, starting in the early 20th century when Korea was an impoverished annex of Japan. I learned a lot about history, while being entertained by a page turning story line.

Laura ~ The Rooftop Party by Ellen Meister. An enticing rom-com just right for summer reading!

Levon: From Down in the Delta to the Birth of The Band and Beyond by Sandra B. Tooze. If you love Helm’s music or an engaging adventure about life on the road, this is the book for you.

 

Karen ~ The Henna Artist, by Alka Joshi. Follows the journey of Lakshmi as she escapes her arranged marriage to become the most highly requested henna artist in Jaipur. We follow Lakshmi’s personal struggle for independence, against the backdrop of traditional India’s societal changes.

 

Maya ~ That Summer by Jennifer Weiner. I could not put down this novel about friendship (and more)!

 

Trina ~ Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie. Oh, my gosh, this book was fantastic! The family was so hurtful to a girl born to a Japanese mother and a Black father, but family came through for her in a way that makes this story so gripping.

 

Hayley ~ Missed Translations: Meeting the Immigrant Parents Who Raised Me by Sopan Deb. A family memoir that will have you laughing and misty-eyed.

 

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid has so many layers filled with prejudice, expectations, wokeness, and assumptions, all coming together in a great read.

 

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston has a hysterical premise about staging a faux friendship between a prince and a president’s son. The book grows even more entertaining from there.

Michael ~ Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It’s about a last chance space mission to save Earth.

 

Just Watch Me by Jeff Lindsay. A thriller about a master thief.

 

City of Windows by Robert Pobi. It features a detective who sees crime from a different angle.

 

Editor’s Picks

 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Nora, disenchanted with her dreary life, chooses to end it. Instead of meeting her maker, she’s transported to a library staffed by her childhood school librarian, where all the life stories she didn’t choose are there for the sampling.

 

The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village by John Strausbaugh. The narratives and black-and-white photos tell the tales of this unique NYC locale, while also being a story of the USA in many ways.

 

I Have Something to Tell You: A Memoir by Chasten Buttigieg. Everyone’s on a journey; some paths have more roadblocks and obstacles than others. When you find the right route, you know it!

 

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I adored reading this adventure à la Forrest Gump. That is, if Forrest was a Swedish explosives expert who traveled the world blowing up stuff and drinking an excessive amount of vodka with Harry Truman and on a Soviet submarine.

 

Journey of Souls by Michael Newton, PhD. If you’re open to us living other lives, and want a peek into the existences others have led, this excellent book is affirming.

 

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman was a joy to read, from its intentionally puzzling (or deliberately misleading) beginning through the highly satisfying ending