Two reasons why I love this time of year (among other things) is catching up on the growing pile of books next to my bed, and receiving even more great book recommendations from friends and TMoM readers! I recently reached out to  friends and followers to get their summer book pics – and have compiled their list below along with a few of my own suggestions. There seems to be so many good books on the shelves right now (and some that have been circulating among book clubs for months), so my reading plans will most likely take me through the fall. Take a look at what we’re reading and please add your recommendations as well. Happy reading!

By now I’m sure you’ve heard all the great reviews of the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. These books include The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay). I am on the third book in this series and have truly enjoyed them. Collins is a young adult author – so like the Twilight series – these books are fast reads. However, in my opinion, they’re much better than the Twilight books!

Another popular series we’re hearing a lot about is the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy by E.L. James. These books include Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. I’m not necessarily suggesting you read these books or not, but they’ve seemed to create quite the following. Click here to read Rachel’s recent “Whatcha Think?” post about this series. If you do plan to catch up on this series over the summer, you might want to remain discreet and download them to your Kindle. Just sayin’!

A few other books I could not put down this year include:

Room by Emma Donoghue (Rachel H suggested this to me after she read it in one day!)
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
Martyr: A Novel of Tudor Intrique by Rory Clements, and the sequel Revenger (If you liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, you’ll love these books!)
City of Thieves by David Benioff (husband to actress Amanda Peet)
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

What others have read and recommend…

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
~ Submitted by Amber C

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
~  Submitted by Erica F.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Love Walked In by Marisa de Los santos
~ Submitted by Suzanne T

The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht
~ Submitted by Meghna O.

Others on my list:

Wild by Cheryl Strayed (just picked by Oprah!)
The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Which books can you recommend? And if you’ve read any books on today’s list, share your thoughts!