What Are You Reading this Summer?

Here we go again! I love running a “favorite summer book” post each year because it’s a great way to catch up on what everyone is reading and recommending. This year, I reached out a handful of friends for their suggestions, and included some of my own favorites from this past year – plus ones I’ve added to my growing “need to read” list. As always, we’d love for you to add a comment below stating your top summer book picks as well as your reviews to the ones we’ve listed today.

Don’t forget to consult our list from last year too. We’ve included a bunch of good books that would make for great reads any time of year! Happy reading…

Reader Suggestions

The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
~ Rachel H

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan Philipp-Sendker
~ Angela S

11-22-63 by Steven King
~ Erica F

Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
~ Janet F

Inferno by Dan Brown
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin
~ Suzanne T

Devil in her Way by Bill Loefelm
~ Julie C

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Rules of Civility by Amor Towels.
King of Lies by John Hart
~ Lisa S

Lethal by Sandra Brown
Toxic Bachelors by Danielle Steele
The Search by Nora Roberts
~ Ashley M

Books on My List

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns – two must reads!)

Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander (the author grew up in Winston-Salem!)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah (TMoM member Kristie T keeps telling me to read this book…she highly recommends it!)

Winter of the World by Ken Follett (This is book two of the Century Trilogy, after Fall of the Giants, which I read and loved)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (I read this book in high school, but want to re-read it and watch the movie this summer)

Plus These Three Local, Juicy Books!

Each was written about events that took place here in the Triad. I am determined to read all of these books, however they are difficult to track down!

Kid Carolina: R. J. Reynolds Jr., a Tobacco Fortune, and the Mysterious Death of a Southern Icon by Heidi Schnakenberg

Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder by Jerry Bledsoe

The Gilded Leaf: Triumph, Tragedy, and Tobacco: Three Generations of the R. J. Reynolds Family and Fortune by Patrick Reynolds

For additional suggestions, Publishers Weekly shares their list here and Red Book magazine shares their list here.

What books can you add to our list? Do you like or dislike any of the books we mention above, and why?