A boatload of books to read by a body of water this summer

In which our heroine sets you up for summer reading

Hi cozy friend!

After a minor slump in May, I’m finding myself on the verge of an excellent summer of books. Summer reading sparks a nostalgia of library reading challenges, reading entire series in the span of a couple weeks, and creating an optimal reading setup at the edge of my parents’ pool.

I’ve gone deep into the depths of my Storygraph to pull my very best suggestions. This isn’t a list of buzzy new releases (though I do include a few at the end), rather it’s a list of books you may have missed or just didn’t get to. I hope you give one — or several — a chance this year!

Before we begin: Please note that, where possible, books are affiliate linked in my Bookshop.org storefront, which helps support my work at no extra cost to you. Some of the older books are currently back-ordered, so I’ve linked to Thriftbooks, where you find second hand copies, or you should be able to get them relatively easily from your library.

Without further ado, thirty-two(!) books to fill those long days lounging by a body of water.

The list is long! Feel free to skip around or settle in with your favorite summer bev. It’ll likely get cut off in your inbox. You can click “view entire email” or click into the Substack app!

Feeling nautical? In your fisherman’s daughter era? Some boat and island books to sail you away:

• Fable by Adrienne Young - This is the boat-iest book I have ever read, so much so that at times the nautical accuracy was a bit much for me. However, I do think many of you will love it! If you, like me, had every word to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl memorized, this one’s for you — there’s romance and adventure with a sense of the sea so strong you can almost taste the salt air.

• Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert - The author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic’s debut novel definitely deserves some attention. It’s set in a coastal town in Maine where everything centers around the lobster industry. A young woman returns home after college determined to join the “stern men” on the lobster boats.

• Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea by Hannah Stowe - Full disclosure, I’m in the middle of this book right now, but 40% in, I’m already loving it. The author is a sailor and marine biologist who shares the way the ocean and the creatures within it have shaped her life. From days learning about sea creatures one summer at Sea Camp or sailing on the Chesapeake Bay with my dad and grandfather, the ocean is an ever-present part of my early memories.

• The Island Home by Libby Page - I picked this up at a train station in Edinburgh on our first trip to Scotland and read it immediately upon arriving home, helping me stave off the post-trip blues. It’s a cozy little book set on a Hebridean island that our heroine, Lorna, returns to after twenty years away. The story explores finding oneself, friendship, and home where you might least expect it — and the setting, of course, is gorgeous. (This one isn’t published in the US, womp, but you can likely find a secondhand copy.)

• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter - I read this book when it came out in 2013 and I still think about it all the time. In my opinion, it’s the perfect summer book. Set in Cinque Terre in Italy during the 1960s, it’s about a summer love affair and the impacts on the lives of those involved, spanning across the world and across time. It’s atmospheric, romantic, and oh so summery.

When you’re craving summer nostalgia with a twinge of the pain of girlhood:

• The Last Summer of Ada Bloom by Martine Murray - Summer is a time to return to our childhood selves, to embrace slow days that seem to stretch out forever. This book captures that feeling exactly. Ada is nine years old during the last summer of her childhood innocence when she witnesses an event at an abandoned well. It catapults the family into a chain of events that will alter them forever.

• The Girls by Emma Cline - So, you love cults? This one’s for you. I read it years and years ago on a beach in Delaware and it’s stuck with me ever since. Evie is a lonely teenage girl who gets caught in the thrall of a group of older girls she meets in 1960s California. She finds herself swept away to their ranch commune under the leadership of their charismatic leader… Charles Manson. It’s a spooky one, but perfect to tear through on a slow summer day.

• The Shark Club by Ann Kidd Taylor - Clearly, I love a story about a young woman returning to her childhood home, forced to confront elements of her past. Add an dazzling literary-themed hotel, an illegal shark finning mystery, a charming child, and a second chance romance and you’ve got one perfect summer read.

• Lady Sunshine by Amy Mason Doan - I love a dual timeline story with secrets unfolding and mysteries revealed slowly over the course of the book. If you want the 70s vibe without the mass murder, this one takes place on a commune for artists and musicians called The Sandcastle. A mysterious disappearance occurs. Twenty years later, Jackie returns to The Sandcastle along with musicians recording a tribute album to her uncle, the artist who owned the estate. She must uncover family secrets long held and reckon with her own memories of the past.

• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett - This will make you want to immediately move to a cherry farm in Michigan and spend your days listening to family lore while picking cherries, lounging by the lake, or cozying up in a farmhouse. During the pandemic, while her three adult daughters have all returned home, Lara tells the story of her relationship with a famous actor during the summer of 1984. I listened to the audiobook, read by Meryl Streep, while puttering around in my garden. An ideal listening experience.

When you’re craving heat like… in a spicy kind of way:

• Wild Love by Elsie Silver - I devoured this book while on a bachelorette trip to Naples, FL earlier this year. It is the perfect plane/pool/beach book. For some reason, the male main character is a billionaire, but I just pretended otherwise as it didn’t seem relevant to the plot. Anyway, it’s a small town second chance romance set in a mountain town in Western Canada. While not specifically a cowboy romance, it has a beautiful sense of place, delicious banter, and a love story that will get you in all your feels.

• Savor It by Tarah DeWitt - If you need even more small town romance, this one will also scratch that itch. There’s a girl who lives on a hobby farm (with a pet goose!) and a disgraced chef. It’s blurbed as Schitt’s Creek meets The Bear and I wholeheartedly agree. One of my favorite books from last year!

• Beach Read by Emily Henry - Emily Henry? For summer? Groundbreaking. But I do feel the need to include this book in case you missed it - I just read it for the first time last year. I would especially like to note that the beach in this book is actually a LAKE in Michigan. Personally, I love a summer book set on a lake because as a Wisconsin gal, that’s usually where I’m reading them.

• This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune - I’ve never pre-ordered a book more quickly than I did this one after hearing it was a romance between a florist and a competitive oyster shucker set on Prince Edward Island with influences from Anne of Green Gables. I mean, I don’t know what else even needs to be said.

• Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura - I’ve been told that the archeology in this book isn’t exactly accurate, but let me tell you, it’s a delightful little romp. It’s for you like Indiana Jones or adventure comedies involving a search for hidden treasure. Two rival archeologists are in the Mexican jungle searching for Aztec remains. As you can imagine, things get HOT.

Perhaps you want something a bit more literary:

• Outlawed by Anna North - My most recent five star read! I am still in my cowgirl era (perhaps it’s not a phase, just a core aspect of my personality at this point) and got around to reading this book at exactly the right time. Despite the cover, this is far from a campy cowboy romance. In the 1800s, Ada is accused of being a witch and must leave her town to avoid prosecution. She finds belonging with a girl gang of outlaws and together, they fight for survival in a society that will not accept them. It’s painful, action-packed, and ultimately inspiring.

• Take What You Need by Idra Novey - If you’re a progressive person who comes from a conservative place (like me), you’ll likely resonate with this book. It’s about two women, Leah and Jean, estranged step-daughter and step-mother. After Jean’s death, Leah inherits Jean’s collection of welded sculptures and must return to her rural hometown in Appalachia. It forces you to think about love, forgiveness, and how we relate to and reckon with the places and people we come from.

• Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez - Some books try to do too many things and can’t pull any of them off well — this is not that book. It’s simultaneously a romance, a political thriller, a family drama, rich people behaving badly (wedding planning for the 1%), and more. It centers around a Puerto Rican family in Brooklyn leading up to and in the wake of Hurricane Maria with a really strong sense of place, family, and home.

• Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett - Family drama, but set in a Florida taxidermy shop. In the wake of her father’s death by suicide, Jessa must step up to run her family’s shop while navigating with her own grief while also dealing with the fact she’s in love with her brother’s wife. Meanwhile, her mother keeps sneaking into the shop to arrange the animals in lewd positions, gaining the attention of an art gallerist. It’s a darkly funny and a bit absurd exploration of family and how the past shapes us into who we are.

• Umami by Laia Jufresa, translated by Sophie Hughes - I love stories about the different people who live in a hyper specific place and the ways their lives intersect. This one is about the inhabitants of five houses in Mexico City who share a courtyard — and now, a community garden planted by twelve-year old Ana.

Or something set in another time:

• The Air You Breathe by Frances de Pontes Peebles - This book is for those of you craving a friendship story that’s told with the same attention and love usually reserved for romantic relationships. It’s about two girls who meet on a sugar plantation in Brazil, one working in the kitchens and one the daughter of a sugar baron, and forge a friendship and partnership through their shared love of music. The book spans their entire lives and takes you across the globe from Rio to Hollywood and back.

• Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - This is more of a historical fantasy, but stay with me here. It’s sort of a Cinderella story, but instead of a fairy godmother, Casiopea makes a deal with the Mayan god of death. It takes place in 1920s Mexico City filled with flapper dresses, jazz musicians, and general glitz and glamour. One of my all time favorites.

• Orphans of the Carnival by Carol Birch - There’s one niche genre that I cannot get enough of: circus books. I don’t even like the actual circus that much, but I find the characters and their relationships behind the scenes to be extremely compelling. This book is a fictionalized version of the life of Julia Pastrana, a singer and performer who had hypertrichosis, meaning her face and body were covered in straight, black hair. Brought into a traveling troupe by a charming showman, she feels she’s finally found belonging. But can true belonging exist alongside exploitation? A heartbreaking but beautiful tale.

• The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton - Of course, as one of my favorite authors, I must include a Kate Morton book in every recommendation list. A large portion of this book takes place in the summer of 1862 at a manor house full of artists, where murder, thievery, and mystery occur. One hundred and fifty years later, a young archivist finds herself drawn to Birchwood Manor, where she feels an uncanny sense of familiarity. Mysteries unfold and secrets are revealed! If you have a babbling brook near you, this would be the perfect book to read next to it.

• Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland - My other hyperfixation genre is historical fiction about artists, specifically the Impressionists. I read many of them during my teens and early twenties, but this is one of my favorites, imagining the story behind one of my favorite paintings, Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party. We get the perspective of each of the friends and models that came together that summer day on the Seine as well as Renoir himself. Honestly it feels magical, like stepping into the painting, Mary Poppins style.

Maybe you want a recommendation from the youth?? I asked my friend Leah, certified Gen Z, to share a few of her favorite summer reads with us:

• Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian - Maybe it’s the Midwesterner in me, but boy do I love a good road trip and I have never read a book describe a cross country trip as magically as Peter Cabot Gets Lost. This book has so many of the tropes I love: historical queer romance, Grumpy x Sunshine and a touch of pining. This is a book I usually re-read twice a year when I need a dose of wholesome energy.
  
  *Note: this is technically the second book in a series but you do not need to read the first book to understand what’s happening

• Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson - If you are a Fantasy Girly, you can’t go wrong with Brando Sando.This is a book I have heard described and would agree as “The Princess Bride but if Buttercup had more agency”. Even as someone who can’t picture things in their head, I found the descriptions of a sea made of living plants/spores so cool and interesting. And what’s more summer than pirates??

• Funny Story by Emily Henry - As a recovering “Not Like Other Girls”, I am so ready to recommend an Emily Henry book as a perfect Summer read. When Funny Story came out, it quickly became one of my favorite books of 2024. It holds a special place in my heart since the town Daphne and Miles live in is based on towns around where much of my family live in Michigan and a character in it may or may not have inspired me to get bangs.

To close us out, a few new releases I can’t wait to read:

• Love is a War Song by Danica Nava (Out July 22) - The Rebel Blue Ranch series has officially ended, but I’m still deep in my cowboy romance era. I’m so excited for this one by an Indigenous author about a Muskogee pop star and a cowboy.

• One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (Out now!) - I love any summer romance set at a lake and I think Carley Fortune does them the best. In this book, we return to the lake from her debut, Every Summer After, for Charlie’s love story.

• The Art of Vanishing by Morgan Pager (Out July 1) - As mentioned above, I love books that make famous paintings come alive and this one does just that in a fantastical sense! It’s about a night janitor at a museum, who one night discovers she can step through the paintings. She falls in love with one of the subjects and an impossible love affair is set in motion. It sounds like everything I love in a book.

• Maine Characters by Hannah Orenstein (Out now!) - This just sounds like an ideal summer read. I’ve never been to Maine, but I look forward to being transported there through this book! It’s been described as “The Parent Trap for adults.” Plus, there’s water fowl on the cover - sign me right up.

Finally, your cozy inspiration for the week:

Spend some time outside. Take your book with you. That’s it. That’s the rec.

Happy reading, friends!