Summer Reading Recommendations

 I would wager that most of you surmised this, but I will say it anyway: I love to read. There are few greater pleasures in life than curling up with a good book. I love the versatility of it-- whether I am sitting in front of the fireplace, on my porch, in a hammock, at the beach, or in any sort of waiting room, I immediately find relaxation and comfort in a book (and rarely leave the house without one). On our trip to Charleston, I packed SIX plus a couple of magazines. So, yeah, you could say I am a bit of a bibliophile. 

One of the biggest perks of summers off is time to read. I spend about nine months every year with required reading and planning, and sometimes after 8+ hours a day of reading, I want nothing more to do with it. I usually end up seeking that comfort to help me fall asleep, and it comes in the form of rereading a Harry Potter book for the 88,000th time. Unscheduled time that I can fill with adventures via book is the absolute best (besides, ya know, real adventures). 

If you're anything like I am, you have a few genres you trust, and only occasionally take recommendations. I will confess that if there is a book everyone seems to be reading, it makes me want to not read it. However, nearly half the books on this list I'm about to share with you came to me via recommendation, and were so good I am now sharing them with you. I hope you can enjoy at least one of these during the remainder of the summer. 

1) Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo: In honor of Shark Week, I chose to include this nonfiction story. If you've ever watched Shark Week, you've heard them reference this probably once every half hour without realizing it. This is a New York Times bestseller and account of the shark attacks off the Jersey shore in 1916-- the attacks that inspired the film Jaws. I had a professor friend recommend this to me when I was in grad school and confessed that I was never really into nonfiction and found it, frankly, quite boring. She recommended I read this historical thriller and it hooked me on nonfiction. 

Fun fact: parts of it are told from the perspective of the great white shark. 

2) A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer: I spent a lot of time over the last year and a half (if not longer) singing about how I want much more than this provincial life. Never mind that I do not live in provincial France. I think, for me, it's more about the idea of adventure in the great wide somewhere that made me feel such a connection to Belle my whole life. This leads me to another recommendation, this one by a student-- a retelling of the tale as old as time, but in a completely creative way. I don't want to say too much so I don't give anything away, but I will say I slept on this way too long and once I finally flew through the pages, I was happy to find out it was the first in a trilogy. 

Fun fact: the main character has cerebral palsy. 

3) Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer: This book. I picked this book up... geeze, I don't even know how many years ago. I was still living at home, maybe in early undergrad, and I was drawn by the blue cover with the giant depiction of the moon on it (side note-- I have a thing with the celestial as well as with the color blue (and many of the books on my shelves are some shade of blue)). It stayed with me-- I love the way it is told from the perspective of Miranda, a teenage girl, writing in her diary. I love that it takes place in my home state. And I love the way it captures dystopia in a way that is fresh and pre-the whole "downfall of society and now we have to wait for some badass teenagers to save the day" type of thing. This is more raw, and as such, more believable. It is also the first in a four-book series, and while it's technically YA, that didn't stop me from pulling it out in the spring of 2020 and rereading the whole series, then passing it on to Shelley to read, and then recommending it to our friend Ben (all three of us read the whole series in a matter of under two weeks total). 

Fun fact: Shelley and I still joke with Ben about his fear of the moon now. 

4) Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens: This is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read, which is unusual considering it is both a coming-of-age piece and a mystery novel. The way it was written is just art. I usually fly through books because I was gifted with being a very quick reader, but this one I forced myself to slow down and set aside from time to time. It was just so lovely I wanted to crawl inside and live there for a while. I didn't want it to end. 

Fun fact: This is one of those books that was everywhere about a year ago, and I finally read it just to see what it was all about. I'm so glad I did.

5) We'll Always Have Paris by Jennifer Coburn: One of my favorite Christmas gifts Shelley has ever given me was a Barnes and Noble gift card for $100. We went one random Friday night in January when things with the pandemic were still REALLY crazy-- like, before we were vaccinated and no one really left the house much. I browsed books for hours and made the most of my discount to get seven books (plus a coupon for a buy one, get one cookie (which I promptly used and then ate, at home, in front of the fire, whilst curled up with one of my new books)). This was one of the books. I often wander into the travel section because reading travel memoirs makes me feel like I'm visiting the places I hope to actually see one day, and gives me some good ideas for what to see and what to eat. This memoir was so skillfully written, and the author was someone I really connected with, because like me, she has hypochondria and very morbid anxiety (like more so than the average anxious soul). I enjoyed her outlook and the lens through which she told it. 

Fun fact: I found her on Instagram, messaged her to tell her how much I loved her book, and she actually responded. We had a little chat back and forth, conversing about it all, and it was a pretty cool fangirly moment for me. 

6) World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil: I love this book. I read the bulk of it while I was lying in a hammock during our camping trip this past May, and it rocked my world. It's everything a memoir should be, plus it has color illustrations throughout. She takes moments from her life and her many moves around the country and weaves it in to the solace she sought in nature no matter where she was-- the respect for nature that comes from spending time completely immersed in it. Alongside it, though, is a call to action. For example, she shares stories of fireflies. Who among us hasn't run barefoot through a yard on a July evening to scoop these little guys out of the air and let them gently crawl over our hands before fluttering off? And yet, they are declining because of us. She elaborates more on this in the book, along with many other animals and how we need to wake up before they are gone. These creatures, this world, the things we take for granted but need in order to survive, are in danger. Perhaps an immersion will bring about an appreciation and incite action. 

Fun fact: This book was the Barnes & Noble Book of the Year in 2020. 

7) This One Wild and Precious Life: The Path Back to Connection in a Fractured World by Sarah Wilson: This book was published in 2020, during the height of the pandemic. Honestly, this is kind of a heavy read, but it is important. Wilson discusses how with political upheaval, social injustice, climate issues, and a worldwide pandemic, we are all living through significant trauma and experiencing the PTSD that coincides-- and honestly, since it's all still happening, it's hard to remove ourselves from that or even process it. She suggests going to the edge-- pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones, experiencing life, experiencing art, and experiencing nature. She shares her own process (alongside some really cool hikes she's done) in this book. This is a really well-researched piece and she has a strong voice that makes you feel like she's conversing with you. 

Fun fact: The author has added little side notes and commentary in the margins, which is highly enjoyable.   

Have you read any of these? Let me know if you have or do-- leave me a comment! :) Happy reading!