Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell
Her 2013 novel is set during the record-setting 1976 London
heatwave during which the patriarch of an Irish family clears out his bank
account and disappears, leaving his family to puzzle out where he went, and
why. In the aftermath, the three adult children respond to their mother's plea
for help and descend on their parents' home for the first time in ages. Soon
the three are working (and squabbling) together as they try to determine what
might have happened to their father. As the search progresses, secrets from the
parents' marriage and the adult children's struggles and insecurities are
revealed. The story takes us from London to Ireland and New York City as we
wait to see what happened to the father, and what will happen next in each
character's life.
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
In this coming-of-age story, debut author Bennett shows us
how grief predictably consumes a 17-year old girl growing up in a tight-knit
community in Southern California, and how two friends get pulled into the
tangled aftermath during that tumultuous summer. Bennett tells the story
through the eyes of the community's mothers: though we may expect these
community pillars to show up with casseroles when someone is sick, in this story the mothers' vicious gossip causes nothing but
trouble.
The Shore by Katie Runde
Brian and Margot live a dream life with their teen daughters
Liz and Evy in a beach town on the Jersey Shore, as year-round residents who
make their living renting vacation homes to tourists. But when Brian is
diagnosed with a rare and personality-altering brain tumor, everything changes.
While Margot tries to keep their bustling real estate business afloat, the
girls adjust to caretaking for their father and continuing to do normal teenage
stuff like trying new summer jobs and trying on new personas. This moving,
heart-wrenching, and ultimately hopeful story of love, family, and grief in a
tourist town made for a wonderful and touching listening experience.
Beach Read by Emily Henry
January is a 29-year-old romance writer who no longer
believes in happily-ever-after. Demoralized and broke, she moves into the lake
house she inherited when her father died, hoping to lick her wounds and finish
her current manuscript. But then, in a cruel twist of fate, she discovers her
neighbor is the beloved literary fiction writer Augustus Everett, her college
rival (and crush), whom she was hoping to never see again. It turns out Gus has
troubles of his own, and so the two make a bet to get their writing back on
track.
Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews
Aspiring writer Florence is determined to get her stories
published, no matter what it takes. But after her initial underhanded efforts
to get a book deal result in getting fired from her low-level publishing job,
she receives a fortuitously-timed offer to play assistant to a blockbuster
novelist whose identity is a closely-guarded secret. Soon she's privy to the
secrets of “Maud Dixon,” who hit the bestseller charts with her debut about a
sinister Southern murder, but whose sophomore novel is long overdue to the
publisher. When the prickly writer invites Florence to accompany her on a
research trip to Morocco, Florence can't say yes fast enough...
Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan
This contemporary story puts a fresh spin on A Room with a View, but
you don't need to be familiar with E.M. Forster's classic to enjoy this
glittery, glamorous, and gossipy novel that opens on an island holiday in
Capri—and then jumps forward several years to a decadent summer vacation in
East Hampton.
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Searle
When twenty-something Katy loses her mother to cancer, she
loses her best friend in the world, and she has no idea what to do next. She
makes the difficult decision to travel to the Amalfi Coast—painful, because she
and her mother had planned to take this trip together. At a charming hotel in
Positano, Katy imagines what her own mother's visit must have been like many
years before, when she first visited the hotel in which Katy is finding solace.
But then—Katy's mother appears, in the flesh, though she isn't yet Katy's mother,
because she's just thirty years old.
The Narrowboat Summer by Anne Youngson
From the author of Meet Me at the Museum, a
story of three women brought together by a small narrowboat who embark together
on a journey through the river canals of rural England. One woman anxiously
awaits a surgery, one has given up her ordinary life to become a free spirit,
one is unsure if she'll return to her husband when the journey is done—but
until those looming realities need to be faced, they'll spend the summer
together (along with one small dog) enjoying the scenery as they wend their way
down the river at 4mph.
Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
This 1970s coming of age story features 14-year-old Mary
Jane, a sheltered girl from a respectable Baltimore family whose life changes
the summer she nannies for a local doctor ... whose best client is about to
become a live-in rock star in rehab. Mary Jane can't tell a soul what she sees
in that house: the rock star's presence is a tightly-kept secret, plus her prim
parents would make her quit if they grasped just how much their family
sensibilities differ from those of her employers. She's left on her own to process
her introduction to the baffling adult world of sex, drugs, friendship, and
rivalry, as well as her burgeoning friendship with the rock star's wife, an
actress she's long admired.
The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
To her great surprise, 39-year-old gallery owner Solène falls
madly in love with a 20-year-old member of the boy band August Moon, embarking
on an initially secret and then all-too-public relationship that unfolds in
glamorous (read: seriously fun to read about) settings all over the world.
The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand
The titular hotel’s Gilded Age glory days are long gone: it’s
a real dump (and in a fun plot twist—haunted!) when London billionaire Xavier
Darling buys it sight unseen. The new owner hires local restaurateur Lizbet
Keaton to make his hotel the best property on the island, if not the whole
Eastern seaboard. And that means The Hotel Nantucket has to wow Shelly
Carpenter, the influencer who’s become a national obsession for her blog Hotel
Confidential. The influential critic regularly reviews hotels for her eighteen
million followers and awards each property anywhere from one to five keys. The
staff is energized by this audacious goal, because no hotel has ever earned
five keys from Shelly Carpenter. To earn the coveted fifth key, they’ll have to
do everything right.
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
In this summer novel, three friends embark on a road trip on
the Lincoln Highway, the very real road that stretches between San Francisco
and New York City. Each eighteen-year-old has their own reasons for wanting to
escape their circumstances and find a better place. Along the way they meet all
kinds of characters and embark on adventures big and small, making decisions
that are sure to change the course of their lives forever.
YOUNG ADULT
Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen
In this fast-paced YA debut, a girl travels halfway around
the world to find herself—and maybe find love, too. Ever Wong is an
eighteen-year-old Asian American girl in Ohio, a talented dancer who harbors
dreams of pursuing professional dance, though she hides those ambitions from
her family. When her parents find out she’s considering dance instead of med
school, they send her to Taiwan to spend the rest of the summer at Chien Tan,
an immersive high school program devoted to language and culture. When Ever
arrives she’s surprised to discover that far from the scholarly experience she
expected, the students themselves call the program “Loveboat,” because it’s
tons of fun and so many long-term relationships begin here.
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
Isabel "Belly" Conklin lives for summers at the
beach with her family—and her mother's best friend and her so
ns Jeremiah and
Conrad. They've always been her summer companions, extra brothers to annoy her
from June through August. But this summer, everything changes as Belly has to chose where her affections will lie.
Where the Rhythm Takes You by Sarah Dass
In this tropical YA spin on Persuasion, Reyna and Aiden grew up and fell in love on the island of
Tobago. Reyna feels stuck on the island, because her family owns a beautiful
seaside resort she promised her mother she'd take ownership of one day. But
Aiden's band hit it big, so he left to pursue his dreams. After a two-year
absence, circumstances bring the two together again, and Reyna can't help but
remember why she once thought they'd be together forever.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment