There’s nothing like lying down next to the pool, feeling the sun on your face, and drinking a refreshing iced drink while reading a good book.
Summer is one of the best seasons to read that book you’ve been putting off for a while or find your new favorite book.
When I was a kid, I used to look forward to the Barnes & Noble summer reading program. I would fill out a little journal with the books I read and my reviews, and when I was done, I would exchange the journal for a free book.
The books that I read over the summers have stuck with me, and they made me want to create a list featuring novels that capture the essence of summer. Spanning six genres, here’s a list of books you should read during the summer :)
You can never go wrong with a classic for a summer read and I stand by that.
I read The Great Gatsby and East of Eden during the summer months for school reading and they possess the feeling of summer. These American novels give an insight to the reality of their times while illustrating incredible characters and tumultuous stories.
While I have not read E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View, it’s highly praised and many enjoy rereading it during the summer because of its picturesque Italian setting. Emma is one of those light-hearted classics that is easy to pick up, especially if you’re looking for something that has wit and humor.
Set during the Jazz Age, Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner, moves to Long Island to work in the bond business and becomes the neighbor of the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby. The story unfolds as Gatsby strives to win back his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. In doing so, conflicts arise that reveal the unsettling disparities between social classes, the tension between realism and idealism, and the consequences of longing for the past.
Set in the farmlands of California’s Salinas Valley, the intertwined stories of the Trask and Hamilton families serve as an allegorical retelling of the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Through their struggles, Steinbeck explores the enduring conflict between good and evil, as well as the role of free will in shaping human destiny.
Lucy Honeychurch, a young middle-class Englishwoman, travels to Florence and encounters a world vastly different from her Edwardian upbringing. There, she meets memorable characters such as the eccentric Mr. Emerson and his free-spirited son, George. A simple room swap sets Lucy on a path toward adventure, prompting her to question societal expectations and discover what it truly means to love deeply.
The clever, beautiful, yet spoiled Emma Woodhouse delights in meddling in the lives of her friends as a self-appointed matchmaker. Her schemes affect not only the residents of the village of Highbury but also Emma herself, as she becomes entangled in matters of the heart. Through a series of misunderstandings and revelations, she learns to confront the consequences of her actions and ultimately discovers her own happiness.
When making the fiction section of the list, my intention was to include books that anyone could enjoy, or at least find one book they like.
There are beautiful, heart-wrenching titles like Where The Crawdads Sing and The Island of Sea Women, but also sweet, tear-jerking books like Remarkably Bright Creatures and The Summer Book. All eight books contain widely different stories and themes, making them perfect depending on your summer reading mood.
After her husband's death, Tova Sullivan begins working at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Tova is no stranger to keeping busy as a way of coping, she did the same when her eighteen-year-old son vanished more than thirty years ago. At the aquarium, she befriends an intelligent Pacific octopus named Marcellus, who helps uncover the mystery surrounding her son's disappearance and uses every opportunity he can to guide her toward the truth.
Phoebe Stone has always dreamed of visiting the Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, with her husband. Now, under very different circumstances, she finds herself traveling there alone. What she doesn't expect is to be mistaken for a wedding guest and become swept into a wedding weekend filled with love, grief, unexpected connections, and new friendships.
In the marshes of North Carolina, Kya Clark is left to survive on her own after her family abandons her. Her free-spirited and unconventional nature sets her apart from the residents of her small fishing town. When local golden boy Chase Andrews is found dead, suspicion falls on Kya, and she finds herself at the center of a murder investigation and trial. The story raises profound questions about survival, prejudice, loneliness, and the beautiful yet haunting secrets of nature.
An elderly artist and her six-year-old granddaughter spend a summer on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland, where they navigate grief, life, and love together. Their deep bond unfolds across a series of vignettes that capture the quiet beauty of everyday life and their adventures on the island.
The Hotel Nantucket, once a Gilded Age gem, is in desperate need of renovation after a fire in 1922 left it abandoned and neglected for decades. Now owned by billionaire Xavier Darling, the hotel is set to reclaim its former glory, and Lizbet Keaton is hired as its general manager. Together, they navigate the challenges of restoring the hotel's reputation, managing their complicated relationship, and dealing with the mischievous hauntings of Grace Hadley, a nineteen-year-old chambermaid who died in the fire and refuses to rest until her murder is acknowledged.
After becoming burned out by her stressful career and demanding husband, Yeongju leaves her old life behind in search of a fresh start. She opens a bookshop on the outskirts of Seoul and gradually builds a new life centered on healing, self-discovery, and community.
Young-sook and Mi-ja are two haenyeo—female free divers—on South Korea’s Jeju Island. Spanning from the 1930s to the 2000s, this historical novel follows their enduring friendship through the Japanese occupation, World War II, and the Korean War. As political upheaval and personal betrayals test their bond, forces beyond their control push their relationship to a heartbreaking breaking point.
During a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daphne Fuller notices an older gentleman following her. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather who was briefly married to her mother when she was nine. After not seeing each other for nearly 45 years, they fall back into the deep relationship they shared, promising to never be separated again.
How could I not add romance to this list? I’m a sucker for a good romance book no matter the season. However, summer definitely tops the seasons as the best time to read a romance.
My personal recommendations are Call Me by Your Name, The Love Hypothesis, and Love & Gelato. The first two are adult romance novels, while Love & Gelato is a young adult romance, making them different in how the romance is portrayed. These three have my heart, as I read them at different ages during summer, and they remind me of how fun yet deep romantic stories can be.
Abby Jimenez’s Just for the Summer and Carley Fortune’s One Golden Summer are two romance books that are highly talked about. They are both set in lakes during the summer and their romances has had a chokehold on readers. I’m immediately adding these to my personal tbr list for the summer!
Set on the Italian Riviera in the 1980s, this novel tells the story of Elio and Oliver, a graduate student who spends six weeks staying at Elio’s family villa. As they spend more time together, their relationship deepens into something profound and transformative, revealing the intensity, beauty, and heartbreak of first love.
Emma and Justin find themselves facing the same unusual predicament: everyone they date seems to find their soulmate in the very next relationship. Convinced their "curses" might cancel each other out, they agree to date each other in hopes of finally finding their true soulmates afterward. Emma travels with her best friend to Minnesota’s picturesque Lake Minnetonka, where she spends the summer with Justin. However, as family struggles and personal challenges arise, their carefully crafted plan becomes increasingly complicated, forcing them to confront feelings that are all too real.
Olive Smith, a biology PhD student, has no time for romance and does not believe in lasting romantic relationships. To convince her best friend that she has moved on from an ex, she impulsively kisses Adam Carlsen, an intimidating young professor. The two agree to fake a relationship, but as they spend more time together, their pretend romance begins to feel surprisingly real.
To fulfill her mother's dying wish, Lina travels to Tuscany to get to know the father she has never met. As she adjusts to her new surroundings and copes with her grief, she receives her mother's journal from the time she spent living in Italy. Through its pages, Lina uncovers family secrets, a hidden romance, and a deeper understanding of her mother, while embarking on a journey that may lead her to love herself.
When she was seventeen, Alice Everly spent a summer at Barry’s Bay with her grandmother. During that time, she captured a photograph of three teenagers on a yellow speedboat—a moment that would go on to shape her life and career. Now a professional photographer, Alice returns to the lake to spend time with her grandmother while recovering from an injury. What she does not expect is to reconnect with the boy who was driving that speedboat all those years ago and discover that this summer may offer more than she ever imagined.
While I feel many like to read fantasy during the fall or winter, there are many fantasy novels that have fantastic summer vibes.
These three books are all highly loved by fantasy readers, and just by reading their synopsis alone, I can see why.
Living in a kingdom that hunts her kind, the siren Imogen conceals her powers until a neighboring king discovers who she truly is. Believing that she may be the key to saving both of their kingdoms, the two form a blood bond and flee into waters infested with the undead. As Imogen confronts the full extent of her abilities, she must also face the dangerous consequences that come with wielding such power.
At forty years old, Linus Baker lives a quiet, solitary life in a small house with his cat while overseeing the well-being of magical children in government-run orphanages. When he is summoned to a remote island to evaluate six extraordinary children—a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a sprite, a gnome, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist himself—he expects another routine assignment. Instead, he meets Arthur Parnassus, their devoted caretaker, who will do anything to protect them. As Linus grows closer to Arthur and the children, he begins to question his duty and discovers the true meaning of family, acceptance, and belonging.
Tress has spent her entire life on a peaceful island surrounded by an emerald-green sea. When her closest friend, Charlie, is taken away by his father and falls into grave danger, Tress sets out on a daring quest to rescue him by seeking the mysterious Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Filled with pirates, perilous adventures, and unexpected discoveries, her journey takes her far beyond the only world she has ever known and into the heart of the unknown.
While I’m not the biggest sci-fi reader, I wanted to have some choices for those who are into sci-fi or, like me, who want to dip your toes in the genre.
Sea of Tranquility and Project Hail Mary have been out for a couple of years now and have been praised worldwide. They’re quintessential sci-fi stories containing space exploration, time travel, and human nature. Dungeon Crawler Carl is on my 2026 tbr list and I can’t wait to read it. The premise sounds really fun and out of this world making it a perfect summer sci-fi read.
A mysterious time anomaly connects multiple timelines and individuals across centuries, from an exiled young man in 1912 British Columbia to a novelist during a global pandemic and a detective living on a moon colony in the 2400s. As their lives become intertwined, the story explores themes of love, fate, morality, and the nature of reality itself.
Ryland Grace, a former middle school science teacher, awakens from a coma aboard a spaceship millions of miles from Earth with no memory of how he got there. As his memories gradually return, he realizes he is humanity's last hope for solving an impossible scientific mystery that threatens all life on the planet. What follows is an action-packed adventure filled with ingenuity, discovery, and unexpected friendship.
After an alien invasion transforms Earth into a massive, deadly dungeon, Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, are forced to compete in a brutal, video game-like survival challenge. Broadcasted across the galaxy as a wildly popular reality show, the dungeon pits contestants against deadly monsters, impossible obstacles, and one another in a fight for survival.
Last, but not least, non-fiction!
My sister read The Wager and has not stopped raving about it. If you’re wanting to learn about history and read an impressively researched story of treasure and shipwreck, look no further.
Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour has become a beloved book, just like he himself. It’s a great account of his search for the perfect meal throughout the world. If you’re not traveling this summer, this book can give you a sense of travel even when while sitting on your couch.
David Grann recounts the true story of the ill-fated British naval warship Wager and its disastrous 1740 voyage. While on a mission to seize a Spanish treasure galleon, the ship was wrecked off the coast of Patagonia, leaving its crew stranded and struggling to survive. As starvation, conflict, and desperation take hold, the ordeal descends into chaos, mutiny, and accusations of murder.
Anthony Bourdain chronicles his search for the “perfect meal,” traveling across the globe in pursuit of extraordinary food experiences. Along the way, he samples exotic dishes, encounters fascinating people, and finds himself in a series of humorous and unexpected adventures. Through his travels in countries such as Cambodia, Mexico, Portugal, Japan, and Vietnam, Bourdain explores the cultures, traditions, and stories behind the world's cuisines.
If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed this list! I also hope that at least one book piqued your interest enough to read this summer :)
I would love to know your favorite summer book!
Thank you for reading and I would greatly appreciate if you clicked on the little heart button <3
See you soon!! x
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