The community here has grown substantially over the last few months, mostly thanks to my Big List of Whimsical Artists. So I thought today, I would start off by introducing myself for those of you who are new here!
I’m Lauren Sands, founder of LES Collection, and I spend my days surrounded by objects and stories. My work often begins with something tactile: vintage Venetian glass, a ceramic vessel, a shape that feels ancient or slightly off-kilter. LES is the place where I design and curate objects that help our clients create homes that reflect their extraordinary personalities.
But A Whimsical World is something else entirely. It’s part journal, part creative excavation. A playful and honest window into my thinking. It’s where I unpack my inspiration, share the crazy rabbit holes I am descending down, and write about the art, books, interiors, and fashion that keep me curious. It’s also where I remind myself (and hopefully you) that creativity is about taking your time, paying attention, and letting wonder lead the way.
So if you’re new, welcome to this whimsical corner! Below, I get into why I love seasonal reading, followed by the 16 books on my summer reading list and 11 bonuses. Enjoy!
My entire life is an exercise in world-building.
That might sound dramatic. It is. I am (sometimes). I treat each moment as part of a larger ecosystem—The design of my home, where I shop, the scents I envelop myself in, the menus I dream up for long dinners with friends and family. Even the specific (uploaded) font I use in my Google Docs. So, of course, the books I read are equally as intentional.
People who are dramatic about world-building LOVE a good story and I always have.
Part of this world-building, for me, means living seasonally. Shifting my rhythms and habits to match the changing weather. Naturally, my reading list follows suit.
Books have this incredible power to enhance a season, but the reverse is also true—the season, the atmosphere outside, can deeply transform the reading experience. Matching a book to the right time of year is how I get more out of it all (the season and the book). Is it too dramatic to say it’s how I get more out of life? Not just for the sake of some grand intellectual growth, but also for pure pleasure and fun.
I spend the entire year curating my summer reading list to perfectly capture this energy, looking for books that express the season’s distinct language—its magic, its melancholy, and, of course, its whimsy. The list is designed to maximize the “vibes,” as the kids say, through just the right mix of pacing and subject matter. I want books that feel a little languid and sticky, paired with epic adventures and mixed with stories that sparkle.
I’ve organized my selections into three categories:
Summer as Magic
Summer as Adventure
Summer as Feeling.
Structuring it this way makes sense to me because summer is more than one thing, and I want to feel it all. The heavy, humid melancholy and the wide-open possibility. The lighthearted joy of play and the anger of a summer storm. And of course, the stranger side of summer. The way that past and present blend, and childhood nostalgia returns as we drift in and out of comfort and curiosity. I want to feel all of summer’s magic.
You’ll find that these stories span the globe (and worlds beyond), with beautiful translations carrying us from the sun-bleached countryside of Greece and the glittering coast of Rio de Janeiro to tiny, wild islands in Finland and sleepy beach towns in Japan.
Some of the books are explicitly set in the summer, but not all. Sometimes the feeling of summer is so powerful that it doesn’t need to be literal — like simmering medieval intrigue or a dreamlike surrealist fable.
First, we will get into my actual summer reading list — in the order that I loosely plan to read it. So you can join me as I continue sharing reviews (these are available free for a week and then become a treat for my paid subscribers). I would love nothing more than for you to challenge those reviews or offer your own experiences. Because what is better than talking about books? I can’t promise that I’ll stick to this exactly. I read because I love it, so if it begins to feel like a chore, I’ll pivot.
Which brings me to the next section. The bonus reads — much like the extra recommendations on a school summer reading list—to pull from when a current read isn’t hitting the spot.
For fun, I have also put together a collection of art that mimics the feeling of this list. Because….world building.
I hope you enjoy this selection, and if it seems we have similar tastes in books (or even if it doesn’t), please share your own summer must-reads!
Now, let’s get into it:
This sweet, tender story follows a majestic unicorn who leaves her enchanted lilac wood to discover if she is the last of her kind. Along the way, she is joined first by Schmendrick, a floundering magician who can’t seem to find his own magic, and later, by the dogged Molly Grue, and together, they make their way toward the castle of the terrible King Haggard. This tale has a rare effervescent beauty that captures the childhood certainty of magic’s existence. If we can only find it in ourselves. I have already begun my summer reading, so you can find my full review here.
This is a deeply, vastly, painfully beautiful love story with curiosity at its heart. The novel begins in the summer in Rio de Janeiro, by the sea at Ipanema. It follows Lóri, an excruciatingly shy and hypersensitive primary school teacher, as she undergoes a profound emotional awakening in pursuit of love (real human connection) with a philosophy professor named Ulisses. It is the most delicious and agonizing slow burn. Lispector’s writing has a lovely intensity that captures the startling, often overwhelming power of simply being alive. This novel has that slow, languid feeling of summer, where nothing flows, yet life feels desperately urgent. I absolutely adored this book. Full review here.
This enchanting, lyrical fable tells the story of Sybel, the great-granddaughter of the wizard Heald, who has spent her life alone on Mount Eld, where she cares for a collection of powerful, mythical beasts as companions. Her isolated, peaceful world of ancient lore is disrupted when a human baby is left in her care, drawing her out of her ivory tower and into the complicated, treacherous politics of the kingdoms below. Full review here.
This spare, deeply felt novel distills the relationship between an elderly artist and her six-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, as they spend a summer together on a tiny, wild island in the Gulf of Finland. Jansson (the beloved creator of the Moomins) captures their days spent exploring storms, building miniature boats, and having eccentric conversations about life and death. It is an unsentimental yet deeply tender story anchored in nature and the slow rhythm of building a relationship. Full review here.
Written when Sagan was just eighteen, this sun-soaked French classic is full of all the raw emotional intensity of a capricious teenager. The story follows Cécile, who spends a hedonistic summer on the French Riviera with her Playboy father. Her carefree world of beaches and shallow romances is threatened when a new woman enters her father’s life, sparking a psychological game of manipulation that ultimately ends in tragedy.
Update: I really did not care for this book. I thought about taking it off the list, but that felt weird. Plenty of people enjoy it, and it is an easy and quick read (I read it in a day). Full review here.
There is no better time to tackle a sweeping epic than the long, uninterrupted days of summer, when our minds finally have the space to map the grand journey of Odysseus’s ten-year struggle to cross the treacherous seas and return home. I am a little nervous about taking this on, but Emily Wilson’s groundbreaking translation promises to bring the book to life for modern readers. Matching Homer’s original line-for-line in crisp, musical iambic pentameter, she strips away the archaic weight of older translations to give the narrative a fluid momentum. I’m nervous but excited! My review here.
Pair it with:
To ground my journey into the ancient epic, I’m pairing it with this historical guide. Probably not reading it in full, but picking it up here as I read the Odyssey. Finley beautifully reconstructs the actual social framework behind the poem—explaining the daily customs, values of honor, and complex household hierarchies that drove Bronze Age Greece, providing vital context that anchors the grand poetry in real, human history.
and/or:
This deeply moving memoir follows a classics professor whose 81-year-old father enrolls in his undergraduate seminar on The Odyssey. After the semester ends, the two embark on a Mediterranean cruise to retrace Odysseus’s legendary journey, transforming a literary study into a real-world exploration of their own relationship. Mendelsohn beautifully weaves personal history with sharp insights into the epic poem.
This dark, spellbinding fantasy begins with a man returning to his childhood home and remembering the strange, terrifying events of his youth. As a seven-year-old boy, he befriended a remarkable girl named Lettie Hempstock, who claimed the duck pond behind her farmhouse was an ocean. It perfectly captures that fleeting summer feeling when the veil between worlds shimmers and thins, exposing the fragile, shifting boundary between childhood memory and ancient myth. My review here.
This enchanting and quirky novel follows Maria as she leaves her university life in Tokyo to spend one last summer by the sea in her childhood town with her chronically ill and occasionally cruel cousin, Tsugumi. Yoshimoto paints a portrait of youth, deep friendship, and dramatic growth against the backdrop of a sleepy beach town. It promises to be a powerful and delicate story that beautifully captures summer’s melancholy. My review here.
This timeless classic is the very blueprint for a romanticized summer. When the fiercely imaginative, red-headed orphan Anne Shirley is sent to live with an elderly brother and sister on Prince Edward Island, she completely transforms their world through the sheer force of her personality. It is a book about the magic of the imagination in which Montgomery’s lush, sensory descriptions of the Canadian landscape—the blossoming apple orchards, the White Way of Delight, and the shimmering waters—capture a childlike reverence for the natural world. I’m hoping to read this one with my daughter (who usually prefers pure adventure).
After finding Swann’s Way so incredibly rewarding last summer, I decided to build a new seasonal tradition: tackling one volume of Proust’s masterpiece every year, a journey that will take me seven years to complete. This second volume follows our narrator into adolescence as he travels to the seaside resort of Balbec, experiencing the dizzying, fragile shifts of youthful infatuation. Spending time in Proust’s world feels wonderfully slow and languid, a masterclass in patient observation where deep meaning sharply takes form amidst the endless, beautifully descriptive prose. It is the ultimate slow-summer read, demanding that you both quiet your mind and hone your attention as you drift along with the tide of his memories. My review here.
Pair it with:
Because Proust’s world is so deeply rooted in the visual arts, I have paired my reading with this gorgeous companion directory. Karpeles has meticulously tracked down and reproduced every single painting mentioned or alluded to across the entire epic, arranging them in the exact order they appear in the text.
Set in medieval Germany, this beautiful, philosophical novel follows the profound lifelong friendship between two completely opposite men: Narcissus, an austere, deeply intellectual monk, and Goldmund, a passionate, wandering artist who leaves the monastery behind. Hesse brilliantly contrasts a gentle life of disciplined contemplation with a restless journey of creative discovery, passion, and wanderlust.
Back to the world of the Greeks with this deeply philosophical novel. Le Guin takes a minor, voiceless character from Virgil’s Aeneid—the Latin princess Lavinia, destined to marry the Trojan hero Aeneas—and gives her a profound, interior life. Set in the wild, rustic landscape of Bronze Age Italy long before the rise of Rome, the narrative follows Lavinia as she consults ancient shrines, navigates local politics, and reflects on her own place within a poet’s grand design.
This historical novel set in the ninth century follows the wild and brilliant Agnes. A girl with a deep and visceral love of God, who at eighteen decides to disguise herself as a man and become a monk. As “John,” she transforms from a heretic in an Athens commune to a celebrated teacher in Rome, where she dazzles the Church hierarchy and finds herself at the heart of political plotting and deadly gossip. There is something about medieval intrigue that is perfect for a slow and simmering end-of-summer afternoon.
I always like keeping a list of ‘bonus books’—much like the extra recommendations on a school summer reading list—to pull from when a current read isn’t hitting the spot. Below is a mix of my personal backups and a few past favorites (in italics) that might be perfect for you. I have arranged them by category:
In a quiet, ultra-respectable country town bordered by the mysterious Land of Faerie, a centuries-old taboo against smuggled “fairy fruit” is suddenly broken. When the fruit begins to drive the townsfolk to behave with wild, capricious madness, the local mayor is forced to journey across the border into the uncanny realm to save his own son. A short review here (it was my 2025 “most whimsical read” of the year).
This spirited reimagining turns the spotlight on the despised witch in The Odyssey, tracing her transformation from a lonely, overlooked daughter of the gods to a fiercely independent woman exiled to her wild island. It is a rich, beautiful look at power, immortality, and the strength it takes to defend one’s home. It would be fun to pair with the Odyssey if I hadn’t already read it.
Set in an English village bordering a magical realm, a young man promises to retrieve a fallen star for the girl he loves, only to find the star is actually a living woman in grave danger from witches and princes. It is an enchanting fairy tale adventure filled with sky-pirates, ancient magic, and pure wonder. Full review here.
Written by a prominent British Surrealist, this strange, dreamlike, gothic fable follows a young woman who arrives on a mysterious island owned by her eccentric uncle, an alchemist. The text reads like a hallucinatory patchwork of esoteric symbols, shifting architecture, and dark, intoxicating magic.
This rec first came onto my radar from Jada De Luca, I am really enjoying her writing
A delightful tale of true love, high-seas adventure, eccentric swordsmen, giants, and a vengeful prince. Its whimsical and playful storytelling is simultaneously hilarious, thrilling, and deeply warm-hearted. I absolutely adored this book and the experience of reading it with my kids. Read it even if you have seen the movie (it’s so much better). Full review here.
A deeply moving, romantic retelling of The Iliad told from the perspective of Patroclus, the gentle companion and lover of the legendary hero Achilles. It builds from a tender boyhood friendship into a tragic, sweeping epic of gods, prophecy, and the devastating cost of immortal glory. I loved this story so much that we created a collection of line-drawn dessert plates inspired by it with our artist, Gianfranco Briceño.
Greek mythology might overtake my summer. This one is a brilliant, sharp-witted counterweight to The Odyssey from my all-time favorite author. In it, Atwood gives Penelope—wife of Odysseus and cousin of Helen of Troy—a voice as she recounts, from the bleak underworld of Hades, her side of the story. What really led to the hanging of the twelve maids? It is a haunting, darkly funny, and subversive reimagining that questions who gets to be the hero of an epic and who is left to sweep up the mess. The 2005 edition has a sketch by Jean Cocteau on the cover that is major.
The ultimate psychological summer thriller, following the smooth, chillingly amoral Tom Ripley as he is sent to a sun-drenched Italian resort town to retrieve a wealthy playboy. Highsmith paints an intoxicating portrait of mid-century glamour, obsession, and identity theft that leaves you completely breathless.
This sweeping, deeply imaginative novel chronicles the history of a single house in the forests of New England across four centuries. Through the lives of the humans, animals, and ghosts who pass through it, Mason maps the slow, breathtaking transformation of nature and memory over time. Full review here.
A massive generational epic set in California’s Salinas Valley that re-enacts the biblical story of Cain and Abel. This is a big book, and it’s well worth your time. I absolutely adored it and rate it 10/10. My full review here.
Set in the countryside outside Athens, this luminous, coming-of-age story follows three sisters over three consecutive summers as they flirt with adulthood, love, and independence. It perfectly captures that specific, sun-bleached teenage feeling of endless afternoons, family secrets, and the fragile transition into womanhood.
This modernist masterpiece centers on the Ramsay family and their summer visits to a house on the Isle of Skye, shifting fluidly among the characters’ interior monologues. It is a deeply felt, atmospheric exploration of time, loss, and grief.
What are your favorite books that feel like summer? What’s on your must-read list this year?
I am particularly excited about our latest launch—vintage paintings and mirrors sourced on our trip to Brimfield:
Don’t forget to hit that heart! It helps more than you know. If you liked this, please subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a comment! For more creativity, you can follow me on IG and explore years of art and design articles on the LES Journal
The Best (and Worst Books) I Read in 2025
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Jan 17
This is my first real post of the new year! Yes, I know I posted a story on The Analog Bag, but most of that legwork was done back in 2025, so it doesn’t really count.
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