Lorrie Tom's 2024 Ultimate Summer Reading Guide
For Adults
I can’t wait to savor these summer books! It feels like standing at the See’s Candy counter and trying to pick just a few of my favorite chocolates. It’s so hard to choose, and every single one seems delicious. I guess that’s not the worst problem we’ll ever face, right? So let’s pick a few books, gather some sweet treats (milk chocolate rum nougat, please), and find a comfy spot for turning pages. Without further ado, here’s the summer reading guide created just for you.
#1. Pool and Beach Reads
Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradel—A novel of family, Midwestern values, hard work, fate, and the secrets of making a world-class beer.
The Rom-Comers by Katherine Center—Emma Wheeler longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life writing romantic comedies, but she’s also been the sole caretaker for her dad. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates—her personal writing god―it’s a break too big to pass up.
Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan—The story of a professional organizer whose life is a mess, and the summer she gets unstuck with the help of someone unexpected from her past.
Good Material by Dolly Alderton—Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can't work out why she stopped. Now he is without a home, waiting for his stand-up career to take off, and wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking. Writer compared to Nora Ephron.
Sandwich by Catherine Newman— A story of a family summer vacation full of secrets, lunch, and learning to let go. The main character, Rocky, is sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents.
Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford—After fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends' lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never had—Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes.
The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl—When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.”
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio—When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. Every time a husband goes up to the attic, a new one comes down the stairs. Everyone is talking about this one!
#2. Recommended By Trusted Bookish Friends
One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakarumi—When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull in a passport office, trapping nine characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, a young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, "one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone before.
The White Garden: A Novel of Virginia Wolf by Stephanie Barron—Six decades after Virginia Woolf’s death, landscape designer Jo Bellamy has come to Sissinghurst Castle for two reasons: to study the celebrated White Garden created by Woolf’s lover Vita Sackville-West and to recover from the terrible wound of her grandfather’s unexplained suicide. In the shadow of one of England’s most famous castles, Jo makes a shocking find: Woolf’s last diary, its first entry dated the day after she allegedly killed herself.
The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden by Stanley Kunitz—Throughout his life (1905-2006) Stanley Kunitz created poetry and tended gardens. This book is the distillation of conversations, none previously published, that took place between 2002 and 2004.
Light Rains Sometimes Fall: A British Year Through Japan’s 72 Seasons by Lev Parikian—See the British year afresh and experience a new way of connecting with nature – through the prism of Japan’s seventy-two ancient micro seasons.
The Ride of Our Lives: Roadside Lessons of an American Family by Mike Leonard—Mike Leonard took a sabbatical from his job with NBC News so he could pile his parents along with three of his grown kids and a daughter-in-law into a pair of rented RVs and hit the road for a month. This is the story of their adventures.
Horse by Geraldine Brooks—A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah—Epic story about love and heroism and hope, set during the Great Depression, a time when the country was in crisis, when millions were out of work and even the land seemed to have turned against them.
#3. National Park Settings
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko—Two friends, zero preparation, one dream. From the author of the beloved bestseller, The Emerald Mile, an account of an epic 750-mile odyssey, on foot, through the heart of America’s most magnificent national park and the grandest wilderness on earth.
The Last Ranger by Peter Heller —A novel about an enforcement ranger in Yellowstone National Park who likes wolves better than most people. When a clandestine range war threatens his closest friend, he must shake off his own losses and act swiftly to discover the truth and stay alive.
#4. Sequel to a Book I Loved
The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook—Sequel to The Which Way Tree. It’s about a pregnant young mother, her child, and the frontier tradesman who helps them flee vengeful outlaws, in a work that echoes Lonesome Dove and News of the World.
#5. Unique Book Structure
One Woman Show by Christine Coulson—A “modern masterwork” (NPR)—remarkably told through museum wall labels—about a 20th-century woman who transforms herself from a precious object into an unforgettable protagonist.
#6. Different Realities (Sci-Fi/ Time Travel)
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Berino—When Voyager 1 is launched into space, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley—In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams to work in a recently established government ministry that is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore who died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic.
11-22-63 by Stephen King—On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? This is a story about going back into the past and the possibility of changing it.
#7. Mystery/Suspense
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore—Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.
#8. Historical Fiction
North Woods by Daniel Mason—A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries.
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters—A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly fifty years.
#9. Nonfiction
Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil—The author explores the way food and drink evoke our associations and remembrances—a subtext or layering, a flavor tinged with joy, shame, exuberance, grief, desire, or nostalgia.
Congratulations, the Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas—With wit, heart, and hope for the future, this book is the not-so-gentle reminder we all need that even when life doesn’t go according to plan, we can still find our way back home.
Everest, Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World by Will Cockrell—Featuring original interviews with Everest mountain guides and climbers, this is an account of the peak’s transformation from the ultimate mountaineering challenge into a booming business opportunity.
How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks—The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is profoundly creative. This book is for anyone searching for connection, and yearning to be understood.
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt—An investigation into the collapse of youth mental health—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.
#10. Literary Fiction
James by Percival Everett—A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view.
I Cheerfully Reguse by Leif Enger—Set in a not-too-distant America, this is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife.
There There by Tommy Orange—This novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize.
Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy—No matter what we have planned for ourselves, sometimes life has plans of its own. The main character is a woman who has experienced great loss. She befriends a mouse and learns that she can have second chances in life.
Search by Michell Huneven—A sharp and funny novel of a congregational search committee, told as a memoir with recipes.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett—This novel is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.
#11. The Once-in-a-While Book Club
Our next in-person meeting is September 29th and we’ll be reading one of the five above. If you would like to attend and/or help us choose our book, check out this link for more information…and to make your vote count!
Phew. That’s it. We’ve come to the end! Have you read any of books in this year’s summer reading guide? Which ones will you add to your TBR? Let me know in the comments.
On September 6th, I’ll let you know the books I read and loved. I hope you’ll join in the conversation and share your favorites too. Happy summer reading, friends.