It’s that time of year again! If you’ve been a part of our kindred community for awhile, you may already know how much I adore summertime. Have you ever heard the quote that says, “Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August?” I believe that with my whole heart. Ever since I can remember, summer has held the most memorable moments of my life. To celebrate the magic of the season, I’ve put together reading list filled with books that are particularly fitting to read this time of year.
Summer Reading List
Park Avenue Summer by Renée Rosen
Genre: Historical Fiction
My thoughts: This book was so much fun! It’s often referred to as a mix of Mad Men and The Devil Wears Prada. I read it a few summers ago and I’m planning to pick it up again this season!
Synopsis: New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss, who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big-city dreams and unexpectedly lands a job working for the first female editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown.
For Alice, who wants to be a photographer, it seems like the perfect foot in the door, but nothing could have prepared her for the world she enters. Editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, and confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands. When someone tries to pull Alice into a scheme to sabotage her boss, she is more determined than ever to help Helen succeed.
While pressure mounts at the magazine, Alice struggles not to lose sight of her own dreams as she’s swept up into a glamorous world of five-star dinners, lavish parties, and men who are certainly no good. Because if Helen Gurley Brown has taught her anything, it’s that a woman can demand to have it all. [Synopsis by Penguin Random House]
Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart
Genre: Memoir
My thoughts: Summer at Tiffany is one of my absolute favorite books! It is incredibly charming and nostalgic and is filled with adventure. There were so many moments I wished I was Marjorie – one of the first women to ever work the floor at Tiffany & Co. during the summer of 1945.
Synopsis: Do you remember the best summer of your life?
New York City, 1945. Marjorie Jacobson and her best friend, Marty Garrett, arrive fresh from the Kappa house at the University of Iowa hoping to find summer positions as shopgirls. Turned away from the top department stores, they miraculously find jobs as pages at Tiffany & Co., becoming the first women to ever work on the sales floor—a diamond-filled day job replete with Tiffany blue shirtwaist dresses from Bonwit Teller’s—and the envy of all their friends.
Hart takes us back to the magical time when she and Marty rubbed elbows with the rich and famous; pinched pennies to eat at the Automat; experienced nightlife at La Martinique; and danced away their weekends with dashing midshipmen. Between being dazzled by Judy Garland’s honeymoon visit to Tiffany, celebrating VJ Day in Times Square, and mingling with Café Society, she fell in love, learned unforgettable lessons, made important decisions that would change her future, and created the remarkable memories she now shares with all of us. [Synopsis by Harper Collins]
Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
Genre: Young Adult
My thoughts: If you have a case of wanderlust, this is the perfect pick for you! Love & Gelato takes place in beautiful Tuscany and includes a dash of mystery and romance. I read this one in just a couple sittings!
Synopsis: Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home.
But then Lina is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything Lina knew about her mother, her father—and even herself.
People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more. [Synposis by Simon & Schuster]
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Genre: Romance
My thoughts: Who isn’t touched by this love story?! After watching the movie time and again, I picked up the book and was surprised to see how different it was! It is a perfect summer love story – Nicholas Sparks has a knack for writing those, doesn’t he?
Synopsis: Every so often a love story so captures our hearts that it becomes more than a story-it becomes an experience to remember forever. The Notebook is such a book. It is a celebration of how passion can be ageless and timeless, a tale that moves us to laughter and tears and makes us believe in true love all over again . . .
At thirty-one, Noah Calhoun, back in coastal North Carolina after World War II, is haunted by images of the girl he lost more than a decade earlier. At twenty-nine, socialite Allie Nelson is about to marry a wealthy lawyer, but she cannot stop thinking about the boy who long ago stole her heart. Thus begins the story of a love so enduring and deep it can turn tragedy into triumph, and may even have the power to create a miracle. [Synopsis by Grand Central Publishing]
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
Genre: Romance
My thoughts: After seeing this movie in the theater at age 17, I picked up a copy and read it in one sitting. It’s another Nicholas Sparks summery classic!
Synopsis: Seventeen year old Veronica “Ronnie” Miller’s life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alienated from her parents, especially her father…until her mother decides it would be in everyone’s best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie’s father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.
The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many levels–first love, love between parents and children — that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts . . . and heal them. [Synopsis by Grand Central Publishing]
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Genre: Classic
My thoughts: I truly don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t know who Anne Shirley was. My mom and I would watch the 80s film when I was little (if you haven’t seen it, you must!). I love revisiting PEI with Anne during the summertime. Seeing this season through her eyes makes it that much more magical.
Synopsis: When Anne Shirley arrives at Green Gables, she surprises everyone: first of all, she’s a girl, even though Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew specifically asked for an orphan boy to help around the farm. And second of all, she’s not just any girl: she has bright red hair, a wild imagination, and can talk a mile a minute.
But she also has a sweet disposition and quick wit, and Anne (with an “e” of course—it’s so much more distinguished!) soon finds her place in Avonlea, making a friend in her neighbor Diana Barry and attending the local school, where she spurns the advances of the popular and handsome Gilbert Blythe when he commits the ultimate sin of making fun of her hair.
Anne has a temper as fiery as her hair and a knack for finding trouble, and she also has a big heart and a positive attitude that affects everyone she meets. This classic and beloved story makes a wonderful gift and keepsake. [Synopsis by Simon & Schuster]
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Genre: Contemporary/Chick lit
My thoughts: After watching the movie numerous times, I finally picked up this book last year and loved it! In case you couldn’t tell, I have a habit of reading books based on my favorite movies – does anyone else do that? I particularly loved the way Emily Giffin described Rachel’s conflict and her perspective.
Synopsis: Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy’s fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren’t always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself. [Synopsis by MacMillan Publishers]
What is on your summer reading list? Share in the comments below!
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