Must-Read Books For This Summer | Top 10
Books are one of the greatest gifts we have in life. Don’t you just love that feeling you get when you spend a nice day of summer drinking a cocktail and reading a good book?
Summer is about the parties and the sun, but also about spending time and getting to know yourself. A good read can do that for you.
Summer is long and your days at the beach will be much more fun with a good list of books of different genres.
So, if you didn’t keep track with the latest books published, I offer you lots of choices from romance to crime and mystery books. These are the ultimate Must-Read Books For This Summer Top |10:
10Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead
This book is filled with intrigue, brilliant satire, and emotional nuance. Definitely a good read for summer.
From the author of the widely acclaimed debut novel Seating Arrangements, winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize: a gorgeously written, fiercely compelling glimpse into the passionate, political world of professional ballet and its magnetic hold over two generations.
Basically, the author explores the haunting and sometimes painful world of professional ballet.
Astonish Me is the irresistible story of Joan, a ballerina whose life has been shaped by her relationship with the world-famous dancer Arslan Ruskov, whom she helps defect from the Soviet Union to the United States
In graceful, inimitable prose, Shipstead draws us into an extraordinary world, and the lives of her vivid and tempestuous characters.
9The Black-Eyed Blonde: A Philip Marlowe Novel by Benjamin Black
While you are having a nice day in the sun, prepare yourself a cocktail and enjoy some mystery.
Benjamin Black wrote this new Philip Marlowe novel that has all the panache and charm of the originals while delivering a story that is as sharp and fresh as today’s best crime fiction.
The reader is taken on a nostalgic – but deadly – trip back to 1950s Los Angeles and Santa Monica that finds Marlowe in his stifling office on a summer day, bored, lonely, waiting for his new client to show up.
What would a Chandler mystery be without a beautiful blonde dame from a wealthy family who lies and deceives the gumshoe from the start? She will surely keep you captivated.
8Prayer by Philip Kerr
If you love trying to solve a psychological mystery, this book should be number 1 on your summer reading list.
From New York Times-bestselling author Philip Kerr comes an amazing departure: an intense psychological thriller, sure to garner even more acclaim for this powerhouse author on the rise.
It is a contemporary thriller whose theme is the power of prayer, about FBI agent Gil Martins, who is investigating the suspicious deaths of a number of prominent atheists and runs into all sorts of unexpected trouble.
Readers into noir with a supernatural tinge will relish how it all plays out for Gil, a lapsed Catholic who struggles with his faith. Christian fundamentalists may want to take a pass.
7Every Day Is For The Thief by Teju Cole
Teju Cole won the PEN/Hemingway prize for his first novel, Open City, and his second act is a triumphant return.
The book tells the story of a Nigerian doctor who lives in New York city returns home to Lagos and must reckon with how both he and his native land have changed.
Visiting Lagos after many years away, Teju Cole’s unnamed narrator rediscovers his hometown as both a foreigner and a local.
A young writer uncertain of what he wants to say, the man moves through tableaus of life in one of the most dynamic cities in the world.
Over long, wandering days, the narrator compares present-day Lagos to the Lagos of his memory, and in doing so reveals changes that have taken place in himself.
6Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton
This is a very interesting summer read and inspiration story.
Hillary Rodham Clinton talk about the crises, choices, and challenges she faced during her four years as America’s 67th Secretary of State, and how those experiences drive her view of the future.
The main idea of the book is very nicely express in her own words: “All of us face hard choices in our lives. Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become.”
Secretary Clinton’s descriptions of diplomatic conversations at the highest levels offer readers a master class in international relations, as does her analysis of how we can best use “smart power” to deliver security and prosperity in a rapidly changing world.
5Kinder Than Solitude: A Novel by Yiyun Li
Yiyun Li was called “one of America’s best young novelists” (Newsweek) and is the winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.
Moving back and forth in time, between America today and China in the 1990s, Kinder Than Solitude is the story of three people whose lives are changed by a murder one of them may have committed.
As one of the three observes, “Even the most innocent person, when cornered, is capable of a heartless crime.”
I find it intriguing, so it deserves its spot in this list.
4To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
I love a good mystery book, but you should also try this summer a story that is highly connected to the reality we are living right now.
This book forces readers to ask which is more real: the way we represent ourselves online, or the real world lives that we live?
Paul O’Rourke is a man made of contradictions: he loves the world, but doesn’t know how to live in it. He’s a Luddite addicted to his iPhone, a dentist with a nicotine habit, a rabid Red Sox fan devastated by their victories, and an atheist not quite willing to let go of God.
Then someone begins to impersonate Paul online, and he watches in horror as a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account are created in his name.
As Paul’s quest to learn why his identity has been stolen deepens, he is forced to confront his troubled past and his uncertain future in a life disturbingly split between the real and the virtual.
3Roberto Bolaño’s Fiction: An Expanding Universe by Chris Andrews
A different type of book than the others in the list, but worth reading it.
Andrews provides new readings and interpretations of Bolaño‘s novels, including “2666,” “The Savage Detectives,” and “By Night in Chile” while at the same time examining the ideas and narrative strategies that unify his work.
Subsequent chapters explore aspects of Bolaño’s fictional universe and the political, ethical, and aesthetic values that shape it.
Bolaño emerges as the inventor of a prodigiously effective “fiction-making system,” a subtle handler of suspense, a chronicler of aimlessness, a celebrator of courage, an anatomist of evil, and a proponent of youthful openness.
2We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
I am sure this one will be among the most talked-about books of the summer.
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Lockhart’s utterly immersive story of family privilege, young love, and insurmountable tragedy, is told through the lattice work of 17-year-old Cadence Sinclair Eastman’s broken memory.
The slow churning of events is almost excruciating, were it not for the hypnotic prose that carries the dreamlike days of Cadence’s present and past summers along like a strong tide.
1So Long Marianne by Kari Hesthamar
If you are an admirer of Leonard Cohen or love finding out secrets of artists’ lives, this is fascinating.
One day while Marianne is shopping in a little grocery store, in walks a man who asks her to join him and some friends outside at their table. He introduces himself as Leonard Cohen, then a little-known writer.
Reading a memoir from a former lover and muse is particularly dangerous territory, but the story behind one of Leonard Cohen’s most famous songs will be pretty irresistible for his fans.
It’s a story of love that, like many of his songs and poems, is both beautiful and heartbreaking.
So, this was a selection of the most appreciated books of the moment and the most interesting ones. I hope you will find at least a few titles you like.
I would love to know what are your thought on these books and a wish you happy reading!
