Category: Summer Reading

I recently asked my friends & family to share titles of books they love and would recommend to those of you looking for a great summer reading experience. Here is Part 1 of a two-part series of posts. This one includes individual books; the second post will cover recommended series. First you will see a gallery of covers followed by an annotated list. Clicking on an image will take you to the text. I hope you’ll find something you like!

From me!

A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds An older title but so memorable.
Badly burned in a household accident when she was a child, Finch Nobles grows into a courageous and feisty loner who eschews the pity of her hometown and discovers that she can hear the voices of the people buried in her father’s cemetery. When she speaks to them, they tell their stories in a remarkable chorus of regrets, explanations, and insights. 

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Follow the adventures of an awkward Cambridge professor as she navigates challenging colleagues, the perplexing residents of a remote Icelandic village, and mischievous and dangerous members of the hidden Faerie Kingdom in this entertaining fantasy novel.

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
I wrote about this luminous tale here a few weeks ago. Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about a winter full of mysterious deaths, a mother seeking revenge, and old folktales that may very well be true.

From Pat Rapp…

Pat is retired from the Fairport Library and spends her time enjoying her grandchildren and bringing art to Fairport.

The Geek Way: the radical mindset that drives extraordinary results by Andrew McAfee.
What is “being geeky”? It’s being a perennially curious person, one who’s not afraid to tackle hard problems and embrace unconventional solutions. Andrew McAfee shows how the geeks have created a new culture based on four norms: science, ownership, speed, and openness.

The Housemaid’s Secret by Freida McFadden. Part of a series featuring a housemaid with a deep, dark secret. Thriller fiction at its best!

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt – lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults.

From Cynthia Dana…

Cynthia is semi-retired from the Central Library of Rochester & Monroe County and is a prolific reader.

Secret Lives of Booksellers & Librarians by James Patterson
Enter a world where you can feed your curiosities, discover new voices, find whatever you want or require. This place has the magic of rainbows and unicorns, but it’s also a business. The book business.

Notes from the Porch: Tiny True Stories to Make You Feel Better About the World by Thomas Christopher Greene
Covid-19 stole so much. But one of the things it couldn’t steal was the power of stories.

The Women by Kristin Hannah
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation that guides her through Vietnam.

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson
A memoir/cookbook about the food, the traditions, and the women that bind families through generations.

From Claire Talbot…

Claire is the Adult Services Librarian at the Greece Public Library and hosts a podcast there on reading.

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

Funny Story by Emily Henry
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

From Amy Hogue…

Amy is the former Director of the Parma Public Library in Hilton NY who now spends her time homesteading and homeschooling her three children., and, of course, reading!

Rom-Commers by Katherine Center
She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.

Rook to King by Carina Taylor
Two people after the same priceless chess set. What could go wrong?

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
An entertaining mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate…. Now it’s up to her great-niece to catch the killer.

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh
Sometimes you’re so busy writing other people’s stories that you lose the plot of your own.

Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews
Friendships, romance, and mystery all combine at the St. Cecilia resort one summer that changes everything.

From Betsy Dobles…

Betsy is a retired librarian who worked at the Greece Public Library in Rochester NY.

Untold Power by Rebecca Boggs Roberts
Just over a century ago a woman became the first acting president of the United States. Her name was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. She climbed her way out of Appalachian poverty and into the highest echelons of American power and in 1919 effectively acted as the first woman president of the U.S. (before women could even vote nationwide) when her husband, Woodrow Wilson, was incapacitated. 

From Emily John…

Emily worked at the Ogden Farmers’ Library in Spencerport NY for several years. She now lives in Queens.

Unmasking AI by Joy Buolamwini
Unmasking AI goes beyond the headlines about existential risks produced by Big Tech. It is the remarkable story of how Buolamwini uncovered what she calls “the coded gaze”—the evidence of encoded discrimination and exclusion in tech products—and how she galvanized the movement to prevent AI harms by founding the Algorithmic Justice League.

Somehow by Anne Lamott
In Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Lamott explores the transformative power that love has in our lives: how it surprises us, forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, reminds us of our humanity, and guides us forward.

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut — a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love. Join Kiela the librarian and her assistant, Caz the sentient spider plant, as they navigate the low stakes market of illegal spellmaking and the high risk business of starting over.

The Enchanted Hacienda by Jennifer Cervantes
This enchanting coming-of-age story of a young woman whose “dream” life is up-ended will warm your heart as she reconnects with family, history, and magic.

From Bob Scheffel…

Bob is a long-time librarian at the Central Library of Rochester & Monroe County and a prolific reader.

Knife by Salman Rushdie
On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are. This is Rushdie’s story. One of the best of the year.

From Kristin Hauser…

Kristin is my niece and like her father, my eldest brother Hugh David, a Reader with a capital R!

Down the Drain by Julia Fox
The hotly anticipated book from “one of the all-time pop-culture greats” (New York magazine) that chronicles her shocking life and unyielding determination to not only survive but achieve her dreams.

When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill
Traveling from a repressive finishing school to a vibrant brothel, taking readers firsthand into the brutality of factory life and the opulent lives of Montreal’s wealthy, When We Lost Our Heads dazzlingly explores gender, sex, desire, class, and the terrifying power of the human heart when it can’t let someone go.

From Beth Nash…

Beth worked with me at the Gates Library many years ago.

Confessions of a 40-Something F**k-Up by Alexandra Potter
A funny and heartfelt novel for any woman who wonders how the hell she got here and why life isn’t quite how she imagined it was going to be. 

Women of the Post by Joshunda Sanders
Inspired by true events, Women of the Post brings to life the heroines who proudly served in the all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps in WWII, finding purpose in their mission and lifelong friendship.

From Doreen Castano…

Doreen served as the Young Adult librarian at the Ogden Library for many years, then became a library trustee after her retirement. She also served as the volunteer coordinator for the Spencerport Depot and Cana Museum & Visitor Center.

Lake News by Barbara Delinsky
This poignant treatment of how media attention derails the life of a woman who retreats to the small town of her birth recover will give you all the feels.

An Accidental Woman by Barbara Delinsky
Another story set in Lake Henry, New Hampshire that will give you a few hours of enjoyable reading.

This collection of recommended books only scratches the surface of what is available. If you’re looking for some additional recommendations, I suggest you visit your local public library and talk to the staff there. You may find your next favorite book!