ultimate summer reading guide
books for your summer tbr
I can never seem to resist a summer novel, the kind of books that hum with heat, where you can almost feel it radiating off the pages. If you subscribe to me here or follow any of my book socials, you’ll probably know that one of my favourite book series is The Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante: four books that I believe were made to be read on a sleepy Italian island. Or an alternative beach of your choosing.
Of course the endless blue skies, picturesque beaches, and longer summer evenings are great, but it’s a truth universally acknowledged that when it’s hot in the summer, people get pissed off. Packed train carriages, broken air conditioning, nights spent tossing and turning, how everywhere you go seems to have a hot, stale smell permeating through the air. The sensory overload of your clothes sticking to you with sweat is enough to make you scream. And that’s the mood I look for in a summer novel.
It always brings to mind Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do The Right Thing, where the sweltering Brooklyn heatwave pushes the melting pot of racial tension to boiling point. That’s the kind of summer book I want: the tension as a steady heartbeat running throughout the novel. Where the stakes feel higher, everything is claustrophobic and increasingly intense, characters whose fuses are running short.
Those kind of books were the starting off point for this post, but then I started thinking about other aspects I enjoy in summer books. Love amidst the sun, books where the stifling heat conceals something sinister, stories that epitomise the phrase ‘hot girl summer’. So if you’re looking for some summer books to read this year, here’s a few you should add to your list.
Evenings and Weekends - OisÃn McKenna
Follows the intersecting lives of a group of friends and family during a heatwave weekend in London.
My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
The first in the Neapolitan quartet, this book follows two friends Lila and Lenù during their school years in a poor neighbourhood in Naples. The two girls learn to rely on each other as their friendship becomes a not always perfect shelter from hardship. (If you get time to read all 4 books…..you should!).
Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta - James Hannaham
Set over a 4th of July weekend, a black trans woman attempts to readjust to normal life after being released from 20 years in prison.
A young female graduate is blind to the grim truth about the older man she falls for when she takes a job on his farm in the Pyrenees.
Call Me By Your Name - André Aciman
The story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera.
The Trio - Johanna Hedman (translated by Kira Josefsson)
Over the course of two summers in Stockholm, 3 young people from very different backgrounds are drawn together magnetically.
The matron of an all-girls boarding school becomes obsessed with the headmaster’s wife.
Antiquity - Hanna Johansson (translated by Kira Josefsson)
A woman in her thirties becomes infatuated with her friend’s teenage daughter while on holiday on a Greek island.
Waist Deep - Linea Maja Ernst (translated by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg)
Years after their university days, five friends reunite to spend seven summer days in a cabin in rural Denmark, facing their desires and anxieties.
Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney
Two twenty-something friends and exes, Frances and Bobbi, become entangled with an older, sophisticated married couple.
Crime reporter Camille returns to her hometown to investigate the murder of two young girls, encountering her estranged family and confronting her own troubled past in the process.
A fictional true crime account of a brutal murder among teenagers in a sleepy seaside town, on the eve of the Brexit vote.
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides
A group of suburban boys become obsessed with the mysterious and tragic lives of the five Lisbon sisters.
The Little Friend - Donna Tartt
A young girl sets out to solve the mystery murder of her brother, uncovering dark family secrets and the sinister undercurrents of her small Mississippi town.
After being cast out by her wealthy older boyfriend, a young woman manipulates and deceives her way through the Hamptons.
Bonjour Tristesse - Françoise Sagan (translated by Heather Lloyd)
A jealous 17-year-old girl meddles in her father's impending re-marriage with tragic consequences.
A rivalry between 2 generations of brothers parallels the biblical story of Cain and Abel.
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Follows the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby as he pursues his lost love, Daisy Buchanan, amid the lavish and morally ambiguous world of 1920s New York.
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
The spirited Elizabeth Bennet navigates issues of class, marriage, and misunderstandings with the proud but ultimately honourable Mr. Darcy.
Follows Esther Greenwood, a talented young woman whose descent into mental illness reveals the pressures and limitations placed on women in 1950s America.
Over a New York summer, two friends scrape by with odd jobs to finance their glitzy night-time adventures.
A coming-of-age story about Nila, a young woman navigating Berlin's nightlife and her own identity as the daughter of Afghan refugees.
City of Girls - Elizabeth Gilbert
An old woman recounts her life story, starting from 1940 when she was sent to New York to live with her aunt Peg, a flamboyant owner of the Lily Playhouse theatre.
Other People’s Clothes - Calla Henkel
Set in 2008 Berlin, two American art students rent an apartment from a crime novelist. When they suspect their landlady is spying on them for her next novel, they decide to put on a show.
Slow Days, Fast Company - Eve Babitz
An auto-biographical essay collection capturing the 1970s L.A. scene, detailing Babitz’s escapades in the city, bumping into the famous or the almost-famous.
the trio and penance and happy hour and slow days, fast company…YES! so summer!
the unsettling stifling summer section is such a vibe