Today I’m sharing a list of the best books I read this summer.
I have read at a slower pace this year compared to years past. I have also, coincidentally, read a lot of really long books. The reading goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year (50) is completely out of reach, but that’s okay. I’m still reading almost every day and have read a bunch of amazing novels this year. Can’t ask for much more than that.
This is also, apparently, the year of the “literary thriller” for me, and I’m not mad about it. I have read a handful of gorgeous, sweeping thrillers that are all so well-written. BLESSED.
Check out my list of the best books I read this summer.
Recent Reads: Summer 2024
The Likeness – Tana French
“Being easily freaked out comes with its own special skill set: you develop subtle tricks to work around it, make sure people don’t notice. Pretty soon, if you’re a fast learner, you can get through the day looking almost exactly like a normal human being.”
This book is part of the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French.
Detective Cassie Maddox arrives at a crime scene surrounding a victim who looks exactly like her. To make things even more eerie, the team realizes that the victim had been living under an alias that Cassie used back in her undercover days. Cassie ends up going back undercover as she investigates the crime, and things get complicated QUICKLY.
This was kind of a cross between The Secret History and Long Bright River…but make it Irish. The Likeness is the second book, and while I didn’t feel like I missed anything crucial to the plot, I did go back and read In The Woods after and it was just as good.
The detectives themselves are by far my favorite part about this series. They are so exceedingly human and loveable. I do wish the books were slightly shorter/quicker. This one was 600 pages and could have, in my opinion, achieved the same result in the 450 range. These books are a time investment, but Tana French’s writing is worth it either way. If you love a cozy, moody crime novel, be sure to put this series on your list.
Bye, Baby – Carola Lovering
“That’s just how friendships become in your thirties…The love is still there, but the urgency for that constant companionship fades, replaced by something else—romantic partnerships, yes, but maybe we also just get tired.”
I read this on my Kindle in Spain, and it was the *perfect* vacation read. I love when a book sucks you in but doesn’t necessarily require full brain power to follow.
Billie and Cassie have been best friends since high school but started drifting apart after Cassie got married and had a baby. The book opens with an eerie scene: Billie is holding Cassie’s baby in her arms while she listens to Cassie screaming in the apartment above her that her baby has been kidnapped. After the opening chapter, the story bounces back and forth between Bille and Cassie’s points of view throughout various phases of their lives and friendship. The story isn’t necessarily realistic enough to be scary, but I was totally hooked from start to finish.
The God of the Woods – Liz Moore
“She wasn’t frightened of him, exactly, though there had been one or two incidents that caused alarm. It was more that she had come to see herself nearly exclusively through his eyes, and therefore being in his good graces was the easiest way to achieve a sense of well-being.”
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore is one of those rare, special books that I couldn’t put down but also felt like I had to actively slow myself down from reading. I didn’t want it to end. I had extremely high hopes for this book because Long Bright River, also from Liz Moore, is one of my top ten, if not top five, favorite books of all time. And then when I went to purchase The God of the Woods at Warwick’s in La Jolla, the woman at the counter told me she’d heard it was even better than Long Bright River.
The story takes place at a summer camp in the woods of upstate New York. Barbara Van Laar, a camper who also happens to be the daughter of the family who owns the camp and estate itself, vanishes from her cabin one night. As the search begins, it becomes hard to ignore the similarities of Barbara’s case and her little brother’s. Bear Van Laar disappeared without a trace 14 years before that. The novel bounces back and forth between the two cases, each chapter from the lens of a different character.
This book had me in a chokehold until the very last page. It is unbelievably well-written, spellbinding, and, yes, probably better than Long Bright River in that the plot is much more “twisty.” I’ll go ahead and say it: this was my favorite book of the year so far. If you’re in a reading rut this summer, trust me on this one.
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguoro
“It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you’ve made, and there’s this panic because you don’t know yet the scale of disaster you’ve left yourself open to.”
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is a book I’ve seen constantly over the years: facing out at bookstores with a million “bookseller’s favorite” cards fanning out behind it, in the Google results of my semiannual “books like Atonement” search, and, most recently, near the top of several “best books of the 21st century” roundups (should I do my own?). I finally picked it up last month and blew through it in a few days.
I have to say this was much, much weirder than I thought it was going to be, but I enjoyed it. I won’t spoil too much, but the story centers around a very special but eerie boarding school in the English countryside. If you do read this one, I recommend going in blind like I did because it was quite the ride.
You Are Here – David Nicholls
“Sometimes, she thought, it’s easier to remain lonely than present the lonely person to the world, but she knew that this, too, was a trap, that unless she did something, the state might become permanent, like a stain soaking into wood. It was no good. She would have to go outside.”
I picked up You Are Here by David Nicholls a couple of weeks ago after the cover caught my eye on the “new releases” table at our local bookstore. This was just absolutely delightful.
Michael and Marnie meet through mutual friends on a nature walk in Lakes District of England. Michael and Marnie are both divorced, grumpy, and certainly not in the mood to fall in love with one another. The book follows their walk across England and had me giggling through every chapter.
This book is cozy and pleasant and the perfect fall read. It scratches the itch of a rom com but is refreshingly well-written and utterly charming. If you, like me, rewatch Notting Hill as your comfort movie at least once a year, put this one on your list.
All the Colors of the Dark – Chris Whitaker
“Saint knew there was not always an exact moment when children turned to adults. For the lucky ones it was a long, hard-earned acceptance of responsibility and opportunity. But for her, and for Misty, the divide had been curt and fatal.”
This was just as good as all of the hype has made it out to be. The story begins in 1975 in Monta Clare, Missouri. A teenage girl is almost abducted and saved at the last minute by a local boy. The novel follows the aftermath of that night and the mystery surrounding the perpetrator, the local boy, and everyone involved.
I could not put this one down and thought it was outstanding from start to finish. I will say that it is, at just under 600 pages, a bit of an undertaking. Also, the writing is amazing but can be a bit abstract at times, so I did have to back up and reread certain sections occasionally to make sure I got what was happening.
Upon Waking – Jackie Hill Perry
“The destruction of a false kingdom is the God of grace at work. When it all falls down, when all the thrones you’ve built your life around shape-shift into the sand they’ve always been, guess who will be still standing? The King of glory, the unchanging, unwavering, always faithful God.”
My best friend sent me this 60 day devotion book for my birthday this year, and I have enjoyed it so much. Jackie Hill Perry is so gifted, and these devotions are so profound and uplifting. I love that they are theologically heavy and biblically-based, as opposed to a bunch of personal stories and antidotes. (There is a time and place for that, of course, but if I’m reading a devo I want it to be focused, lol). Each devotion is about a page and a half, perfect for my quiet time in the morning before I start journaling.
