10 Summer Reads to Get Lost In

In partnership with the Guille-Allès Library

Whether you’re headed to the beach, the bathing pools, or your favourite shady café spot, the right book can make all the difference.

So here are some great titles to dive into over the summer, curated by our friends at the library. From love stories and memoirs that linger, to big-hearted fiction and offbeat adventures, there's something for everyone.

 

 

1.  Great Big Beautiful Life, by Emily Henry.

When Margaret Ives, the famously reclusive heiress, invites eternal optimist Alice Scott to the balmy Little Crescent Island, Alice knows this is it: her big break. And even more rare: a chance to impress her family with a Serious Publication.

The catch? Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud, Hayden Anderson, is sure of the same thing. 

The proposal? A one-month trial period to unearth the truth behind one of the most scandalous families of the 20th Century, after which she’ll choose who’ll tell her story. 

The problem? Margaret is only giving each of them tantalising pieces. Pieces they can’t put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room. 

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story – just like the tale Margaret’s spinning – could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad, depending on who’s telling it.

Borrow here

 

 

2.  The Listeners, by Maggie Stiefvater.

High in the Appalachian mountains is a place quite unlike any other. The Avallon Hotel and its enigmatic General Manager, June Hudson, are famed for offering unrivalled luxury, season after season, to those who come from far and wide to indulge in its beautiful hot springs and take the healing waters. Everything is perfect. Perhaps too perfect. 

So when the Avallon is called upon to help the war effort - to oust its guests and host three hundred diplomats and Nazi sympathisers - June's priority is business as usual. But as dark alliances and unexpected attractions crack the polished veneer of the hotel, she is forced to reckon with the true price of luxury. 

After all, only June knows the sacrifice required to keep everyone happy - her staff, the FBI and, above all, the tumultuous sweetwater running through the heart of the hotel.

Borrow here

 

3. Consider Yourself Kissed, by Jessica Stanley.

When she first meets Adam, Coralie is new to London and feeling adrift. But Adam is clever, witty, and (he insists) a quarter of an inch taller than the average British male. His charming four-year-old daughter, Zora, only adds to his appeal.

But ten years on, something important is missing from the life Coralie and Adam have built. Or maybe, having gained everything she dreamed of, Coralie has lost something she once had: herself.

Set against an eventful decade that included the soap opera of five Prime Ministers plus Brexit and Covid, Consider Yourself Kissed puts the subjects of love and family on a grand stage, showing how the intimate dramas in our homes inescapably compete for energy and attention with the shared public dramas of our times.

Borrow here

 

4.  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.

Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected - including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?

Borrow here.

 

5.  My Favourite Mistake, by Marian Keyes.

Anna has just lost her taste for the Big Apple… She has a life to envy. An apartment in New York. A well-meaning (too well-meaning?) partner. And a high-flying job in beauty PR. Who wouldn’t want all that? Anna, it turns out.

Trading a minor midlife crisis for a major life event, she switches the skyscrapers of Manhattan for the tiny Irish town of Maumtully (population 1,217), helping old friends Brigit and Colm set up a luxury coastal retreat.

Tougher than it sounds. Newflash: the locals hate the idea. So much so, there have been threats – and violence.

Anna, however, worked in the beauty industry. There’s no ugliness she hasn’t seen. No wrinkle she can’t smooth over. There’s just one fly in the ointment – old flame Joey Armstrong. He’s going to be her wingman. Never mind their chequered history. Never mind what might have been. Because no matter how far you go, your mistakes will still be waiting for you…

Borrow here

 

6.  Careless People: Story of Where I Used to Work, by Sarah Wynn-Williams.

Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook’s potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there and rose to its top ranks, things turned out a little different.

From wild schemes cooked up on private jets to risking prison abroad, Careless People exposes both the personal and political fallout when boundless power and a rotten culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative, Wynn-Williams rubs shoulders with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and world leaders, revealing what really goes on among the global elite – and the consequences this has for all of us.

Candid and entertaining, this is an intimate memoir set amid powerful forces. As all our lives are upended by technology and those who control it, Careless People will change how you see the world.

Borrow here

 

7.  Maurice and Maralyn. by Sophie Elmhirst.

Maurice and Maralyn couldn't be more different. He is as cautious and awkward as she is charismatic and forceful. It seems an unlikely romance, but it works. 

Bored of 1970s suburban life, Maralyn has an idea: sell the house, build a boat, leave England - and its oil crisis, industrial strikes and inflation - forever. It is hard work, turning dreams into reality, but finally they set sail for New Zealand. 

Then, halfway there, their beloved boat is struck by a whale. It sinks within an hour, and the pair are cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. On their tiny raft, over the course of days, then months, their love is put to the test. Filled with danger, spirit and tenderness, this is a book about human connection and the human condition; about how we survive - not just at sea, but in life.

Borrow here

 

8.  All Fours, by Miranda July.

A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country from LA to NY. 

Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey. 

Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, 'All Fours' transcends expectations while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman.

Borrow here

 

9.  What a Way to Go, by Bella Mackie.

Anthony Wistern is wealthy beyond imagination. 

Fragrant wife, gaggle of photogenic children, French chateau, Cotswold manor, plethora of mistresses, penchant for cutting moral corners, tick tick tick tick tick tick. 

Unfortunately for him, he's also dead. Suddenly poised to inherit his fortune, each member of the family falls under suspicion. And that's when everything comes crashing down.

Borrow here

 

10.  Cher: The Memoir, by Cher.

There is only one Cher… and for seven decades she has been showing us why. Cher holds the attention of the world with her voice, her acting, her style, her wit and her unstoppable spirit. Now, for the first time, she tells her story in her own voice – as honest as it is hilarious, as powerful as it is perceptive.

Cher’s childhood was anything but normal. As her mother Georgia – blessed with movie-star looks and a knockout voice – moved them around the country over and again in the hope of finding fame, her school life wasn’t straightforward. But she already knew she was going to be somebody when she grew up.

Cher’s powerful instinct to keep moving eventually landed her in the arms of Sonny Bono. The duo became famous beyond their wildest dreams, from humble beginnings singing backup in Phil Spector’s studio through to pop stardom as Sonny and Cher, and then on to the television show that made them household names. But as time passed, fame changed the dynamic of their relationship and Cher evolved from a wide-eyed teenager into a woman. She started fighting for herself, breaking away from Sonny’s control – and realising that things were not as they seemed.

Borrow here