Fun In The Sun Summer Reads

Summer reads take the imagine to a funny, thrilling, dramatic, mysterious, and relaxing destination, and that my friends is what the season is all about.

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Photo by Link Hoang on Unsplash

Soak up the fun in the sun summer reads travel well to the beaches, lakes, pools, rest and relaxation escapes tailor-made for a beach bag packed with summer reads.

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Photo by Niklas Ohlrogge on Unsplash

Big kids of a certain age remember the summer reading programs that emphasized reading is fundamental.

Reading is fundamental to recharge the imagination, soul, and natural curiosity.

Summer reads go hand in hand with a fun in the sun or shade read and recharge session.

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Pack up a chic beach-pool-patio bag with summer essentials including a good read or two from this summer reads list.

The Pink Hotel: A Novel Hardcover by Liska Jaco

The Pink Hotel: A Novel Hardcover by Liska Jaco

New job negotiations often comes with perks as newlywed Keith Collins finds out.  He and his new bride, Kat, jump at the invite from the general manager of the iconic, opulent Pink Hotel to come for a luxurious stay as a bid to hire Keith.  Kit is perfectly content with small-town life, however, Keith’s quest for bright lights, big city life is enhanced by the glamourous  lily-scented lobby that makes him feel right at home.

Soon after the Collinses arrival sweeping wildfires, rolling blackouts, and brutal riots break out across the city. The Pink Hotel closes its doors to “outsiders,” confining guests, including Kat and Keith to the property where a disgruntled staff coupled with eccentric, ultra-wealthy, and dangerously idle guests brews many an issue.

The Pink Hotel exposes a tenuous class system, corrosive behaviors, greed, disaster, resentments, provocative attitudes, class jealously all while the city burns and true love is called into question.

Hurricane Girl A novel

Hurricane Girl – by Marcy Dermansky

Allison Brody is thirty-two year old ready to mix, mingle and make a new home on the East Coast after just managing to flee her movie producer boyfriend.

Money saved up from years of writing and waitressing, Allison buys a small house on the beach. As bad luck would have it, a Category 3 hurricane makes landfall, completely destroying her home and leaving her without digs at the present.

Gripping and provocative, Hurricane Girl walks a knife’s edge between comedy and horror, love and sex, violence and freedom all while celebrating the true joy found in a summer swim and a tasty turkey sandwich.

The Retreat - by Sarah Pearse

The Retreat – by Sarah Pearse

All may not be as stunning on this wellness retreat off the English coast getaway as first thought. Reaper’s Rock has a dark past and a present abounding with rumors of the island being cursed.

After a young woman is found dead below the yoga pavilion in what seems to be a tragic fall, Detective Elin Warner learns the victim wasn’t a guest–she wasn’t meant to be on the island at all.

Time uncovers more secrets, and when someone else drowns in a diving incident, Elin suspects murder. Whodunit and why target guests at this luxury resort is the questions Elin must find the answer to before the island’s history repeats itself.

French Braid - by Anne Tyler (Hardcover)

French Braid – by Anne Tyler

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever venture beyond Baltimore, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy Garrett has trouble resisting her aspirations to be a painter. In 1959, less time keeping house for her husband, Robin, and pursuing a talent/career is the exception rather than the rule.  This alone has her asking do I dare?

Two teenage daughters, Alice and Lily, could not be more opposite of each other, and their younger brother David is intent on escaping his family’s orbit.

As the lives of each Garrett family member advances across decades, influences cast ripples of heartbreak, warmth, and hilarity through each generation.

With tremendous warmth and humor, French Braid illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from the bond of family love, and how close a family is to itself.

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The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Belly believes everything good and magical happens between the months of June and August. Winter is simply the time where one count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad.

Belly has known Jeremiah and Conrad since her very first summer—they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

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Coming June 17

Every Summer After - by Carley Fortune (Paperback)

Every Summer After – by Carley Fortune

Magazine writer Persephone Fraser has to make a choice when she returns to the lake she grew up on, and to the man she thought she’d never have to live without, in this achingly nostalgic debut.  Feeling the force of the saying you can never go home again, Persephone suspects it all too true since she made the biggest mistake of her life. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends her summers in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.

One day she gets a call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek.  Inseparable over five summers, Percy and Sam had been inseparable.

Slowly their friendship turned into something more, before falling spectacularly apart. When Percy returns to the lake to attend Sam’s mother’s funeral, the connection is a strong and undeniable as always.

Percy must confront the decisions she’s made over the years and time spent punishing herself for them, in order to determine, once and for all, whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

One Italian Summer A Novel

One Italian Summer: A Novel

When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mother, but her best friend.  She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone.  Their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father, is now in question.

Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.

Upon setting foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy immediately feels her mother’s spirit. Stunning scenery, blue waters, breathtaking cliffsides, welcoming locals, and delectable food delight both eye and heart helping to bring Katy out of the depths of loss and back to life.

Much to Katy’s surprise and happiness, Carol appears in the flesh- healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old.

How can this be?

Katy doesn’t understand how or what is happening, all she can focus on is somehow she has gotten her mother back.  Over the course of One Italian Summer Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her.

Carol is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be leaving Katy to reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.

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Early buzz about these summer reads has me ready to dive into the pages.

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Curling Up With A Good Summer Reading List

Summer is a prime time for curling up with a great book hot off a good summer reading list.

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Reading evokes thought, enlightens the mind, enriches the soul, lifts the heart and takes one to treasured places and descriptive destinations in ways only the reader knows reading can.

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Great for fun in the summer sun, porch sitting, or a cool peaceful spot in the shade, keeping company with a delightful-romantic-funny-mysterious selection from a good for summer reading list fills a few moments with imagination and inspiration while taking the reader on a literary summer vacation.

Such a Quiet Place - by Megan Miranda

Such a Quiet Place – by Megan Miranda

Suspense on a summer day will come your way with Such a Quiet Place, a tale of murder in Hollow’s Edge, a traditionally quiet and private neighborhood that is until the murder of Brandon and Fiona Truett.

Neighborhood resident Ruby Fletcher is convicted of the murder, and the fallout causes a ripple effect throughout the entire neighborhood.

With an overturned conviction, Ruby is back in Hollow’s Edge and the home she once shared with Harper Nash.  Now terrified by her former housemate, Harper is torn between fear and a sense of responsibility towards Ruby’s living situation.

Lies begin to surface in Hollow’s Edge about the night of the Truett’s murders.  Harper begins receiving threatening notes which leads her to know she must do everything she can to find the truth before the killer strikes again.

Shocking twists and turns keep the reader in suspense, and reading way past your bedtime.

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It Happened One Summer – by Tessa Bailey

Piper Bellinger is a fashionable pseudo wild child with a loyal pack of  paparazzi constantly on her heels.  Too much champagne mixed with one wild and crazy Beverly Hills rooftop party lands Piper in jail much to her “what did I do?” angst and her stepfather’s chagrin.  Cut off from family and funds, Piper and her sister are sent to Westport, Washington to run their late father’s dive bar.

Enter sea captain Brendan, a tall drink of seawater who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills.  Determination drives her to strive to prove to her stepfather and the surly, sexy local she can, and will, make it.  In doing so, Piper reconnects with her past, begins to feel right at home in Westport, and crosses paths with Brendan in an opposites attract manner that captures her attention and her heart.

Tessa Bailey’s Schitt’s Creek-inspired rom-com brilliance combines romance and comedy with small beach-town coziness and tantalizing banter that immediately hooks and enchants the reader.

Goldenrod

Goldenrod – by Maggie Smith

Powerful poems that celebrate both the beauty and messiness of life, Goldenrod pulls objects from everyday life-a hallway mirror, a rock found in her son’s pocket, a field of goldenrods at the side of the road to reveal the magic of the moment, the contours of daily life, and the beauty found in it all.

Honeysuckle Summer - (Sweet Magnolias Novel) by Sherryl Woods

Honeysuckle Summer – (Sweet Magnolias Novel) by Sherryl Woods

Courage is a beautiful thing, as Raylene Hammond finds out finding the courage to leave her abusive husband.  Despite being taken in by the Sweet Magnolias for safety and healing, trauma leaves her unable to leave the house.  When a terrible accident nearly occurs, due in part to her condition, Raylene realizes the time has come to seek help.

Support and encouragement from friends give Raylene the courage to set out on a journey to recovery.

Along the way, she meets an understanding  sheriff’s deputy, Carter Rollins, who becomes a supporter of her efforts. He’s even taken to bringing the outside world to her when she doesn’t feel ready to confront it.

A relationship between Raylene and Carter soon begins to bloom, and she must decide if she’s ready to move forward on this part of the journey or if it’s strictly a sweet summer romance.

fox-and-I

Fox and I – by Catherine Raven

Catherine Raven receives her PhD in biology, and soon moves into an isolated cottage in Montana where she teaches remotely as well as leading field classes in Yellowstone National Park.

The only regular visitor Catherine has is a fox with whom she develops a friendship.

Pet owners get it, and can attest to the lessons in personal growth, coming to the realization we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world, and how loss can be transformed into meaning through nature, our surroundings, and relationships with animals.

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Count the Ways – by Joyce Maynard

New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard pens a mesmerizing story of Eleanor and Cam from first meeting at a crafts fair in Vermont in the early 1970s to the joy of parenting three children, bitterness of tragedy, fallout from  infidelity, to truths through redemption.

Lessons in love, holding on and letting go of it fill the pages of Count the Ways is a beautiful, poignant, and deeply compassionate story of home, parenthood, love, and forgiveness.

summer-reading-escape

Escape the routine of a summer day or evening by taking a break for one  with a great book selection from a good summer reading list.

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Summer Reading List 2020

Summer is prime curling up with a good book season; hence, the importance of what book(s) makes your summer reading list 2020.

books-set-by-green-staircaseHouse Beautiful

Reading evokes thought, enlightens the mind, enriches the soul, lifts the heart and takes one to treasured places and descriptive destinations in ways only the reader knows reading can.

Summer Reading List 2020

My Summer Reading List 2020 is a delectable literary picnic packed for the beach, lake, pool, porch, patio or bespoke indoor alcove.

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Flickr

Up first on the list is I Was Told It Would Get Easier by Abbi Waxman.

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I Was Told It Would Get Easier – by Abbi Waxman 

Mother and daughter Jessica and Emily Burnstein have a college tour trip planned.  Jessica anticipates reconnecting on a “she’s not a little girl anymore” level with her daughter- a daughter in search of a way to become excited about her future.

Traveling together along the east coast, mother and daughter experience a shared journey in personal growth and special bonds made along the way.

brunch-and-other-obligations-a-novel

Brunch and Other Obligations – by Suzanne Nugent

Brunch and Other Obligations by Suzanne Nugent details the fictional story of four ladies, friendship, loss, humor, understanding, and the things one learns over a standing monthly brunch date – a final request from one friend to three grieving frenemies who meet and master hard times, the art of patience, and the dynamics of the female friendship.

the-Jane-Austen-society-a-novel

The Jane Austen Society – by Natalie Jenner

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner charms the reader with a story set in the English village of Chawton post World War II, also known as the final home of novelist Jane Austen.

A group of socially different but like-minded people undertake a united and powerful effort to preserve the home of Jane Austen and her legacy.

A shared love of works, timeless words, the bonds of war, and triumphs in wins come together to create the Jane Austen Society.

Summer Solstice – by Nina Maclaughlin

Summer Solstice by Nina Maclaughlin details the details of summer and the elements and activities only summer knows.

Lakes, oceans, and every pond between.

Ripe red tomatoes ready for the summer salad or sandwich.

The taste of the first hot dog hot off the grill.

The scent and the seen of fresh cut grass.

Opened windows.

Fireflies.

Stargazing.

Nina MacLaughlin’s essay is a season of sun and fun insight into summer pasts and the ones that lie ahead.

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You Had Me at Hola – by Alexis Daria

You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria reads like a summer sexy soap opera, and the reader is all atwitter for it.

This romantic, sultry, and smart story is set in the drama-filled world of telenovelas.

Jasmine Lin Rodriguez is the soap opera darling returning to New York City after a breakup to star in a bilingual romantic comedy.  All is presumably well until a casting shake-up pairs her with telenovela heartthrob Ashton Suárez.

After a series of career killing circumstances, Ashton figures his new gig will give him the chance to win over American audiences and Hollywood casting agents.  The on-screen chemistry with Jasmine has got to be as hot as summer, but leave it to a less than memorable first impression to squash the hope of any heat between the two of them jumping off the screen.

In a career move to benefit both, Jasmine and Ashton mutually agree to rehearse together in private.  Private rehearsals lead to a private affair in true soap opera style.

The glare of the media spotlight is bright, and stands ready to discover and dish the dirt on these two telenovela stars.

Is it me, or is it getting hot in here?

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The Vanishing Half – by Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett promises to be a can’t put it down summer must read.

The story of the Vignes sisters, identical twins whose decision at age sixteen to runaway from the small, southern black community they called home, is a complex one.

From that time and moving forward, everything from their families, communities and racial identities is different.

One sister along with her black daughter lives in the very southern town at sixteen she tried to escape. The other sister secretly poses and passes for a white woman living with her white husband who knows nothing of her past.

Many miles and lies exist between them, and their fates continue to be intertwined.

Weaving together aspects of this family from generations past from the Deep South to California during the 1950s to the 1990s, this provocative story looks beyond issues of race to the lasting influence of the past and its influence on the personal decisions and wants, for reasons not easily recognized, people sometimes feel compelled to live as something or someone not of their origins.

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Florida Man – by Tom Cooper

The Florida Man by Tom Cooper centers around a 1980 timeline and a middle-aged beach bun named Reed Crowe.

Reed is living the Florida life on fictional Emerald Island on ill-gotten gains.  When sink holes begin opening up on the Island, the seedy to the point of shambles motel and amusement park Reed owns as well as his secrets become endangered. In the midst of this predicament he puts into place his amateur spelunker skills. Soon he begins to uncover artifacts that connect the dots between his understanding and the island’s history as his family’s role as pioneering homesteaders.

Bringing more intrigue and to the mix is the company Reed has kept over the years.

Hector “Catface” Morales is a Cuban refugee, a trained assassin, and a crack-addicted Marielito who is after revenge on Reed for stealing his stash of drugs and then leaving him for dead (a detail unknown to Reed) in the wreckage of a plane crash in the Everglades decades ago.

Heidi Karavas, a globe-trekking art curator ex-wife, and Nina Arango, his current love, find their way into the state of confusion in the state of Florida.

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Curling Up With Good Interior Decorating, Home Decor and Architecture Books

Curling up with good interior decorating, home decor or architecture book in the name of all things house that make a home is always in style.

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Beth Webb : An Eye for Beauty: Rooms That Speak to the Senses

Today I am sharing a short list of a few interior decorating, home decor and entertaining books I am looking forward to reading cover to cover.

a-place-to-call-homeA Place to Call Home: Timeless Southern Charm

I love a gorgeous read with an equally attractive jacket for bookshelf, coffee table and bedside table accessorizing.

I believe that’s what they call an interior decorating win-win.

Entertaining in the Country : Love Where You Eat: Festive Table Settings, Favorite Recipes, and Design

Entertaining in the Country : Love Where You Eat: Festive Table Settings, Favorite Recipes, and Design

City Farmhouse Style: Designs for a Modern Country Life

City Farmhouse Style: Designs for a Modern Country Life

An eclectic and dynamic fall reading list promises to deliver impressive interior decorating eye candy and inspire interior and exterior creativity.

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House Beautiful Style Secrets: What Every Room Needs

It’s never too early to think about the holidays!

Christmas with Southern LivingChristmas With Southern Living 2017 : Inspired Ideas for Holiday Cooking and Decorating

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My Under the Weather Reading List

Reading is proving to be a fundamental part of my under the weather reading list routine.

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First up on my under the weather reading list is Paris Flea Market Style by Claudia Strasser.

The ooh la la factor and how to get it, emulate it, and incorporate it into our design and decor needs no introduction.

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A smart, funny read with witty observations that rate hilarious on the laugh-o-meter, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling is a gem of a good read.

This book accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do by taking the reader on a most entertaining ride with hilarity riding shotgun.

Mindy-Kaling

Veranda A Passion for Living: Houses of Style and Inspiration is a gorgeous review of gorgeous style from cover to cover!

Beautiful addition to any bookshelf or coffee table.

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Dave the Builder is embracing his role as runner, and I reassured him there is a beginning, middle and end to this new duty.

I like going to the neighborhood parish library to check out the new offerings and to check out books.

There are books that pique your interest but give pause to actually purchasing it for your home library.

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What book is on your must read list?

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Read Any Good Books Lately?

Read any good books lately?

With Thanksgiving Day less than two weeks away, reading up on ideas, creative endeavors, recipes, lists, grocery ads and Black Friday information tops my reading list.

I am determined to add a really good read to my relaxation therapy routine and thought travel time.

Trinity College Library

Elle Decor ~ Flickr User Brett Jordan

A good read can introduce you to places, spaces and faces of interest and intrigue.

My read any good books lately library may not be vast, but it’s informative, inspirational and entertaining.

reading-quoteCountry Living

Bless Dillard’s heart and their take an additional 30% off sales.

When I spied The New Thanksgiving Table by Diane Morgan on the sale table, I knew it wouldn’t be long before this gem would be my new best friend in the kitchen.

If I had a nickel for every time I am going to read this baby over the next few days, we will hunt out the nearest Cracker Barrel and call it a turkey day.

I appreciate good material and pointers in this area.  A Warm Welcome: How to Be a Gracious Host to Friends and Family by Amy Elliot keeps me on my toes.

It’s a welcomed refresher course to lend confidence to this gracious hostess with hopefully impeccable manners and holiday mostess.

A Warm Welcome Amy Elliott

As we enter the season of holiday entertaining, a guide to simple ways to open your heart and home to others is required reading.

a life that says welcome

A Life That Says Welcome: Simple Ways to Open Your Heart & Home to Others ~ Karen Ehman

I have found the find, or should I say the book of how to find finds, accessorize finds, and to know what you have found. 

The Find: The Housing Works Book of Decoration with Thrift Shop Treasures, Flea Market Objects, and Vintage Details by Stan Williams.  

The “Y” on the cover is very profound, and this read answers a lot of whys- why we love decorating with treasures, trinkets, and trash.

Lucille would be proud!

Home by Carson Ellis illustrates the concept of and the varied places people call home.

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When I need to laugh, when I need to not take things so serious, and when I need to relax, this is the one book I find myself going back to time and time again.

Clinton Kelly’s Freakin’ Fabulous: How to Dress, Speak, Behave, Eat, Drink, Entertain, Decorate, and Generally Be Better Than Everyone Else is a laugh-out-loud literary riot!

The chapter on etiquette and the examples of hand written thank you notes is reason enough to buy the book.

Hilarious!

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This one is an oldie but a goodie.

Rickles’ Book, not Mr. Rickles.

We lost a legend when we lost Don Rickles this year.  Don Rickles was not only an comedic institution but a class act of a man who valued the importance of family and friends.

Dave the Builder always made me swear never to sit close to the stage at a Rickles performance. The first time we saw him in Vegas was in 1990 at the Golden Nugget.

We were with a group of family and business associates, and thankfully a couple of the wives were running late which helped us to be seated in the back of the showroom. Dave the Builder escaped the insult zone, the hallmark of Mr.  Rickles’ style.

The last time we saw Mr. Rickles in a live Vegas performance was in 2010.

We were seated in the second row and right in Mr. Rickles’ firing range.  I am still convinced Dave the Builder held his breath for the entire performance.

Good times!

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Both a seasonal, inspirational, and everyday best seller.

The Holy Bible aka the good book is indeed a good read.

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Have you read any good books lately?

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