Your Ultimate 2024 Summer Reading List for Book Lovers
We’re entered summer. So, it’s time to think about a summer reading list for 2024!
This is a new one for me… I have a goal: Reading one book per week!
I’ve already compiled a dream reading list. These books have been recommended by friends and family or caught my eye while browsing bookstores and scouring lists online. Some are new releases, while others are classics.
In full disclosure, there are no murder mysteries, and I’ve included a few spiritual books, too. You’ll have to let me know what you think!
Here is my dream 2024 summer reading list:
“Containing the essence of the Buddha’s teachings and Thich Nhat Hanh’s poignant, timeless, and clarifying prose, The Art of Living provides a spiritual dimension to our lives. This is not an effort to escape life or to dwell in a place of bliss outside of this world. Instead, this path will allow us to discover where we come from and where we are going. And most of all, it will generate happiness, understanding, and love, so we can live deeply in each moment of our life, right where we are,” from Barnes and Noble.
I’ve always loved Thich Nhat Hanh, but somehow, I haven’t read this book! I’m looking forward to this relaxing, peaceful read this summer.
According to Goop, “Major beach-read vibes. The View Was Exhausting is about an actress, Whitman (Win) Tagore, who is in the process of becoming famous. In an attempt to fix her image, Win’s publicist sets her up on a date with a charismatic bachelor named Leo Milanowski. At first, perhaps it’s just that: a seductive on-again, off-again relationship for media attention. But over several years, it grows increasingly difficult for Win and Leo to pretend there isn’t more between them.”
I’m very into this classic summer beach book, and I will take it to Nantucket later this month.
Who’s not in the mood for a love story over the summer?
“For the past twenty years, Liv and Eliot Goldenhorn have run In Love in New York, Brooklyn’s beloved wedding-planning business. When Eliot dies unexpectedly, he even more unexpectedly leaves half of the business to his younger, blonder girlfriend, Savannah. Liv and Savannah are not a match made in heaven, to say the least. But what starts as a personal and professional nightmare transforms into something even savvy, cynical Liv Goldenhorn couldn’t begin to imagine.
It Had to Be You cleverly unites Liv, Savannah, and couples as diverse and unique as New York City itself, in a joyous Love-Actually-style braided narrative. The result is a smart, modern love story that truly speaks to our times. Second chances, secret romance, and steamy soul mates are front and center in this sexy, tender, and utterly charming rom-com that is “so much fun” (Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author),” from Simon and Schuster.
Author Taylor Jenkins Reid describes her book:
“Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.
Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer, and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over-especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.”
Sounds good to me! I can’t wait to read this one.
“Each of us has a deep need to forgive and to be forgiven. After much reflection on the process of forgiveness, Tutu has seen that there are four important steps to healing: Admitting the wrong and acknowledging the harm; Telling one’s story and witnessing the anguish; Asking for forgiveness and granting forgiveness; and renewing or releasing the relationship. Forgiveness is hard work. Sometimes, it even feels like an impossible task.
The Book of Forgiving is both a touchstone and a tool, offering Tutu’s wise advice and showing the way to experience forgiveness. Ultimately, forgiving is the only means we have to heal ourselves and our aching world,” from Amazon.
I’m looking forward to diving into this one very soon!
Forgiveness is a topic I’ve long been preoccupied with. Read my personal story on forgiveness here.
“1960. The world is dancing on the edge of revolution, and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra, where a circle of poets, painters, and musicians live tangled lives, ruled by the writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled king, and queen of Bohemia. Forming within this circle is a triangle: it points to the magnetic, destructive writer Axel Jensen, his dazzling wife Marianne Ihlen, and a young Canadian poet named Leonard Cohen.
Into their midst arrives teenage Erica, with little more than a bundle of blank notebooks and her grief for her mother. Settling on the periphery of this circle, she watches, entranced and disquieted, as a paradise unravels.
Burning with the heat and light of Greece, A Theatre for Dreamers is a spellbinding novel about utopian dreams and innocence lost — and the wars waged between men and women on the battlegrounds of genius,” from Book love book reviews.
This book is the most “out of the box” for me, but I look forward to diving into it soon.
“Growing up in the south, where tradition reigns supreme, Cate Doty thought about weddings . . . a lot. She catered for them, she attended many, she imagined her own. So, when she moved to New York City in pursuit of love-and to write for The New York Times-she found her natural home in the wedding section, a first step to her own happily-ever-after, surely.
Soon, Cate is thrown into the cutthroat world of the metropolitan society pages, experiencing the lengths couples go to have their announcements accepted and the lengths the writers go in fact-checking their stories, the surprising, status-signaling details that matter most to brides and grooms; and the politics of the paper at a time of vast cultural and industry changes,” as reviewed on amazon.
Should be a good one!
“Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it’s her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage’s collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it’s picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne’er-do-well husband Nora’s life will never be the same.
The morning after shooting wraps and the crew leaves, Nora finds Leo on her porch with a half-empty bottle of tequila and a proposition. He’ll pay a thousand dollars a day to stay for a week. The extra seven grand would give Nora breathing room, but it’s the need in his eyes that makes her say yes. Seven days: it’s the blink of an eye or an eternity depending on how you look at it. Enough time to fall in love. Enough time to break your heart,” from Goodreads.
I’ve seen this book on so many recommended book lists that I had to add it to my list!
“When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.
But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life,” from Goodreads.
I love reading fiction novels that transport me to exotic and beautiful locations. So, on that note alone, I’m very excited to read this book.
“For decades, the practice of manifestation has been widely dismissed as self-involved, materialistic pseudoscience. But as neuroscientist and recognized compassion leader Dr. James Doty reveals, manifestation introduces us to different possibilities, and it lays the groundwork for a kinder, better world.
Doty grounds us in practices that change our brain structures: attention, meditation, visualization, and compassion. This mind magic allows us to move through the world in ways that help us see clearly, reclaiming our agency, realizing our dreams, and reaching out to help others along the path.
Where previous works about manifestation have focused narrowly on outward success and individual benefit, Mind Magic delivers an openhearted call to make manifestation part of a deeper contribution to healing the problems we face today,” from Amazon.
This book hits closest to home for me, and it’s one of my very favorite topics! Looking forward to reading this one soon.
“In the original story, Cinderella marries the prince, vanquishing her evil stepmother and stepsisters, but as The Charmed Wife begins, she sneaks out of the palace late at night to meet a witch and plot against her husband. She’s filled with a righteous anger at Roland, whom she now knows to be unworthy of her love and devotion.
As the witch begins making her deadly brew, Cinderella’s distraught fairy godmother appears in an effort to counsel her against doing anything rash. With these key women assembled, Grushin lets Cinderella’s story unfold. Each strand of her husband’s hair added to the witch’s cauldron winds the tale backward,” from the Gilmore Guide to Books.
I chose this book because I found the plot intriguing! This is the book furthest away from my usual, so we’ll see how it goes.
“In summary, Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake is one of my new favorite stories of the year. There’s so much more I’d like to delve into. Rosaline’s bisexuality is among the most important aspects of the narrative but is better left to the pages it’s found on.
Another is realizing that needing and/or accepting help should never make us feel we’ve forfeited the right to reject it if that assistance becomes an obligation owed. I also now have an entire folder of bookmarks dedicated to “Rosaline’s Recipes and Things.” And on it goes, as a well-loved story does,” according to Twimom227
Looking forward to learning more about this fascinating character, Rosaline!
13. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
“With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war.
The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion, and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France-a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime,” from Kristin Hannah.
A neighbor suggested this book, which is her favorite of Kristin Hannah's. I'm looking forward to diving in soon.
So, what do you think? Are you inspired to prepare your ultimate summer reading list for 2024?
Let’s do this together!
Let me know if you have any thoughts or comments below.
Thank you! And happy reading!
Originally published at https://rosecoloredglasses.com on June 24, 2024.
