
20 Great Books for Your Summer Reading List
We just returned from a family trip down to Lake Keowee in South Carolina. After such a challenging year of work and school, it was the perfect getaway to kick off summer break for the kids and spend lots of time in the water & sunshine!
Now that we’re back home, I wanted to compile my vacation book stack for you, as well as past books I have read & loved. These are mostly novels that have some sort of feel-good ending. Feel free to bookmark this post as a quick resource for your next good book, and if you want to pass it along to fellow book-loving friends I’d love that!

To start, here are the books I just read & loved on our summer vacation:
- Gilead | A classic & winner of the Pulitzer Prize
- Simply Tuesday | My only non-fiction choice, written by Emily Freeman when she was in a similar season of life as I’m in right now. It’s all about small-moment living in a fast paced world. I read a chapter every couple of days to think about, and it’s been like a balm for my soul.
- The Midnight Library |I absolutely loved this imaginative take on regrets and second chances. The story is one that sticks with you and makes you think, similar to this novel from years ago.
- Anxious People | Such a smart, funny story about a bank robbery, a hostage situation and so much more. Lots of twists and turns – and clever insights into the human heart – from the author of A Man Called Ove (one that Zach and I both loved.)
- Code Name Helene | Based on the thrilling true story of Nancy Wake, a WWII socialite spy, this historical fiction is full of her daring, fierce resistance in occupied France.
- Rules of Civility | A set of glittering characters fall in love and climb the social ladder of 1930s Manhattan.

For more summer reading ideas, here are some of my top picks from years past…
- Educated: A Memoir
- Evvie Drake Starts Over
- Where the Crawdads Sing
- Hannah Coulter
- Christy
- The Invention of Wings
- The Huntress
- Circe
- Rise & Shine
- Crazy Rich Asians Trilogy
- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
- Where’d You Go Bernadette?
And for those of you who are curious, here is what I’m reading next: this, this & this!

You can find all of these books linked in my Amazon Shop for easy reference. I’d love to hear if you have a favorite book you’ve read recently!


5 Comments
Leigh Feather
We like so many of the same books! I added a bunch of your recommendations to my amazon wish list!
Lindsey Kubly
Yay, that makes me so happy, Leigh!
Lauren
Such a good list, Lindsey! I’m rereading all of Jane Austen right now. Her works were the topic of my masters thesis, and it feels so good just to be reading them for fun this time. I requested Simply Tuesday from the library because I need some nonfiction to read a bit at a time. Thanks for the recommendation!
Lindsey Kubly
I love returning to her books every year or two. They always delight! Hope you enjoy reading Simply Tuesday, Lauren.
Taylor
Did you grow up going to that lake? Curious how it became a tradition :) Yay for summer reading!