Celebrate Summer!
Check out this month’s staff recommendations!
Recommended Reading for Adults
Fiction
Summer in the City by Alex Aster
Twenty-seven-year-old screenwriter Elle has the chance of a lifetime to write a big-budget movie set in New York City. The only problem? She’s had writer’s block for months, and her screenplay is due at the end of the summer. In a desperate attempt at inspiration, Elle ends up back in the city she swore she would never return to, in an apartment she could never afford (floor-to-ceiling windows, skyline views, and a new coffee shop to haunt included). It’s the perfect place to write her screenplay…until she realizes her new neighbor is tech “Billionaire Bachelor” Parker Warren, her stairwell hookup from two years ago. It’s been a lovers-to-enemies situation defined by forced proximity ever since. When seeing him again turns into a full night of hate-fueled writing, Elle realizes her enemy/twisted muse might just be the key to finishing her screenplay… if she can stand being around her polar opposite.
Fiction
The May House by Jilliam Cantor
Three adult sisters inherit a beach house on the condition they spend one week together every May, leading to the discovery of family secrets, unexpected romance, and a new understanding of each other.
Fiction
Beach House Rules by Kristy Woodson Harvey
When Charlotte Sitterly’s husband is arrested for a white-collar crime, she and her daughter Iris are locked out of their house by the FBI and–what’s potentially even worse–thrust into the spotlight of @JuniperShoresSocialite, the town’s snarky anonymous Instagram account. Desperate and cut off from her bank accounts, Charlotte moves to a former beachfront bed-and-breakfast that’s home to a community of single mothers and draws plenty of gossip in the small coastal North Carolina town.
Recommended Reading for Young Adults
Young Adult Fiction
My Roman Summer by Bruna De Luca
Sixteen-year-old Scottish-Italian Livia feels like an outsider, working in her ailing grandmother’s bar in Rome. Smug local boy, Guilio, works there too, and quickly becomes Livia’s nemesis. She is not going to be the cliché foreign girl who has a summer romance. But as Livia navigates family drama, newfound friendships and… Giulio, she starts to see the city (and herself) in a new light.
Young Adult Fiction
Change of Plans by Sarah Dessen
Finley has always felt most comfortable in someone else’s shadow. Fortunately, she’s got Colin, her magnetic boyfriend, who sweeps her along for activities, friendships, and future plans. Then she goes on a last-minute trip with her distant mom to a family vacation house that Finley didn’t know existed and is now about to be sold. Her mom is estranged from her own parents and siblings since leaving home for college, and it’s a novelty for Finley to see her aunts and cousins. There’s also the handful of teens who work at the Egg, her aunt’s diner, and make up a found family of their own–including undeniably handsome guitarist Ben. Then her relationship with Colin goes into freefall, and Finley’s roadmap for life after high school is gone. She has no choice but to live, for the first time, without plans.
Young Adult Fiction
Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home. People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.
Recommended Reading for Children
Board Book
Good Night Beach by Adam Gamble
The beach is just waiting for your family to explore. Your toddler will discover a day of building sandcastles by the ocean, boating, swimming, exploring the seashore, waves, tidal pools, surfing, fishing, snorkeling, crabs, seagulls, picnics, campfires, sunsets, and much more.
Picture Book
Tuck Me In! by Nathan Pyle
It’s bedtime for beaches everywhere–and the Moon is ready to tuck them in. But when one shoreline snuggles up under the cozy blanket of the ocean…the other goes without cover!
Young Reader
Lulu and the Dog from the Sea by Hilary McKay
Lulu loves animals. When Lulu goes on vacation, she finds there’s a stray dog living on the beach. Everyone in the town thinks the dog is trouble. But Lulu is sure he just needs a friend. And that he’s been waiting for someone just like her.
Juvenile Fiction
A Day at the Beach by Gary D. Schmidt
Here’s what’s so cool about the beach. Kids are everywhere! Kids you know, kids you want to know. Wandering from one blanket to another, from one family to another. Somebody’s mom reads a fat summer novel. Somebody’s dad snores with an iPad on his chest. Babies cry. Girls laugh. Frisbee players whoop! Kites in the perfect blue sky. Some kids bodysurf. Some don’t even like the water. They build sand cities for their friends and sand jails for the grown-ups, and when the tide comes in everything gets washed away. Why can’t every day be a day at the beach?
Juvenile Non-Fiction
The Pacific Islands: A Moana Discovery Book by Paul Dichter
Join Moana and friends as they explore the colorful history and culture of the Pacific Islands. Learn about flora and fauna, village life, wayfaring, and more important STEM topics with the cast of Disney’s Moana!