Books

Summer reads for every adventure

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All year long, we look forward to summer. Summer gives us sun. It gives us get-togethers and the time we need to finally finish a book. But now that summer is here, where do we start?

Start with our summer reading guide: four lists, hand-picked to meet every bookish need, with both new and used copies available. Whether you need the inspiration of a self-help book to power through your annual goals, a little romance novel to lose yourself for a few hours, or a conversation starter from award-winning fiction for the next block party, we have you covered.

Choose your journey and let your summer reading adventure begin.

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For the Sun-soaked Romantic

Romance novels for every reader - whether beach side, poolside, or sprinkler-side
By Julia Quinn
Penelope Featherington has secretly adored her best friend's brother for what feels like forever. After half a lifetime of watching Colin Bridgerton from afar, she thinks she knows everything about him, until she stumbles across his deepest secret, and suddenly fears she doesn't know him at all.
By Sarah Adler
Former child star and die-hard romantic, Millie, is bound for Key West from Washington D.C., determined to fulfil a promise to her elderly best friend, Mrs. Nash, by reuniting her ashes with her long-lost love. And if this grand gesture also reassures a recently heartbroken Millie that love is real? All the better.
By Christina Lauren
Olive steels herself for the hell of the wedding, resolute and wearing a brave face. But when the entire wedding party falls ill with food poisoning, the only people unaffected are Olive and Ethan. Now there's a free honeymoon up for grabs, and Olive will be damned if Ethan gets to enjoy the paradise all on his own.
By Carley Fortune
Each summer, Lucy and Bridget return to Prince Edward Island. And each summer, Lucy vows that she won't fall back into Felix's embrace, until, inevitably, she does. But this summer is different. With Bridget facing the biggest crisis of her life, Lucy must join her for one last trip to the island.
By Gail Honeyman
Nothing is technically missing for Eleanor Oliphant, a socially awkward woman stuck in a carefully regimented life. That is, until she forms an unlikely friendship with an IT colleague and an elderly man, who help her heal from her troubled past and open her heart.

For the Scholastic Staycationer

Get up to speed with award-winning fiction and be the talk of the next block party
By Julian Barnes
This thrilling medley of stories begins with a contemporary account of Noah's Ark, before launching the reader into unexpected areas of human foibles, activities, and tendencies which cross both space and time.
By Donna Tartt
13-year-old Theo Decker survives an accident that kills his mother and he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Still tormented by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the murky underworld of art.
By Matt Haig
Nora Seed finds herself with a decision to make. The Midnight Library offers her the chance to change her life for a new one, undoing hardships and realizing her dreams, but it also calls on her to decide what makes life worth living in the first place.
By Kathryn Stockett
Three seemingly different women – Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter – come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. Why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times, and sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
By William Faulkner
Follow the tragedy of the Compsons, a family of Southern aristocrats and some of the most memorable characters in literature. Their lives are haunted by history and legacy, weaving a masterpiece that helped earn Faulkner the Nobel Prize.

For the Maritime Crime Sleuth

Add a touch of intrigue to your next cruise with these acclaimed mystery and thriller reads
By Nita Prose
Since her grandmother died a few months ago, 25-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all on her own. She throws herself into her work as a maid, until one day she enters the suite of the wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in the bed.
By Chris Whitaker
It is 1975 in Monta Clare, Missouri, and girls are disappearing. Patch, a local boy with one eye, saves a wealthy girl, but his heroism leaves heartache. As Patch, and those who care for him, search for answers, they uncover truths that could tear them apart.
By Jennifer McMahon
Seeking a simple life, Helen and Nate abandon suburbia to build their dream home on land with a dark history. In the process, Helen becomes obsessed with the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, and the house, haunted by the past, soon draws them into unimaginable danger.
By S. A. Cosby
Titus Crown, the first Black sheriff in Charon County, Virginia, is investigating a teacher's murder and the shooter's death when the investigation uncovers a serial killer hiding in the town's dark past.
By Kristen Perrin
Frances Adams spends her entire life trying to prevent her murder when it's foretold by a fortune-teller at an English country fair, only to be killed decades later. Now her great-niece must unravel the dark secrets to catch the killer.

For the Meditative Wilderness Explorer

Transform your camping adventure into a journey of self-discovery
with our self-help book selections
By Daniel Kahneman
Kahneman explores the two mental systems that shape our thoughts and decisions, exposing both the capabilities and biases of fast, intuitive thinking versus slower, more deliberative reasoning, with profound implications for personal and business decisions.
By Martha Beck
Beck presents a four-stage process that anyone can use to find integrity, and with it, a sense of purpose, emotional healing, and a life free of mental suffering. For Beck, much of what plagues us - people-pleasing and negative habits - point to being out of touch with what truly makes us feel whole.
By Gretchen Rubin
Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon on a bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realised. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.
By Carol S. Dweck
After decades of research, Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. People with a growth mindset - those who believe that abilities can be developed - are more likely to succeed than those with a fixed mindset.
By Brené Brown
Dr. Brené Brown, a research professor and thought leader on vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame, shares ten guideposts on the power of Wholehearted living - a way of engaging with the world from a place of worthiness.

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Books designed to improve one's self have been around for centuries and the genre, as we know it, began to take shape in the middle of the 19th century with a book aptly called "self-help" by a wonderfully named man called Samuel Smiles.
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By Chao Wang
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"Corpse." It's not the sweetest word in the dictionary but it is very functional. The word describes quite clearly that the living thing is no more. A human being is no longer human but a corpse. Corpse and cadaver have the same meaning but corpse is the more descriptive term. Stiff, cold, very dead.
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