In Episode 8 of our Shelf Help podcast, librarians Clare and Stephanie discuss some of their picks for summer reading (for adults) for this year. Below is a list of the titles they discussed, as well as some they didn't have time to discuss. As a friendly reminder--please don't bring hardcover books to the beach! (The plastic covers get full of sand, and then we have to replace them.) Luckily, many of these titles are available in paperback editions or as e-books! If none of these strike your fancy (or have a holds list that seems endless), feel free to ask any reference librarian for suggestions, either by visiting or calling the reference desk, via our online chat service, or via this form.
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How to Mars
by David Ebenbach For the six lucky scientists selected by the Destination Mars! corporation, a one-way ticket to Mars--in exchange for a lifetime of research--was an absolute no-brainer. The incredible opportunity was clearly worth even the most absurdly tedious screening process. Perhaps worth following the strange protocols in a nonsensical handbook written by an eccentric billionaire. Possibly even worth their constant surveillance, the video of which is carefully edited into a ratings-bonanza back on Earth. But when perfectly good equipment begins to fail, the Marsonauts are faced with a possibility that their training just cannot explain. Irreverent, poignant, romantic, and perfectly weird, David Ebenbach's debut science-fiction outing, like a mission to Mars, is an incredible trip you will never forget. Also available as an e-book in Hoopla. |
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Next year in Havana
by Chanel Cleeton Havana, 1958: The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba's high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country's growing political unrest--until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary... Miami, 2017: Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa's last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth. Arriving in Havana, more family history comes to light, and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she'll need the lessons of her grandmother's past to help her understand the true meaning of courage--and what it means to be Cuban. Also available as an e-book and an e-audiobook in Overdrive/Libby. |
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Black water sister
by Zen Cho When Jessamyn Teoh starts hearing a voice in her head, she chalks it up to stress. Closeted, broke and jobless, she and her parents are moving back to Malaysia--a country she last saw when she was a toddler. She soon learns the new voice isn't even hers, it's the ghost of her estranged grandmother. In life, Ah Ma was a spirit medium, avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she's determined to settle a score against a business magnate who has offended the god-and she's decided Jess is going to help her do it, whether Jess wants to or not. Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business, but dealing with her grandmother is just as complicated. Also available as an e-book via partner network SAILS in Overdrive/Libby. |
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The girl with the louding voice : a novel
by Abi Daré Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a "louding voice": the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni's father sells her to be the third wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir. When Adunni runs away to the city, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless slave, Adunni is told, by words and deeds, that she is nothing. But while misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. Also available as an e-book and e-audiobook in Overdrive/Libby. |
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A master of djinn
by P. Djèlí Clark In 1912 Cairo, a new world where the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities maintains an uneasy peace, the Ministry’s youngest agent, Fatima, must stop an imposter who threatens to tear apart the very fabric of this new Egyptian society. Also available as an e-book in Overdrive/Libby. |
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That Summer
by Jennifer Weiner While trying to pinpoint the root of her dissatisfaction with her life, Daisy Shoemaker begins receiving misdirected emails meant for another woman and starts living vicariously through her until she discovers that their connection was not completely accidental. Also available as an e-book and e-audiobook in Overdrive/Libby. |
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The heiress : the revelations of Anne de Bourgh
by Molly Greeley As a baby, Anne de Bourgh was prescribed laudanum by her doctor, and now the young woman must take the opium-heavy syrup every day. Growing up confined to her father's mansion, Anne had few companions except her cousins, including Fitzwilliam Darcy, whom she is meant to marry. When her father dies unexpectedly, leaving her his vast fortune, Anne has a shocking moment of clarity. In a frenzy of desperation, Anne discards her laudanum and flees. Gone are her hallucinations and lethargy, now replaced by a keen awareness of her own inexperience in the ways of the world. Anne must forge a new identity for herself, learning to navigate high society and the heartbreak of forbidden love. Also available as an e-book in Overdrive/Libby. |
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The house in the cerulean sea
by TJ Klune Given a curious classified assignment to evaluate the potential risks posed by six supernatural orphans, a case worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth bonds with an enigmatic caregiver who hides dangerous secrets. Also available as an e-book in Overdrive/Libby and as an e-audiobook in Hoopla. |
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Princess Floralinda and the Forty-flight Tower
by Tamsyn Muir When the witch built the forty-flight tower, she made very sure to do the whole thing properly. Each flight contains a dreadful monster, ranging from a diamond-scaled dragon to a pack of slavering goblins. Should a prince battle his way to the top, he will be rewarded with a golden sword and the lovely Princess Floralinda. But no prince has managed to conquer the first flight yet, let alone get to the fortieth. In fact, the supply of fresh princes seems to have quite dried up... |
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The giver of stars
by Jojo Moyes Volunteering for Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library in small-town Kentucky, an English bride joins a group of independent women whose commitment to their job transforms the community and their relationships. Also available as an e-book via partner network NOBLE and as an e-audiobook via partner network OCLN in Overdrive/Libby. |
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We ride upon sticks
by Quan Barry Nearly three centuries after their coastal community’s witch trials, the women athletes of the 1989 Danvers Falcons hockey team combine individual and collective talents with 1980s iconography to storm their way to the state finals. Also available as an e-book and as an e-audiobook via partner network NOBLE in Overdrive/Libby. |
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The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo : a novel
by Taylor Jenkins Reid When an aging and reclusive Hollywood icon selects an unknown magazine reporter to write her life story, the baffled journalist forges deep ties with the actress during a complicated interview process that exposes their tragic common history. Also available as an e-book and as an e-audiobook in Overdrive/Libby. |
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The last thing he told me : a novel
by Laura Dave After her husband disappears, Hannah Hall quickly realizes he isn’t who he said he was and that his 16-year-old daughter, who wants nothing to do with her, may hold the key to figuring out his true identity. Also available as an e-book and an e-audiobook in Overdrive/Libby. |
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If I had your face : a novel
by Frances Cha In Seoul, South Korea, four young women make their way in a world defined by impossibly high standards of beauty, secret salons catering to wealthy men, strict social hierarchies and K-pop fan mania. Also available as an e-book via partner network CLAMS and as an e-audiobook in Overdrive/Libby. |
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Shadow and bone
by Leigh Bardugo Orphaned by the Border Wars, Alina Starkov is taken to become the protegé of the mysterious Darkling, who trains her to join the magical elite in the belief that she is the Sun Summoner, who can destroy the monsters of the Fold. Also available as an e-book in Overdrive/Libby. |
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Broken (in the best possible way)
by Jenny Lawson The award-winning humorist and author of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened shares candid reflections on such topics as her experimental treatment for depression, her escape from three bears, and her business ideas for Shark Tank. Also available as an e-book and as an e-audiobook in Overdrive/Libby. |
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The ground breaking : an American city and its search for justice
by Scott Ellsworth In the late spring of 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma, erupted into the worst single incident of racial violence in American history. Over the course of sixteen hours, mobs of white men and women looted and burned to the ground a prosperous African American community, known today as Black Wall Street. More than one thousand homes and businesses were destroyed, and scores, possibly hundreds, of people lost their lives. Then, for nearly a half century, the story of the massacre was actively suppressed. Official records disappeared, history textbooks ignored the tragedy, and citizens were warned to keep silent. Now nearly one hundred years after that horrible day, historian Scott Ellsworth returns to his hometown to tell the untold story of how America's foremost hidden racial tragedy was finally brought to light, and the unlikely cast of characters that made it happen. Also available as an e-book and e-audiobook in Overdrive/Libby. |
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A walk around the block : stoplight secrets, mischievous squirrels, manhole mysteries & other stuff you see every day (and know nothing about)
by Spike Carlsen The best-selling author of A Splintered History of Wood reveals the science behind an everyday walk in his hometown, explaining how each biological and created component of an urban landscape impacts and shapes its life. Also available as an e-book and as an e-audiobook in Overdrive/Libby. |
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Unorthodox : the scandalous rejection of my Hasidic roots
by Deborah Feldman Traces the author's upbringing in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, describing the strict rules that governed her life, arranged marriage at the age of seventeen, and the birth of her son, which led to her plan to leave and forge her own path in life. For fans of Tara Westover's Educated. Also available as an e-book and as an e-audiobook in Overdrive/Libby. |