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Ideas for good summer reads

July 30, 2025

Whether you prefer a paperback or a kindle version, sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming trying to choose a good book to take away with you. It’s often the front cover that sells it to me, I don’t know if I should admit that or not. There’s lots of places/people that have done all the searching for you. Here are some good places I’ve found with suggested top reads for the summer and if you scroll down to the bottom you’ll find my own list of top 10 reads for this summer including some books I’ve already read and some I’m hoping to.

Summer reading lists

  • Waterstones - Best paper back reads. 25% off at the moment too until 31st July with code ‘SUMMER25’

  • The Independent - Best new books to read.

  • Booker prize best 20 summer reads

  • Amazon - List of top holiday reads.

  • Penguin Random House - Beach reads.

  • Goodreads - The hit books of the year (so far)

My summer reads, in no particular order (with stolen book descriptions):

  • There are rivers in the sky - Elif Shafak

Storytelling that spans centuries and continents, this is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water.

  • You are here - David Nicholls

A new love story by beloved bestseller David Nicholls, You Are Here is a novel of first encounters, second chances and finding the way home.

  • Lessons in chemistry - Bonnie Garmus

Meet Elizabeth Zott: a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show.

  • The Husbands - Holly Gramazio

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realising that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?

  • Pineapple Street - Jenny Jackson

Set in Brooklyn Heights, this story is about the three wealthy Stockton siblings, and Sasha, the small-town outsider who marries into the family. There’s plenty of secrets, repressed resentments, and snarky judgements.

  • No more tears - Gardiner Harris

An incendiary, deeply reported exposé of Johnson & Johnson, one of America’s oldest and most trusted pharmaceutical companies—from an award-winning investigative journalist.

  • Careless people - Sarah Wynn Williams

A personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade—told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.

  • The Story of a Heart - Rachel Clarke

Follow the journey of two children, nine-year-old Keira Ball and Max Johnson, whose lives become inextricably linked when Keira’s tragic death becomes Max’s chance of survival.

  • Good dirt - Charmaine Wilkerson

The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel.

  • The F**k it list - Melanie Cantor

Daisy Settle has it all. A successful interior design firm, a happy relationship, a beautiful house and adoring friends and family. The only piece left to complete the puzzle is a baby. And even that finally seems within reach. That is, until she finds her boyfriend is a cheat.

Now Daisy is 40, alone and in a world that seems built for couples. Time for a F*** It List!

Any summer reads you’d recommend? Add them in the comments.

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