Summer Reading Recommendations

It's really trendy to read contemporaries in the summer, and I admit, there's something about them that reminds me of summers when I was kid and my mom would take us to the library or the park or my sister and I and the neighborhood kids would have water gun fights. That's what all the best contemporaries should be reminiscent of. And that's the criteria I went for when looking for recommendations. This list is mostly contemporaries, but there is one historical fiction series. Enjoy these fun beachy reads!

Graffiti Moon and Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

  When I sat down to create this list, Cath Crowley's novels were the first to come to mind. They are summer incarnate, the kinds of chick lit-y YA I should hate but love despite everything- Aussie contemporaries can do that to me. I paired these books together because they have the same author, but I do prefer one to the other, and it's Graffiti Moon. I loved Graffiti Moon so much that it landed in my contemporary top five almost immediately after I read it. I wrote about this book at length, first in its own review, then in my wrap-up, then in my Five Favorites, and now here, so you're probably sick of seeing it. It's about a group of three boys and three girls who fall in love over the course of one summer night, and also about art and life and it's funny as all hell. I gave it a 9 out of 10. Words in Deep Blue is about a girl who, after losing her brother, moves in with her aunt and starts working at a bookstore with one of her childhood best friends. The two reconnect and find love while also trying to save the bookstore from going out of business. It's definitely not the kind of book I'd usually pick up, and it is a little cheesy and the two main characters sound almost exactly like each other, but it's such a cute romance, and solidified Cath Crowley's place as one of my newest favorite authors. It got a 9 out of 10. 

Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz

  Hannah Moskowitz isn't exactly a very popular author, and frankly, it seems like this is the only book of hers that has mostly positive reviews. I would say this novel is on par with The Lies About Truth, which I will write about more below. Both are beachy summer reads with a bit more depth to them then your usual summer books, but make no mistakes, they are romance heavy. Still, it does heavily evoke the feeling of summer, and I loved following the two families through these four summers at the beach, and the prose is beautiful. I mean, are there flaws, sure. Like, what 8 year old can read and comprehend Camus, even if The Stranger is a short book? But it's an enjoyable, quick read for those who want a bit more depth in their vacation reads. I gave it an 8 out of 10.

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

  I've written about this novel  before, first in my Five Favorites Contemporary list and then in my wrap-up as I reread it fairly recently. So I'll be short here. I first read this book in a New Jersey beach house my family rented one summer, and I loved it. It was so easy to fall in love with this beautiful, beautiful novel, and I can't believe how underrated it is. It's about a boy who gets playing cards in the mail with addresses written on them, telling him where to go in order to make people's lives better. That's a horrible summary, especially when this novel is one of my favorite books of all time. Highly, highly recommended. It got a 9.5 out of 10.

Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen

  No, this is not contemporary. But it is a damn good series following three flappers through the last summer of the Jazz Age. Cordelia, who has my least favorite plot line, discovers she is the long lost daughter of a famous bootlegger and moves to New York, where she finds and falls in love with two guys over the span of what seems like 3 weeks. Letty, her best friend, comes to New York with her in order to become a star (baby). She's okay, but I love her F Scott Fitzgerald-expy of a love interest. And lastly, there's my favorite brainless blond, Astrid, who's a flapper through and through, the daughter of an aging grand dame and one half of a relationship with Cordelia's brother, one so tumultuous it makes Scott and Zelda look downright compatible. This is the perfect beach read for any history lover, or maybe someone who just wants a bit of historical escapism. The writing's also a lot of fun, as it's written in that kind of Lost Generation style. Anna Godbersen's my favorite guilty pleasure author, and this series is the reason why, even though the last book is, in a word, a disappointment. The series got an average of an 7.5-8 out of 10 from me, with the first two books getting an 8, and the last book getting a 7.5. Those more interested in the 1890s might also be interested in her other series, The Luxe.

The Lies About Truth by Courtney C Stevens

This is another book that is summer. I read it on a cold, January day and, for the first and only time in my life, wished I lived in Florida. I wanted to hang out with Sadie and her friends, I wanted to play Pirates and Paintball, because it reminded me of when I was little and did all of that stuff with my friends. This book called forth some of the strongest feelings of nostalgia I've ever felt, which is especially amazing from a book I had no strong childhood connections with. So what is this book about? It's about a girl whose group of formally inseparable friends have split up after a bad car accident in which one of them ended up dead. It's about her reconnecting with her friends, them all going through the grief process in their own way, and how to attain forgiveness when the one person who you need it from is dead. It's a sweet, perfect contemporary, and one that made my Favorite Books of 2016 list. I gave it an 8.5-9 out of 10.

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

  The Boy in the Black Suit is one of those books that seemed to be everywhere when it first came out, always on the tops of shelves or its cover on display in bookstores and libraries. But it seemed like nobody's ever actually read it. Me included. It took me over a year to pick this one up, and when I did, I loved it. Basically, it's about a boy named Matt whose mother died recently, and he needs to get a job because his father fell into the bottle after her death. So he gets a job at the neighborhood funeral home, befriending the guy in charge. He also meets a girl named Lovey, who he immediately becomes attracted to. His life's kind of a mess, but he's an endearing and lovable hero with a great cast of characters behind him. The book's also written in a New York African American patois, which I love because I love books written like that, and it's just really, really good. I gave it an 8 out of 10.

The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner

  This book pairs nicely with the above one, in case you were wondering. Both are very different takes on the funeral home plot line (funeral homes are one of my favorite places for books to be set, as I have a very dark sense of humor), and this one is a bit creepier. The Dead I Know, like Burial Rites, is one of those favorite books in retrospect, and it contains one of my absolute favorite male leads in the form of Aaron Rowe, who is a sleepwalker suffering from reoccurring nightmares he can't figure out. He takes a job with a funeral director and finds himself connecting with the family of the funeral director while trying to understand his dreams. It's dark and funny and one of Australia's most underrated exports. I gave it an 8.5 out of 10.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and The Haters by Jesse Andrews

  I grouped these books together because they're both by Jesse Andrews. Like Cath Crowley's books above, I do like one over the other, but in this case it's a clearer distinction as I much prefer Me and Earl and the Dying Girl over The Haters. That being said, Both are laugh out loud funny books, one about a girl dying of cancer, a boy whose mom is making him become friends with her because, again, she's dying, and his best friend, Earl, who has serious anger management problems. Despite this, it's both funny and deep at the same time, and also not The Fault in Our Stars, which is always a plus. It even made the bottom of my Best Of 2016 list, and I gave it an 8.5 out of 10. The Haters is basically the book version of One Time at Band Camp, in which the usual YA trio of two guys and a girl break out of jazz camp and form a band. It's not as great as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl- it doesn't hit as hard and I never really liked any of the characters- but it's still funny and almost Spinal Tap-esque. I'm sure music nerds would love it. I gave it a 7 out of 10 (more like out of 11).

So what kinds of books do you like to read in the summer? Do you agree with any of these choices? Let me know in the comment section below!