The Olve's Summer Reading List
The first days of summer are here—time to start planning your summer vacation. Here’s what you need to read by the sea, at the campground, on a whirlwind trip overseas, or on an escape to your own backyard.
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Funny Story by Emily Henry Emily Henry is back with a story of opposite attraction and fake relationships. Funny Story tells the tale of Daphne, who was engaged to Peter—until they moved to his hometown in Michigan, where he realized he was in love with Petra, his childhood friend. The polished Daphne decides to move in with Petra’s ex, the disorganized and slightly unkempt Miles. Daphne and Miles then fake a relationship until they potentially, maybe, you’ll-have-to-read-to-find-out-if-they make it. |
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The Summer Pact by Emily Griffin If you need a break from love and crime stories, try The Summer Pact, a novel about friendship. Four friends from vastly different places and with vastly different personalities meet in college. When tragedy strikes before graduation, they make a pact to always be there for one another, no matter what. A decade later, one of them is at a difficult crossroads and calls in a favor. Grief and redemption are big themes of this book. It’s not lighthearted reading, exactly, but it is deeply heartfelt. |
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The Memo by Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling Who among us hasn't spent some time wondering what if? Jenny Green certainly has, and with her life in disarray and a milestone college reunion coming up, the thoughts about how things might have been different seem louder and more urgent than ever. But while life famously comes without a handbook, when Jenny arrives on campus she's pulled into an expected situation and given an actual memo on how to find all the success of which she ever dreamed. But is finding a shortcut actually the answer? |
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The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren The Paradise Problem, about a grocery-chain heir and a struggling artist who fake their relationship to cash in on the heir’s sweet, sweet inheritance. But being rich isn’t the same as being loved, and soon, Liam and Anna have to reckon with just what the money means to them—and how much they mean to each other. |
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This Summer will be Different by Carley Fortune So the trip to the Big Apple didn’t pan out. Pick up the latest Austen update, set in New York’s Chinatown. Hong Kong investor Darcy Wong has purchased a decrepit but beloved community recreation center; his real estate agent is the striving mother of this adaptation’s Elizabeth, a.k.a. LB, one of five sisters Mrs. Chen plans to launch out of meager circumstances. Sparks fly as LB goes to war against Darcy for the future of her neighborhood—and love inevitably ensues. |
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Good Material by Dolly Alderton Jen ends things with Andy, which pitches him into a lovelorn fit, searching for the why of it all. Andy, 35, is a stand-up comedian whose agent is ghosting him and who can’t find friends who have time for him. (They’re dedicating all their previous hangout time to raising their young families.) This one is for those who love Nora Ephron, Nick Hornby, and Hugh Grant’s early work |
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Honey
by Isabel Banta Honey follows Amber Young through the turn of the millennium as she rises from girl group member to solo sensation. But like similar icons of the era—Britney Spears comes most frequently to mind throughout Honey—Amber soon realizes just how little control she wields over her own persona. This is a delicious, enthralling debut, one that treats its complex subject matter with the humanity such stars are only occasionally offered in reality. |
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A Thousand Times Before Me
by Asha Thanki A multigenerational tale that travels from the partition of India and Pakistan to the present-day United States, this sweeping, moving saga follows the women in one magical family. They have the ability to access their ancestors’ memories through an inherited tapestry, a gift that’s both a blessing and a burden |
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