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120 Book Recommendations for Every Summer Reading Mood

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Believe it or not, summer is almost here — at least, if you’re in the northern hemisphere. That means celebrating the only way readers know how: by building an ambitious summer reading TBR. But what exactly is a “summer read”? That’s a topic hotly (get it?) debated on the bookish internet. See also: beach reads, vacation reads, etc. For some people, summer reading means fluffy romances. Others pick up blood-soaked thrillers to keep them glued to the page. And for those who get more time off in the summer, it can be the perfect time to dive into some difficult and meaty nonfiction.

With such a wide range of summer readers, how can you put together a summer reading recommendation list? Goodreads has a strategy: recommending books based on the kind of summer reader you are. They’ve put together a list of 120 book recommendations based on categories from “The Jet-Setting Reader” to “The Deep-Focus Reader” to “The Lifelong Learner Reader” and more. Here are just a few of their recommendations by category.

The Very Literal Summer Reader:

Just For the Summer Cover

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

One Summer in Savannah by Terah Shelton Harris

28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe

That Summer Feeling by Bridget Morrissey

Summer by Ali Smith

The Jet-Setting Reader:

cover of Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

The Trackers by Charles Frazier

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler

The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack

The Deep-Focus Reader:

Babel book cover

Ours by Phillip B. Williams

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Babel by R.F. Kuang

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The Summer Lovin’ Reader:

cover of You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

Only For The Week by Natasha Bishop


Check out all 120 summer reading recommendations in 15 summer reader categories at Goodreads.

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