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Summer Reading (Adults)

Explore the oceans of possibilities with these captivating summer reads for adults.

Dark, salt, clear : life in a Cornish fishing village by Lamorna Ash

"From an adventurous and discerning new voice reminiscent of Robert Macfarlane, a captivating portrait of a community eking out its living in a coastal landscape as stark and storied as it is beautiful. Before arriving in Newlyn, a Cornish fishing villageat the end of the railway line, Lamorna Ash was told that no fisherman would want a girl joining an expedition. Weeks later, the only female on board a trawler called the Filadelfia, she is heading out to sea with the dome of the sky above and the blackwaves below. Newlyn is a town of dramatic cliffs, crashing tides, and hardcore career fishermen-complex and difficult heroes who slowly open up to Ash about their lives and frustrations, first in the condensed space of the boat, and then in the rough pubsashore. Determined to know the community on its own terms, Ash lodges in a spare room by the harbor and lets the village wash over her in all of its clamoring unruliness, thumping machinery, and tangled nets-its history, dialect, and centuries-old industry. Moving between Ash's surprising, transformational journey aboard the Filadelfia and her astute observations of Newlyn's landscape and people, Dark, Salt, Clear is an assured work of indelible characters and a multilayered travelogue through a landscape both lovely and merciless. Ash's adventurous glint, her delicate observations, and her willingness to get under the skin of a place call to mind the work of Annie Dillard, Barry Lopez, and Robert Macfarlane. This is an evocative journey and a fiercely auspicious debut"--

Death of an Italian chef by Lee Hollis

"The charming coastal town of Bar Harbor, Maine, has a fancy new Italian restaurant--and a nasty new murder...As the food and cocktails columnist for the Island Times, it's Hayley Powell's job to stay on top of the latest eateries in town. Just in time for the summer tourist season, Chef Romeo, a successful restaurateur from New York City, has opened an establishment called--naturally--Romeo's. But between his over-the-top temperament and his no-holds-barred diet, Chef Romeo may not live through the grand opening. When the chef actually does suffer a mild heart attack, he ends up sharing a hospital room with Hayley's brother Randy, who's there for gall bladder surgery. Chef Romeo has tasted Hayley's cooking and asks her to take over his restaurant while he's laid up. But this temporary gig may turn permanent, after the chef dies from complications. Only thing is, Randy tells a different story. He might have been sedated, but Hayley's bro swears he saw someone come into their room and put Romeo out of his misery. Now it's up to Hayley to find the person who had no reservations about killing the chef..."--

Expedition Deep Ocean : the first descent to the bottom of all five of the worlds oceans by Josh Young

"Expedition Deep Ocean tells the inside story of this exploration of one of the most unforgiving and mysterious places on our planet, including the site of the Titanic wreck and the little-understood Hadal Zone. The expedition pushed technology to the limits, mapped hidden landscapes, discovered previously unknown life forms and began to piece together how life in the deep oceans affects our planet--but it was far from easy"--

Love your life : a novel by Sophie Kinsella

"Call Ava romantic, but she thinks love should be found in the real world, not on apps that filter men by height, job, or astrological sign. She believes in feelings, not algorithms. So after a recent breakup and dating app debacle, she decides to put love on hold and escapes to a remote writers' retreat in coastal Italy. She's determined to finish writing the novel she's been fantasizing about, even though it means leaving her close-knit group of friends and her precious dog, Harold, behind. At the retreat, she's not allowed to use her real name or reveal any personal information. When the neighboring martial arts retreat is canceled and a few of its attendees join their small writing community, Ava, now going by "Aria," meets "Dutch," a man who seems too good to be true. The two embark on a baggage-free, whirlwind love affair, cliff-jumping into gem-colored Mediterranean waters and exploring the splendor of the Italian coast--stretches of beaches, architectural wonders, aromas of olive groves and lemon trees, signature orecchiette pasta, and rainbow-colored houses that line the shore. Things seem to be perfect for Aria and Dutch. But then their real identities--Ava and Matt--must return to London. As their fantasy starts to fade, they discover just how different their personal worlds are. From food choices to annoying habits to sauna etiquette . . . are they compatible in anything? And then there's the prickly situation with Matt's ex-girlfriend, who isn't too eager to let him go. As one mishap follows another, it seems while they love each other, they just can't love each other's lives. Can they reconcile their differences to find one life together?"--

Malibu rising : a novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid

"Set against the backdrop of the Malibu surf culture of the 1980s [this book] follows the daughter of a famous singer who, once she finds fame, must grapple with the fact that her father abandoned her and her siblings when they were young"--

People we meet on vacation by Emily Henry

"When Poppy met Alex, there was no spark, no chemistry, and no reason to think they'd ever talk again. Alex is quiet, studious, and destined for a future in academia. Poppy is a wild child who only came to U of Chicago to escape small-town life. But after sharing a ride home for the summer, the two form a surprising friendship. After all, who better to confide in than someone you could never, ever date? Over the years, Alex and Poppy's lives take them in different directions, but every summer the two find their way back to each other for a magical weeklong vacation. Until one trip goes awry, and in the fallout, they lose touch. Now, two years later, Poppy's in a rut. Her dream job, her relationships, her life--none of it is making her happy. In fact, the last time she remembers feeling truly happy was on that final, ill-fated Summer Trip. The answer to all her problems is obvious: She needs one last vacation to win back her best friend. As a hilariously disastrous week unfolds and tensions rise, Poppy and Alex are forced to confront what drove them apart--and decide what they're willing to risk for the chance to be together"--

Remarkably bright creatures : a novel by Shelby Van Pelt

"For fans of A Man Called Ove, a luminous debut novel about a widow's unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium-and the truths she finally uncovers about her son's disappearance 30 years ago"--

Summer on the Bluffs : a novel by Sunny Hostin

"Welcome to Oak Bluffs, the most exclusive black beach community in the country. Known for its gingerbread Victorian-style houses and modern architectural marvels, this picturesque town hugging the sea is a mecca for the crème de la crème of black society...Thirty years ago, Amelia Vaux Tanner and her husband built a house high on the bluffs, a cottage they named Chateau Laveau. For decades, "Ama" played host to American presidents, Wall Street titans, and cultural icons. But her favorite guests have always been her three "goddaughters:" Esperanza "Perry" Soto, a beautiful, talented Afro-Latina lawyer with Ama's strong, yet guarded personality; Olivia Jones, a gifted Wall Street analyst with Ama's brilliant, logical mind; and Billie Hayden, a gifted marine biologist and rule-breaker with Ama's courageous free spirit. Growing up, these three goddaughters from different backgrounds came together each summer at Chateau Laveau. As adults, the cottage is a place this trio of successful yet very different women go to escape...This summer on the Bluffs, however, will be different. An era is ending: Ama, now nearing seventy-one, is moving to the south of France to reunite with her college sweetheart. She has invited Perry, Olivia, and Billy to spend one last golden summer together with her the way they did when they were kids. And when fall comes, she is going to give the house to one of them. Each of the women wants the house desperately. Each is grappling with a secret she fears will hurt her and her chances. By the end of summer, old ties will fray, new bonds will be created, and these three found sisters will discover they aren't the only ones with something to hide. Ama has a few secrets of her own. What she has to give them is far more than property. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, she will tell these surrogate daughters she fiercely loves and protects everything they never knew they needed to know."--Dust jacket

The book of eels : our enduring fascination with the most mysterious creature in the natural world by Patrik Svensson

"Part H Is for Hawk, part The Soul of an Octopus, The Book of Eels is both a meditation on the world's most elusive fish-the eel-and a reflection on the human condition"--

The bookshop of second chances : a novel by Jackie Fraser

"An utterly heartwarming debut novel filled with fresh starts, unexpected love, and Scottish charm, perfect for readers of Evvie Drake Starts Over. Thea Mottram is having a bad month. Her husband of nearly twenty years has just left her for one of her friends, and to top it off, she is let go from her office job--on Valentine's Day, of all days. Bewildered and completely lost, Thea doesn't know what to do. But when she learns that a distant great uncle in Scotland has passed away--leaving her his home and a hefty antique book collection--she decides to leave Sussex for a few weeks. Escaping to a small coastal town where no one knows her seems to be exactly what she needs. Almost instantly, Thea becomes enamored with the quaint cottage, comforted by its cozy rooms and shaggy, tulip-covered lawn. The locals in nearby Baldochrie are just as warm, quirky, and inviting. The only person she can't seem to win over is bookshop owner Edward Maltravers, to whom she hopes to sell her uncle's antique novel collection. His gruff attitude--fueled by an infamous, long-standing feud with his brother, a local Lord--tests Thea's patience. But bickering with Edward proves oddly refreshing and exciting, leading Thea to develop feelings she hasn't felt in a long time. As she follows a thrilling (yet terrifying) impulse to stay in Scotland indefinitely, Thea realizes that her new life may quickly become just as complicated as the one she was running from"--

The deep by Alma Katsu

"Surviving the sinking of the Titanic, Annie takes a job as a nurse on the Britannic before encountering a fellow survivor who forces her to reckon with past demons" --Provided by publisher

The dragonfly sea : a novel by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

"From the award-winning author of Dust comes a vibrant, stunningly global novel about a young woman struggling to find her place--a poignant exploration of fate, mortality, love, and loss. On the small island of Pate, off the coast of Kenya, lives a girl named Ayaana. She is solitary and stubborn--she and her mother, Munira, are outcasts from the insular local society--and her kitten is her main companion. When a wizened sailor named Muhidin, also an outsider, enters their lives, Ayaana receives what she has long hoped for: a father. But this makeshift family's happiness crumbles as Ayaana grows into adulthood and the threats against her begin to mount: from an Islamic extremist, from the black-clad strangers who kidnap Muhidin's son, from a human trafficker, from the simmering resentments of those around her. So when a contingent of cultural emissaries from China invite Ayaana abroad, she embarks on a dramatic ship's journey to the Far East, where she will make friends and enemies; be seduced by the mercurial scion of a powerful Turkish business family; be initiated into a world of intrigue and passion and high stakes; and, at last, find understanding where she least expects it. Her one constant remains her devotion to the sea, which pulls her across the globe in search of a place where she can love and be loved. The Dragonfly Sea is a transcendent, gloriously told story of adventure, fraught choices, and of the inexorable need for shelter in a dangerous world"--

The guest list : a novel by Lucy (Novelist) Foley

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It's a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride's oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn't wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

The house at the edge of night : a novel by Catherine Banner

The Island of sea women by Lisa See

Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village's all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook's mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger. Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook's differences are impossible to ignore. The Island of Sea Women is an epoch set over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War and its aftermath, through the era of cell phones and wet suits for the women divers. Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires. Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, and she will forever be marked by this association. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother's position leading the divers in their village. Little do the two friends know that after surviving hundreds of dives and developing the closest of bonds, forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point.

The last pirate of New York : a ghost ship, a killer, and the birth of a gangster nation by Rich Cohen

The water dancer : a novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates

"Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage--and lost his mother and all memory of her when he was a child--but he is also gifted with a mysterious power. Hiram almost drowns when he crashes a carriage into a river, but is saved from the depths by a force he doesn't understand, a blue light that lifts him up and lands him a mile away. This strange brush with death forces a new urgency on Hiram's private rebellion. Spurred on by his improvised plantation family, Thena, his chosen mother, a woman of few words and many secrets, and Sophia, a young woman fighting her own war even as she and Hiram fall in love, he becomes determined to escape the only home he's ever known. So begins an unexpected journey into the covert war on slavery that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia's proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the deep South to dangerously utopic movements in the North. Even as he's enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, all Hiram wants is to return to the Walker Plantation to free the family he left behind--but to do so, he must first master his magical gift and reconstruct the story of his greatest loss. This is a bracingly original vision of the world of slavery, written with the narrative force of a great adventure. Driven by the author's bold imagination and striking ability to bring readers deep into the interior lives of his brilliantly rendered characters, The Water Dancer is the story of America's oldest struggle--the struggle to tell the truth--from one of our most exciting thinkers and beautiful writers"--

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

"A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance. Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it's a pleasant existence. Until the men show up. Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he's under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake: Never underestimate a woman. When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her-hopefully proving, once and for all, that she's as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them"--

A family affair by Robyn Carr

When she sees a young, pregnant woman at her husband's funeral, a mourning wife realizes that her husband's midlife crisis went a bit farther than she realized.

The boardwalk bookshop by Susan Mallery

Three best friends brought together by chance, bookshop owners Bree, Mikki, and Ashley each get a chance for a new beginning and a love to last a lifetime when they fight for what they really want.

The Kennedy debutante by Kerri Maher

"A riveting novel following the exploits of Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, the little known and rebellious daughter of America's royal family. London, 1938. Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy has already taken England by storm, when she is presented to the king and queen. The effervescent It Girl of London society since her father was named the ambassador, Kick moves in rarified circles--dancing and drinking champagne at the hottest nightclubs and attending the horse races with nobility. One such acquaintance is Billy Hartington, the future Duke of Devonshire. Though initially reticent, the tall, handsome man sweeps Kick off her feet, but the obstacles to their love are many. Kick is a self-proclaimed triple threat--American, Catholic, and of Irish descent--all unacceptable to such a traditional family as Billy's. And as WWII looms, she is ripped away from the country she has grown to love and the man who has stolen her heart. Returning to the States, Kick throws herself into making a difference. Becoming a journalistgives her a voice--and a chance to step out of the shadows of her accomplished brothers, including the charismatic Jack. Then as America is drawn into the war, Kick will discover where her true loyalties lie--with family or with love.."--

The lost summers of Newport : a novel by Beatriz Williams

"Historical fiction novel set in Newport, Rhode Island across multiple decades, from bestselling author trio"--

Summer on the island by Brenda Novak

Returning to a small island off the coast of Florida to help her mother settle the family estate, Marlow Madsen finds her idyllic getaway shattered when her father's will reveals a shocking secret that tarnishes his impeccable reputation and everything she thought she knew about her family.

Summer love : a novel by Nancy Thayer

"Old secrets come to light when four friends gather on Nantucket for a life-changing reunion in this heartwarming novel of love and self-discovery by New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer. "--

A walk along the beach : a novel by Debbie Macomber

"Two sisters facing challenging odds must rely on each other more than ever before in a gorgeous new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber. Inseparable since the sudden loss of their mother as teenagers, Willa and Harper Lakey are perfect opposites. Quiet, demure Willa has always admired Harper's sense of fearlessness and adventure, but enjoys her peaceful routine as a café owner in their quaint, coastal hometown of Oceanside, Washington. When a handsome customer shows interest in Willa, Harper urges her sister to take a chance on love--something totally out of Willa's comfort zone. But just as Willa begins to explore the possibilities, Harper receives crushing news that threatens to bring everything to a screeching halt. Though the time ahead may be trying, little do Willa and Harper know that it will bring about the most beautiful rewards"--

Below the edge of darkness : a memoir of exploring light and life in the deep sea by Edith Widder

"Edith Widder grew up determined to become a marine biologist. But after complications from a surgery during college caused her to go temporarily blind, she became fascinated by light as well as the power of optimism. Her focus turned to oceanic bioluminescence, a scientific frontier in our last earthly one, and with little promise of funding or employment she took a leap into the darkness. On her first visit to the deep ocean, in an experimental diving suit that took her to a depth of eight hundred feet,she turned off the suit's lights and witnessed breathtaking explosions of bioluminescent activity. Concerns about her career went out the window. She just wanted to know one thing: Why was there so much light down there? Below the Edge of Darkness takesreaders deep into our planet's oceans as Widder pursues her questions about one of the most important and widely used forms of communication in nature. In the process, she reveals hidden worlds and a dazzling menagerie of behaviors and animals, from microbes to leviathans, many never-before-seen or, like the legendary Giant Squid, never-before-filmed in its deep-sea lair. Alongside Widder, we experience life-and-death equipment malfunctions and witness breakthroughs in technology and understanding, all ofit set against a growing awareness of the deteriorating health of our largest and least understood ecosystem"--

Black flags, blue waters : the epic history of America's most notorious pirates by Eric Jay Dolin

Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, this audiobook reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy's 'Golden Age.' That spanned the late 1600s through the early 1700s. Lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. Bestselling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them

Summer at the Cape by RaeAnne Thayne

"As the older sibling to identical twins Violet and Lily, Cami Porter was always the odd sister out. The divide grew even wider when their parents split up--while the twins stayed in Cape Sanctuary with their free-spirited mother, Rosemary, fourteen-year-old Cami moved to LA with her attorney father. Nearly twenty years later, when Cami gets the terrible news that Lily has drowned saving a child's life, her mother begs her to return home to help untangle the complicated estate issues her sister left behind. Navigating their own strained relationship, Cami readjusts to the family and community she hasn't known for decades, including the neighbor who stands in the way of her late sister's dream, while Violet grieves the loss of her twin and struggles to figure out who she is now, without her other half, as the little girl Lily saved pulls her back into the orbit of the man she once loved"--

Recipient of the National Medal, the nation's highest honor for libraries.