Summer Reading List 2024
12 books that I am adding to my TBR list this summer and 12 Hidden Shelf titles that you should add to yours!
“The Last Fire Season is an act of gorgeous excavation. Peeling back the American myth of wilderness, Martin interrogates the complicity of inhabiting a human body within a world grievously damaged by human hands. Clear eyed and stunning, Martin’s words are both a love letter and eulogy to the land, bearing witness to the complex human truth that we can deeply care for something even as we violate it.”
—Tessa Hulls, author of Feeding Ghosts
Hidden Shelf Related Title:
The Lightning Within Us, Mary Emerick
Set in the isolated mountains of central Idaho and on the rim of Hells Canyon in eastern Oregon. It is 1993, but for Lina Hudson, time stopped in the tinder-dry summer of 1978.
Fifteen years ago, two girls hiked up a mountain and only one returned. Now Lina lives in isolation, haunted by the memory of her role in her friend Cassie’s death. But when she receives what appears to be a postcard from a dead woman, she realizes that everything she remembers about that night is wrong.
To know the truth, she must return to the town that was destroyed by fire and to the long memories of the people who live there, whether it is safe to do so or not.
“Veera Hiranandani’s storytelling is exquisite and compelling. For Nisha, like so many of us, home is a complicated place and this heartbreaking and hopeful novel reminds us that even in places where there is great loss and strife, there is deep joy, renewed faith. The Night Diary is a treasure for young readers who are searching for their place in the world, who are determined to bring home with them wherever they go.”
—Renée Watson, Piecing Me Together
Hidden Shelf Related Title:
House Number 12 Block Number 3, Sana Balagamwala
Award-winning Pakistani-American author, Sana Balagamwala, beautifully chronicles a coming-of-age story that grapples with trauma, culture, love, and loss.
Set against Pakistan’s political change and upheaval in the late 20th century, House Number 12, Block Number 3 is narrated by the neoclassical yellow stone house in which the Rahmat family resides. As the family searches for the cause of their daughter’s mysterious illness, the house tries to absolve itself of the burden it feels of being privy to the real reason for the illness, but not being able to do anything about it.
“Percival Everett is a giant of American letters, and James is a canon-shatteringly great book. Unforgiving and compassionate, beautiful and brutal, a tragedy and a farce, this brilliant novel rewrites literary history to let us hear the voices it has long suppressed.”
—Hernan Diaz, author of Trust
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The Souls of Clayhatchee: A Southern Tale, Anthony Todd Carlise
An award-winning novel about family ties, generational racism, and a mysterious murder that casts is shadow on a man fulfilling his mother’s dying wish.
James Kingsman hated the South.
Raised by parents who had migrated north from Alabama years before his birth, he had heard their personal stories of racism, injustice, fear. At best, he carried a certain disdain for those who stayed behind, no matter how much the South had changed.
When James reluctantly agrees to his mother’s last wish to be buried in hometown of Clayhatchee, Alabama, his notions about southern relatives are turned upside down as he makes long-hidden discoveries about his parents. His father did not migrate north, he escaped. His mother kept an even deeper secret, one of rage and beauty.
Some ghosts cannot stay buried.
“Madwoman is brilliant. The rare kind of book that lives in your bones, as riveting as it is intimate. This is emotional suspense at its best, but it’s also a chronicle of modern womanhood, an exploration of what mothers and daughters do to and for each other, and an ode to hope in the aftermath of trauma. Somehow, Bieker delivers all of this in a voice that is fresh, urgent, and darkly comic. A novel hasn’t consumed me like this in a very long time.”
Ashley Audrain, author of The Push and The Whispers
Hidden Shelf Related Title:
Out of the Water, Ann Marie Stewart
Out of the Water was awarded the Bronze Medal for Best Regional Fiction (Mountain-West) in the Independent Publishing Book Awards and named as a Finalist in Women’s Fiction in the National Indie Excellence Award.
Christy Award® winning author, Ann Marie Stewart delivers a powerful and heartfelt novel revealing five generations of secrets. In the search for healing and truth, a century of stories unravel from the stony cliffs of Ireland, to Boston, France, and Seattle.
With puzzling suspense, unforgettable characters and uncanny insight, Out of the Water is an intoxicating novel of motherhood, secrets, and the profound ramifications our decisions have. Readers will be left wondering: ultimately, is it always better to know the truth?
“Nethercott’s writing takes on the tone of timeless folklore, from fairy tales to urban legends to ghost stories. But what makes these stories read as true and familiar isn’t a trick of syntax. Instead, it’s Nethercott’s insightful exploration of the universal themes that classic stories are meant to capture. . . . [These themes] are all explored here with great sensitivity and almost always a surprising twist. . . . [Nethercott] has a great talent for taking personal pains and making them universal. A memorable story collection that makes the supernatural personal.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Hidden Shelf Related Title:
Swan Vanishing, Anna Tipton
Odile—the daughter of the sorcerer Rothbart—has spent her life caring for her sister, Odette, whose enchantment causes her to transform from a woman into a swan with every dawn.
Certainly, Odile wants the best for her sister, that Prince Siegfried might be the one to break the curse … and yet …
Anna Tipton’s vision of the Swan Lake fairy tale is a rare and compelling work blurring the border between reality and dream to create a gripping twist.
“To its last page, John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community presents not only the definitive history of an admirable American, but a gripping account of an American struggle for freedom that continues today.”
—Michael Ray Taylor, Chapter 16 and Nashville Scene
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Heidelberg of the Norfolk 17, Robert D. Gaines and Andrew Heidelberg
The true story of Andrew Heidelberg, who against incredible barriers, became the first African-American to play previously “white” high school football in the South. The story, as told by Andrew to Robert D. Gaines, covers his childhood in the racist South, the NAACP recruitment of children to integrate the white public schools, integration by The Norfolk 17 in 1959, and Andrew’s impact when he made and ultimately starred for the Norview High School football team.
“Written with uncanny grit and beauty, Bones Worth Breaking is as much a personal revelation as it is an American reckoning. Martinez’s prose at times left me breathless.”
—Liska Jacobs, author of The Pink Hotel
Hidden Shelf Related Title:
Not Enough, Ada
Witty and mixed-up high school senior, Rose Moon, suffers with unbridled anxiety as she struggles to cope with an increasingly jaded reality. Sarcasm, marijuana, and her best friend, Gabby Thomas, become Rose’s saving grace while trapped in a cycle of abuse with intoxicatingly handsome Devin Miller … the father of her unborn child.
“Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts is a treasure. A history, an homage, and a beautiful testament to Affrilachian people, foodways, traditions, and culture. Crystal Wilkinson is a writer of stunning prose and deep spirit who teaches us that cooking is essential to caring.”
—Imani Perry, National Book Award winning author of South to America
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Send Judah First: The Erased Life of an Enslaved Soul, Brian C. Johnson
A moving novel about 19th-century slavery in America. A young girl’s life is shattered when she is stolen from her African village in a midnight raid. Ruthlessly torn from her family to be beaten, chained, degraded, and enslaved in a heartless world she can barely comprehend. The slave ledger at Virginia’s Belle Grove Plantation only reveals that Judah was purchased to be the cook, gave birth to 12 children, and died in April 1836. But, like the other 276 faceless names entered in that ledger, Judah lived. Brian C. Johnson’s important work of historical fiction goes beyond what is recorded to portray the depth, humanity, and vulnerability of a beautiful soul all but erased by history.
“A detailed accounting of Griner’s harrowing journey through a Russian legal system known for its corruption . . . Read her book, a 300-plus page deep dive on an experience many of us wouldn’t have been able to recover from, and I suspect your empathy will grow − for her and all of humanity . . . The ripple effect in life is real, and if Griner’s honesty helps even a dozen readers see the world differently, that impact, her impact, will be felt for years. Griner’s book will get people talking to each other, and that’s when real change begins.”
—Lindsay Schnell, USA Today
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The Warden’s Son, Jerry Clapp
The Old Idaho Penitentiary comes roaring back to life with chilling tales from Jerry Clapp’s childhood, growing up as the warden’s son.
When Jerry Clapp’s father became warden of the Idaho State Penitentiary in 1945, the young boy quickly learned the rules and boundaries of roaming one of the most dangerous grounds in the West. Through his school years, Jerry would become the confidante to many a wild tale from friendly inmates—an old man serving life for multiple assassinations, a beautiful teenager in the women’s prison, and an incarcerated war hero who became a lifelong role model. These are the stories Jerry would tell his grandchildren—from chilling recollections of riots, escapes, and hangings to the profound remembrances of inmates, guards, and the warden.
“Beautifully written and intricate as a spider’s web, Weyward weaves an intergenerational tale of sorrow, love, and strength. Though separated by decades or even centuries, these three Weyward women―Altha, Violet, and Kate―are each other’s heritage and legacy, and the power they each possess pays tribute to the connections between women, nature, and family.”
––Sunyi Dean, author of The Book Eaters
Hidden Shelf Related Title:
Out of the Water, Ann Marie Stewart
“Ann Marie Stewart’s Out of the Water is a heartfelt, affecting story that centers on the kind of crisis in family life for which nobody can ever be prepared — and how courage, and especially enduring and courageous love, are the only things that can help us survive.” – Jacquelyn Mitchard, NYT bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean (Oprah’s Book Club) and The Good Son
“Moving, eloquent, and tender, Ann Marie Stewart’s novel Out of the Water follows the flood and ebb of five interconnected women seeking answers, wholeness, and their own definition of home.” – Jolina Petersheim, bestselling author of How the Light Gets In
“Front Country is the book we need at the time we need it: a beautifully written story about finding meaning in the face of despair and friendship in the unlikeliest of places. Give this novel to every young reader worried about the future of our fragile planet. They’ll come away grateful, hopeful, and truly inspired.”
―Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal–winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The One and Only Ivan
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Legend Keepers: The Chosen One, Bruce Smith
Legend Keepers: The Chosen One has won the Silver/2nd place award in the 2022 Feathered Quill Book Awards Program for both the Young Readers and Animal – Children’s/YA categories!
A debut middle-grade novel by wildlife biologist and award-winning science writer, Bruce L. Smith In a perilous place at the roof of the world, an orphaned mountain goat is rescued from certain death by a mysterious raven. Communication between a mountain goat and raven might seem strange. But what becomes more unreachable is Buddy’s realization that she alone can save a band of goats from the great danger foretold in an ancient legend. This brilliant tale with a clever mix of discovery will spark the intellectual curiosity of every reader.