Any of these books would make the perfect companion on the beach…or on your couch.
I am counting down the days until summer. Seriously. All the other seasons to me are just distractions until I can get back to the sunshine.
One of the reasons I love summer is because of the books it brings. Summer reading is unlike any other seasonal reading.
As a kid, summer reading might have been a little more daunting. But if you grew to love reading, it became something you looked forward to.
What should you read in the summer? Well, anything you want, of course! But there’s a certain type of book that’s become synonymous with the season. Like winter has Hallmark movies and Christmas music, summer has beach reads. They’re sometimes a little lighter, maybe romantic, but always enthralling, easy reads to speed through during your summer vacation.
Summer of 2022 brings a true explosion of fabulous books that will delight and entertain us, even if we don’t get that much time on the actual beach. Travel to Cape Cod, the Hamptons, Australia, Maine, Puerto Rico, Nantucket, and other destinations without moving an inch with these beach reads coming out in 2022.
Best Beach Reads 2022
Jamie Brenner, Gilt
I don’t know how she does it. Jamie Brenner cranks out a new book every summer, each one more engrossing than the last. In Gilt, the ramifications of three sisters fighting for their family jewelry business’s ring grow dire. One sister becomes unlucky in love, another flees to Cape Cod, and a third passes away. A decade later, one of the nieces, a budding jewelry designer herself, strives to recover the ring — and the past.
Listen to my podcast with Jamie.
Kirstin Chen, Counterfeit
Two Asian American women band together to turn “a counterfeit handbag scheme into a global enterprise” in this immersive caper. Ava is married to a surgeon and has done everything right, and yet her whole life is a facade. Winnie, Ava’s college roommate, dropped out of school but thrived in the black market of fake purses in mainland China. The two reconnect — until one of them vanishes.
Georgia Clark, Island Time
Two families whose daughters are married take what they thought was a short vacation to an island off the coast of Australia when a volcano erupts, stranding them together with only two hotel employees. The families are so dissimilar that even the rainforest and white sandy beaches can’t disguise their differences as secrets emerge.
Listen to my podcast with Georgia.
Ashley M. Coleman, Good Morning, Love
A music industry romance by a music industry professional, Good Morning, Love tackles the question, what would you do for a hit? Maryland-born Carli, a singer-songwriter, gets thrown into the orbit of a pop superstar (think: Usher) and starts to question if the perks are worth it. Author Ashley Coleman also founded Permission to Write, a community for BIPOC writers.
Katie Couric, Going There (Paperback)
Did you miss the craze over Katie’s bestselling book Going There when it came out in hardcover? This summer brings us all the paperback edition — even easier to tote to the beach! Learn about Katie’s career journey, losses, loves, and more in this memorable memoir written in her utterly distinct voice.
Listen to my podcast with Katie.
KJ Dell’antonia, In Her Boots
This book from New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick The Chicken Sisters follows Rhett, a 40-something who has to return to her family’s farm as her inspirational book is about to be published (under a pseudonym). So, she convinces her friend to pretend to be her and go on the road to promote her bestselling book. Even Rhett’s estranged mother gets taken in by the substitute.
Listen to my podcast with KJ.
Therese Anne Fowler, It All Comes Down to This
Head to a summer house in Maine with bestselling author Therese Anne Fowler as she weaves a simmering tale of three Manhattan-born sisters who must suddenly cope with the loss of their mother.
Listen to my podcast with Therese.
Leah Franqui, After the Hurricane
Leah Franqui’s second novel Mother Land, which came out during the pandemic, was fantastic. Now she returns with a literary mystery. A daughter heads to Puerto Rico to find her missing father after Hurricane Maria. The dad, an NYC native, breaks away from the family to cope with his demons in this literary look at family rifts and the search for home.
Listen to my podcast with Leah.
Emily Giffin, Meant to Be
Do you miss reading about JFK, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy? If so, you’ll love bestselling author Emily Giffin’s new book about a golden boy and the woman who captures his eye, a former model whose own stepfather abused her. Their love is tested after the patriarch of the golden boy’s family passes away and he has to step into his shoes.
Listen to my podcast with Emily.
Emily Henry, Book Lovers
The No. 1 bestselling author of Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation is back with Book Lovers, a fabulous love story…about books. Nora Stephens is a reader’s reader, a “cut-throat” literary agent who gives in to her sister Libby’s request for a sisters’ trip to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. Once there, she keeps running into an editor from her city life. Who knows what this not-so-cute meet-cute will bring?! Prediction: Bestseller.
Listen to my podcast with Emily.
Elin Hilderbrand, Hotel Nantucket
Bestselling author and “queen of the beach reads” Elin Hilderbrand takes us to Nantucket where Lizbet is the hotel manager at the (perhaps haunted) Hotel Nantucket where she must woo the owner and impress the Instagram influencer to set her hotel apart from the others. If you liked “The White Lotus,” you’ll love this hotel-based drama.
Listen to my podcast with Elin.
Margarita Montimore, Acts of Violet
Margarita Montimore’s last novel, Oona Out of Order, was a sensation and a GMA Book Club pick. Her new novel, Acts of Violet, features Violet, a famous magician who disappeared a decade ago during a trick, never to be seen again. Meanwhile, her sister Sasha took over the family hair salon and tried to hold down the fort. Podcaster Cameron Frank launches a show about Violet’s life and is dead-set on having Sasha on as a guest which leads to a series of questions about Violet’s disappearance.
Listen to my podcast with Margarita.
Zibby Owens, Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature
OK, fine. I wrote this book. But I promise, it’s a quick read, moving, and satisfying. Publishers Weekly gave it a lovely review and said “her infectious enthusiasm radiates with charm, as do her earnest reflections on motherhood.” Bookends is my deeply personal life story as told through 200+ books and tracks a series of losses starting with my best friend on 9/11 up through my mother-in-law to Covid. It also highlights a series of wins (like my second marriage!) and the unexpected plot twists of my life as I found my voice. Book lovers will particularly respond to it!
Jane L. Rosen, A Shoe Story
Esme wants to discover NYC but has to stay home to take care of her ailing father. It isn’t until seven years later when she returns to “the city” and takes a dog-sitting job at a Greenwich Village apartment owned by a mysterious stranger with an impressive collection of shoes, each one with its own story, that she really settles in.
Listen to my podcast with Jane.
Alyssa Shelasky, This Might Be Too Personal: And Other Intimate Stories
A funny, feminine collection of essays by the New York magazine’s Sex Diaries columnist, This Might Be Too Personal is filled with glamour and authenticity, from Sarah Jessica Parker meet-ups to abstaining from sex (well, trying to) to hooking up with a hot musician while pregnant to vowing never to get married. These essays are intimate, hilarious, and addictive.
Listen to my podcast with Alyssa.
Christine Kandic Torres, The Girls in Queens
This coming-of-age novel about two Latina women growing up in Queens is a riveting debut told in alternating timelines about what happens when someone in their past is accused of sexual assault. Baseball lovers, take notice.
Jennifer Weiner, The Summer Place
Jennifer Weiner, the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, is back with a pandemic-era novel about Sarah Danhauser, whose 22-year-old stepdaughter Ruby gets engaged to her pandemic boyfriend. The wedding date is set for three months away in Cape Cod. Yet Ruby still has to process her mother leaving her when she was a baby. In fact, it seems everyone in both bridal parties has something brewing, especially Sarah who, exhausted post-quarantine, has to contend with someone reappearing from her past.
Listen to my podcast with Jennifer.
Kate White, The Second Husband
A psychological thriller by former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, bestselling author Kate White, The Second Husband tracks Emma, a 30-something widow, who has started a new life with a widower, Tom. When the police appear at their home on the Connecticut shore, what she thought she knew about her late husband’s death is called into question.
Listen to my podcast with Kate.
