The Best Summer Reads of 2020
We know Summer 2020 is not what we all hoped for. But no matter the situation, there are always books to help us through. We’ve made a list of the best summer reads 2020 has brought us!
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
It’s a story of twin sisters who grew up in a small, Southern black town and ran away at age 16. As adults, they end up taking on vastly different lives: From their communities to their families, and even down to their racial identities, the two sisters’ daily lives are black and white. But as fate would have it, they remain intertwined and their history unfolds when their daughters’ lives inevitably coincide.
Buy this book and support local bookstores in doing so!
2. Normal People by Sally Rooney
Normal People by Sally Rooney has been dubbed one of the best books of the year and of the decade. It’s a tale of budding young love, friendship, and hardship. Marianne and Connell’s magnetism is tested from their first encounter, through years of circling one another in school and social settings, and beyond. This electrifying and heartwarming story is one you won’t be able to put down.
Buy this book and support local bookstores in doing so!
3. Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan
Friends and Strangers is about a friendship between Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist, new mom, and small-town transplant, and Sam, a senior at a local women’s college whom Elisabeth hires as a babysitter. The two women confide in one another and become close until deception, betrayal, and consequences interfere, highlighting just how different their lives really are.
Buy this book and support local bookstores in doing so!
4. The Party Upstairs by Lee Conell
A sharp debut novel about a day in the life of a New York City building. The super’s daughter — who grew up in the basement of the Upper West Side co-op — is back home, newly graduated from college, with no job having materialized despite plenty of student debt. Her friendship with a girl “upstairs” — privileged Caroline — unearths long-held class tensions and issues of privilege.
Buy this book and support local bookstores in doing so!
5. The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward
When seventy-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the Become a Jetsetter contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children. When she wins the contest, the family packs their baggage and spends ten days traveling from sun-drenched Athens through glorious Rome to tapas-laden Barcelona on an over-the-top cruise ship. Along the way, the family’s less literal baggage begins to surface, and their vacation becomes less than idyllic.
Buy this book and support local bookstores in doing so!
If any of these books caught your attention, or you’re looking for more, check out our Bookshop. We’ve made a list with various titles for you to shop and in doing so, you help local bookstores!
