I’m always adding more books to my list.
I have a huge To Be Read List. My biggest problem is deciding what to read next. Sometimes what I’m writing determines my next book. And I have to fit my book club pick in close to the end of each month, or otherwise I’ll forget names and details about the story when we meet to discuss it.
I have books by my fellow writers that I’m dying to read, southern and women’s fiction books on my list, best sellers that everyone is talking about, historical fiction for my current WIP, and a few romance novels that will make me laugh and cry. I read most everything genre except horror, although I do love a good psychological thriller. Take a look at part of my TBR pile for this summer.
This list is in no apparent order, just books that are close to the top. I’m including some books that are e-books since that’s the only way they’re available for me to read them at this time. Of course, on the top of my list is the anthology being published on June 8 which includes my short story and is edited by members of the WFWA Historical Fiction Affinity Zoom Group. Here goes the whole list…
- Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women – This anthology of twenty-three short stories span six centuries and captures everyday fictional women changing their world in small and big ways. All profits go to the Women’s Fiction Writers Association’s Scholarship Fund. Don’t miss my story, “Junebug.”
- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett – Ann Patchett always delivers a great story. Three sisters return home to help their mom and end up hearing the story of her past love. This book is also a Reese Book Club Pick.
- Wild Land by Rebecca Hodge – A fellow North Carolina writer’s debut novel. I’ve been staring at this book on my desk for a while. The back cover copy describes it as a ‘heart-pounding novel of bravery, sacrifice, and self-discovery.’ What more could you want in a novel?
- Happy Place by Emily Henry – I love Emily Henry’s style of writing. Her stories are filled with smart people which makes her romances intelligent, funny and rememberable, or as I like to call them ‘smart-funny.’ And now I’m two books behind as her new novel, Funny Story, just came out.
- Murder at Sea Oats Beach by Karen C. Whalen. This local writer in my Coastal Writers Group writes captivating cozy mysteries. I love her Tow Truck Murder Mysteries Series. I think Murder at Sea Oats Beach starts a new series for her, but either way the parts I read about Breanna Hart starting over in a North Carolina beach town hooked me. She volunteers in an animal shelter and the police chief is found dead the next day. That pulled me right in and I’m dying to read the whole book!
- Chasing Eleanor by Kerry Chaput. This novel won First Place in the Dante Rosetti Awards of the 2023 CIBA Awards. An orphaned girl, Magnolia Parker, literally chases after Eleanor Roosevelt who she thinks can save her siblings from an orphanage. I love reading anything about Eleanor Roosevelt and this girl captured my heart just from the description. How could I not add this to my reading list for the summer?
- The Women by Kristen Hannah – Of course, I want to read one of the most talked about books this year. I’m sure this story, about female nurses who served in Vietnam and what happened to them after, will tear my heart out. But all her books do. I’ll have to make sure not to read it on the beach or it could be embarrassing to cry that much in public.
- Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom – I loved The Kitchen House by this author and its sequel, Glory Over Everything. One of my favorite indie book store owners, Sue Lucey, who owns Page158 Bookstore with her husband in Wake Forest NC, recommended this book to me. That’s reason enough to read it! This story was inspired by a real person, Crow Mary, a Native American woman trapped between her people and her husband, a white trader. Need I say more!
- Rock Bottom, Tennessee by Kimberly Nixon – Of course, I’ll have to read the sequel Rock Bottom Rising afterwards. I love southern fiction and the first book caught my eye in 2022. It’s set in Prohibition Era Appalachia and has a main character named Ruby, who fights for a better life. It sounds so intriguing and it’s based on the author’s real grandmother. Love it!
- The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese – I loved, loved, loved Cutting for Stone, his previous novel. That epic novel had me reading night and day, thus I’ve been hungering for another book of his. This book is set in India also and contains three generations of family trying to find the answer to a secret. That had me along with the author, whose writing is poetic, gripping, and leaves you unable to put it down.
What’s on your summer TBR List? I’d love to hear, because the 1,894 on mine are getting lonely.
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