5 Books For Summer Adventures
By Hannah Dendas of naptime book review
Wherever summer takes you this year, whether it’s to the beach, a new travel destination, a family reunion, or at home in your favorite reading spot, here are 5 fun, breezy books to take along with you.
1. A Hundred Summers
by Beatriz Williams
This is a great book for someone who wants a beach read with substance. It takes place in 1938 coastal Rhode Island and mixes high society drama with an impending hurricane (the Great New England Hurricane, a real event). It’s also an introduction to the Schuyler family, who appear throughout many of Williams’ books. A Hundred Summers was written as a stand-alone but it’s fun to revisit some of the characters in other books by the author.
Historical Fiction
Price: $16
2. Wild Game
by Adrienne Brodeur
This memoir hooked me from the beginning when the author’s mother woke her up in the middle of the night to tell her of an affair she had just started with the father’s best friend. The author was 14 at the time. The rest of the book follows the convoluted relationship between the daughter, the mother, and the man she’s having the affair with as they make her complicit in their deceit. It is a well-written memoir that gets bonus points for its coastal setting (much of it takes place on Cape Cod) and brutal honesty.
Memoir
Price: $16
3. The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba
by Chanel Cleeton
Set in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, this book follows the desperate situation of Evangelina Cisneros (a real Cuban woman) whose imprisonment in a notoriously appalling jail attracts American support for an escape attempt. Meanwhile, in New York, a readership battle between two newspaper barons (Pulitzer and Hearst) brings reporters closer and closer to the front lines. History, politics, a tropical setting, and a love story; what more could you ask for?
Historical Fiction
Price: $16
4. Olympus, Texas
by Stacey Swann
Swann nailed family drama with this debut set in a small Texas town. There is so much drama over the course of the week that the book covers. The reader is dropped right into things when March returns to his hometown after a self-imposed 2-year exile, which has done nothing to mend the bridges he burned before leaving town. Things only get worse from there for March, his siblings, and his parents. I loved how each chapter gave the backstory of a different character and helped to explain the relationships within the Briscoe family. Fans of classic mythology will appreciate all the subtle nods to various figures woven throughout the story. Although if you’re not a mythology buff (I’m not) you won’t even notice it and won’t be missing anything. It’s a fun, fast paced look at a family that is (probably) more dysfunctional than your own.
Fiction
Price: $25
5. We Begin at the End
by Chris Whitaker
There were so many ups and downs throughout this book and it was all so good. It’s a mix of mystery and family drama with a captivating plot that was well-paced, a distinctive writing style (that did take me a minute to get used to but then I really enjoyed it), and nuanced, complex, heartbreaking characters. Duchess is by far one of my favorite characters of all time. Reminiscent at times of This Tender Land, Where the Crawdads Sing, and True Grit; in other words, there’s something for everyone.
Fiction
Price: $25
Hannah Dendas is a Postpartum Doula and Certified Lactation Counselor but since the pandemic, mostly a stay at home mom to her two young kids.
Always an avid reader, Hannah recently started sharing book reviews on her Instagram page @naptimebookreview. She has a book stashed in nearly every room of her house, is a frequent visitor to her local library, and loves historical fiction.