10 books to read this Summer

Looking for the perfect read for the beach, by the pool, or a cozy night in?

Our library staff have chosen their top recommendations for adult readers, and they’re all available at your local Sunshine Coast Library or eLibrary!

1. Atmosphere | Taylor Jenkins Reid

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA's space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space. Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston's Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates.

2. Most Wonderful Crime of the Year | Ally Carter

The bridge is shut. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas… Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt: She’s the new Queen of the Cosy Mystery. He’s Mr. Big-time Thriller Guy. She hates his guts. He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise). But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

3. Problematic Summer Romance | Ali Hazelwood

Maya Killgore is 23 and still in the process of figuring out her life. Conor Harkness is 38, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him. It's such a cliché, it almost makes her heart implode: older man and younger woman; successful biotech guy and struggling grad student; brother's best friend and the girl he never even knew existed.

4. We All Live Here | Jojo Moyes

Welcome to the Kennedy household. Lila wrote a bestseller about keeping your marriage alive, before discovering her ex was playing happy families with another woman: a woman she sees every day at school pick-up.

5. Demon Copperhead | Barbara Kingsolver

A modern take on Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield, but set in the US Appalachia and exploring childhood poverty and the opioid crisis in rural America. Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking “like a little blue prize fighter”.. For the life ahead of him, he would need all that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents – legal and otherwise.

6. The Wedding People | Alison Epoch

It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn't here for the big event.

7. Done and Dusted | Lyla Sage 

For the first time in her life, Clementine "Emmy" Ryder has no idea what she's doing. She's accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming; went to college; and made a career for herself by doing her favourite thing: riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape.

8. Phosphorescence | Julia Baird

Over the last decade, we have become better at knowing what brings us contentment, well-being and joy. We know, for example, that there are a few core truths to the science of happiness. We know that being kind and altruistic makes us happy, that turning off devices, talking to people, forging relationships, living with meaning and delving into the concerns of others offer our best chance at achieving happiness. But how do we retain happiness? It often slips out of our hands as quickly as we find it. So, when we are exposed to, or learn, good things, how do we continue to burn with them?

9. Beautiful Ugly | Alice Feeney

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life. Grady calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there… but his wife has disappeared. A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby.

10. That’s Not My Name | Megan Lally

It was a mistake to trust him. Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there – or who she is. The police don't know where she came from until a frantic man arrives at the station. He's been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos. He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says.

Borrow your copy today

All of these carefully selected books are free to borrow from any Sunshine Coast Library. Find your closest library location.

If you prefer an electronic version, download your next eBook via Sunshine Coast Libraries' eLibrary. 

Not a Sunshine Coast Library member yet? Simply visit your local library to join and get full (free) access to all Libraries has to offer.