Summer Reading 2025
My proposed picks for this year's summer reading
I made a resolution this year that I would not put anything on my summer reading list that I could not get (a) from the library, or (b) affordably on my Kindle. Too many times in recent years I’ve loaded my lists with obscure titles that I either couldn’t find at all or couldn’t afford to splurge on at the moment, and so ended up not reading three or four of the books on the list.
Well, I think I’ve done okay. By watching for ebook deals and deploying my promotional credits (the ones Amazon offers you for saving-the-environment by agreeing to the Tremendous Sacrifice of waiting two days for your package instead of one), I managed to acquire at bargain prices everything I can’t get at the library—except one. Close enough to the laudable goal, right? And I still have hopes of possibly getting that one title through inter-library loan.
Anyway, here’s what’s on my list for this summer:
Four Gardens by Margery Sharp
Green Money by D.E. Stevenson
Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Pioneers by Jack Schaefer
Burning the Breeze: Three Generations of Women in the American West by Lisa Hendrickson
Lost Ecstasy by Mary Roberts Rinehart
The Gift Shop by Charlotte Armstrong
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
The Orchard: A Memoir by Adele Crockett Robertson
Have you read any of these books? Spot any favorite authors? And what is on your summer reading list?
(If you’re looking for some recommendations, try here.)
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These are all new titles to me!! Will look forward to hearing how you like them.
I haven't made a list for this summer, partly because lists put me into a get-it-done type mentality and I want to enjoy reading luxuriously and slowly - something that shouldn't be hard, but of course I make everything more difficult than need be. (LOL.) I am planning to read Below Stairs by Margaret Powell with a friend, and am currently enjoying Angela Thirkell's Wild Strawberries, a funny little romance given to me by another friend. Other than that, I'm really enjoying reading my collection of cookbooks more in depth and even trying some of the recipes!
This is such a fun list! I love Busman's Honeymoon. It's like Sayers at her most uninhibited wish fulfilment in fiction haha! Green Money is also on my summer reading list! And a Margery Sharp though I haven't figured out which one yet. Possibly Something Light. Some Tame Gazelle is perfect summer reading. Soothing and witty. And Dandelion Wine is quintessential summer reading.
Also, have you read any Mary Hallock Foote? She wrote about the American West and was the controversial inspiration for Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose, although her writing is supposed to be excellent in its own right. I've been meaning to read her work.