In our minds, a good summer read applies to anything you read in the summer! In the list below, we have mysteries, poems, road trips, romances, fantasies, and more murders than you might have been expecting! Read on for a glimpse into the fascinating assortment of things PFL staff are currently reading. The majority of these titles can be placed on hold, either in our collection or through Minerva.
Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman
Three high-school best friends travel to Greece to live in their friends’ ancestral home. It ends in tragedy, and the friends go separate ways until one evening ten years later.
Green Shadows, White Whale by Ray Bradbury
The Creature Commandos by J.M. DeMatteis
The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
MurderLand: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser
A portrait of the noxious American wasteland men of industry have wrought over the last two centuries, with a vicious madness latent in the soil, as ubiquitous as dust.
Heartwood by Amity Gage
A hiker goes missing on the Appalachian Trail near sugarloaf and a variety of people try to find her. A mystery plot not told like a mystery novel- plus it takes place in Maine)
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
Darky funny- often very dark and very funny road trip novel about families: found, born into, created, and very complicated.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
This is now one of my top 5 Stephen King books.
Plays: 1 by Martin McDonagh
God of the Woods by Liz Moore
WOW. It was the perfect paced mystery that takes place in a summer camp in 1973. Perfect summer vibes.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The latest standout.
The Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley
Extinction by Douglas Preston
The In-Betweens – The Spiritualists, Mediums, and Legends of Camp Etna by Mira Ptacin
Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia
A clever puzzle/treasure hunt story that takes place in Boston- perfect for the Level Up theme!
The Ghost Trap by K. Stephens
The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Instructions for Travelling West by Joy Sullivan
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
A sideways sort of murder mystery with a decidedly animal liberationist flair.
Georg Trakl’s Collected Poems
Trakl is one of my longtime favorite poets; he’s like Arthur Rimbaud, but Austrian. Moody, mystic, depressive.
Late Bloomers by Deepa Varadarajan
My Murder by Katie Williams
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
