a literary list for the summer

[00:00:00]Hey guys, welcome or welcome back to my channel. Welcome to a new video. So excited for this one because A, I think if I timed this right, this video is supposed to come out on my birthday. B, because I love reading in the summer and I think it's the best time [music] to read. There are so many books that in the summer that I just love. I love a summer setting. I love a beach setting.

[00:00:19]I love the fact that summer [music] reads tend to describe the weather and nature. It's some of my favorite stuff.

[00:00:25]So, been really excited. And then I also just love to make reading lists. It's a hobby I love [music] to do. Don't always follow through, but I'm going to try my best. I have a lot of books on my reading list this year. To me, when I make a reading list, it's more, "Oh, this is an idea of what I could read."

[00:00:40]more than a strict, "You have to follow this list." kind of thing. Without further ado, let's get started [music] with my first summer read, which is actually my current read, but I thought I would mention it nonetheless. And that is Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. This is the only hardback that I've bought in a while. I don't love a hardback.

[00:00:58]They're kind [music] of hard to carry around. They're pretty heavy and they're like tall in a way [music] that I don't really love. Unless you've been living under a rock, then you already know what this book is about. And if you don't, we follow a woman who leads a [music] sort of tradwife lifestyle, but she's also an influencer and she suddenly gets thrown back into the 1800s where she actually has to live like a tradwife. This is my current read. I'm a little bit over halfway through. Hoping to finish it pretty soon. So, [music] that's Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. I'm not going to go in a particular order. I'm just going to present some books. I'm actually going to go with two French books. Next, we have Risée bl'amour, which in English is translated to Laughable Loves. And L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être, which in English is The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Both of these are by Kundera. Don't know how to pronounce his name in English, so I'm not even going to try. I really want to read one of his books over the summer.

[00:01:50]So, I put both on my TBR because I don't necessarily have a preference. If you have an idea of which one is the [music] best to get into his writing, I would love to hear. I'm really curious to see if I love this author. My sister's read, I think both actually. He's been on my TBR for a while and I feel like for some reason his covers just give a little bit of summer. I also love the French editions [music] because they're very floppy and they're so small, they just fit everywhere and they look really good on a shelf. I think Laughable Loves follows the absurdity [music] and kind of the crazy aspect to relationships. It sounds really cool. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, if I'm right, [music] focuses on this idea of, you know, the lightness of being, just like living your life in a positive light, not taking life too seriously, but then being forced with the harsh reality of things that [music] just doesn't make life be actually light. So, those are both Kundera's. Then I have a new addition to my TBR and that is Summer Heat by Defne Suman. I'm not exactly sure what this book is about and to be quite frank, I [music] don't really want to. I remember finding this book when I was in Spain last year. It really caught my eye and I put it down [music] on a list to buy at some point. I already had such a huge summer TBR, so I hadn't bought it, but I just remembered that I wanted to read this book and so I got it. It's such a beautiful cover. It obviously screams summer. It has the words summer and heat in the title, so I feel like there's no better time to read it than the summer and it's also one of these books that I've not heard anything about and I feel like it's getting more and more rare to get into [music] a book without any preconceived notions, not even having heard about it from anyone else, so that makes me very excited [music] for this book. That's Summer Heat by Defne Suman. Then I have Found Time by Caroline Goldstein. I actually heard about this from Kat, I think. It's a literary love story, which is definitely one of my favorite [music] things to read. I think literary love stories are just always written so beautifully and so tender and what I love most about them is how intense the love is between the characters whilst also seeing the flaws of the characters.

[00:03:52]It's honestly one of my favorite things to read about. I think there's so much to be said about [music] love, whether it's romantic love like it is in this case, but just love in general. I think it's one of my [music] favorite things to read about. So, really excited for this one. You follow two people who I believe meet in college, and then they form this very intense connection, but they don't end up together, and then we follow them 30 years later when they're back in each other's lives. And if you have seen my last video, then you know I love a second chance narrative. One of my favorite things to read about, [music] so I'm so excited for this one.

[00:04:22]And I didn't think that it was going to be a summer book, but I read the back, and it mentions that they kick off a steamy summer romance that cracks something open for both of them. So, that's Fun [music] Time by Caroline Goldstein. Really sorry if the lighting changes. The sun is just coming in [music] and out of my room, but the next book on my summer TBR is Loved One by Aisha Muharrar. I've heard pretty good things about this book, and it's really been on my radar. I know that it follows the grief over a past lover. And I've really only heard great things. I feel like this is a book that people tend to love. Although I've not heard that it's a [music] favorite for many people, I think that it's still a pretty solid book. I've been wanting to read it for the past year. I was waiting for the paperback, and for some reason they had it out early in my bookstore. I was so excited when I saw it. I've heard that this book is pretty funny, so I'm [music] very excited. Then is Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth. I still Wow, I've been wondering where I placed all of these, and now I know. Oh, there's even one more. I have so many. I've heard really great things about [music] this book. It follows a sapphic romance between two pretty young girls in Ireland. Feel like I love Irish authors.

[00:05:27]Not that I've read that many, but Irish authors are so beloved, and it's for good reason. This book sounds amazing. I think it [music] explores pain and love, first love, but also being a queer person in a town that does not necessarily accept that. And so, I feel like it's going to be a very powerful coming-of-age, and I've heard everyone say [music] that you should read this mass hour. So that's what I'm going to do. Then I have when the crane flies south by Lisa Ridson. I think this follows an old man in a small town in rural Sweden. I don't know if this book is necessarily a summer book, but I really want to read it over the summer.

[00:06:03]I have heard that this book makes you cry. I just think there's so much beauty that comes with following older character and I think part of that beauty comes from the wisdom that they tend to have the retrospective aspect to these kinds of stories. I don't know why I'm making the connection in my head between this and a man called Uva, but I am. But the difference is that in this book the main character, this old man, wants to mend his relationship with his son. And I think that's going to be heartbreaking but beautiful. So excited for it. Then we have a book that I bought fairly recently and that is all fours by [music] Miranda July. This book has been on my radar for the past 2 years, but I finally bought it. Every year I wait for summer to read it because her name's Miranda July, so I think I've been calling consciously associated this book to a summer book even though I don't know that it is necessarily [music] a summer book. From what I know, this follows a woman who is kind of going through a midlife crisis and she decides to go on a road trip without her husband or her child and she actually just ends up in a motel and it starts going a little crazy. I'm really excited. I feel like this was a book that everyone is getting five stars.

[00:07:07]I've heard it's very funny and I've heard that it's a very compelling book.

[00:07:11]So hopefully this is the year that I read it. Then we have another French book [music] and that is Vivre entre les vagues et le ciel by Cameron Philip.

[00:07:18]This book is not translated, but I'm going to translate the title living between the waves and the sky. Now this author is actually [music] a content creator that I followed. She's been making a lot of content about writing and her love for writing and I've read a few of her other books before, but this one is the first one that's traditionally published and I felt so proud of this person that I don't know.

[00:07:39]But from what I know, Now book follows the lives [music] of six friends and their very close bond that they used to forge over summers [music] in their adolescence and then something happens to one of them and we're following them years in the future as they look back on this time in their life that meant so much to them that they can never get back. Obviously it's set in the summer so I think it's perfect for summer but in another book of hers I read that was [music] set in the summer I found that she had a very good way to describe the feeling of summer and the feeling of summer as a teenager. There's something about it that I've always loved even though I never really had that kind of summer. This being [music] traditionally published I think it's going to be even better than her other book. This is a five-star prediction for me and I feel [music] like I've been pushing it off because I'm scared that I set my expectations too high but nonetheless will be reading it over the summer. Then is My Friends by Fredrik Backman. I actually read I think a hundred pages of this book last year but I was in such a reading slump in June of last year that I just decided to put it [music] down because I knew I was going to love it and it was not the time. But there is a quote from this book that stuck in my head [music] for so long. And that quote is winter and spring are fighting for everything that's alive. For some reason that quote rearranged something in my brain. I love the way that Backman writes. I think he has such a very profound way with words and he [music] loves to add meaning in a lot of his stories and I think that's why they're so touching. We follow this main character called Louisa who is a really big fan of this painting that people don't really understand but she knows that it's about [music] this group of friends and then she happens to meet the artist and she just decides to visit the place of the painting itself. I don't know how to explain the plot of this book because just knowing that it's about three friends in the past [music] and then in the present about Louisa trying to see the life of these friends.

[00:09:25]I think it's so exciting to finally fully read it. And I already know that I'm going to really enjoy it because I already enjoyed the first hundred pages.

[00:09:32]Next is The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li.

[00:09:35]This was actually the book that I thought I was going to get into Yiyun Li with, but I ended up reading Things in Nature Merely Grow by this author and really fell in love with her this year.

[00:09:44]She's probably my favorite author that I've discovered this year, [music] and I've been wanting to read The Book of Goose for so long. It's been compared to My Brilliant [music] Friend, which The Neapolitan Quartet is my favorite fiction book, so I'm really excited for this one. I already know that I love the prose of Yiyun Li, and this one [music] takes place in rural France, so I think it's going to be perfect to read if I happen to be in the French countryside over the summer. I have really high expectations, but I know that they're going to be met because I [music] love Yiyun Li. Even though I've read mainly non-fiction from her, I think that she still has a way of [music] writing that works with me personally so well. I've been reading her short story collection Wednesday's Child and I really adhere to her fiction [music] writing, even though this is just a short story collection, so it's not groundbreaking in that sense, but I still really wanted to get a taste of her fiction writing, and I already know I like it, so [music] this makes me even more excited for The Book of Goose.

[00:10:35]Talking about Elena Ferrante, then we have The Days of Abandonment. This follows a woman who I think is left [music] by her husband, and she starts spiraling. This is going to be my first Ferrante since The Neapolitan Quartet and [music] In the Margins. I've been dreading going into this book because the more I read by Ferrante, the less Ferrante I have to read, but I'm still really excited for this book. I I'm going to love it because I love the way she writes. She has such a distinct voice and it's so lyrical and beautiful and poignant. I just delight in her prose so much. I'm so curious to see how she wrote this [music] book. I kind of know a bit of the process behind it from reading In the Margins. I'm really curious. Hopefully, this will be read over the summer. Then, I have The Bright Years by Sara De Moff. This is the story of addiction. I think it's [music] told through multiple decades in this family.

[00:11:25]I've heard only amazing things about this book. [music] All the people who read this book that I know have read this book gave it five stars. I have such high expectations, but I'm really hoping that they're going to be met. I don't really want to read the back or know too much going into [music] it because I have heard good things and I've kind of heard what it's about, but I don't love to hear too much about a book. I like to go in somewhat [music] blind because then it really prevents me from being swayed in my opinions, if you will. Very excited nonetheless. Then we have the second to last French book on my TBR, and that is La Bonne Mère by Mathilde Di Matteo. This takes place in the south of France in Marseille and it talks about the mother-daughter relationship. I haven't read many books that talk about that. I think the only one that I read is Annie John, but I know that this is a really good book to read in summer. I love the cover of this book. I think it's such a cool cover. I think we need to make more covers like this. It has the cover of a comic book, but it's not a comic book. I also just love the size. I just love the format of this book. I really, really do. So excited for it. I really, really want to read it this summer. This is definitely one that I have kind of prioritized in my head, especially because I haven't read too many French books this year, so I feel like this would be a great way to not only read a book that I am genuinely interested in, but also read a bit more in French, which is something that I've been neglecting a little bit. And finally, for my last book on my physical TBR, I have Transit by Rachel Cusk. I read Outline in May and I really loved Outline and I've been wanting to continue this trilogy. I just love the concept of this trilogy and [music] the execution of it just works so well with my brain. Outline was a very easy [music] read and I think it's just a book that is very good to read when you have a lot of stuff going on because it's not [music] that challenging, but still so groundbreaking in the way that it's written and in the structure of it.

[00:13:10]So, I don't really know where this one takes place, but I don't really want to read the back because I really want to go into it blind. All I know is that it is the book that comes after Outline, so [music] very excited. And I feel like Cusk in my head is just associated to summer, probably because of Outline, but something about the freshness of her writing just makes sense [music] with the summer months. So, that's all of my physical TBR and I'm just [music] going to quickly give you two books I think that I want to purchase and then some of them that I want to read on my Kindle.

[00:13:39]So, let me quickly go through those as well. The two books [music] that I want to purchase are first Sunstruck by William R. Forstchen Hunter. I forgot what the other comparison was, but I know that this book was compared to Saltburn and it's set in a mansion in the south of France [music] and it's apparently such a good book. I've heard two people rave about it. For sure heard sasha book club rave about it and maybe Jack Edwards. Not exactly sure, but it's been on my radar [music] for the past year. The paperback is finally coming out next week. So, you best believe I will be getting it as soon as it comes out. I am going to be at the bookstore trying to get it because this book just sounds so incredible. Saltburn was such a specific vibe. It's not my favorite movie at all, but I feel like a book could just work so well. [music] This kind of gruesome, intense atmosphere with the backdrop of summer and following unreliable, despicable characters. Sounds right up my alley.

[00:14:33]Just sounds so good. And then the other book that I am really hoping to get is Hunting Towards the Sea. I know the paperback is out in [music] the UK, but I don't love the cover of the UK paperback. I really love the US cover.

[00:14:46][music] So, I'm waiting for that to come out. Again, I've heard really great things about this book. I think the first time I heard about it was from Sara Carrolli, but she gave it five stars and when she was describing the book, I think it follows this woman and she's trying to grapple with her divorce and she [music] decides to go to Croatia. If I'm not mistaken, that's the plot. It sounds so good. It's set in the summer and it's another five-star prediction for me. I just don't know what it is [music] about this book that just screams I'm going to give it five star, but it kind of does. Which to be [music] fair, I think 90% of the books on here I predict that I'm going to rate them very highly, otherwise I would not have purchased them. [music] So, I say that, but it really doesn't change anything. And then I have a few romance books that I would love to read. The first one is a French romance book called "Un été pour te retrouver", which would translate to a summer to find you again. This is part of a series called seasons, and so there's [music] a romance book for each season, and I read the first three books, autumn, winter, and spring in 2023 and 2024, and I never read the last one, even though it's the one that I was most anticipating, but I never read it because I had a bit of a fall back with the romance genre, and I feel like I finally given it enough time that I am getting an interest in them again. Something about romance books just [music] screams summer, and this one is a second chance romance set in the summer, obviously. I just [music] have such high expectations. I love the way she writes. I'm so excited because actually this series is being translated [music] to English, and I just feel so proud of this author. I just feel like she's come such a long way. So, if you read romance books and [music] you're interested, I would highly recommend checking these books out. I think the first one comes out in September, which is perfect because [music] it's the book that's set in fall. And I also feel like the plot is kind of different to a lot of other romance books, so I feel like it's just a very [music] interesting book. So, if you're interested, that would be really cool. I really recently read the last book that this author published, and something about her writing is just so [music] easy for me to read. So, I just feel like it's just at the perfect books to binge when I'm in a bit of a slump or when I want to binge a book. [music] And so, I'm really excited to read this one. Then, on my radar is "Our Perfect Storm" by Carly Fortune, which is also a second chance or at least a childhood friends to lovers narrative, [music] which is my favorite romance book trope by far, a pre-existing connection [music] between characters, and the longing just does it for me every single time. I don't know why I find that so powerful because I would not want to live a second chance romance in real life, but I just think it's because they're so believable to me. They also inherently come with miscommunication. Carley Fortune is the queen of a summer setting. I think the way she describes the summer feeling, [music] the way she describes settings, is just perfect. And I have really, really high expectations for this one because A, the plot sounds really good, but also because the title of this book is the title of one of, if not, my favorite song of all time, the song Perfect Storm by Inhaler, in case you're curious. [music] So, I just already know that when I read Our Perfect Storm, I'm going to be listening to Perfect Storm on loop the entire time. And [music] I've been pushing it off just a little bit because I'm scared that I'm not going to enjoy it as much as I have her other novels.

[00:17:53]But at the same time, I just feel like I will because [music] I really loved all of her books, except for maybe Meet Me at the Lake. And I didn't hate that one as much as people did. So, that's the first one. I'm also going to throw in very quickly The Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune, which is my favorite by her, actually, which [music] I know is kind of unpopular because people love One Golden Summer, but I loved, loved, loved The Summer Will Be Different, and I really, really want to reread [music] it this year. So, that one's on my radar, as well. I just remember having such good, intense love for [music] this book. And I have been wanting to reread it so bad. I also love that her books are set in Canada because, having lived there, it just feels so familiar. And I love that The Summer Will Be Different was on P.I. I just thought that that was such a cool place to set it, and I've never wanted to go to place more than after reading that book. And to finish it off with this really long summer TBR is The Ex Talk by Jessica Joyce. Again, second chance romance set in the summer. I've heard amazing things. A lot of people have compared it to Happy Place, which is my favorite romance book of all time.

[00:18:52]And probably the book that I feel such a strong emotional connection to. Like I know that it has its flaws. I don't care. I I really don't care. There's something about it makes me so emotional, and it's such a very specific feeling to have with a book. So, if people are comparing The Ex Talk >> [music] >> to that, I I feel like I'm definitely going to love it. Like there's no reason that I wouldn't. And finally, feeling some excitement towards romance books just makes me really excited to read this one and makes me [music] put it back on my radar. I'm really excited. I really can't wait to read that one. I think all the romance books in [music] this video are going to be read this summer because they're just such easy bingeable books and I love them for that. I just think they bring so much lightness to my reading, which a lot of the time is actually desperately needed, especially when I'm trying [music] to avoid reading slumps. So, those are all the books that I am hoping to read this summer. Don't know if it's even possible because it's only 3 months and I have such a big [music] list, but if I'm not in a reading slump, hey, anything's doable if I don't spend too much time on my phone and if I'm not too busy. So, really hoping for a good summer [music] reading time. Thank you for staying all the way to the end of this one. I hope you have a great summer. Tell me what's on your summer TBR. I'd be [music] really curious to add more to mine. So, let me know and I'll see you soon.

[00:20:06]Bye.

[00:20:07]>> [music]