The summer is always a tricky season to find time for reading in between weekend trips and vacations but I’ve managed to read some really incredible books this summer and would like to share them with you! Here are just a few.

The Bright Hour: A Memoir Of Living And Dying by Nina Riggs

It’s tough for a book to get a 5-star rating on Amazon, and this book deservedly does. This incredible memoir was written by Nina Riggs, a poet, a mother, and wife. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 37 which quickly progressed to a terminal diagnosis. As the great-great-great-granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nina writes about “living with death in the room”. I highly recommend reading this book. It’s beautiful and tragic in the most moving way.

Beautiful Bodies by Kimberly Rae Miller

I started reading this book while on vacation at the beach…which I thought was an appropriate time to start a memoir about the struggle with body acceptance. Kimberly talks about body image, weight management, and societal standards of beauty with a historical perspective on women’s body, science, and personal experience.

The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh

Have you ever wished you could forget the past? In a small Texan town nicknamed The Blinds the past is just a blur. Part of a government experiment ex-convicts and innocents have their memory wiped as part of a plea deal and for their own protection. But suddenly there are three murders back to back in a town where there are no weapons and no guns. This book has a whole host of interesting characters with colorful backgrounds and strange quirks. If you’re looking for a murder mystery that will keep you guessing until the end, pick up The Blinds.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I’m not one to follow celebrity culture. However, fun fact…in college, I was a contributor to a celebrity gossip website as a side gig. So when I first read the description of this book, I wasn’t hooked. Evelyn Hugo is an old world-famous actress nearing the end of her life and determined to write it all down. She enlists the help of magazine reporter Monique Grant who’s previous writing resume included fluffy articles of beauty and fashion in a women’s magazine. So why did Evelyn pick her? They begin to work together and Evelyn starts recounting her salacious love life bit by bit until the story takes on a life of its own.

What are you reading?

P.S. – How to read more and four books to read this fall.