{"id":152203,"date":"2025-06-02T13:33:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T13:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/152203\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T13:33:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T13:33:51","slug":"the-46-best-books-of-summer-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/152203\/","title":{"rendered":"The 46 Best Books of Summer 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atmosphere<\/p>\n

\"Atmosphere\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In previous novels, Taylor Jenkins Reid has tackled Old Hollywood (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo), rock stardom (Daisy Jones & the Six), and tennis<\/a> (Carrie Soto is Back). In her latest, the bestselling author is turning her gaze toward the sky, writing a novel about college professor Joan Goodwin, who finds herself plucked from relative obscurity to become one of the first women scientists in NASA\u2019s space program. What follows is a thrilling story of adventure, unexpected romance, and a moment in time that will change her world\u2014and possibly the world\u2014forever. Don\u2019t be the only one at the pool this summer without this book on your towel.<\/p>\n

This Dog Will Change Your Life<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

Elias Weiss Friedman launched the Dogist back in 2013, and by his count, he\u2019s photographed some 50,000 dogs in the years since. This Dog Will Change Your Life is the story of his relationship with dogs, but also zooms out to look at how dogs can change lives more broadly. It\u2019s a must for dog lovers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America<\/p>\n

\"Buckley:<\/a><\/p>\n

Few people were more important in the making of the modern Conservative movement than William F. Buckley. Here, Sam Tanenhaus leads a 1,040-page journey into how the man and his influential views were formed and what he did with them\u2014from founding the National Review to mentoring future presidents as well as clandestine involvement in international intelligence. Despite its length and weighty subject matter, though, the book crackles and fizzes with revelations and sharp insight; \u201ca stone-cold masterpiece,\u201d according to one blurb.<\/p>\n

How to Lose Your Mother<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the problems that growing up with a famous parent brings is that you have to share them with the world. In her affecting memoir, the writer and political analyst Molly Jong-Fast grapples with this\u2014her mother is the writer and feminist icon Erica Jong\u2014as well as her mom\u2019s 2023 dementia diagnosis. With deep feeling and clarity, Jong-Fast recalls coming of age with a parent whom she adored but sometimes felt at arms length and the surprising ways in which the parent-child relationship continues to change deep into adulthood.<\/p>\n

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Flashlight<\/p>\n

\"Flashlight\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Susan Choi\u2019s engrossing new novel begins with a tragedy: Louisa, a young woman on a rare vacation with her seemingly mismatched parents, goes to the beach with her father\u2014and only she comes back alive, just barely at that. What comes next is the backstory of her parents and their fragile relationship, as well as an exploration of the private maps of our lives and how they compare to what we allow people to know. It\u2019s a smart, beautifully written novel about what can be lost when you never really know what you had.<\/p>\n

The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Once, C.F. Seabrook was known as \u201cthe Henry Ford of agriculture.\u201d This book by his descendant John Seabrook spells out in fascinating detail, however, how the fortune and influence that C.F. amassed went to ruin as his industry changed and his New Jersey-based family, which had attained all the trappings any patriarch could hope, turned on one another and lost it all.<\/p>\n

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Madame Queen<\/p>\n

\"Madame<\/a><\/p>\n

In the 1920s, Stephanie St. Clair was an immigrant from the West Indies living in New York City. She hoped for the same things as anyone else\u2014to find her piece of the American Dream. How she ended up getting it, however, isn\u2019t quite so common a story. This biography puts St. Clair in her rightful light as one of the era\u2019s powerful crime bosses, charting her rise to become not only a business woman but an outsized outlaw who made her name and fortune by any means necessary.<\/p>\n

The Very Heart of It<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

In novels including Henry and Clara and Fellow Travelers, Thomas Mallon has used American history to help tell unforgettable stories of characters whose lives feel real as they play out against true events. Here, the award-winning writer ditches the fiction without losing his knack for depicting times and places; his own diaries from a young-adult life in New York City in the 1980s and ’90s reveal a coming of age in a dangerous, exciting, and unprecedented era and share how one of American literature\u2019s great writers tells his own tale.<\/p>\n

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Silent Retreat<\/p>\n

\"Silent<\/a><\/p>\n

Sally Quinn, the legendary chronicler of Washington, D.C.’s most powerful people, is just as masterful at depicting fictional characters as she is those whose behavior is just stranger than fiction. In this new novel, Sybilla Sumner is at a silent retreat at a Virginia monastery, taking a break from her broken marriage and famous husband, when she encounters the Archbishop of Dublin and very ill-advised sparks fly. \u201cTireless and gifted, curious and empathetic, [Quinn] is always worth reading, for she writes of the things that matter most: sin and grace, appetite and love, fear and hope,\u201d writes Jon Meacham.<\/p>\n

Meet Me at the Crossroads<\/p>\n

\"Meet<\/a><\/p>\n

Megan Giddings, author of Lakewood and The Women Could Fly, is back with Meet Me at the Crossroads, a mysterious and mesmerizing work of speculative fiction. In the novel, seven strange doors appear around the world, and many start to believe they are portals to a new world. Black teenagers, twin sisters Olivia and Ayanna, are raised separately after their parents’ divorce, but stay close. When one sister disappears (no spoilers here), can the other one grapple with what happened? It\u2019s an emotional novel about grief and sisterhood.<\/p>\n

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Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television<\/p>\n

\"Desi<\/a><\/p>\n

Desi Arnaz might be best remembered for playing Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy, but the Cuban-born entertainer (and husband of costar Lucille Ball) was as important behind the scenes as he was on camera. This book digs into his life before coming to the United States and follows his rise to stardom. It also digs into how his revolutionary ideas for making TV changed the way that the medium worked and influenced the world\u2019s entertainment landscape forever.<\/p>\n

The Slip<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Spanning a decade beginning in 1988, this debut novel traces the mysterious disappearance of a teenage boy in Austin, Texas and the unforgettable cast of characters who appear as his uncle, in whose care he was put, investigates. It\u2019s a funny, propulsive look at coming of age, gym culture, young love, and mistaken identity that\u2019s as engrossing as it is intricate.<\/p>\n

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The River’s Daughter<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Bridget Crocker made her name leading expeditions down some of the world\u2019s most famous\u2014and most dangerous\u2014rivers. Now, she\u2019s charting a different sort of path; telling the story of her own life and how working on the water helped her make sense of it all. \u201cThis unforgettable odyssey,\u201d says author Adrienne Brodeur, \u201cis a testament to nature\u2019s power to transform and inspire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil<\/p>\n

\"Bury<\/a><\/p>\n

V. E. Schwab returns with a mesmerizing tale of immortality in this modern gothic novel. In Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, she follows three women: Mar\u00eda, living in Santo Domingo de la Calzada in 1532, Charlotte in London in 1827, and Alice at Harvard in Boston in 2019. The three women are linked\u2014it\u2019s a vampire<\/a> story, so you can guess how but you\u2019ll still be surprised, we promise\u2014and it\u2019s a beautiful supernatural story that grapples with loneliness, grief, and queer identity.<\/p>\n

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The Phoenix Pencil Company<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Monica Tsai, a college freshman and software engineer working on a new digital platform, is determined to use it find her grandmother Yun\u2019s long-lost cousin, Meng. The cousins helped their mothers run the Phoenix Pencil Company, a spy network in Shanghai using magical pencils during World War II. Told in dual narratives\u2014Monica trying to understand Yun\u2019s past, and Yun\u2019s memories\u2014it\u2019s an inventive take on a family saga with a sprinkle of magical realism.<\/p>\n

So Gay for You<\/p>\n

\"So<\/a><\/p>\n

Leisha Hailey and Kate Moenning first met during auditions for The L Word, the groundbreaking series that would make them stars and, perhaps more importantly, launch a decades-long friendship. Now the pair, who also host the hit podcast PANTS, are coming clean about life on the series, what it means to find friends who feel like family, and how fame (especially of the sometimes-niche, very queer variety) has impacted them. Their book is a charming, funny, and revealing peek behind the scenes of a cultural landmark and also a look at the lives of two artists who\u2019ve grown up together in good times and bad.<\/p>\n

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Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance<\/p>\n

\"Joy<\/a><\/p>\n

A\u2019Lelia Walker was the heiress to a great New York fortune, and she played her part brilliantly. The daughter of business legend Madam C.J. Walker, A\u2019Lelia was a philanthropist, businesswoman, and hostess whose Harlem Renaissance social circle included Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, and more. Here, her own great-granddaughter explores the life and legacy of a larger-than-life character who was born into prominence but found her own path to greatness.<\/p>\n

Death at the White Hart<\/p>\n

\"Death<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Chinball, the creator of Broadchurch and Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Agatha Christie\u2019s The Seven Dials Mystery<\/a>, makes his entry into the world of murder mysteries with Death at the White Hall. The story, set in a small village, Fleetcombe, centers on a murder of the village pub landlord\u2014who is discovered in gruesome fashion. If you\u2019re a read-the-book-before-you-watch-the-tv-show type of person, read this one quickly\u2014it\u2019s already being adapted into a series.<\/p>\n

Advertisement – Continue Reading Below<\/p>\n

Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers<\/p>\n

\"Murderland:<\/a><\/p>\n

Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Fraser returns with Murderland, a true crime history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest. The region wasn\u2019t just terrorized by Ted Bundy, but also the Green River Killer, the I-5 Killer, the Night Stalker, the Hillside Strangler, even Charles Manson…Fraser seeks to answer: \u201cWhy so many? Why so weirdly and nightmarishly gruesome? Why the senseless rise and then sudden fall of an epidemic of serial killing?\u201d One answer points to one of the most poisonous lead, copper, and arsenic smelters in the world, and the damaging impacts it had on young men. It\u2019s a fascinating investigation into how \u201ca new strain of psychopath emerged out of a toxic landscape of deadly industrial violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Far Gone<\/p>\n

\"So<\/a><\/p>\n

Rhys Kinnick had disappeared. After a Thanksgiving row with his son-in-law, Kinnick decided to leave modern life behind\u2014but the world wasn\u2019t done with him. When his daughter goes missing, Kinnick is forced to leave his seclusion and go on a madcap trip across the country to not only search for her, but to see first hand what he left behind\u2014for better and for worse.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Dorothy Scarborough (she\/her) is the assistant to the Editor in Chief of Town & Country and Elle Decor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Emily Burack (she\/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Adam Rathe is Town & Country’s Deputy Features Director, covering film, theater, books, travel, art, philanthropy, and a range of other subjects.<\/p>\n

Watch Next\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Play\"preview<\/p>\n

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Advertisement – Continue Reading Below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atmosphere In previous novels, Taylor Jenkins Reid has tackled Old Hollywood (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo), rock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,1380,64904,1331,77,3989,1381,64903,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-152203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-content-type-news","10":"tag-contentid-8ad56673-2b1f-4e44-8857-80a9521ffb53","11":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-hasproduct-true","14":"tag-locale-us","15":"tag-shorttitle-the-46-must-read-books-of-summer-2025","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114614034289111165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}