Hello you!
This week welcomed the start of my summer creative writing class here on substack. There’s still time to join in with us if you’d like to. It’ll live on here forever for paid subscribers if you can’t make the live sessions so you can rewatch any time. One of the first writing tips I wanted to give was around reading and how important it is. Stephen King famously said ‘if you don’t have the time to read you don’t have the time (or the skills) to write’ - but reading isn’t just for writers - it’s for all of us, especially in the summer. If you’re anything like me books are where you turn to escape, to educate and to relax. Perhaps it’s the heat or the longer days but I’m more inclined to reach for a book to unwind over the summer and this year feels no different.
In case you’re prepping your summer reading list too and looking for some recommendations I wanted to share my personal all time favourite summer reads with you and invite you to share yours in the comments so we can dip into a library created by likeminded people. I’m really curious to hear which books shaped your summers over the years.
This book and I go way back. I read it in secondary school and quickly became obsessed with it. Judy Blume is more famous for her YA but that never reached me. I was always determined to read beyond my years as a kid and this had all all the necessary ingredients to hook me in. It’s a beautiful love story, between two friends who spend every summer with one another, which means it uses one of my favourite tools for compelling writing - a play on time. The book explores how relationships withstand the test of time despite the differences and evolutions we inevitably face as we age with each passing summer season as the read thread throughout. It’s truly beautiful.
Daisy Jones And The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I still haven’t seen the tv show version and I think that’s partly because I’m worried my imagination might get dashed because of how much I loved this book. Think Almost Famous but with a witty twist. It whispers summer vibes right throughout and the characters are the type you desperately want to be real so you can keep up with their lives long after the book version of them has ended. I loved how engaging the storytelling was from the beginning and even though I’m not a huge rock music or 1970s fan I was completely seduced by the LA band lifestyle Taylor Jenkins Reid depicts. The ending gave me chills.
I couldn’t put this down once I started reading it. The storytelling unfolds at the perfect pace drawing you in more and more with each page turn. By the end I was gasping and squirming to find out how it ended. The coming together of separate storylines was so clever and enjoyable. Kiley Reid explores relationships, race, motherhood and coming of age very cleverly through characters I both adored and despised. The issues that are unpacked throughout the book are handled so eloquently and thought provokingly it’s a great read to bring to a book club for more discussion.
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
I loved everything about this book and I think anyone who suffered with loneliness as a child will feel seen by it. Not only is the story compelling, the descriptive writing centred around nature and relationships is flawless. Kia has the kind of strength you’d expect from a weightlifter and her grit is nothing short of inspiring. It’s another clever approach to storytelling with a play on time and a twist at the end I never saw coming. The focus on nature throughout this book make it a beautiful sensory experience too. I cried buckets.
City Of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
This is my favourite book of Elizabeth Gilbert’s. I adore how she combines escapism and summer to tell such a fun loving story. It’s set in the 1940s so you’re immediately transported to another world and she captures it so poetically and vividly. She creates a whole other world for us to escape into and join in with all the dramas unfolding within it. It’s full of love, friendship, bohemian life in new york and living against the status quo in the most glamorous ways.
Marianne and Connell are perhaps my favourite literary couple (it’s a close tie with Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy). The way Sally Rooney writes is nothing short of genius and I just want to be in this book. I fell in love with the characters so much I still think about them now, what they’re doing and how they’re feeling even though it’s been years since I had to make peace with putting them back on the shelf. Let me know if you do the same. The drama that unfolds between them is as enticing as it is frustrating. I’m still waiting for the sequel.
Happy reading!
Before I sign off I wanted to remind you today is the last day to get 20% off a paid subscription to the simple letter forever. Our first birthday month is complete. Oh and don’t forget to share your favourite summer reads in the comments so we can all fall in love with them too…
Lots of love
Jessica xxx
Oh, I loved Kiley Reid's Such a Fun Age! The way she blends the stories of the two central characters is so clever, and although she tackles some huge issues within the storyline, she does it with the lightest touch. Judy Blume's Summer Sisters is also one of my all-time favourite summer reads. It reminded me of all the pleasure and pain of being a teenager. I would recommend Run with the Tides by Vandela Vida, which has a similar feel to the Summer Sisters and is about a group of teenage friends as they evolve.
Love City of Girls! I read it around the same time that I read The Chosen and The Beautiful by Nghi Vo. That one is set in the 20s so a little different but also great.