Rare Birds Summer Reading Guide
The sun is shining and that only means one thing. It's time for the Lit Girlies mobilise.
So grab your RB reader cap, tote bag and emotional support water bottle and get yourself to the nearest expanse of grass or open body of water with one of our summer reading recs x
Summer flings
Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
Growing up, Sam and Wyatt spend every summer together on Long Island. Now successful and engaged to someone else, Sam’s seemingly perfect life is threatened when Wyatt returns one summer.
Armenian American Nar’s mum has had enough. Sending her back to her roots to find a suitable Armenian man, Nar has other ideas when she falls for her distinctly not-male tour guide.
A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
15 years ago, they spent one frenzied week madly in love, only for it to end in heartbreak. A chance encounter brings them back together, and over the next seven days during a steamy Brooklyn summer, they begin to reconnect.
Poolside thrillers
Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum
Every summer, the Manhattan elites flee the city to enjoy the spoils of Fire Island. Two best friends hold court as their husbands bear grudges. Their best friend is looking to find her match, single or not. When a body is found on the beach, the finger starts to point at one another.
The Home Group is a glamorous collection of celebrity members' clubs dotted across the globe. At their annual summer party secrets emerge and tempers fray, leaving the bodies to pile up and members wishing they never made the guest list.
Behind the white picket fences, these women struggle to keep it together. The subject of envy, Ciara, has it all. But when Ciara is found murdered in her home, the mirage of idyllic suburban life is shattered.
Among the bustling streets and oppressive heat of 1950s Tangier, Lucy's life is upturned by the arrival of her ex-best friend. Things come to a head when Lucy's husband goes missing, and she must look to those closest to her for an answer.
Cocktail hour
One young woman, whose misstep at a dinner party with the older man she’s been staying with, leaves her kicked out and free to wreak havoc on the wealthy island he brought her to.
A mother and daughter arrive in a town on the Spanish coast. Intoxicated by thick heat and the seductive people who move through it, both women begin to see their lives clearly for the first time in years.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
This trailblazing novel follows best friends Elena and Lila, who grow up in hardship in 1950s Naples, their friendship the shining light in a country undergoing tremendous change.
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
A sticky, sultry tale of grief and desire. A young artist, working through the ultimate heartbreak, finds herself falling for love in all the wrong places.