Working at an independent bookstore over Jersey Shore summers is an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world; the gentle bustle of locals and tourists alike against early morning beach breezes creates a delicate beauty, an ethereal calm, that I struggle to put into words. That being said, I’ve inevitably come across hundreds of book titles, spanning all sorts of genres. Whether you’re a Colleen Hoover enthusiast, a fan of Ocean Vuong or Hanya Yanagihara’s literary fiction, or haven’t picked up a book since you read To Kill a Mockingbird or The Outsiders in eighth grade, here’s some of my recommendations for you and yours:
For The Mom Friend
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About edited by Michele Filgate
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Now an Amazon Prime Video limited series!)
For The Hopeless Romantic
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
For The Deep Friend
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (Written by the actress who played Sam Puckett in Nickelodeon’s iCarly!)
Humanly Possible Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah Bakewell
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
For The Die-Hard Feminist
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
Know My Name by Chanel Miller