Boston.com readers share the best books they read during summer 2021

Once again, reading proved to be the perfect summer escape. 

We asked Boston.com readers to share the best books they read during the season, and they responded by offering more than 100 recommended titles.

As Alicia from Taunton noted, reading was the perfect activity to embrace as the highly contagious delta variant dashed plans for a carefree “hot vax summer.”

“With concerns still about socializing, if it wasn’t too hot to be out in my garden, I hid in the house escaping in a good book,” Alicia wrote to us.

Per the submissions we received, Boston.com readers overwhelmingly enjoyed reading fiction during our second pandemic summer. The selections ranged from beach reads to historical fiction to classics like Dante’s “Inferno.” And unlike last summer, there was very little overlap in the recommendations, with only a few titles recommended by more than one reader.

Below, explore the books your fellow Boston.com readers couldn’t put down and that they recommend for your own “to be read” pile. 

Fiction

• “The Summer of Lost and Found” by Mary Alice Monroe (2021)
• “Robert B. Parker’s Someone To Watch Over Me” by Ace Atkins (2021)
• “Northern Spy” by Flynn Berry (2021)
• “The Personal Librarian” by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (2021)
• “Off the Record” by Daisy Blaine (2021): “A great read, set in Boston! A contemporary romance with a heavy dose of suspense/true crime feel. Super sexy and fast paced.” — Brittany from Kingston, MA
• “Blush” by Jamie Brenner (2021)
• “Blind Tiger” by Sandra Brown (2021): “Always delivers an entertaining read!  Best this summer.” — Laurence from Orange, CA
• “The Paris Apartment” by Kelly Bowen (2021): “I’ve read a lot of WWII novels and this one stands out. The characters are complex and well developed. The book is a page turner — hard to put down.” — Kathy from Milton, MA
• “Good Company” by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (2021)
• “Troy” by Stephen Fry (2021): “Wonderful telling of the Iliad, neatly explaining who everyone is and where they came from in a fun, conversational style.” — Bob from Sandwich, N.H.
• “The Plot” by Jean Hanff Korelitz (2021)
• “The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah (2021)
• “The Sweetness of Water” by Nathan Harris (2021: “Excellent post-Civil War historical novel. Beautifully written!” — Kathy from Milton, MA
• “Malibu Rising” by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2021) *Picked by two readers
• “The Newcomer” by Mary Kay Andrews (2021)
• “Billy Summers” by Stephen King (2021)
• “Sex and Vanity” by Kevin Kwan (2021)
• “Not a Happy Family” by Shari Lapena (2021)
• “It’s Better This Way” by Debbie Macomber (2021)
• “Just Last Night” by Mhairi McFarlane (2021)
• “When I Found You” by Brenda Novak (2021)
• “Her Perfect Life” by Hank Phillippi Ryan (2021)
• “Great Circle” by Maggie Shipstead (2021): “A great adventure from beginning to end. I couldn’t put it down and didn’t want it to be over.” — Peter from Glens Falls, N.Y.
• “Neighbors” by Danielle Steel (2021)
• “The Last Green Valley” by Mark Sullivan (2021): “Excellent historical novel by the author of ‘Beneath a Scarlet Sky.’ A story of resilience, love and ultimately triumph.” — Kathy from Milton, MA
• “Family Reunion” by Nancy Thayer (2021)
• “That Summer” by Jennifer Weiner (2021)
• “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir (2021)
• “Where The Grass Is Green And The Girls Are Pretty” by Lauren Weisberger (2021)
• “Under the Southern Sky” by Kristy Woodson Harvey (2021)
• “Anxious People” by Fredrik Backman (2020) *Picked by two readers
• “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett (2020)
• “The Mighty Oak” by Jeff Bens (2020)
• “Summer Longing” by Jamie Brenner (2020)
• “Return to Virgin River” by Robyn Carr (2020)
• “Big Lies in a Small Town” by Diane Chamberlain (2020)
• “A Week at the Shore” by Barbara Delinsky (2020)
• “Fortune and Glory” by Janet Evanovich (2020)
• “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig (2020) *Picked by two readers
• “Piece of My Heart” by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke (2020)
• “Deacon King Kong” by James McBride (2020): “Loved the story, prose, and layers to the story.” — Cathy from Winchester, MA
• “The Book of Longings” by Sue Monk Kidd (2020)
• “The Book of Two Ways” by Jodi Picoult (2020)
• “Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds (2020)
• “The Invisible Life Of Addie LaRue” by V. E. Schwab (2020)
• “Feels Like Falling” by Kristy Woodson Harvey (2020)
• “Drawing Home” by Jamie Brenner (2019)
• “The Best of Us” by Robyn Carr (2019)
• “Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2019)
• “This Tender Land” by William Kent Krueger (2019): “What a delightful read. Writing is almost poetic. Unquestionably you will love it.” — Joe from Norton, MA
• “The Murder List” by Hank Phillippi Ryan (2019)
• “The Overstory” by Richard Powers (2019)
• “The Southern Side of Paradise”  by Kristy Woodson Harvey (2019)
• “The Storyteller’s Secret” by Sejal Badani (2018)
• “The Great Alone” by Kristin Hannah (2018)
• “The Secret to Southern Charm” by Kristy Woodson Harvey (2018)
• “Any Day Now” by Robyn Carr (2017)
• “We Were the Lucky Ones” by Georgia Hunter (2017)
• “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2017)
• “Before We Were Yours” by Lisa Wingate (2017)
• “Slightly South of Simple” by Kristy Woodson Harvey (2017)
• “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah (2015)
• “Fly Away” by Kristin Hannah (2013)
• “Doctor Sleep” by Stephen King (2013)
• “The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt (2013)
• “Redwood Bend” by Robyn Carr (2012)
• “The Sweetness of Forgetting” by Kristin Harmel (2012)
• “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller (2012)
• “Bring Me Home for Christmas” by Robyn Carr (2011)
• “Angel’s Peak” by Robyn Carr (2010)
• “Winter Garden” by Kristin Hannah (2010)
• “The Distant Hours” by Kate Morton (2010)
• “A Virgin River Christmas” by Robyn Carr (2009)
• “Firefly Lane” by Kristin Hannah (2008)
• “Duma Key” by Stephen King (2008)
• “Shelter Mountain” by Robyn Carr (2007)
• “Year of Wonders” by Geraldine Brooks (2001)
• “Angel Falls” by Kristin Hannah (2000)
• “The Shining” by Stephen King (1977)
• “Mila 18” by Leon Uris (1961): “A fictionalized description of unspeakable horror that occurred in the Polish ghettos in WWII.” — Charlie from Arlington, MA
• “The Inferno” by Dante Alighieri (circa 1308–21)

Nonfiction

• “The Anthropocene Reviewed” by John Green (2021)
• “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel (2021)
• “Dusk, Night, Dawn” by Anne Lamott (2021)
• “Robert E. Lee And Me” by Ty Seidule (2021)
• “Goodbye, Again” by Jonny Sun (2021)
• ‘The Dynasty” by Jeff Benedict (2020)
• “The Three-Cornered War” by Megan Kate Nelson (2020): “Epic book about winning the West during the Civil War. Detailed brilliantly, like reading a compassionate textbook!” — Marilyn from Andover, MA
• “Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson (2020) *Picked by two readers
• “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” by Lori Gottleib (2019) 
• “How To Hide an Empire” by Daniel Immerwahr (2019)
• “Educated” by Tara Westover (2018)
• “Grant” by Ron Chernow (2017)
• “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann (2017) 
• “The Witches” by Stacy Schiff (2015)
• “Custer’s Trials” by T.J. Stiles (2015)
• “My Struggle” by Karl Ove Knausgaard (2014)
• “Thinking, Fast And Slow” by Daniel Kahneman (2011)
• “Stuart” by Alexander Masters (2007)

Dialynn Dwyer

Dialynn Dwyer is a reporter and editor at Boston.com, covering breaking and local news across Boston and New England.

 

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