Summer Reading List

6+ great books to read this summer as you enjoy vacations or just enjoy the freedom of a less demanding schedule. Comment with your picks & I’ll add them to “Friends of Coffee With Us 3” picks! Bookmark (or pin) this page, so you can easily find great summer reading material!

My kids only have a few days of school left!  May has been absolutely crazy and I’m ready for the freedom of summer.  We have a few things planned this summer but for the most part we will be enjoying lazy days of swimming, playing at the park, and bumming around our house.  Hopefully, I will also find some time to read.

Jamie and Kerry are also hoping to get some reading done this summer, so we’ve each picked 2 books to add to this summer reading list.

Kerry’s Picks

Nor Forsake by Julie Presley

Libby Abbott leads a seemingly charmed life: she works from a beautiful home in a rich neighborhood as an aspiring author and has a handsome and successful husband who supports her dreams. But behind closed doors are the suspicions of infidelity, failed pregnancies, a writing career that’s virtually non-existent, and a heart that is so far from God, she’s not sure she knows the way back. When Libby’s short story and headshot land on the desk of literary agent, Jason Randall, he is intrigued by the grace with which she handles her characters and her stunning smile. He’s convinced that she’s his next best-selling author. Publishing is the last thing on Libby’s mind, but Jason’s eagerness to see her succeed pushes her in a direction she never thought she’d travel again – towards the God of her youth, who dares her to embrace life amidst all of the chaos.

 

The Polygamist’s Daughter: A Memoir by Anna LeBaron

This is the haunting memoir of Anna LeBaron, daughter of the notorious polygamist and murderer Ervil LeBaron. Ervil’s criminal activity kept Anna and her siblings constantly on the run from the FBI. Often starving, the children lived in a perpetual state of fear―and despite their numbers, Anna always felt alone. Would she ever find a place she truly belonged? Would she ever be anything other than the polygamist’s daughter?
Filled with murder, fear, and betrayal, The Polygamist’s Daughter is the harrowing, heart-wrenching story of a fatherless girl and her unwavering search for love, faith, and a place to call home.

Jamie’s Picks

And Only to Deceive (Lady Emily Mysteries) by Tasha Alexander

For Emily, accepting the proposal of Philip, the Viscount Ashton, was an easy way to escape her overbearing mother, who was set on a grand society match. So when Emily’s dashing husband died on safari soon after their wedding, she felt little grief. After all, she barely knew him. Now, nearly two years later, she discovers that Philip was a far different man from the one she had married so cavalierly. His journals reveal him to have been a gentleman scholar and antiquities collector who, to her surprise, was deeply in love with his wife. Emily becomes fascinated with this new image of her dead husband and immerses herself in all things ancient and begins to study Greek.
Emily’s intellectual pursuits and her desire to learn more about Philip take her to the quiet corridors of the British Museum, one of her husband’s favorite places. There, amid priceless ancient statues, she uncovers a dark, dangerous secret involving stolen artifacts from the Greco-Roman galleries. To complicate matters, she’s juggling two prominent and wealthy suitors, one of whose intentions may go beyond the marrying kind. As she sets out to solve the crime, her search leads to more surprises about Philip and causes her to question the role in Victorian society to which she, as a woman, is relegated.

Band of Sisters by Cathy Gohlke

Maureen O’Reilly and her younger sister flee Ireland in hope of claiming the life promised to their father over twenty years before. After surviving the rigors of Ellis Island, Maureen learns that their benefactor, Colonel Wakefield, has died. His family, refusing to own his Civil War debt, casts her out. Alone, impoverished, and in danger of deportation, Maureen connives to obtain employment in a prominent department store. But she soon discovers that the elegant facade hides a secret that threatens every vulnerable woman in the city.
Despite her family’s disapproval, Olivia Wakefield determines to honor her father’s debt but can’t find Maureen. Unexpected help comes from a local businessman, whom Olivia begins to see as more than an ally, even as she fears the secrets he’s hiding. As women begin disappearing from the store, Olivia rallies influential ladies in her circle to help Maureen take a stand against injustice and fight for the lives of their growing band of sisters. But can either woman open her heart to divine leading or the love it might bring?

 

My Picks

Gods and Kings (Chronicles of the Kings #1) by Lynn Austin

A riveting retelling of the life of King Hezekiah from one of the most talented Cba historical novelists writing today. Chronicles of the Kings book 1.

It’s currently free on kindle unlimited! I fell in love with Lynn Austin’s writing when I read Wonderland Creek – which is a fun & charming read. If you haven’t read any of her books, check them out!

Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely by Lysa TerKeurst

The enemy wants us to feel rejected . . . left out, lonely, and less than.
In Uninvited, Lysa shares her own deeply personal experiences of rejection–from the perceived judgment of the perfectly toned woman one elliptical over to the incredibly painful childhood abandonment by her father. She leans in to honestly examine the roots of rejection, as well as rejection’s ability to poison relationships from the inside out, including our relationship with God.
Uninvited reminds us we are destined for a love that can never be diminished, tarnished, shaken, or taken–a love that does not reject or uninvite.

I’m reading this book for a ladies book club.  I’m excited to read it and talk about it with some wonderful women.

“Friends of Coffee With Us” Picks

* These picks were shared with us via comments on this blog post or social media.  We haven’t read all of these books or personally checked them out. *

• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
• Sisterchicks Series by Robin Jones Gunn
• What Falls from the Sky: How I Disconnected from the Internet and Reconnected with the God Who Made the Clouds by Esther Emery
• The Magnolia Story by Chip & Joanna Gaines
• Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health by Dr. Caroline Leaf
• The Mother God Made Me to Be by Karen Valentin
• Love Lives Here: Finding What You Need in a World Telling You What You Want by Maria Goff
• Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff
• Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of A Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator by Homer Hickam
• The Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt
• Chase the Lion: If Your Dream Doesn’t Scare You, It’s Too Small by Mark Batterson

What are you planning on reading this summer? Comment below and I will add them to the friends picks!

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