10 Books On My Summer To Be Read List

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It’s time again for a seasonal TBR List prompt. I’ve never been the type of reader to make a literal TBR list and work through; I’m too much of a mood reader for that, but I have been surprised by how much I enjoy writing these posts. They’re a nice opportunity to take stock of what I have read and see what I have in my backlog that is most likely to rise to the top!

To start, let’s see how I need against my Spring 2025 TBR List!

Only two read!

✅ Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey ⭐⭐⭐

✅ Kala by Colin Walsh ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Not amazing, but better than nothing!

Staying on the List

⬆️ 1. Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humour and horror to portray both the loners and outcasts as well as turning the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them.

I am going to start reading this tonight! I just got married, and ignored a lot of traditions to do so, so I’m in the mood for this!

⬆️ 2. My Husband by Maud Ventura

The winner of France’s First Novel Prize in 2021, My Husband builds on the premise of hits like Gone Girl and Fates and Furies–how well can you really know your spouse?–and adds the tension and creepy obsession of You. The result is an irresistible read–compelling, tense, and engaging, infused with sly subversive humour, and told in an utterly original voice that makes it unforgettable.

Start my new marriage by reading an unhinged book about a derranged wife? Why not.

➡️ 3. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

A dazzling urban satire of modern human relations? An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something? Bridget Jones is everyone’s favourite Londoner. This is your chance to reacquaint yourself with the funniest, most heart-warming young lady ever to grace the pages of a Picador book.

This has been on my mind since my 10 Favourite Love Stories list, and with rewatching the 1995 Pride & Prejudice, I have renewed my appreciation for Colin Firth and both of his Mr Darcy characters!

➡️ 4. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

This will be my pick when I want something completely different to my usual reads, or I’m just in the mood for pirates!

➡️ 5. Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse

Rhiannon is your average girl next door, settled with her boyfriend and little dog… but she’s got a killer secret.

Although her childhood was haunted by a famous crime, Rhiannon’s life is normal now that her celebrity has dwindled. By day her job as an editorial assistant is demeaning and unsatisfying. By evening she dutifully listens to her friend’s plans for marriage and babies whilst secretly making a list.

A kill list.

I will probably go for this when I want something dark and fun!

➡️6. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Humbert Humbert – scholar, aesthete and romantic – has fallen completely and utterly in love with Lolita Haze, his landlady’s gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter. Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.

I can’t mention this book without recommending Jamie Loftus’ excellent podcast, which opened my eyes to what the book is actually about, and not how it has been misunderstood and twisted in wider culture. I still really want to read it… I just need to be in the right state of mind!

Some new additions

🆕 7. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

Pride And Prejudice, the story of Mrs. Bennet’s attempts to marry off her five daughters is one of the best-loved and most enduring classics in English literature. Excitement fizzes through the Bennet household at Longbourn in Hertfordshire when young, eligible Mr. Charles Bingley rents the fine house nearby. He may have sisters, but he also has male friends, and one of these—the haughty, and even wealthier, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy—irks the vivacious Elizabeth Bennet, the second of the Bennet girls. She annoys him. Which is how we know they must one day marry.

My recent rewatch of the 1995 BBC TV adaptation of Pride & Prejudice (the best) has put me in the mood to reread the book. I might end up going the audiobook route if I can find a good narrator.

🆕 8. Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse #8) by James S.A. Corey

In the dead systems where gates lead to stranger things than alien planets, Elvi Okoye begins a desperate search to discover the nature of a genocide that happened before the first human beings existed, and to find weapons to fight a war against forces at the edge of the imaginable. But the price of that knowledge may be higher than she can pay.

At the heart of the empire, Teresa Duarte prepares to take on the burden of her father’s godlike ambition. The sociopathic scientist Paolo Cortázar and the Mephistophelian prisoner James Holden are only two of the dangers in a palace thick with intrigue, but Teresa has a mind of her own and secrets even her father the emperor doesn’t guess.

And throughout the wide human empire, the scattered crew of the Rocinante fights a brave rear-guard action against Duarte’s authoritarian regime. Memory of the old order falls away, and a future under Laconia’s eternal rule — and with it, a battle that humanity can only lose – seems more and more certain. Because against the terrors that lie between worlds, courage and ambition will not be enough…

This is the point where I stopped the series the first time I read it, so we’re heading into uncharted territory and with one more book after this one, I’m excited to see how everything concludes.

🆕 9. Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

I’m feeling in the mood for some literary science-fiction, and it’s supposed to be nicely character-driven so hopefully it’s my speed!

🆕 10. Retreat by Krysten Ritter

 Liz Dawson weaves through a crowd with the ease of a tropical breeze, moving seamlessly through elite circles, sparking instant connections and making every new acquaintance feel like an intimate friend. She’s clever, smooth, and confident—qualities that make her a brilliant serial con artist.

Isabelle Beresford is strikingly beautiful, obscenely wealthy, and the new owner of Casa Esmerelda, a fabulous villa on the Mexican coast—attributes that make her the perfect mark. When she offers Liz a job handling the installation of a piece of art in her otherwise vacant home, Liz can’t resist the allure of a beach retreat. She longs for a reset, a chance to finally shed the grip of her addiction to the conning game.

But when Liz, with her lush dark hair and intense green eyes, is mistaken for Isabelle herself, Liz can’t help effortlessly slipping into the socialite’s identity. The transition is so easeful, it almost feels like fate. But just who is Isabelle Beresford really, and why does she seem to have abandoned this stunning life of hers?

As Liz insinuates herself deeper into the dazzling—and deceptive—world of the Punta Mita resort community, she draws closer to the dangers surrounding the real Isabelle. Dangers that may have already ensnared Liz, too. This might not be the con of her life—but the con that ends it.

Look, I have a soft spot for Krysten Ritter. I found her charming even before she became Jessica Jones! Am I expecting this book (which is obviously ghostwritten, by Lindsay Jamieson) to be amazing? Nope, but I hope it’ll be at least a 3-star read. Certainly, the premise sounds like a typical, cheesy con-woman plot, which, while I expect I’ll be able to predict start to finish, could be fun if the characters are good. I read her previous book, Bonfire, when that came out and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it, so I’m game to give her second book a try… especially as I got it for 99p!