Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand

All hail the “Queen of the Beach Reads” and her final Nantucket novel Swan Song! I can’t believe this is the end! Ever since I first moved to the island in 2013, my summer has officially started with taking the day off and reading the new Elin book on my Nantucket beach of choice. Swan Song is such an ode to Nantucket, Elin’s prolific career, and the 30 novels before it, as well as the summer season. Her books are synonymous with that first day of summer on the calendar, that first beach day and lobster roll, Galley sunsets, sailboat rides around Brant Point, pool parties and galas, jeep jaunts with the top down and doors off to Great Point, and all that sizzling and steamy drama that transpires every late June to late September.

Thank you, Elin, for all the summer memories with our toes in the sand and your stories in hand, ignoring our friends and families for “just one more chapter” before the sun sets. Get your tissues ready for those last few pages.

In celebration of the final novel, I worked with Elin’s publisher to create a Nantucket Special Edition you can only get at your Nantucket independent bookstores. This exclusive copy features gorgeous watercolor endpapers by artist and friend Meredith Hanson and bonus content—an interview with Elin and me, plus Elin’s party tips and favorite summer recipes.

THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore

Well-written murder mysteries and crime stories are some of my favorite novels, and Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods gives us a dual timeline investigating not one, but two cases at an Adirondack summer camp. You will be on the edge of your beach chair trying to figure out how everything and everyone fits together in this story. Told through multiple perspectives, from suspects to detectives, and pertaining to separate disappearances in 1961 and 1975, this is a classic crime novel that also entertains as a coming-of-age and epic family saga. There are shelves and shelves of new mysteries these days—books that disappoint you with their trendy and repetitive plotlines, their unreliable narrators and campy twists. However, this novel will immediately go on your “favorites shelf,” revered as a classic of the genre, perhaps to be read again for the sheer enjoyment of the writing and story.

SANDWICH by Catherin Newman

What a perfect little gem of a summer novel. Like a sparkling seashell found on a beach walk, Sandwich is a true treasure you will cherish. If you vacationed at the same place every summer with your family, this book might be for you. If you are a mother, father, son or daughter, this book might be for you. If you wonder how your kids grew up so quickly or have specific food cravings from your past, if your spouse sometimes annoys you with their idiosyncrasies, or if your body and mind don’t quite function the same as they used to in your younger days, this book might be for you. It’s safe to say—this book is for you! This is more of a quiet story, which is its strength, and it is elegant with moments of humor, heart and paragraphs that evoke all your senses and memories of all kinds. It makes you smile the whole time you are reading it. I felt like a member of this family, or at the very least a fly on the wall, during their annual Cape Cod beach vacation. There is a lot sandwiched between the sentences here that will leave you pondering your own life and thinking of your loved ones. You’ll look back to the day you spent reading this novel with pure pleasure.

THE CAUTIOUS TRAVELLER’S GUIDE TO THE WASTELANDS by Sarah Brooks

Fantasy novels and I have a complicated relationship. If it works just perfectly for me and follows its own rules, I can really love and adore it, but I’m hesitant because this isn’t always the case. There is nothing to be cautious about in Sarah Brooks’ debut novel, though. All aboard this extraordinary historical fantasy set on a grand express train and its dangerous journey across a magical landscape. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is an all-encompassing thrill ride filled with vivid storytelling, delightful world-building, and memorable characters that guide you through this incredible adventure. It reminded me of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, both stories so uniquely and imaginatively all their own.

SAME AS IT EVER WAS by Claire Lombardo



I was such a huge fan of Claire Lombardo’s debut The Most Fun We Ever Had in 2019, and her sophomore novel out last month, Same As It Ever Was, was just as fun. I recently read a quote by psychologist Adam Grant that fiction has meaningful benefits for empathy. Reading books like Claire’s truly strengthens my emotional intelligence, relationships and human connection. This novel introduces its characters and plot in a tantalizing way, but metaphorically gives us a look at ourselves and our own human relationships. It’s about marriage, family, friendship, parenthood, our insecurities, why we laugh and why we cry, and what it means to make mistakes, forgive each other and love unconditionally. You’ll get lost in the writing and story and wish for it to never end.

Tune into Season 2 of the literary podcast Books, Beach, and Beyond, co-hosted by me and Elin Hilderbrand, to hear our episode with Claire Lombardo at booksbeachandbeyond.com.

THE HISTORY OF SOUND by Ben Shattuck

On shelves July 9

Ben Shattuck joined us for the Nantucket Book Festival in 2022 for his debut, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau. He returns to bookshelves everywhere this month with this interconnected collection of 12 short stories across three centuries set in New England. This is a love letter to where we all call home; it’s also a treasure map to what came before us and a crystal ball for the future. Ben manages to have a moving conversation between past and present on the page, one that is imaginative and elegantly constructed. The book transports you to Nantucket in the 1700s, Maine during the First World War, contemporary New Hampshire and beyond. Anyone who follows my book recommendations knows I revere the word “connection” to describe why I love reading. Connection is what The History of Sound is ultimately about: connection through storytelling across time and place and between people, to be cherished forever on your bookshelf.