Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through them—at no extra cost to you. This helps support our small business and allows us to continue sharing helpful resources. Read our disclaimer.
The kids all have summer reading lists, so we’ve put one together for the moms, too! Enjoy these summer reading recommendations made by moms for moms. Our list includes fiction and non-fiction, and all are great in both print form and audiobook. Read on your own time, or grab some mom friends for a summer book club. Whether you’re curled up reading with your kiddos or enjoying some alone time, these titles are sure to keep you engaged!
A sharp and scintillating summer novel that will make listeners laugh out loud and cry happy tears from the New York Times bestselling author of “Yours Truly.” Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.
From the New York Times bestselling author of “I Was Anastasia” and “Code Name Hélène” comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history. Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. “The Frozen River” is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.
“Blood Sweat Tears” is a short story collection from 26 women+ hikers and runners about the experience of being in a female body on trail. This group of intrepid and vulnerable athletes/writers talk periods, boob sweat, and ugly crying. The trail is a place for healing, and can show us what we are made of — but it’s always us doing the hard work.
In the vein of “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and “Life After Life,” “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue” is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force. In a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever ― and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny… and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century. From the author of “Truths I Never Told You,” “Before I Let You Go,” and the upcoming “The Warsaw Orphan,” Kelly Rimmer’s powerful WWII novel follows a woman’s urgent search for answers to a family mystery that uncovers truths about herself that she never expected.
“The Anxious Generation” is a penetrating and alarming accounting of how we adults began to overprotect children in the real world while giving essentially no protection in the brutal online world. Haidt documents the four fundamental harms of the phone-based sleep deprivation, social deprivation, cognitive fragmentation, and addiction. He then shows the unique harms affecting boys, and the unique harms affecting girls. He offers concrete and scientifically based advice with separate chapters addressed to parents, schools, universities, governments, and to teens themselves. He draws on ancient wisdom and modern psychology to help everyone understand what healthy development would look like in the digital age.
From the New York Times-bestselling author of “Cutting for Stone” comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret. A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, “The Covenant of Water” is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today.
Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety.
From the author of the multimillion-copy bestselling “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” series and “Five Survive” comes a gripping mystery thriller following one teen’s search for the truth about her mother’s shocking disappearance — and even more shocking reappearance— during the filming of a true crime documentary.
Over the past several years, Dr. Rebecca Kennedy — known to her many followers as simply “Dr. Becky” — has been sparking a parenting revolution. Tired of advice that doesn’t work or simply doesn’t feel good to put into practice, hundreds of thousands of parents have been turning to Dr. Becky for her empowering, forgiving, and effective approach to parenting that meets parents exactly where they are — and gives them the tools to do better.
Local mom author alert! When a runway model in 1940s Hollywood makes a split-second decision intended to protect those she loves, she triggers a cascade of secrets that threatens to upend her daughter’s life decades later. “The Hidden Life of Aster Kelly” is a story about the bonds of chosen family, the cost of fame and the enduring strength of love that will keep you guessing until the last page.
White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences. Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American — in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of “Babel.” With its totally immersive first-person voice, “Yellowface” grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
From the New York Times bestselling author of “The Push” comes a propulsive page-turner about four families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens — and what is lost when we give in to our own worst impulses. Exploring envy, women’s friendships, desire, and the intuitions that we silence, “The Whispers” is a chilling novel that marks Audrain as a major women’s fiction talent.
Local mom author alert! “Summer Breakdown” is a raw and moving love story — set in a charming New England beach town — about the complexities of family, marriage, humanity, and the dual beauty and heartache of raising children while also raising yourself.
From the celebrated author of “The Nightingale” and “The Four Winds” comes “The Women” ― at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided. “The Women” is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, “The Women” is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.
“One In a Millennial” is an exploration of pop culture, nostalgia, the millennial zeitgeist, and the life lessons learned (for better and for worse) from coming of age as a member of a much-maligned generation.
Local mom author alert! One morning in 2011, Libby DeLana stepped outside her New England home for a walk. She did the same thing the next day, and the next. It became a daily habit that has culminated in her walking over 25,000 miles – the equivalent of the earth’s circumference. In “Do Walk,” Libby shares the transformative nature of this simple yet powerful practice.
In “How We Heal,” bestselling author Alexandra Elle offers a life-changing invitation to heal yourself and reclaim your peace. In these pages, readers will discover essential techniques for self-healing, including journaling rituals to cultivate innate strength, accessible tools for processing difficult emotions, and restorative meditations to ease the mind.
Danielle Ricci was lucky enough to grow up in Salisbury, MA with the beach as her playground. Danielle received her B.A. in English and Studio Arts at Stonehill College where she pitched for their softball team. She earned her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction and her Ph.D. in Leadership in Schooling from UMass Lowell. Danielle is currently a high school principal where her background as an athlete has helped her to keep the concept of teamwork at the heart of her practice. Her expertise and research is in cultivating collaborative cultures. Danielle currently lives in Merrimac, MA with her husband and five children - Abigail (2015), Grace (2017), Emilia (2020), and twins Madelyn and Ryan (2023)! When she's not juggling life as a working mom, Danielle loves listening to audiobooks, writing, walking, visiting MLB baseball parks, and cold-water exposure - yes, she swims in the Atlantic year-round!
