Copley's Summer Reading List (2024)

Copley Library boasts an impressive collection of academic titles and journal articles both online and in its physical collection. As the semester comes to a close and as the weather heats up, now is the perfect time to ponder your summer reading list! Copley Library's Popular Books Collection is a rotating collection of the most current bestsellers (2023 and 2024 publications). The over 300+ print books can be found on the lower level of the library and comprise nonfiction and fiction stories (sci-fi, romance, mystery, biography and many more). Visit the library to serendipitously discover your next page-turner, or search the online catalog with “Popular Books” (then refine to location: Copley Library, and format: Print Book) to select “Request it” to place a hold on your chosen title. Please Note: Popular Books checked out for the summer will have their due date extended to the beginning of fall semester!

See below for a selection of highlighted titles:

Holiday Country by İnci Atrek

"Nineteen-year-old Ada adores spending every summer in a Turkish seaside town with her mother and grandmother at the family villa. The glittering waters, picturesque olive groves, and her spirited friends make it easy for Ada to leave her idle life in California behind. But no matter how much Ada feels she belongs to the country where her mother grew up, deep down, her connection to the culture feels as fleeting as the seasons. When Levent, a mysterious man from her mother's past, shows up in their town, Ada can't help but imagine a different future for her mother-one that promises a return to home, to love, to happiness. But while playing matchmaker, Ada has to come to terms with her own intensifying attraction to Levent. Does the future she's fighting for belong to her mother-or to her alone? Lush and evocative, İnci Atrek's Holiday Country is a rapturous meditation about what it means to experience being of two worlds, the limitations and freedom of a life in translation, and the intricacies of a love triangle that stretches across generations and continents" – Publisher description.

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Martyr!by Kaveh Akbar

"A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum" – Publisher description.

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Hard by a Great Forestby Leo Vardiashvili

"A devastating story of one family's border-crossing adventure to rescue one another and make peace with the past, set in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, two years after the occupation of South Ossetia by Russia in 2008" – Publisher description.

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River East, River Westby Aube Rey Lescure

“Set against the backdrop of developing modern China, this mesmerizing literary debut is part coming-of-age tale, part family and social drama, as it follows two generations searching for belonging and opportunity in a rapidly changing world” – Publisher description.

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The Book of Fireby Christy Lefteri

"In present-day Greece, deep in an ancient forest, lives a family: Irini, a musician, who teaches children to read and play music; her husband, Tasso, who paints pictures of the forest, his greatest muse; and Chara, their young daughter, whose name means joy. On the fateful day that will forever alter the trajectory of their lives, flames chase fleeing birds across the sky. The wildfire that will consume their home, and their lives as they know it, races toward them. In the smoldering aftermath, Irini stumbles upon the body of the man who started the fire, a land speculator who had intended only a small, controlled burn to clear forestland to build on and instead ignited a catastrophe. He is dead, although the cause is unclear, and in her anger at all he took from them, Irini makes a split-second decision that will haunt her. As the local police investigate the mysterious death, Tasso mourns his father, who has not been seen since before the fire. His hands were burnt in the flames, leaving him unable to paint, and he struggles to cope with the overwhelming loss of his artistic voice and his beloved forest. Only his young daughter, who wants to repair the damage that's been done, gives him hope for the future. Gorgeously written, sweeping in scope and intimate in tone, The Book of Fire is a masterful work about the search for meaning in the wake of tragedy, as well as the universal ties that bind people to each other, and to the land that they call home" – Publisher description.

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