The 23 Best Books Worth Reading This Summer, According to Bazaar Editors

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There’s nothing I look forward to more during the summer than long, uninterrupted afternoons spent with a book. It doesn’t matter if I’m perched by a resort pool in my best swimsuit or holed up in my one-bedroom apartment on a stormy Saturday in June: Getting lost in a good story is my definition of relaxation.

I (selfishly) couldn’t let another such season of leisure begin without fresh book recommendations. To create the ultimate summer 2023 reading list, I asked my fellow Harper’s Bazaar editors to share their favorite books to pair with the warm, lazy days ahead. Some are novels our staff has already dog-eared and underlined; others are books we’re personally saving to crack open on an upcoming vacation. All have that can’t-put-down essence that makes reading an essential part of a perfect summer, from swoon-worthy romance novels to fizzy summer beach reads and gripping new releases.

Bianca Betancourt, culture editor

Homebodies: A Novel

Viva Lola Espinoza

Black Women Writers at Work

My entire group chat and Instagram feed has been reading and raving about Tembe Denton-Hurst’s Homebodies. The novel follows a young Black woman in media navigating the industry (and her personal life) after an unexpected layoff from her prestigious magazine job. Even while it’s a fictional story, the book is an unflinching account of what it means to be a minority in media and a must-read for anyone who grapples with fighting for a seat at the table.

Mexico City has been on my wanderlust list for years now, and until the time is right for me to finally visit, I’ll have to adventure through the city via the pages of Ella Cerón’s debut novel, ¡Viva Lola Espinoza! Dubbed“Pride and Prejudice with a dash of magic,” the story follows titular character Lola Espinoza as she falls in love (with two boys), explores her new home away from home, and unearths family secrets and curses.

Okay, so Black Women Writers at Work isn’t exactly a beach read, but this collection of interviews by Claudia Tate—out of print for many years until this January—is an essential one. Sometimes we need to be reminded why it is we do what we do, and reading the words of geniuses like Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Nikki Giovanni helps to recenter me when I need it most.

Izzy Grinspan, deputy digital editor

The Dud Avocado

Circe

Rivers of London: 10th Anniversary Edition

Last summer, when Covid finally caught up with me, I used Instagram to crowdsource books to read while I was recovering. The catch: I wanted things that were light and fun. No dystopias, no true crime, no children in peril, nothing that felt like an allegory for Our Turbulent Times.

At least two of my friends suggested Elaine Dundy’s The Dud Avocado, which turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. First published in 1958, it’s a fizzy, comic account of a 20-something woman’s adventures in France falling in love with various bohemians and getting into trouble. Imagine Emily in Paris by way of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It’s definitely an artifact of its time (all of the men are terrible), but if you can get past that, it’s a Champagne cocktail of a summer read.

Madeline Miller’s Circe also came up. There’s been a micro trend recently of feminist retellings of ancient myths, and I will probably read every single one of them at some point, but so far I’ve found this one the most satisfying. Circe is the evil sea witch from The Odyssey who turns Odysseus’s men into pigs. Miller casts her as a wronged woman sentenced to live on a tropical island (so it’s literally a beach read, hey-oh!) and packs the plot with action and romance. (Her vision of Odysseus is surprisingly hot.)

Another friend recommended the Rivers of London series. Technically this didn’t fit my criteria, because it’s a supernatural police procedural and people are constantly getting murdered, but it’s still totally delightful on a hot summer day. Peter Grant is a young British cop with a mom from Sierra Leone and a jazz-musician dad, meaning he’s already plugged into several London subcultures when he stumbles into a magical criminal underworld. You know how Harry Potter almost never interacts with anyone outside of Hogwarts? This is the opposite. The books are a celebration of the complications of city life, and they’re also very funny—great for a read on the subway if not by the seaside.

Chelsey Sanchez, digital associate editor

Writers & Lovers: A Novel

Milk Fed: A Novel

Motherhood: A Novel

I didn’t intend for my summer reading list to be so maternal, but these three authors prove that motherhood—women’s expected submission to it and the distinct imperfect relationships we all have with our own mothers—is fertile literary ground. In Writers & Lovers, Lily King follows a young novelist on the brink of financial and romantic ruin as she copes with her mom’s untimely death. Melissa Broder’s aptly titled Milk Fed is a raunchy, hilarious, and devastating story about a 20-something simultaneously falling in love and coming to terms with her eating disorder (the latter being the natural consequence of growing up with an almond mom). Finally, Sheila Heti’s part-memoir, part-novel Motherhood delicately lays bare the fears of being childless in a world that seems to only venerate women when they reproduce.

Jamie Wilson, beauty editor

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Interpreter Of Maladies: A Pulitzer Prize Winner

Things Fall Apart

I’m begging everyone who will listen to read Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann before heading to theaters in the fall to see the Scorsese-directed movie. This nonfiction account of the Osage murders and the rise of the FBI is a twisted, enthralling, enraging read for anyone who loves history and true crime.

Long reads are great, but I have a fond appreciation for a short story. Interpreter of Maladies, a selection of nine eloquently written short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a great window into a world or worlds I don’t culturally occupy. Each of the stories touches on the varied relationships and cultural clashes that Indians and Indian-Americans experience while moving through the world.

Things Fall Apart is one of my top five favorite reads. A tragedy of sorts, it charts the shifting landscape of Nigeria from precolonial life to its invasion by European colonial powers. Through the experiences of its main character, Okonkwo, it balances the truth of suffering and violence during that time against the attempt to hold tight to tradition in the wake of inevitable, catastrophic changes. Chinua Achebe’s storytelling is nothing short of magical.

Ariana Marsh, senior features editor

Between Two Moons: A Novel

The Guest: A Novel

Between Two Moons by Aisha Abdel Gawad is not only gorgeously written, but also provides a window into the experience of growing up Muslim in post-9/11 New York City through the eyes of twin sisters. What really drew me into the story is its portrayal of sisterhood: Lina and Amira couldn’t be more different, yet are inextricably bonded and treat one another with a tenderness that only siblings can.

If you were a fan of Emma Cline’s debut novel, The Girls, you’ll love her new coming-of-age literary thriller The Guest. It centers on a 22-year-old woman named Alex who is staying with a rich older man (her current lover) in his Hamptons house for the summer. When she makes a faux pas at a party, he kicks her out—and her grifter ways come out in full force. It’s an exploration of class, identity, survival, and what it means to belong, and is also just a fun twisty read that will keep you guessing.

Tiffany Dodson, associate beauty commerce editor

Homegoing

Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life

Regardless of the season, I tend to be that person who starts a book and then doesn’t finish it until weeks (or months) later. So I know I’m a little late to the game, but I’m finally a chapter away from finishing Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Its story centers on the parallel paths of two 18th-century Ghanaian sisters and their descendants over the course of eight generations—from Mississippi plantations to the Jazz Age in Harlem—and has me completely in its grip. Simultaneously, I’m also reading the self-development book Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life, by Roxie Nafousi, which is arming me with the mental and emotional tools I need to actually live my best life, unapologetically.

Carl Kelsch, managing editor

I’ve read every Andrea Bartz thriller as it comes out. Her fourth book is the first to push into romantic-thriller territory and shows her knack for creating sizzling scenarios amped up with unbearable tension. The Spare Room takes some cues from the classic gothic novel structure, updating it with plot points involving polyamory and influencer culture. You can’t help but connect immediately with Kelly Doyle, a woman who has had to call off her impending wedding. During the pandemic, Kelly finds a haven beyond her dreams when her childhood friend Sabrina invites her to stay with her and her husband at their Virginia mansion. Having followed Sabrina’s picture-perfect life on social media, Kelly finds herself drawn into their lives as more than just a house guest. From there, it just gets wilder and wilder, with hairpin turns that readers of Bartz’s previous books have come to expect.

Sabrina Park, editorial and social media assistant

Every time news breaks of another unprecedented natural disaster, testifying to the fact that Earth is increasingly unwell, I feel once again drawn back to The Overstory, by Richard Powers. Reading it the first time was an incredibly spiritual experience for me. The story illuminates more than just the fascinating secret intelligence of trees, but the extent to which we are subjected to the same brilliantly intricate mechanisms of Mother Nature, and to the catastrophic consequences when this ecosystem is thrown off balance. It’s also an emotional ride that unveils the profound beauty entailed in being alive and conscious, and in the universal experience of connecting with another. I can promise those who take the time to read this at an intentional pace will come out the other end transformed, namely in how they view themselves in relation to not just humanity but all other living things, as well.

Halie LeSavage, fashion commerce editor

1Q84

My Last Innocent Year: A Novel

The Custom of the Country

I’m the kind of reader who can’t walk into a bookstore without buying at least two new books. That’s led to a Leaning Tower of Pisa situation on my nightstand and in a second stack on the floor next to it. So this summer, I’m reading books I’ve owned for a while and need to finally read, before catching up on 2023’s best new books.

In June, I fell down the the dystopian rabbit hole that is Haruki Murakami’s IQ84—a book I’ve been meaning to read since high school. (I felt too intimidated by the 1,000+ page count.) It was twisted and a little hard to carry on the subway owing to its size, but the reveals found in the two intertwining timelines of an assassin and a novelist swept up in an act of literary fraud were worth the wait. Up next, I’m starting the campus coming-of-age novel My Last Innocent Year, by Daisy Alpert Florin. I also like to read at least one classic in my downtime. This summer it’s The Custom of the Country, Edith Wharton’s portrayal of new-money social strivers in early-1900s New York City, with an introduction by one of my favorite contemporary novelists, Brandon Taylor.

Katie Intner, associate beauty editor

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel

Malibu Rising: A Novel

For months, everyone I shared my book list with told me to add Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin, to the roster, and I finally know why. At first, the book seems innocent: a story about two childhood friends, Sam and Sadie, who reconnect as adults and decide to create a video game together that ends up being über successful. The book follows them through decades of their lives and checks off every box of a good book in my eyes: heartbreak, grief, triumph, friendship, love. While it can get a little video-game-centric at times, it makes you reflect on your own relationships, successes, and failures—while tugging on your heartstrings.

I recently finished reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (after obsessing over Daisy Jones & the Six), so naturally, the next book on my list is Malibu Rising. Maybe it’s the name, but I plan on bingeing this book on a beach (likely not in Malibu, but the summer is young!). I love books that hone in on one event, which in this case is a big blowout party, and flash back to relevant moments, so I am excited to get into this read.

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