16 Best Summer Reads That Will Torpedo You Out Of A Reading Slump & Sadness

This is the hill I will die on. Manjhi’s Mayhem is the most standout book to have come out of the Indian publishing scene in recent times. It is written to hook the Indian audience, and is an exciting and quick thriller written with very clever narration. Everyone should read this book, just to finally feel like something was written for them, specifically.

If you’ve been missing a good psychological thriller that keeps you hooked and thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading it, Jar Of Hearts is an easy pick. The book follows a girl whose ex-boyfriend has resurfaced after being convicted for going on a killing spree, and soon after bodies start dropping dead again. He’s clearly chasing her for revenge, and when I say it gets real, it really does. 

Mira Sethi’s Are You Enjoying? is a book of six short stories set in Pakistan and the book is a reminder that all our lives are the same, especially in the subcontinent. By the end of each story, you feel a certain kinship with Mira’s characters, who are going through very real life things and finding themselves in the process.

If you’ve been missing a quick and light romance read in your life, pick up Thank You For Listening. Set in the audiobook industry, it’s a light read that pools in all the best tropes. What’s better than a romance novel? A romance novel that has the protagonists contemplating their conflicted feelings towards romance novels. Which is what the author does very well, by never belittling the genre as a whole, and letting the characters address their feelings towards it by letting it play catalyst to them falling in love.

Ghachar Ghochar is a made/up phrase that means ‘messed up beyond repair’. The book follows the rags to riches story of a complex family and displays their peculiar behaviour changes throughout the journey. It’s psychological, suspenseful, and humorous in the right places.

As a rule, I only read one Gillian Flynn per two or three years, because if how heavy the books tend to be. If you haven’t explored her work since Gone Girl became a phenomenon, you must pick up Gone Girl and you must do it now! In Sharp Objects, a young woman who is still finding her footing in her career as a journalist goes back home after a decade to report the case of a missing girl, possibly murdered. In the process, she is forced to confront her feelings about her hometown and family, and her relationship with herself. It is haunting, disturbing, and brilliant.

For anyone who hasn’t still witnessed the brilliance of Agatha Christie (if that is even possible), Endless Night is an underrated gem you should start with. While it's in the same zone as Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which is one of her most famous works, this is a lesser-known one in the theme of the dubious narrator. There's a bit of a love story, superstition, and, of course, suspense. Will definitely get you out of a reading slump.

This is a romance novel, the protagonist of which is a man on the spectrum who wants to find a wife. It's a book about finding love as a neurodivergent person, about the neurodivergent need to have control over everything and how love alludes this control and confounds, confuses and renders us putty. It's a super cute book and it's my go-to for ending a reading slump. It's fast, funny, and gets the job done.

Lovely and Beauty are two sisters who have never stepped outside their home, but that’s about to change. On her fortieth birthday, Lovely decides she’s going to make it special by stepping out and heading to the market by herself, unaccompanied. As the day progresses, many revelations about her mother Farida Khanam and the control she commands on her family come undone. The revelation in the end is unexpected, wild.

While at the heart of it, this is a story about straddling community and identity as an immigrant, this book is immensely interesting. The plot of the book could have been tighter and more thought out, but the characters are the real heroes. The protagonist is a law school dropout at odds with her conservative Sikh family because of the kind of life she wants to lead, who takes up a job as creative writing teacher at the local community centre. When her students, mostly widowed Punjabi aunties, find an erotic story and share it with each other, it sparks a creativity in them that reminds us readers of a very simple truth—almost everyone has desires. When the Brotherhood, a self-appointed moral police group of the community find out about this, a scandal breaks out. The book is fun, it talks about female sexuality and the policing in immigrant families which lays the burden of protecting community and culture on its women but in the most unique way ever. And the aunties of the story are absolutely amazing.

Now turned into a movie, Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is a coming-of-age story of an Irish immigrant, Eilis Lacey. The story calls to the heart in the simplest and most relatable ways, capturing a beautiful journey of figuring out who you are and finding your place in the chaotic contemporary world while paving your own paths. The relationship between Eilis and Tony is super lovely—a quick read that will resonate with you while evoking a deep sense of nostalgia. 

This is a perfect travel book! It is part of a trilogy but can be picked up in isolation without making you wonder about the context and setting. The story features a coffee shop that lets you travel back in time, with rules, of course, the most important being to return 'before the coffee gets cold'. It's super unique and interesting, with absolutely adorable characters, and would probably take you a maximum of two days to finish.

A super heartwarming, steamy, and total masala read, You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty is a spectacular novel that is perfect to get you back into reading. The writing is vivid and compassionate, exploring themes like grief, loss, joy, and second chances while emphasising the potential of love and all the unreasonable ways it can make you act. This book really comes alive, unfolds like a movie, and would have you hooked, with some great epiphanies.

With summer being a central key to the plot, The Summer Without Men craftily creates, analyses, and redeems changing female identities, all perceived and seen through our protagonist, Mia. When Mia's husband decides to introduce a 'break' in their 30-year-long marriage, Mia travels to her childhood home, where her mother and most of the community consist of females who have outlived their spouses. The trajectory of the novel is wondrous and haunting, featuring complex themes and identities constantly on the cusp of change, but it retains the joy of life effortlessly, which makes it a great read. 

I'm A Fan by Sheena Patel captures the obsessive, unrequited love of a woman. This book is super interesting because it explores the para-social relationship between a man and a woman, with very sincere revelations of innermost desires. The idea of loving someone, wanting someone, and the success of that feeling is extensively explored, with stellar insights into power dynamics, gender, race, class, and emotional manipulation. Each chapter packs a punch of revelations and the sheer ferocity of love, making it a super enjoyable read.