Summer reading list for June 2021
by Carla Snuggs

Happy Summer! Summer is my favorite time to hit the beach or pool and dive into a great book! I’ve rounded up some fantastic books across a variety of genres for you to enjoy! Let me know what you’re reading this summer by leaving them in the comments section below!

Wife | Daughter | Self by Beth Kephart | Forest Avenue Press 

A recommended Buzzfeed read, Wife | Daughter | Self is the new memoir by National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart. In interlocking essays, she explores the writing life, being married to an artist, and caretaking her elderly father. Shop: Bookshop.org 

Lipgloss Chronicles: Confessions of a Celebrity Make-Up Artist by Mayvis Payne | Pen Legacy

Mayvis Payne offers a sensational account of what life is like behind the scenes as a Celebrity Makeup Artist to the Stars. It's not all glitz and glamour; the beauty business isn't always pretty!  Shop: Amazon.com 

The Hard Seltzer Cocktail Book 

Any season can be hard seltzer season, but summer is an especially perfect time to mix up a refreshing hard seltzer cocktail. From a bubbly Cosmo to a new take on the Spritz, The Hard Seltzer Cocktail book has everything you need to stir up some summer fun! Whatever your plans are this season, be sure to crack open a cold one and this book, and let's get bubbly!  Shop: Ulyssespress.com 

Ordinarily Extraordinary by Patrick P. Long | Paddy P Publishing 

International best-selling author, Patrick P. Long, captures the hearts and minds of readers in his enthralling memoir "Ordinarily Extraordinary." Depicting the true story of the final few weeks of his wife’s battle with breast cancer, the story candidly reflects on marital turmoil, personal trauma, deeply held secrets, failures, and regrets. Patrick focuses on setting a positive tone for his family after his wife, Melanie, passes. Despite losing his wife, best friend, and mother of their four young children, he rejects pity and finds inspiration in the extraordinary community surrounding them, even as life continues to beset him with ordeals that continuously challenge his positive tone. While an emotionally raw and tragic story of love and friendship, readers find it surprisingly uplifting and a realistic admission of the complexities of marriage, relationships, and overcoming personal turmoil. Interspersed with backstories to enable the reader to see the events through his eyes, the book weaves together layers of life experiences that readers relate to and appreciate on unexpected levels, including finding it hilarious at times. Shop: Amazon.com    

Heptagram: The 7-Pillar Business Design System for the 21st Century by Pamela Ayuso  

Heptagram guides readers on the ins-and-outs of developing the organization of their dreams from the ground up. Pamela combines timeless principles with contemporary concepts that readers can apply to their own organizations or to their first job no matter the industry or number of employees. But don’t mistake Heptagram as a simple ‘how-to’ guide; it’s a comprehensive stress-test approved system to build efficient, scalable, and adaptable organizations, broken down throughout the book, as follows: 

• Structure 

• Processes 

• Information Systems 

• Metrics 

• Trust 

• Self-learning 

• Plasticity 

Heptagram is the must-read book that every start-up executive, business school grad, and entrepreneur needs on their desk!  Shop: Amazon.com 

Love for Beginners by Jill Shalvis 

What would you do if you had to start your entire life over—job, friends, love interest—everything? Would you do things the same, or would you switch things up?  

That’s the question facing Emma Harris in Love for Beginners (William Morrow; June 8, 2021; paperback original; 9780063025431) by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis. Awakening from a two-month coma, Emma discovers her fiancé and her BFF have fallen in love, she’s lost her job, and the life she knew is gone. It’s a triple whammy of bad luck that leaves Emma in the precarious positions of having to start her life all over again—once she figures out what kind of life she wants.   

Love for Beginners, a stand-alone novel in the wildly popular Wildstone Series, has all the elements that fans of Shalvis have come to love: sunny optimism, humor and witty dialogue, all wrapped in a warm and sexy contemporary romance.   

Life: It’s not what you’re given, but what you make of what you’ve got.  Shop: Amazon.com (William Morrow; June 8, 2021; paperback original; 9780063025431)

Readly 

Readly is a digital service that gives readers unlimited access to thousands of local and international magazines in a single app, including leading titles in entertainment, business, women’s interest, beauty, fashion, food, travel, sport, finance, parenting and much more. Shop: Us.readly.com 

Born to Do It: Becoming the Leader of a Business Niche Using Powerful Spiritual Techniques by Dr. Rebekah Louisa Smith 

How many times have you asked yourself, “What do I really want to do with my life?” “What is my dream job?” or “Why am I not enjoying what I do?” The answer to those questions can be found through discovering your soul purpose, a key theme in the powerful and assertive 'business meets spirituality' book, Born to Do It: Becoming the Leader of a Business Niche Using Powerful Spiritual Techniques by Dr. Rebekah Louisa Smith. In her honest, detailed, and personal debut book, Smith records her hard-won knowledge to help individuals pondering the leap into entrepreneurship and those already on the journey, but are yearning for more success and profitability. 

 What the Hell is Life??? By Aisha Gordon-Hiles 

Through information, personal reflection and tasks, “What the Hell is Life?” will take you through your understanding of life as it is now and why you see it the way you do. It will help you decide what you want from life and take you through tasks to identify how you can get the things you want. It will also help you understand the greatest influences on the person you are today and how you can take control of your past to keep you on track in becoming the person you want to be.This book will help aid your understanding of what life is and assist with common problems faced by people such as “Am I doing it right?” “What is my purpose?” “How come everyone else knows what they are doing and I don’t?”. Shop: Amazon.co.uk 

Starting Over in Maple Bay (Maple Bay Series, book 1) by Brittney Joy | Horse Girl, LLC 

Genre: Sweet Romance, perfect for fans of Debbie Macomber 

Sip an iced tea and get lost in a new sweet romance series, by award winning author, Brittney Joy... 

"A refreshing and intriguing story that draws one right into the heart of small town life ... this is truly a beautiful story worth picking up." -Ind'tale Magazine 

Welcome to Maple Bay, a small Midwestern town with heaps of heart—where family dinner is a must, and someone will always leave the light on for you. A new series perfect for fans of Debbie Macomber, Jenny Hale, and Susan Mallery. 

An inheritance from a mother she never knew. But can this fixer-upper mend her heart? 

Hazel didn’t think there was anything a homemade apple pie couldn’t fix—until her husband divorced her and left her broke. Trying her best to raise her ten-year old daughter and make ends meet, Hazel is desperate for a fresh start. When she inherits a fixer-upper in the small town of Maple Bay, Hazel and her daughter head to the country for the reading of her biological mother’s will. But a clause in the will says Hazel and her sister—the sister she didn’t know existed—must live together on the rural property for one summer, or forfeit their inheritance. 

If Hazel can tough it out in the country for a few months, she stands to gain a historic carriage house. It needs renovation, but Hazel thinks she can fix it up, sell it as a bed-and-breakfast, and use the profits to begin her life anew, back in the city. She isn’t planning to stay in Maple Bay, or to fall in love with her sister’s best friend, Jesse—a single dad and handsome cowboy who is recovering from heartbreak of his own. 

Hazel and Jesse are from two different worlds, but this horse-whisperer just might know how to speak to Hazel’s broken heart . . . until Hazel discovers a box of letters and a secret from her past that changes everything.  Shop: Brittneyjoybooks.com 

The Night Sender by Christina Tsirkas | CT Creative Press 

When a coming-of-age rite shrouded in secrecy awakens a part of Rose Woodburn she never knew existed, the ever defiant Rose embarks on a mission to uncover everything she can about the mystical creatures known as the night senders.  Obsessed with discovering the truth, Rose finds herself on a harrowing path of self-discovery and drawn into an affair so forbidden, its punishment is a fate far worse than death.  Shop: Amazon.com