It would be a shame to let summer pass by without reading at least one good book. Below, Bolen Books in Victoria has offered their top picks for page-turners.
Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong
Nineteen‑year‑old Hai, a Vietnamese‑American living in the decaying town of East Gladness, Connecticut, stands on a bridge ready to end his life, until an elderly widow with dementia, Grazina, calls him back. He becomes her live‑in caretaker, scraping by at a fast‑casual restaurant where he finds a loving found‑family. Over nine months, Hai learns to care, survive substance withdrawal, and forge unlikely connections – slowly discovering that meaning and redemption can emerge in moments of quiet, fragile empathy.
So Far Gone, Jess Walter
Former journalist Rhys Kinnick exiles himself to a reclusive, remote cabin after a turbulent Thanksgiving where he punched his daughters' belligerent new husband. Seven years later, when his grandchildren show up on his doorstep, Kinnick barely recognizes them. They seek a safer place to stay since their father joined a Christian Nationalist militia, but things quickly escalate when the militia shows up and kidnaps them. Kinnick's journey to save his grandchildren sets him on a journey across an America splintered by intolerance and fractured institutions in a thrilling work of fiction.
Say You'll Remember Me, Abby Jimenez
Samantha reluctantly takes an escape‑room date with veterinarian Xavier amid heavy responsibilities caring for her mother with dementia. Romance blossoms and fear lingers: Samantha knows her mother may forget her at any moment. Xavier’s own past burdens him. As they fall together in a long-distance love story, they wrestle with identity, memory, and sacrifice. Jimenez balances heartbreak with humour, mixing soul‑numbing grief and resilience with laugh‑out‑loud moments, holding up a mirror to what it means to be seen and remembered.
Broken Country, Clare Leslie Hall
Set in the 1950s–60s, Beth lives on an isolated sheep farm until reconnecting with her first love Gabriel – a reunion that drags up buried secrets, old betrayals, and judicial reckonings. The novel blends courtroom drama, romance, and psychological tension as Beth must choose between the safety of her past and the risks of reclaimed love.
There are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak
Elif Shafak spins a magical realist tapestry tracing a raindrop’s journey from ancient Mesopotamia through Victorian London and into modern day: intersecting with an Assyrian king, a mudlark child, a Yazidi healer grandmother with her granddaughter by the Tigris, and a contemporary hydrologist who wonders whether water carries memory. The novel illuminates themes of colonialism, identity, ecological crisis, and the humanity of displaced peoples, including a moving portrayal of a 10-year-old girl suffering from a rare disorder while living under the rising presence of ISIS.
Don't Let Him In, Lisa Jewell
In this kaleidoscopic thriller, three women are connected by one man. The novel begins with Nina Swann, intrigued when she receives a condolence card from an old friend of her late husband, looking to connect. While she is quickly swooned, Nina's adult daughter, Ash, thinks he is too polished, too good to be true. Digging into Nick Radcliffe's past behind her mother's back, she discovers something more than unsettling.
Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Joan Goodwin, an astronomy professor, joins NASA’s early 1980s space shuttle program as one of the first women scientists admitted. She navigates training, sexism, and familial obligations – including stepping in to help raise her niece, Frances – while falling in secret love with engineer Vanessa Ford. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.
Killer on the First Page, Ian Ferguson
The Happy Rock bookstore, I Only Read Murder, is holding a murder mystery festival with six of crime fiction's biggest names. Rivalries, egos and grudges quickly raise tensions, which escalate when a mysterious posthumous manuscript is delivered to the bookstore. Things go from bad to worse when one of the authors turns up dead in a locked room with no windows. Former TV star and novel protagonist Miranda Abbott will stop at nothing to solve the murder, which soon turns into three seemingly impossible cases to crack.
The Summer Pact, Emily Giffin
Four college freshmen – Lainey (California drama queen), Tyson (D.C. scholar), Summer (Midwest athlete), and Hannah (quiet southerner) – forge deep bonds, until tragedy strikes: Summer dies by suicide. In grief, the friends vow a “Summer Pact”: to always answer in crisis. Ten years later, when Hannah’s fiancé cheats on her, Lainey and Tyson drop everything to support her. Then they embark on a dismantled yet transformative journey across Texas, Capri, and Paris – finding forgiveness, self‑acceptance, and unexpected love within scars.
Here One Moment, Liane Moriarty
On a flight from Hobart to Sydney, a quiet woman named Cherry mysteriously boards and begins predicting passengers’ deaths. Told in first person, the novel unfolds not through supernatural horror but psychological exploration: Cherry reveals her own tragic past, and survivors are forced to reckon with predestined fate versus free will.
