By Krystle J Bailey
Endless beach days and long summer nights are right around the corner. The unofficial start of summer at the Jersey Shore has arrived. There is nothing quite like getting lost in the romance of a summer novel or taking your imagination to a faraway land. Before you hit the sand or the pool this summer, be sure to add these titles to your 2023 reading list.
Local authors
Eve-0 by Danielle Gomes
Eve-0 is an action-packed thriller set eight years post-Covid. The world has been ravaged by pandemic after pandemic. Masks and social distancing have become the new norm, as the human race is living in a perpetual state of fear of the next virus. When a group of scientists discovers a devastating revelation about a protection gene known as Eve-0 or “the evolution gene,” they set out on the quest for a cure.
Don’t Give Up: The Stan Adams Jr. Story by Karyn Adams
This heartfelt memoir written by Stan Adams’ mother tells the story of a young athlete living with autism who overcame the odds to become a celebrated swimmer at Absegami Highschool. The story includes their struggle to find the right doctors, challenges through elementary school, and a list of resources for other parents of special needs children.
“Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life With 600 Rescue Animals” by Laurie Zaleski
Written by the owner and founder of Funny Farm Rescue & Sanctuary, a non-profit charitable organization located in Mays Landing, N.J, the memoir tells a story of promises kept, dreams fulfilled, and 600 rescue animals who found their way to the 15-acre farm in New Jersey’s Pinelands.
Between the Shore and the City: Tragedy at Mays Landing by Mari D’Albora Dottolo
In 2021 novella combines 19th-Century journalism with 21st-Century research to deliver a nearly forgotten tragedy that took place in 1880 Mays Landing. The story offers a vivid account of a train crash during the inaugural season of the West Jersey & Atlantic Rail Line that killed 30 people. Using archival research, regional reporting, and fictional imaging, Dottolo captures this fateful excursion’s light and darkness.
Summer 2023
Popular Reads
Happy Place by Emily Henry
When Harriet and Wyn, the ex-perfect couple, find themselves sharing a bedroom in Maine on their annual friends trip, things get juicy. Secretly broken up for the last five months, the duo can’t stand the idea of breaking their friends’ hearts, so they decide to play their role as a couple. Follow them through a blissful week of relaxation, copious amounts of wine, and well-kept secrets.
All The Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham
Author of New York Times bestseller, A Flicker in the Dark, Stacy Willingham delivers another nailbiting thriller about a grieving and desperate mother determined to find her kidnapped son. Challenged by the incessant questions of a local podcaster, Isabelle Drake finds herself doubting her recollection of the night her son was taken.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Hailed as a “best book of the year” by The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Entertainment Weekly, and Newsweek, Lessons in Chemistry introduces readers to Elizabeth Zott, a 1960s chemist on a predominantly male research team. Elizabeth breaks the glass ceiling and challenges women to change the status quo in this laugh-out-loud novel. Take a journey with her as she falls in love and pushes boundaries.
The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley
Until the loss of her parents, Aretha had only one obsession in life – success. The Survivalists takes readers on a journey as the habitually single lawyer falls in love with a local coffee entrepreneur and watches her dreams begin to slip away as she is lost to his world of friends and finds herself preparing for doomsday.
Happy reading, Shore Local!
