This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share the top ten books we’re excited to read this season.

I love these quarterly looks ahead at what we’re planning to read, even if I’m not excellent at executing them (I’ve read two from this spring’s list and should finish two others this week). But what are lists like this for if not for an aspirational jumping off place?

So here are ten books I’m hoping to cross off my list before summer ends:

1. Wayward Son, by Rainbow Rowell (Rudi gave me this as a Christmas present during the pandemic, and then I wanted to wait and reread Carry On before starting the sequel. I have yet to stumble across where I put it. Obviously the only answer is to take the first book out of the library, so I can get on to the second one, which is set on a summer break roadtrip, one of my favorite tropes in YA literature.)
2. The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray features another of my favorite tropes — retellings/reimaginings of classic literature — set as a whodunit during a summer garden party.
3. Flying Solo by Linda Holmes (Being from southern New England, I have a biased view of Maine as a summer vacation spot, which makes this feel like a prime season to read Holmes’ sophomore novel.)
4. When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (A speculative fiction adult novel by one of my favorite middle-grade authors would be an easy yes in any season, but I’m hoping it’s a little bit of a balm in a post-Roe world (how it physically hurts to type that!).)
5. Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics is her first foray into adult romance novelwriting, and I’m excited to see her succeed!
6. You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi is definitely a more serious romance, but has been well-received by people whose taste I tend to appreciate.
7. People We Meet on Vacation or Beach Read by Emily Henry (Honestly, I’m not particular which of Henry’s previous two works I read. They’re both set during the summer and feature readers, and I am in. Plus, it should be at least a little easier to get one of these than her most recent book.)
8. Rebecca Serle’s One Italian Summer is another setting that seems obvious for listening to while working in the garden or sipping a strawberry daiquiri in the park.
9. Steven Rowley’s The Guncle (short for gay uncle) looks hilarious and heartbreaking in turns.
10. Queer Ducks (and Other Animals) by Eliot Schrefer gives a scientific answer to that stupid question from when I was growing up: “If being gay were natural, wouldn’t animals be gay?”

What books are you looking forward to reading this summer?