Rare Birds Summer Reading Guide 2024

It's finally Summer(ish) ☀️

With the sun shining and the days being longer, it's the perfect time to dive into a really great book. Whether you are going on holiday or relaxing at home, we have created the ultimate Summer Reading Guide to give you some inspiration for your next read.

So grab a cold drink, find your favourite reading spot and enjoy!

Bad Tourists by Caro Carver

The White Lotus meets Lucy Foley's The Guest List in this chilling, sun-soaked thriller about three vengeful women, a beautiful island resort, and the darkest of secrets.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

Ricki Wilde, bohemian daughter of a wealthy Atlanta family, has decided to take her chances opening a small business in New York City. When a handsome stranger sweeps Ricki off her feet, she discovers that time can be elastic—and that the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance still burns brightly.

Teddy by Emily Dunlay

An exhilarating, escapist debut rooted in the glamour and excess of late 60s Rome, Teddy follows the eponymous main characters descent into the city's underbelly in an attempt to retrieve some highly incriminating photographs.

Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi

This exhilarating new novel from Akwaeke Emezi, the author of You Made a Fool of Death with your Beauty, follows five people over the course of a heady weekend which will brutally upend all of their lives.

Experienced by Kate Young

A fizzing roller-coaster of a rom-com that is both the sexiest book you'll read all year and the most heartening.

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

This multigenerational family saga from the author of Fleishman Is in Trouble follows the genuinely strange journey of Long Island’s wealthy Fletcher family. The book explores domestic dynamics and American Jewish life, but also features, and we quote: “old wives’ tales, evil eyes, ambition, achievement, boredom, orgies, dybbuks, inheritance, pyramid schemes, right-wing capitalists, [and] beta-blockers.”

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

The bestselling author of Cleopatra & Frankenstein delivers another enthralling examination of the intricacies of human nature and love, as three siblings from different corners of the world reunite in New York to mourn the loss of their fourth sister.

If I Loved You Less by Aamna Qureshi

A joyful romantic comedy retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma! A deeply romantic, laugh-out-loud love story with sizzling tension and beautiful descriptions that made us wish we were in Long Island in the winter.

Gold Rush by Olivia Petter

We give celebrities a power they don’t deserve. Power they haven’t earned. What happens when they exploit it? Gold Rush is a story about consent, celebrity culture, and trying to figure out where women fit in a world that consistently devalues and disrespects their bodies.

Land of Milk & Honey by C Pam Zhang

A daringly imaginative exploration of desire and deception, privilege and faith, and the roles we play to survive. Most of all, it is a love letter to food, to wild delight, and to the transformative power of a woman embracing her own appetite.

Honey by Isabel Banta

Being a famous female pop star in the 1990s…well, I think we've all heard that maybe that wasn't the glamorous gig we thought it was. Also, a great premise for a coming-of-age novel, yes? Relive the '90s with this trip back in time through our "Free Britney!" lens of that decade.