If you google “summer reading lists”, you will find quite a few,  but we thought we’d share with you our favourites. To do so, we reached out to our community, our board and our regional councils to see what books they might recommend. Now, we have our own 2020 Laubach Literacy NB top 24 summer reading collection. 
 
With this list, you can discover reading genres that will peak your interest and provide an escape from the stress of everyday life. Through the pages of any book, you get to take your mind to new places, relax your body (by lowering your heart rate and easing the tension in your muscles), and feed your soul through imaginary worlds full of passion and charm. No matter where you go this summer, here are some really great books to take with you:
 
FROM THE ASHES
By Jesse Thistle
– In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is.
 
BURIED TO THE BRIM
By Jenn McKinlay
– New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay's beloved Hat Shop duo Scarlett Parker and Vivian Tremont return to don their sleuthing caps and solve a murder that's death in show.
 
PUMPKIN SPICE PERIL
By Jenn Mckinlay
– In the twelfth Cupcake Bakery Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay, the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew follows the clever crumb trail of a killer who's anything but cookie-cutter.
 
THE LITTLE DOCTOR
By Georges Simenon
–  A collection of short stories about a country doctor who discovers he has an aptitude for detection, and who likes it.
 
A WALK IN THE WOOD
By Dr. Joseph Parent and Nancy Parent
– Meditations on Mindfulness with a Bear Named Pooh offers life lessons grounded in the simple act of slowing down, observing what is around us, and being present in our lives moment by moment. The benefits of mindfulness are well recognized: greater peace of mind, less stress, and the opportunity to work through and transform thoughts, memories, and worries.
 
NICE GIRLS DON’T HAVE FANGS
By Molly Harper
– Maybe it was the Shenanigans gift certificate that put her over the edge. When children's librarian and self-professed nice girl Jane Jameson is fired by her beastly boss and handed twenty-five dollars in potato skins instead of a severance check, she goes on a bender that's sure to become Half Moon Hollow legend
 
A PALE VIEW OF HILLS
By Kazuo Ishiguro
–  In this debut novel from acclaimed Booker Prize-winning Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go), post-war Japan serves as the haunting backdrop to a subtle story of memory, suicide, and psychological trauma. Etsuko lives alone in rural England, trying to come to terms with the recent suicide of her daughter, Keiko.

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING
By Delia Owens
– New York Times bestselling book Where The Crawdads Sing is about the rumors about the Marsh Girl that have haunted Barkley Cove for years. Where The Crawdads Sing is set in late 1969. Chase Andrews was found dead and locals suspected the Marsh Girl Kya Clark as the murderer. But the truth about Kya is far from what they think of her. She is smart and sensitive. 
 
AMERICAN DIRT
By Jeanine Cummins  
– It starts with Lydia befriending her bookstore customer Javier, whom she found to have the same interests with books as her. However, her husband, Sebastián, found out that Javier is the leader of a dangerous cartel. When Sebastián revealed the expose, Javier got angry. Javier ordered to slaughter Sebastián and his family in a barbecue party. Only Lydia and her eight-year-old son survived. They tried to escape as undocumented immigrants to the United States.
 
BORN A CRIME
By Trevor Noah  
– The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime New York Times bestseller about one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.
 
HOMO DEUS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOMORROW
By Yuval Noah Harari
– From the author of the international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind comes an extraordinary follow-up that explores the future of the human species. Now available as a trade paperback.

THE GUARDIANS
By John Grisham
– In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues. There were no witnesses, no one with a motive. But the police soon came to suspect Quincy Miller, a young black man who was once a client of Russo’s. 

AMERICAN DIRT (OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB)
By Jeanine Cummins
–  Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.
 
THE THIRD WIFE
By Lisa Jewell
–  At the center of this puzzle is Adrian Wolfe, a successful architect and grief-stricken widower, who, a year after his third wife’s death, begins to investigate the cause. As Adrian looks back on their brief but seemingly happy marriage, disturbing secrets begin to surface. The divorces from his two previous wives had been amicable, or so it seemed; his children, all five of them, were resilient as ever, or so he thought. But something, or someone, must have pushed Maya over the edge.
 
THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS
By Lisa Jewell
–  Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.
 
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
By Arthur Golden
–  Let novelist Arthur Golden take you on a journey to a distant and fascinating world in Memoirs of a Geisha. Meet Sayuri, one of Japan's most respected geishas. From the tender age of nine, her parents sell her into the rigid world of becoming a geisha. She learns dance, how to be the perfect woman and how to deal with jealous rivals. This evocative first novel, an international best-seller, is riveting from start to finish.

THE ALICE NETWORK
By Kate Quinn
–  In this enthralling novel from New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

THE HUNTRESS
By Kate Quinn
–  Bold and fearless, Nina Markova always dreamed of flying. When the Nazis attack the Soviet Union, she risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment wreaking havoc on the invading Germans. When she is stranded behind enemy lines, Nina becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, and only Nina’s bravery and cunning will keep her alive.

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE
By Anthony Doerr
–  Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY
By Rachel Joyce
–  Recently retired, sweet, emotionally numb Harold Fry is jolted out of his passivity by a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an old friend, who he hasn't heard from in twenty years. She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye.
 
A BETTER MAN
By Louise Penny
–  It's Gamache's first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Flood waters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter.
 
WASHINGTON BLACK
By Esi Edugyan
–  When two English brothers arrive at a Barbados sugar plantation, they bring with them a darkness beyond what the slaves have already known. Washington Black – an eleven year-old field slave – is horrified to find himself chosen to live in the quarters of one of these men. 
 
EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT
By Betty J. Eadie
–  On November 19, 1973, Betty J. Eadie died. Two decades later, writing in this national bestseller, she tells what happened next--describing miraculous visions and emotions that washed over her for four hours. This startling and uplifting story of one woman's mysterious odyssey is a hypnotic tale of a remarkable spiritual journey.
 
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
By M. Scott Peck
–  Told in a voice that is timeless in its measure of understanding, The Road Less Traveled continues to enable us to explore the nature of loving relationships and leads us toward a new serenity and fullness of life. It help us determine how to distinguish dependency from love; how to become a more sensitive parent; and ultimately how to become one's own true self.
 
A special shout out to all our board members, affiliate councils and our community on Facebook for helping us to compile the 2020 Laubach Literacy NB top 24 summer reading collection.

From our family to yours, we hope you enjoy a fun-filled summer full of adventure and quality time with your loved ones.