10 Summer Reads That Need To Make It On Your Holiday Hit List
DND: on
There’s something irresistible about sinking into a good book over summer – whether you’re sprawled in the sun or wedged between strangers (or siblings) en route to your holiday escape. Whatever the setting, holiday reading isn’t just an activity – it’s a ritual, a mood, a temporary personality transplant.
This year’s summer stack is a delicious mix of the celebrated, the under-the-radar, the nostalgic, and the newly released – all guaranteed to hook you from page one. Embrace that rare moment when you can finally read for pleasure, letting instinct (not obligation) guide your to-be-read list.
And because picking the right book can feel like winning the lottery, we’ve made it easy. With a lineup this captivating, your biggest challenge will be choosing which story to escape into first.
So find a comfy spot, switch your phone to DND, and crack those spines (unless you’re a Kindle girl) – summer reading starts now.
Rytual by Chloe Elisabeth Wilson
What if your favourite cult-like beauty brand was actually a cult? When former fitness coach Marnie Sellick is pulled into the seductive world of Rytual Cosmetica, she soon realises she can’t escape its grip – forcing her to question where girlboss empowerment ends and manipulation begins.
Gravity Let Me Go by Trent Dalton
Dalton’s latest follows a Brisbane true-crime journalist whose obsession with his newest case begins to eclipse his family life. As those closest to him pull away, he’s forced to confront both his personal failings and the cost of ambition
Chosen Family by Madeline Gray
Set in Sydney across 18 years, Madeline Gray charts the lives of Nell and Eve as they love, wound, reshape — and sometimes destroy — each other. From school to university to motherhood, they navigate shifting loyalties and tangled emotions that bind them in complicated, enduring ways.
Bread of Angels by Patti Smith
In one of her most intimate memoirs, Patti Smith revisits her childhood in a condemned post-Second World War housing complex. With her signature lyrical prose, she braids loss, grief, and gratitude into a reflection on the early sparks of art and romance that shaped her life.
Penance by Eliza Clark
When a teenage girl is murdered in a small coastal town, a journalist attempts to turn the tragedy into a true-crime book – but may be exploiting the story as much as uncovering it. Told through interviews, transcripts, and correspondence with the assailants, it reveals the darkness buried in Crow-On-Sea.
Black Swans byEve Babitz
A sun-drenched, gritty portrait of 1980s – 90s Los Angeles, Babitz’s Black Swans captures nine autobiographical stories with her trademark glamour, wit, and sharp self-awareness.
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Henry’s newest bestseller follows rival writers Alice and Hayden as they compete to chronicle the life of Margaret Ives — a reclusive heiress with a scandal-ridden past. Amid the rivalry, an opposites-attract romance blossoms.
Heart the Lover by LilyKing
An unnamed protagonist navigates a tender, complicated love triangle with two male friends from youth through adulthood, exploring desire, friendship, and the ache of growing up.
Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman
A gripping coming-of-age story about two best friends haunted by the suspicious death of their third friend during a summer in Greece a decade earlier.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Can’t wait to return to Panem? Collins’ new prequel follows Haymitch Abernathy 24 years before the original series, as the second Quarter Quell forces each district to send two boys and two girls into a politically charged, high-stakes tournament. Drama = doubled.
