Hi friends,

It’s that time of the year again: Summer Reading Bingo. For the uninitiated, each summer we play Bingo. Fill in the below card with the books you read between Memorial Day and Labor Day for the chance to win a $50 gift card to Bookshop.org.

Get your card here. Fill it in with books you read between Memorial Day and Labor Day and submit your completed card here. Everyone who gets Bingo will be entered into a raffle to win a $50 gift certificate to the Bookshop.org or LibroFM.

This week, I’m spotlighting books from my archive for three of the categories, and I’ll sprinkle them in going forward as well.

And, now, what to read if …

You Want to Cross Off the Found Family Box

Limelight by Amy Poeppel

Amy Poeppel ranks right up there with Kate Clayborn and Lucy Parker on my list of Queens of the Comfort Read. Her books are warm and sweet but never saccharine. Limelight, her second novel, is the perfect example. It’s a cozy read about fame and family in all its forms.

As Limelight opens, Allison Brinkley is starting to regret her decision to move her family from Dallas to New York City. The job she was counting on fell through and her kids — especially her teenage daughter — are having trouble adjusting. After Allison gets into a fender bender, she recognizes teen heartthrob Carter Reid as the car’s owner. She also recognizes that Carter, recently cast in a new Broadway musical, as in desperate need of some parenting. Before he realizes what happened, Allison has become his personal assistant and is committed to getting both their lives back on track.

Limelight is a total joy, filled with characters who have stuck with me since I first read it. Carter is essentially 2013-Justin-Bieber, a total hot mess. But as readers and Allison discover he’s more than the spoiled rich kid he appears to be. I love a found family that brings quirky people together. If you — like me and Nancy Reddy — adore this trope, put Limelight at the top of your list.

You’re Looking for a Book With Multiple Timelines

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

Angie Kim combines the best elements of family sagas, courtroom dramas and immigration stories to craft Miracle Creek. As the book opens, a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber explodes, killing an adult caregiver and a child receiving treatment. Investigators quickly rule it was arson and after investigating the facility’s owner, Korean immigrant Pak Yoo, the mother of the murdered boy, Elizabeth Ward, is charged and brought to trial.

Miracle Creek is told from multiple perspectives, over three timelines — the day before the explosion, the day it occurred and during the trial. The plot could easily fall apart under the weight of so many storylines, but in Kim’s hands it soars. I listened to it while I was packing up my old apartment, and it actually made me want to pack, a remarkable feat for any book, and I immediately emailed Kim to set up an interview once I’d finished it. A great pick for anyone who loves Big Little Lies or John Grisham.

You Want a Book Set at the Beach

Beach House Rules by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Kristy Woodson Harvey’s Beach House Rules is a feel-good novel about rebuilding a life after it gets turned upside down.

When Charlotte Sitterly’s husband is arrested for a white-collar crime, she’s locked out of her house by the FBI and becomes the “star” of @JuniperShoresSocialite, her small town’s snarky gossip Instagram account. With no other options, Charlotte tepidly agrees to move into a “mommune,” a former beachfront bed-and-breakfast that’s home to a community of single mothers.Charlotte and her daughter are surprised by how much they enjoy life in the mommune — and even more shocked to learn all the women who live there share a secret that threatens to break apart the community they’ve built.

Beach House Rules is the perfect mix of light mystery — as Charlotte tries to clear her husband’s name — small-town drama and women helping each other grow. I was lucky enough to meet Woodson Harvey and tour her hometown when I joined the North Carolina Tourism Bureau for a literary tour of the state. She clearly loves small-town, coastal North Carolina, and that enthusiasm jumps off the page.

You’re Hunting for a Graphic Novel

Sheets by Brenna Thummler

In Sheets, Brenna Summer tells the story of Marjorie Glatt, a thirteen-year-old grieving the loss of her mother and struggling to keep the family laundromat open, and Wendell, a ghost of a boy who died far too young. Wendell, feeling like he doesn’t fit in, leaves ghostland and begins to accidentally wreak havoc on the Glatt’s laundromat. Over the course of the graphic novel, Marjorie grows stronger and more confident, while Wendell learns to accept his fate as a ghost.

Sheets is one of those books that breaks your heart and then puts it back together again. The art, also done by Thummler, is warm and inviting, adding to the reading experience. It’s a moving depiction of grief, loss and friendship that readers of all ages will find something to appreciate in.

You Need a Laugh

Here for It: Or How To Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas

I could not stop laughing while reading R. Eric Thomas’s debut book. Since 2016, Thomas has written Elle’s “Eric Reads The News” column, which he describes as having “the tone of a late-night comedy monologue screamed through a bullhorn by a very excited gay black person.” If that sort of voice appeals to you, this book is perfect.

Here For It is both hilarious and poignant. The essays explore Thomas’s attempt to reconcile his Baptist faith with his sexuality, his experience as one of the few Black students at his high school and then at Columbia University and starting out after moving to a new city. My favorite essay gives the book its title, Here for It: Or How to Save Your Soul In America. It’s about finding moments of joy, even while feeling disappointed in the world around you. It’s a message I’m sure I’ll be reflecting on a lot over the next few months.

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