Our adult summer reading theme for 2023 is All Together Now, which is focused on unity, friendship, and kindness. Check out our book suggestions that go along with this theme. 

If you are participating in our Adult Summer Reading Challenge, reading any of these books will help fulfill our All Together Activity Challenge. (And if you aren’t participating yet, find out how!) 

Genre Types

Books About Friendship: Fiction

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark

These Impossible Things by Salma El-Wardany

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

The Survivors by Jane Harper

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

The Friendship List by Susan Mallery

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Fellowship of the RIng by JRR Tolkien

Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Books About Friendship: Nonfiction

Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World

The Art of Showing Up: How to Be There for Yourself and Your People

Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life's Fundamental Bond

We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know

I'll Be There (But I'll Be Wearing Sweatpants)

Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

Books About Friendship: YA & Youth

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Bridge to Terabithia by Katerine Paterson

Books to Inspire: Motivational Nonfiction

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before by Dr. Julie Smith

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

Dare to Lead by Brene Brown

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

Books to Inspire: Uplifting Feel-Good Fiction

Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

Community Board by Tara Conklin

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie

The Seaside Library by Brenda Novak

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Still Life by Sarah Winman

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