A Traveler's Summer Reading List

Growing up, I was one of the few kids at school who actually looked forward to getting my hands on the summer reading list. Before the days of Kindles and iPads, I spent many hours outside on the back patio with a glass of iced tea by my side and a novel in my lap. The prize for completing the list was always the same: a coupon for a free Pizza Hut pizza. Now that I'm older, I don't need the incentive. I pick my own list by getting recommendations from friends, other bloggers, and the NY Times Book Review. Here is just a taste of what's at the top of my summer reading list:

Shadow of the Sun

By Ryszard Kapuscinski. A Polish journalist spends years traveling and writing about Africa. Having just returned from some of the countries the author visits and describes, it's been an especially meaningful read.

Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot

By Mark Vanhoenacker. Rafat Ali, CEO/Founder of Skift, said it best: "If you, like me, are tired of cliched travel memoirs, this is the book to fall in love with travel writing again."

The Paris Wife: A Novel

By Paula McLain. This historical fiction book set in Jazz Age Paris follows the love affair between Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Hadley Richardson.

Everything I Never Told You

By Celeste Ng. A bestselling thriller set in 1970s Ohio, described by Amazon as both a "gripping page-turner" and a "sensitive family portrait".

The Antarctic Book of Cooking and Cleaning: A Polar Journey

By Wendy Trusler and Carol Devine. As things begin heat up this summer, I found just the right read to cool you down. Set in Antartica, this book is both a travelogue and a cookbook written by two members of a civilian environmental cleanup expedition.

Go Set a Watchman

By Harper Lee. The book (on sale July 14) features some of the same characters from To Kill a Mockingbird but is set twenty years in the future, when Jean Louise Finch ("Scout") pays a visit to her hometown.

What books are on your summer reading list?