Keep Cool and Read On!

Reading indoors is one of my favorite ways to stay cool on hot and humid days. Here are six books to check out that are set during the summer! 

A MAP TO THE SUN BY SLOANE LEONG: One summer day, Ren meets Luna at a beachside basketball court and a friendship is born. But when Luna moves to back to Oahu, Ren's messages to her friend go unanswered. Years go by. Then Luna returns, hoping to rekindle their friendship. Ren is hesitant. She's dealing with a lot, including family troubles, dropping grades, and the newly formed women's basketball team at their high school. With Ren's new friends and Luna all on the basketball team, the lines between their lives on and off the court begin to blur. 

CAMP BY L.C. ROSEN: Welcome to Camp Outland, a camp for LGBTQIA teens. Randy Kapplehoff loves spending the summer at Camp Outland. It's where he met his best friends. Where he takes to the stage in the big musical. And where he fell for Hudson Aaronson-Lim-- who's only into straight-acting guys and barely knows not-at-all-straight-acting Randy even exists. This year is going to be different. Randy has reinvented himself as 'Del': buff, masculine, and on the market. He is determined to get Hudson to fall for him-- but how much is he willing to change for love? And is it really love anyway, if Hudson doesn't know who he truly is?

HOT DOG GIRL BY JENNIFER DUGAN: Elouise (Lou) Parker just landed a job at Magic Castle Playland-- as a giant dancing hot dog. Her crush, the dreamy Diving Pirate Nick, already has a girlfriend, who is literally the Princess of the park. Her best friend Seeley, the carousel operator, isn't interested in Lou's attempts to set her up with the perfect girl, or in Lou's scheme to get close to Nick. And it turns out that Magic Castle Playland will be closing-- forever-- when summer ends. But Lou won't let these problems stand in the way of having the absolute best, most impossibly epic summer of her life.

LOVEBOAT, TAIPEI (LOVEBOAT, TAIPEI #1) BY ABIGAIL HING WEN: When Ever Wong's parents sent her away for the summer, she's expecting Chien Tan: a strict, educational immersion program in Taiwan. Instead, she finds the infamous "Loveboat." There, Ever is surrounded by prodigies, like Rick Woo, Chinese American wonder boy and longtime bane of her existence; Ever's roommate, the confident and clever Sophia Ha, as glamorous as she is sharp; and the intimidatingly cool Xavier Yeh, heir to an international tech empire. But her classmates are more interested in the nonstop Taipei nightlife than anything to do with the curriculum. Hookups abound, snake-blood sake flows, and adult supervision is nonexistent. For the first time ever, Ever is discovering what freedom tastes like and it's exhilarating. But summer will end and Ever will be back to her parents and the future they've planned for her. Will she let this glimpse of freedom go - or will Loveboat give her the courage to pursue the future she dreams of, and the Ever Wong she wants to be?

SUMMER OF SALT BY KATRINA LENO: No one on the island of By-the-Sea would call the Fernweh women what they are, but if you need the odd bit of help, such as a sleeping aid concocted by moonlight, they are the ones to ask. Georgina Fernweh waits for the tingle of magic in her fingers-- magic that has already touched her twin sister, Mary. But with her eighteenth birthday looming at the end of her last summer on the island, Georgina fears her gift will never come. She meets and falls in love with Prue Lowry, a visitor to the island. When a three-hundred-year-old bird, Annabella is found violently murdered, suddenly the island doesn't seem so magical. Georgina turns to the Ouija board to discover the dark secrets of Annabella's death.

WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI BY SANDHYA MENON: When Dimple Shah and Rishi Patel meet at a Stanford University summer program, Dimple is avoiding her parents' obsession with "marriage prospects" but Rishi hopes to woo her into accepting arranged marriage with him.