Ninth Annual IHGB Summer Book List

Attention avid readers: It’s time to turn in your selections for the Ninth Annual IHGB Summer Book List. Hooray!

This is a huge deal, people. The contents gathered on this list have introduced me to incredible books like A Court of Thorns and Roses series, authors like Melanie Shankle, and characters like Katniss Everdeen and Jamie Fraser.

I will never be the same in a good way.

What I’m saying is, respect the power of this list.

Take a moment to think about books that have impacted you in the last several years. We have various interests here at IHGB, so no genre should be neglected. I say this as someone who has read every popular YA novel in the last decade. If it’s a love story or about pop culture, I will devour it.

Please include your murder mysteries, sci-fi thrillers, or anything else that sticks to your ribs. There are factions of bibliophiles who love that stuff, and I will not exclude them because I can’t take a little bit of blood and gore.

Do you love classics? Send them my way. Was there a faith-based book that changed your life? I’d love to know about it. Is It’s a Love Story your favorite book from 2019? I understand.

The process is simple: I’ll collect the data via this comment section, email, or my social media and compile my findings into a grand list. That list will be FREE! As a bonus, the list includes asterisks by the names of selections nominated MULTIPLE years in a row.

I know. I have my work cut out for me to make the eighth annual IHGB summer book list the best ever.

Are you ready? Let’s do this.

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Christine Law
Christine Law
June 3, 2023 2:41 pm

The Couple at the Table by Sophie Hannah
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Station Eleven by Hilary St John Mandel
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE
Lila by Marilynne Robinson

Barbara Ann
Barbara Ann
June 4, 2023 2:22 pm

The Measure by Nikki Erick
Maame by Jessica George
The One by John Marrs
Eliza Starts a Rumor By Jane Rosen

I’m stingy with my Goodreads 5 star reviews and all these earned the coveted rating this year. Happy reading.

Janet
Janet
June 4, 2023 10:02 pm

1.Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. It’s a love story, a father, a husband redeemed, and the one not chosen is granted the opportunity to show the ultimate love.
2. Black, Red, White, Green (4 books) by Ted Dekker. A man transitions between the modern world about to be overrun by a killer virus, and a fallen paradise where he learns about love and redemption, drawn into a relationship with His Maker.
3. Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas.
He challenges us to consider what if God designed marriage to make us holy and not happy.
4.Sky Blue by Travis Thrasher. Intriguing twist of a tale, a literary agent writing about the love he thought he lost. Will he stop to hear the story of another?
5.The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks. A love story built around the next generation following Noah and Allie from the Notebook.

Janet
Janet
June 4, 2023 10:08 pm

#2 SERIES
1.Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry & Love Song of Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce. Two perspectives of the same love story that sent a man walking across England.
2.Mary Russel series by Laurie King. Love stories involving Sherlock Holmes and his young bride, and the mysteries they solve together around the world.
3.The Rosie Series by Graeme Simseon. Two more books continue the love story of the socially awkward Don and the amazing Rosie.
4.Heaven’s Wager Series by Ted Dekker. Learn about love and redemption, and the need to share that reality with others.
5.O’Malley Chronicles by Dee Henderson. 6 orphans band together as family, one by one discovering the Savior and the love of his or her life.

Janet
Janet
June 4, 2023 10:28 pm

#3 QUOTABLES
1.Susie: Life & Legacy of Susannah Spurgeon by Ray Rhodes. At at time when Susie was struggling spiritually, 19 year old Charles offered her a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress and the following quote from Tupper’s Proverbial Philosophy. “Seek a good wife from your God, for she is the best gift of His providence…If you are to have a wife in your youth, she is living. Therefore, think of her and pray for her, though you have not seen her.” Charles then whispered in her ear, “Do you pray for the one who will be your husband?” Two months later they were engaged. 35 years later Charles wrote, “Matrimony came from paradise and leads to it…Let the husband love his wife as himself, and a little better since she is his better half. He should feel, ‘If there is only one good wife in the world, I’ve got her,’ After 35 years i am more sure of it than ever.
2.The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. She is so beautiful. You don’t get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she is smarter than you, she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her. I am so lucky to love her. You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choice. I hope she likes hers.
3.The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. “It is the secret fear that we are unlovable that isolates us, but it is only because we are isolated that we think we are unlovable. Someday you will be loved because for the first time in your life, you will truly not be alone. You will have chosen to not be alone.
4.The Journals of Jim Elliot by Elisabeth Elliott. Theirs is quite the love story. He was intent on the mission field, but God had the perfect partner picked out. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose…God always gives His best to those who leave the choice to Him…Wherever you are, be all there! … Perhaps, in mercy He shall give me a host of children that I may lead through the vast star fields to explore His delicacies whose fingers’ ends set them to burning. But if not, if only I may see Him, smell His garments, and smile into my Lover’s eyes, ah, then, not stars, nor children, shall matter — only Himself.
5.It’s a Love Story by Lincee Ray. I believe we were created with this specific longing ingrained in our souls that can be fulfilled only by the One who loves us most…Although we’ll never be wholly fulfilled this side of heaven, love lives in our hearts and souls to remind us this day is coming…Within that scriptural mixtape I have found a balm for my soul. A ballad for my singleness. When I feel adrift, unchosen, without a rose or a fairy tale ending, I’m reminded of a deeper truth: God is my portion forever. (Ps73) I hear the lyrics of love in this psalm of acceptance, and my heart beats to the rhythm of being in sync with someone who totally gets me. And He says I’m worthy of much more than a rose.

Janet
Janet
June 4, 2023 10:35 pm

#4 Final Batch to Consider
1.At Any Cost by Mike and Haley Jones. A love story about a family that grew. They went to Africa to adopt a child, and came home with seven siblings.
2.Big Fish by Daniel Wallace. The big tales that kept growing were all built around a love story.
3.Love Without Limits by Nick and Kanae Vujicic. The love story of a man born without arms or legs.
4.March by Geraldine Brooks. A love story filling us in on the father in Little Women.
5.Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley. Written to be a sequel to Gone with the Wind. Scarlett goes in search of her roots, but will she be too late to learn to love?

helen
helen
June 6, 2023 10:33 am

The Seven Sisters Series by Lucinda Riley

Laura Tuttle
Laura Tuttle
June 6, 2023 12:53 pm

The Wedding Dress Circle by Jennifer Ryan
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers
The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki
Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan Henry
Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner
These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant
The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
The Husbands by Chandler Baker
The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson

Laura Tuttle
Laura Tuttle
June 6, 2023 12:55 pm

Oh! And I second Lessons in Chemistry. ☺️

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