What Did Berlin Read? Library Unveils Top Summer Reading Books

Press release from the Berlin-Peck Memorial Library:

BERLIN, CT — Summer weather has lasted well past Labor Day, but summer reading should last longer.

It is in that spirit that the Berlin-Peck Memorial Library, 234 Kensington Road, has recently unveiled the list of books most read in town by adults participating in the summer reading program.

"A booklist is created by our summer readers," wrote the library. "We’ve done the math to see which books were the most popular in the 2023 Adult Summer Reading program."

They are as follows:

Remarkably Bright Creatures — Read By 13 Summer Readers!

Shelby Van Pelt

After her husband dies, widow Tova Sullivan starts working at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, where she forms a special bond with a giant Pacific octopus who holds the key solving the mysterious disappearance of her 18-year-old son, Erik, over thirty years ago on the Puget Sound.

Happy Place — Read By 12 Summer Readers!

Emily Henry

Despite breaking up months earlier, a picture-perfect couple still haven't told their friends about the split and attempt to pretend they are still together at an annual Maine getaway.

Say My Name — Read By 12 Summer Readers!

Joe Clifford

On the heels of a divorce, a midlist mystery writer returns to his hometown in Central CT and is dragged back into a decades-old, unsolved case involving former missing classmates to expose the horrific secrets of a quaint, idyllic New England town.

Verity — Read By 12 Summer Readers!

Colleen Hoover

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series hisinjured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.

Five Star Weekend — Read By 11 Summer Readers!

Elin Hilderbrand

Inviting her best friend from each phase of her life, widow Hollis Shaw hosts an unforgettable weekend on Nantucket, during which things don't go as planned as each woman deals with heartbreak, infidelity, scandal and secrets, but things turnaround due to new friendships, unexpected romance and self-discovery.

It Ends With Us — Read By 10 Summer Readers!

Colleen Hoover

After building what should be a perfect life with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, Lily finds herself in a troubled relationship with an abusive husband and must make a decision about her future, as she reencounters Atlas Corrigan, a man with links to her past.

It Starts With Us — Read By 10 Summer Readers!

Colleen Hoover

Atlas Corrigan, Lily's first love and the person who returned suddenly and interrupted her romance with neurosurgeon Ryan Kincaid, tells his side of the story in the sequel toIt Ends with Us.

Lessons In Chemistry — Read By 9 Summer Readers!

Bonnie Garmus

In the early 1960s, chemist and single mother Elizabeth Zott, the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show due to her revolutionary skills in the kitchen, uses this opportunity to dare women to change the status quo.

Fourth Wing — Read By 8 Summer Readers!

Rebecca Yarros

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

Heart Bones — Read By 8 Summer Readers!

Colleen Hoover

Bound for Penn State with a full scholarship, Beyah Grim must first spend the remainder of summer in Texas with a father she barely knows.

Spare — Read By 7 Summer Readers!

Prince Harry

With its raw, unflinching honesty, Prince Harry's memoir—in which he discusses the effect of his mother Princess Diana's death on his life—is full of insight, revelation, self-examination and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo — Read By 7 Summer Readers!

Taylor Jenkins Reid

When an aging and reclusive Hollywood icon selects an unknown magazine reporter to write her life story, the baffled journalist forges deep ties with the actress during a complicated interview process that exposes their tragic common history.

Every Summer After — Read By 6 Summer Readers!

Carley Fortune

Persephone, a magazine writer, returns to her lake hometown for a funeral and lands straight in to the orbit of her ex- best friend and lover, Sam, and must reconcile the choices she made since their breakup.

Nature Of Fragile Things — Read By 6 Summer Readers!

Susan Meissner

Moving to early 20th-century San Francisco to escape New York tenement life, an Irish mail-order bride uncovers transformative secrets involving a silent child and two other women before her precarious existence is upended by the great earthquake of 1906.

Pineapple Street — Read By 6 Summer Readers!

Jenny Jackson

Darley, the eldest daughter in the closely-tied, carefully-guarded, old money Stockton family, made the classic feminine mistake and gave up her job for her children before she realized she'd sacrificed more of herself than she intended; Sasha married into the Stocktons, and finds herself the outsider looking into the fishbowl, wondering if she will ever understand their ways; and Georgianna, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can't (and really shouldn't) have, and must confront the kind of person she wants to be.

Yellowface — Read By 6 Summer Readers!

R. F. Kuang

After the death of her literary rival in a freak accident, author June Hayward steals her just-finished masterpiece, sending it to her agent as her own work, but as emerging evidence threatens her success, she discovers just how far she'll go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Court Of Thorns And Roses — Read By 6 Summer Readers!

Sarah J. Maas

Dragged off to a treacherous magical land as retribution for killing a wolf, huntress Feyre learns that her captor, Tamlin, is one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.

23rd Midnight — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

James Patterson, Maxine Paetro

When an obsessed maniac turns serial killer Evan Burke's true-crime story into a playbook, adding some of his own gruesome touches, Detective Lindsay Boxer, who put Burke in jail, tracks this elusive suspect, who is determined to put an end to the Murder Club—permanently.

All The Dangerous Things — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

Stacy Willingham

After her son is kidnapped while sleeping in his crib, a mother agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster with ulterior motives.

Bad Summer People — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

Emma Rosenblum

Two Fire Island queen bees and their single friend who meant to spend summertime relaxing and gossiping discover a body face down off the side of the boardwalk and in addition to uncovering the murderer also reveal infidelity and backstabbing.

Before We Were Yours — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

Lisa Wingate

Learning that her grandmother was a victim of the corrupt Tennessee Children's Home Society, attorney and aspiring politician Avery Stafford delves into her family's past and begins to wonder if some things are best kept secret.

Hang The Moon — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

Jeannette Walls

Sallie Kincaid is the daughter of the biggest man in a small town, Duke Kincaid. Born at the turn of the 20th century into a life of comfort and privilege, Sallie remembers little about her mother who died in a violent argument with the Duke. After encouraging her younger step-brother to participate in daredevil activities leads to an accident, Sallie Kincaid is cast out of her family. Nine years later, she returns, determined to reclaim her place.

Hotel Nantucket — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

Elin Hilderbrand

Attempting to win the favor of the Hotel Nantucket's new London billionaire owner, general manager Lizbet Keaton, with drama behind closed doors, staff and guests with complicated pasts, a ghost roaming the halls and her own romantic uncertainty, has her work cut out for her.

Last Thing He Told Me — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

Laura Dave

After her husband disappears, Hannah Hall quickly realizes he isn't who he said he was and that his 16-year-old daughter, who wants nothing to do with her, may hold the key to figuring out his true identity.

Paris Apartment — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

Lucy Foley

Arriving in Paris to stay with her brother Ben, Jess learns that he has gone missing, and to find him, starts digging into his life, realizing even though she has come to the City of Lights to escape her past, it's his future hanging in the balance.

Reminders Of Him — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

Colleen Hoover

Released from prison, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter, but with everyone against her, she turns to local bar owner Ledger Ward who, risking everything, secretly helps her make amends.

Whispers — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

Ashley Audrain

When their picture-perfect hostess explodes in fury because her son disobeys her and then he falls from his bedside window in the middle of the night, three women grapple with what led to that terrible night as his life hangs in the balance.

Wishing Game — Read By 5 Summer Readers!

Meg Shaffer

Years ago, a reclusive mega-bestselling children's author quit writing under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly he resurfaces with a brand-new book and a one-of-a-kind competition, offering a prize that will change the winner's life.

This press release was produced by the Berlin-Peck Memorial Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.