Summer Guide 2022: Summer Reading List

Summer is the perfect season for reading. The weather gives us ample excuse to lounge around, and the change of pace during excursions activates our imaginations. Plus, the local literary scene is booming. Here we offer recommendations by Nashville authors for a variety of summer plans and moods. (You might recognize some names from these pages — we’ve marked those mighty talented folks with asterisks.) 

Whether you’re sinking your toes into sand, scrunching yourself into a backseat on a road trip, or seeking thrills, escape or inspiration, there’s a book by a local author for you. 

I’m Going to the Beach! 

Be sure to wear sunscreen. You won’t put these down. 

Nobody’s Magic

By Destiny O. Birdsong* 

Walking Gentry Home: A Memoir of My Foremothers in Verse 

By Alora Young, out Aug. 2 

Until I Find You 

By Rea Frey

I’m Hitting the Road! 

Feel free to stop along the way.

Abandoned Tennessee Treasures 

By Jay Farrell

Moon: Nashville to New Orleans Road Trip: Hit the Road for the Best Southern Food and Music Along the Natchez Trace

By Margaret Littman*

Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South

By Margaret Renkl*

I’m Staycationing

Local lore about Music City. 

Greetings From New Nashville: How a Sleepy Southern Town Became “It” City

Edited by Steve Haruch* 

To Care for the Sick and Bury the Dead: African American Lodges and Cemeteries in Tennessee 

By Leigh Ann Gardner

Mastodons to Mississippians: Adventures in Nashville’s Deep Past

By Aaron Deter-Wolf and Tanya M. Peres

We Should Soon Become Respectable: Nashville’s Own Timothy Demonbreun

By Elizabeth Elkins

Take Me out of This World! 

When escapism is in order. 

The Memory Index 

By Julian R. Vaca, out Aug. 9

Jesus Crawdad Death 

By Betsy Phillips* 

I Seek Thrills! 

Suspense awaits.

When the Corn Is Waist High

By Jeremy Scott

Her Dark Lies 

J.T. Ellison 

I Crave Inspiration! 

Assemble supplies for your mood board.

Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives

By Mary Laura Philpott 

Bending the Arc: My Journey From Prison to Politics

By Keeda Haynes 

The People’s Plaza: Sixty-Two Days of Nonviolent Resistance

By Justin Jones, out Aug. 15

I’ll Mostly Be at Music Festivals … 

Here’s what to read in between. 

Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be

By Marissa R. Moss* 

The Advice King Anthology 

By Chris Crofton* 

The Tacky South

Edited by Katharine Burnett and Monica Carol Miller

Plunge Me Into the Heavy

Get all up in your feelings. 

I Dream He Talks to Me

By Allison Moorer

What We Wish Were True: Reflections on Nurturing Life and Facing Death

By Tallu Schuyler Quinn

I’m a Young Reader

Good for you! 

In the Wild Light

By Jeff Zentner 

We Are Family

By LeBron James and Andrea Williams* 

I Was Their American Dream

By Malaka Gharib*

The Places We Sleep

By Caroline Brooks DuBois

Summer Guide is presented by Two Lane

Summer Guide 2022

Waterfront dining, a Renaissance festival and coveted barbecue — plus more great summertime stuff to do and where to do it