# Books \[Novels\] That Are About Summer **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437 "2010-07-03T17:48:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GregH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@GregH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GregH)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/1 "2010-07-03T17:48:39Z")
Hey guys- I need some help from the book lovers on this forum… With summer fast approaching, I am looking for a list of books that are about summer, or at least largely take place during the summer. You know, books where the summer is almost like a character in itself. Some examples of what I’m talking about: —Dandelion Wine by Bradbury —Tender Is the Night by FSF —the Lake Wobegon series by Keillor [I’ve never read any of these, but I think they usually take place during the summer] So, I’m not looking for a Summer Reading List, but, rather, books where the summer is an integral part of the plot. And, one more nitpick, I’m not interested in any ‘genre’ books, like serial killer thrillers that take place during a summer heat wave, or anything like that. Hope to hear some suggestions! Thanks, Greg ---
**Author:** ![GregH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@GregH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GregH)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/2 "2014-07-18T15:25:11Z")
Hi everyone This thread of mine is 4 years old and has not received a single response! So, I thought I’d throw it out there again to see if anyone has any ideas. -Greg ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/3 "2014-07-18T15:44:37Z")
Well, the first thing that came to my mind is in your OP – **Dandelion Wine** – and I’ve never yet encountered another book that is so infused with summer as that one, so it’s hard to make a similar recommendation. How about Faulkner’s **Light in August**? Here’s a passage: > [@](#): > > “. . .in August in Mississippi there’s a few days somewhere about the middle of the month when suddenly there’s a foretaste of fall, it’s cool, there’s a lambence, a soft, a luminous quality to the light, as though it came not from just today but from back in the old classic times. It might have fauns and satyrs and the gods and—from Greece, from Olympus in it somewhere. It lasts just for a day or two, then it’s gone. . .the title reminded me of that time, of a luminosity older than our Christian civilization.” I haven’t read it myself, but I’ve been told that Donna Tartt’s **The Little Friend** is very summer-centric. ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/4 "2014-07-18T15:57:17Z")
[Summerland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerland_(novel)) by Michael Chabon? ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/5 "2014-07-18T15:58:55Z")
There’s a YA novel called Two Moons In August. Lots of carefree summertime lake action in it. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/6 "2014-07-18T16:00:30Z")
Dan Simmons’s **[Summer of Night](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_Night)**, though it’s not about a happy summer. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/7 "2014-07-18T16:00:37Z")
Last Summer by Evan Hunter ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/8 "2014-07-18T16:18:27Z")
I don’t have a suggestion but I did want to congratulate you on the patience displayed before bumping your thread. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/9 "2014-07-18T17:10:15Z")
I can’t think of a lot of books ABOUT summer, and I LURVE summer. But there is one: “Far Tortuga” by Peter Matthiessen. It’s the story of tramp smugging/fishing boat and the people who crew it. Entirely set in the Caribbean, mostly at sea, it’s a modern day pirate tale of sorts. The weather and the sea are major characters. It’s written with such spare language and such intensity that some have described it as 'almost poetry" and yeah, it is almost poetry, but it’s prose, and a great story. “Our Virgin Island” by Robb White is a hard to find little book, a biographical piece about a one of those crazy-ass writer types who takes his wife away to an uninhabited island in the Virgin Islands to literally build a life for themselves with their bare hands. What, no one mentioned “Jaws”? Carl Hiaasen’s stories are almost always set in Florida and have plenty of Florida feel to them. “Tourist Trap” might especially fill the bill for you. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/10 "2014-07-18T17:56:58Z")
I know both of these have “summer” in their titles, but I do think that the season plays a large role in the stories (each of them is a Bildungsroman, as it turns out): [ul] [li]Herman Rauscher’s novelization of his screenplay for _Summer of '42_[/li][li]_Summer of the Monkeys_, by _Where the Red Fern Grows_ author Wilson Rawls[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/11 "2014-07-18T18:29:58Z")
I think you can feel the heat when reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-novels-that-are-about-summer/545437/12 "2014-07-18T18:34:47Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > I think you can feel the heat when reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” During many poirtions, yes- certainly, all the parts where Dill appears are set in the summer. But there are also parts that take place during the winter- remember how someone (prbably Boo Radley) put a b lanket over Scout on a cold night?