What’s your summer reading list?

I just finished reading an advance copy of What We Found Instead, by Heidi Reimer, and it embodied everything I ever want in a summer read: compelling plot, emotional depth, and the kind of writing that makes me go “oof,” because I’ve been hit with a massive truth in a few simple words.

I’m not really a “beach read” kind of person — I don’t spend a lot of time sitting still during the summer. My best summer reads fall into three categories: diverting audio books read by people with clear voices that I can listen to while I’m riding my bike; books with good writing but simple enough structure that I don’t lose track of what’s happening when I read them in chunks on trains or eating solo travel meals; and books that I can wallow into in a hammock. What We Found Instead fits all of those categories.

Set mostly in Ontario, mostly in the north, it’s the story of two women who find themselves in an unlikely orbit when they discover they are both in a relationship with the same man (not a spoiler, this happens in the first chapter). There is plenty of plot, but really, it’s about two women who want more than they have been allowing themselves, and who have to learn to trust themselves and each other to get it. It’s funny and hard and deft and compelling. If you advance order it, and connect with Heidi via her subtack, you’ll also get a delightful prequel sent to your email.

I did get an advance reading copy because I know Heidi, but I’d rave about this book in any case — it takes a lot to penetrate my ADHD/ over busy hummingbird mind these days long enough to care about imaginary people.

Since I moved to Nova Scotia, I’ve been trying to spend more focused time reading — and I’m also compiling a list of audio books for hours on the bike, overdue training for a solo cycling trip at the end of August in northern France and Belgium. My current stack includes two beachy froths from Emma Straub and Carley Fortune, Emma Donahue’s The Paris Express, The Midnight Train by Matt Haig which Sam left for me when she and Sarah hung out in my new place before I even moved here, and Black. Single. Mother. by Jamila Lemieux.

What’s on your list? And add Heidi’s book to it :-).

Fieldpoppy is Cate Creede-Desmarais, who is still trying to create order out of chaos in her new little red house by the sea.