Use the list below to browse NPR's 2013 Summer Booksrecommendations. Each critic's list is presented separately. Click on the article names to read our critics' comments about the books.
We'll be adding new lists from our critics throughout the summer.
City Slickers: 5 Books About The Urban Experience
Recommended by Franklyn Cater
A History of Future Cities, by Daniel Brook, hardcover, 457 pages, W. W. Norton & Co Inc, list price $27.95
The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities And Metros Are Fixing Our Broken Politics And Fragile Economy, by Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley, hardcover, 258 pages, Brookings Institution Press, list price $22
Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, And The Quest For A New Utopia, by Anthony M. Townsend, hardcover, 400 pages, W. W. Norton & Co Inc, list price $28.95
Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans In The Age Of Connection, by Ethan Zukerman, hardcover, 312 pages, W. W. Norton & Co Inc, list price $26.95
Cities Are Good For You: The Genius Of The Metropolis, by Leo Hollis, hardcover, 407 pages, Bloomsbury Press, list price $28
Fact Behind The Fiction: 5 Great Historicals For Summer
Recommended by Jean Zimmerman
Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline, paperback, 304 pages, William Morrow Paperbacks, list price $14.99
The Black Country, by Alex Grecian, hardcover, 384 pages, Putnam Adult, list price $26.95
The Blood of Heaven, by Keny Wascom, hardcover, 457 pages, Grove Press, list price $25
Fever, by Mary Beth Keane, hardcover, 306 pages, Scribner, list price $26
The Painted Girls, by Cathy Marie Buchanan, hardcover, 357 pages, Riverhead Hardcover, list price $27.95
Hidden Gems: 5 Summer Books That Deserve More Fanfare
Recommended by Meg Wolitzer
The Duke's Table: The Complete Book Of Vegetarian Italian Cooking, by Enrico Alliata, hardcover, 400 pages, Melville House, list price $40
Too Bright To Hear Too Loud To See, by Juliann Garey, hardcover, 224 pages, Random House Inc, list price $25
The Unchangeable Spots Of Leopards, by Kristopher Jansma, hardcover, 254 pages, Penguin Group USA, list price $26.95
Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots, by Jessica Soffer, hardcover, 317 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, list price $24
This Is Running For Your Life, by Michelle Orange, paperback, 337 pages, Farrar Straus & Giroux, list price $16
Lost And Found: 5 Forgotten Classics Worth Revisiting
Recommended by Parul Sehgal
My Last Sigh: The Autobiography Of Luis Bunuel, by Luis Bunuel and Abigail Israel, paperback, 256 pages, Vintage, list price $16
I Await The Devil's Coming, by Mary MacLane and Jessa Crispin, paperback, 162 pages, Melville House, list price $16
Cotton Tenants: Three Families, by John Summers, Adam Haslett, James Agee, and Walker Evans, hardcover, 224 pages, Melville House, list price $24.95
Exercises In Style, by Raymond Queneau, Barbara Wright, and Chris Clarke, paperback, 197 pages, New Directions, list price $14.95
One Thousand And One Nights: A Retelling, by Hanan Al-Shaykh, hardcover, 288 pages, Pantheon, list price $26
Best Of The Summer: 6 Books The Critics Adore
Recommended by Ron Charles, Marcela Valdes and Laura Miller
The Son, by Philipp Meyer, hardcover, 561 pages, HarperCollins, list price $27.99
A Constellation Of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra, hardcover, 384 pages, Random House Inc, list price $26
And The Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini, hardcover, 404 pages, Penguin Group USA, list price $28.95
The Sound Of Things Falling, by Juan Gabriel Vasquez, hardcover, 272 pages, Penguin Group USA, list price $27.95
NOS4A2, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, hardcover, 692 pages, HarperCollins, list price $28.99
She Left Me The Gun: My Mother's Life Before Me, by Emma Brockes, 298 pages, Penguin Group USA, list price $26.95
Love's Better In Books: 5 Romantic Summer Reads
Recommended by Eloisa James
The Best Man, by Kristan Higgins, paperback, 426 pages, Harlequin Books, list price $7.99
All Out Of Love, by Lori Wilde, paperback, 374 pages, HarperCollins, list price $7.99
Nobody's Baby But Mine, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, paperback, 382 pages, HaperCollins, list price $12.99
The Cursed, by Alyssa Day, paperback, 293 pages, Berkley Pub Group, list price $7.99
The Time Between, by Karen White, paperback, 336 pages, Penguin Group USA, list price $25.95
Summer Adventure: 5 Thrilling, Chilling, Far-Ranging Reads
Recommend by Alan Cheuse
Long Lankin: Stories, by John Banville, paperback, 100 pages, Vintage, list price $12.95
The Tree Of Forgetfulness, by Pam Durban, paperback, 171 pages, Louisiana State Univ Pr, list price $23
The Wonder Bread Summer, by Jessica Anya Blau, paperback, 288 pages, Harper Perennial, list price $14.99
The Eye of God, by James Rollins, hardcover, 410 pages, William Morrow, list price $27.99
The Curiosity, by Stephen Kiernan, hardcover, 320 pages, William Morrow, list price $25.99
Making Art From Art: 5 Nonfiction Reads For Summer
Recommended by Annalisa Quinn
Always Looking: Essays On Art, by John Updike and Christopher Carduff, hardcover, 204 pages, Knopf, list price $45
Modern Art Desserts: Recipes For Cakes, Cookies, Confections, And Frozen Treats Based On Iconic Works Of Art, by Caitlin Freeman, Clay McLachlan, Tara Duggan, and Rose Levy Beranbaum, hardcover, 216 pages, Ten Speed Press, list price $25
The Virtues of Poetry, by James Longenbach, paperback, 169 pages, Graywolf Press, list price $14
Philip Treacy, by Kevin Davies, hardcover, 199 pages, Phaidon Press, list price $59.95
Waiting For The Barbarians: Essays From The Classics To Pop Culture, by Daniel Mendelsohn, hardcover, 423 pages, New York Review Books, list price $24.95
Nancy Pearl Scours The Shelves For Books You Might Have Missed
Recommended by Nancy Perl
Snapper, by Brian Kimberling, hardcover, 210 pages, Pentheon, list price $24.95
Keeping The Castle, by Patrice Kindl, paperback, 261 pages, Speak, list price $8.99
A Tangle Of Knots, by Lisa Graff, hardcover, 230 pages, Philomel, list price $16.99
Crashed, by Timothy Hallinan, paperback, 356 pages, Soho Crime, list price $9.99
The Riddle Of The Labyrinth: The Quest To Crack An Ancient Code, by Margalit Fox, hardcover, 363 pages, Ecco, list price $27.99
The Funny (Touching, Fascinating) Pages: 5 Comics For SummerRecommended by Myla Goldberg
Building Stories, by Chris Ware, hardcover, 260 pages, Pantheon, list price $50
Hand-Drying In America by Ben Katchor, hardcover, 159 pages, Random House Inc, list price $29.95
My Dirty Dumb Eyes by Lisa Hanawalt, hardcover, 120 pages, Farrar Straus & Giroux, list price $22.95
Today Is The Last Day Of The Rest Of Your Life, by Ulli Lust, paperback, 462 pages, W W Norton & Co Inc, list price $35
Moomin, by Tove Jansson, hardcover, 95 pages, Farrar Straus & Giroux, list price $19.95
Secrets Of The Universe: 5 Great Sci-Fi And Fantasy Summer Reads
Recommended by Annalee Newitz
The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes, hardcover, 375 pages, Mulholland Books, list price $26
Love Minus Eighty, by Will McIntosh, paperback, 421 pages, Orbit, list price $16
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler, hardcover, 310 pages, A Marian Wood Book/Putnam, list price $10
The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, by Neil Gaiman, hardcover, 181 pages, William Morrow, list price $25.99
Missing Links And Secret Histories: A Selection Of Wikipedia Entries From Across The Known Multiverse, by L. Timmel Duchamp, paperback, 240 pages, Aqueduct Press, list price $18
School's Out: 5 Great Summer Reads For Teens
Recommended by Petra Mayer
The Summer Prince, by Alaya Dawn Johnson, hardcover, 289 pages, Scholastic, list price $17.99
Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell, hardcover, 328 pages, St. Martin's Press, list price $18.99
Drama, by Raina Telgemeier, paperback, 233 pages, Graphix, list price $10.99
The Universe Versus Alex Woods, by Gavin Extence, hardcover, 320 pages, Little Brown & Co, list price $26
The 5th Wave, by Rick Yancey, hardcover, 457 pages, Penguin Group USA, list prive $18.99
The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde, hardcover, 256 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, list price $16.99
Sneak Preview: 5 Books To Look Forward To This Summer
Recommended by Barrie Hardymon
The Good Lord Bird, by James McBride, hardcover, 432 pages, Riverhead Hardcover, list price $27.95
Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites, by Kate Christensen, hardcover, 240 pages, Doubleday, list price $26.95
Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein, hardcover, 352 pages, Disney-Hyperion, list price $17.99
The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese, by Michael Paterniti, hardcover, 320 pages, The Dial Press, list price $27
Enon, by Paul Harding, hardcover, 224 pages, Random House Inc, list price $26
5 Books Of Poetry To Get You Through The Summer
Recommended by Alan Cheuse
Singing School, by Robert Pinsky, hardcover, 160 pages, W. W. Norton & Co Inc, list price $25.95
Stag's Leap, by Sharon Olds, paperback, 89 pages, Knopf, list price $16.95
Our Andromeda, by Brenda Shaughnessy, paperback, 131 pages, Copper Canyon Press, list price $16
W. S. Merwin Collected Poems 1996-2011, by W. S. Merwin, hardcover, 679 pages, Library of America, list price $37.50
Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish, by David Rakoff, hardcover, 160 pages, Doubleday, list price $26.95
Female Perspectives: Five Novels That Bring Outsiders InRecommended by Ellah Allfrey
The Hired Man, by Aminatta Forna, hardcover, 304 pages, Atlantic Monthly Press, list price $24
The Liars' Gospel, by Naomi Alderman, hardcover, 311 pages, Little Brown & Co, list price $25.99
We Need New Names, by NoViolet Bulawayo, paperback, 296 pages, Little Brown & Co, list price $25
Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, paperback, 477 pages, Knopf, list price $26.95
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, by Ayana Mathis, paperback, 243 pages, Knopf, list price $24.95
Start Storing Up: Indie Booksellers Pick Summer's Best Reads
Recommended by Rona Brinlee, Daniel Goldin and Lucia Silva
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, by Mason Currey, hardcover, 278 pages, Knopf, list price $24.95
Equilateral, by Ken Kalfus, hardcover, 207 pages, Bloomsbury USA, list price $24
Life After Life, by Jill McCorkle, hardcover, 352 pages, A Shannon Ravenel Book, list price $24.95
The Other Typist, by Suzanne Rindell, hardcover, 356 pages, Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, list price $25.95
The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud, hardcover, 272 pages, Knopf, list price $25.95
The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls, by Anton DiSclafani, hardcover, 390 pages, Riverhead Hardcover, list price $27.95
Mary And Lou And Rhoda And Ted:And All The Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show A Classic, by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, hardcover, 324 pages, Simon & Schuster, list price $26
The View From Penthouse B, by Elinor Lipman, hardcover, 252 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, list price $25
How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, by Mohsin Hamid, hardcover, 228 pages, Riverhead Hardcover, list price $26.95
Queen Of The Air: A True Story Of Love And Tragedy At The Circus, by Dean Jensen, hardcover, 327 pages, Crown, list price $26
The Book Of My Lives, by Aleksandar Hemon, hardcover, 214 pages, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, list price $25
The Supremes At Earl's All-You-Can-Eat, by Edward Kelsey Moore, hardcover, 307 pages, Knopf, list price $24.95
A Guide To Being Born: Stories, by Ramona Ausubel, hardcover, 198 pages, Riverhead Hardcover, list price $26.95
Ways Of Going Home, by Alejandro Zambra, hardcover, 139 pages, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, list price $23
Poems To Learn By Heart, by Caroline Kennedy and Jon J. Muth, hardcover, 191 pages, Disney Press, list price $19.99
Pacific, by Tom Drury, hardcover, 194 pages, Grove Press, list price $25
The Dark Road, by Ma Jian and translated by Flora Drew, hardcover, 352 pages, Penguin Press, list price $25.95
Field Trip! 10 Books That Will Send Kids Exploring
Recommended by Mara Alpert
Faces For Baby, by Yana Peel, hardcover, 12 pages, Candlewick Pr, list price: $21.99
Take Me Out To The Yakyu, by Aaron Meshon, hardcover, 40 pages, Simon & Schuster, list price: $15.99
You Never Heard Of Willie Mays?!, by Jonah Winter and Terry Widener, hardcover, Random House Children's Books, list price: $17.99
Frog Song, by Brenda Guiberson, hardcover, 36 pages, Henry Holt and Co., list price: $17.99
My First Day: What Animals Do On Day One, by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, hardcover, 32 pages, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, list price: $16.99
A Little Book Of Sloth, by Lucy Cooke, hardcover, 64 pages, Simon & Schuster, list price: $16.99
Follow Follow: A Book Of Reverso Poems, by Marilyn Singer, hardcover, 32 pages, Dial, list price: $16.99
Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors?: The Story Of Elizabeth Blackwell, by Tanya Lee Stone, hardcover, 40 pages, Henry Holt and Co., list price: $16.99
Road Trip, by Jim Paulsen and Gary Paulsen, hardcover, 114 pages, Random House Childrens Books, list price: $12.99
Navigating Early, by Clare Vanderpool, hardcover, 306 pages, Random House Childrens Books, list price: $16.99
Moments Of Truth: 6 Memoirs Written With Heart
Recommended by Rachel Syme
Wave, by Sonali Deraniyagala, hardcover, 224 pages, Random House Inc, list price: $24
The Book Of My Lives, by Aleksander Hemon, hardcover, 214 pages, Farrar Straus & Giroux, list price: $25
Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked, by James Lasdun, hardcover, 218 pages, Farrar Straus & Giroux, list price: $25
After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story, by Michael Hainey, hardcover, 299 pages, Simon & Schuster, list price: $26
Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, And Me, by Patricia Volk, hardcover, 283 pages, Random House Inc, list price: $26.95
Her: A Memoir, by Christa Parravani, hardcover, 308 pages, Henry Holt & Co, list price: $26
You might also want to check out our Complete Summer Books Lists from 2012, 2011 and 2010.
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