Hot summer reads 2025: London Public Library's 10 most-requested books

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There’s nothing quite like cracking the spine of a new book on a hot summer day, whether you’re lounging in the backyard or stretched out at the lake. Here are the London Public Library’s 10 most-requested holds heading into summer, featuring psychological suspense, heartfelt character dramas and real-life reckonings.

Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid

From the bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, this is a sweeping tale set during the dawn of NASA’s 1980s shuttle program. Astronomy professor Joan Goodwin is ready to reach the stars until an unexpected love shifts her orbit.

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

A darkly funny and explosive memoir from a former Facebook executive, this book pulls back the curtain on one of the world’s most powerful tech companies, offering a candid, front-row view of the high-stakes decisions and the people who made them.

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

An Oprah’s Book Club pick, this lyrical novel follows a grieving teenager and an elderly widow with dementia whose unlikely bond explores love, memory and the quiet hope of healing.

The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue

Based on a real 1895 train crash in Paris, this character-driven historical novel unfolds over a single day aboard a doomed railway journey, where class divides and personal secrets build toward catastrophe. Donoghue is an Ireland native who for years has lived here in London.

It Happened on the Lake by Lisa Jackson

A woman returns to her family’s remote island home in this slow-burning thriller, only to find the past hasn’t stayed buried and someone across the lake is watching far too closely.

Value(s): Building A Better World For All by Mark Carney

Written by the newly elected Prime Minister and former Bank of Canada governor, Carney explores how crises like inequality and climate change reflect a deeper failure of values and offers a vision for rebuilding society with people, not profits, at the core.

King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby

This gritty, Godfather-style crime novel unfolds in rural Virginia, where a man returns home to help his brother, only to be caught in a spiral of violence, betrayal and long-buried family secrets tied to a suspicious crash and the mystery of their missing mother.

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Two writers land on a sunny island to compete for the life story of a legendary heiress but as secrets emerge and tensions rise, their own tangled connection may become the real headline.

Whistle by Linwood Barclay

This chilling supernatural thriller follows a grieving mother who moves to a small town for a fresh start. But when her son discovers a forgotten toy train in the shed, strange noises and dark visions begin to unravel their life. Barclay is a former Toronto Star journalist.

Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewel

Three women – a widow, a wary daughter and a wife with a secretive husband – find themselves entangled in a web of lies, charm and buried truths in this twisty thriller about trusting the wrong man.

asathiaseelan@postmedia.com