15 Can’t-Miss Summer 2025 Reads for Emerging Adults: From Memoirs to Magical Realism

Summer vacation — or just summer, period — is a great time to bring back the summer reading list challenges of your childhood. These must-read books for summer 2025 are perfect for
new adults
embarking on some much-needed rest and relaxation.

There’s something for every type of new adult reader. Some of our favorite writers, such as
Molly Jong-Fast
and
Ira Madison III
, have published new biographies about their lives that serve as inspiring testimonies. There are also amazing fiction books from talents like
Anita Kopacz
that blend fantasy and mysticism with history.

This year, we’re leaning into books that tap into the beauty of possibilities — where are we right now and where can we go — and the imperfections in all of us that help build our own complex, rich stories. “There is no perfect love story because there are no perfect humans,” author
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
tells

Teen Vogue

about

My Parents’ Marriage: A Novel

— which is on our summer list. “And because there is no one idea of perfection, my utopia may not be yours — we all have to determine what works for us and be satisfied with that.”

Below are the 15 best books to read for summer 2025 for new adults.

We know and love Ira Madison III from his weekly pop culture podcast

Keep It

, where he unpacks everything from Met Gala looks to the latest

Real Housewives

lore. His debut book,

Pure Innocent Fun

, walks us through his life marked by major cultural moments like Jennifer Hudson losing

American Idol

, or his shared anxiety around driving with

Clueless

queen Cher Horowitz.

Writer Lawrence Burney falls in line with other 2025 biographies from exceptional culture writers we love. His debut book,

No Sense in Wishing

, takes us on an introspective journey from his hometown of Baltimore to New York City where he would become a staffer at VICE and

The Fader

. Stories about getting his first paying gig to navigating the chaotic city of Lagos make it an endearing read for aspiring music connoisseurs.

No Sense in Wishing by Lawrence Burney

$30.00, Amazon

For those working through grief in complicated forms or just understanding different types of parental relationships, Molly Jung-Fast’s

How to Lose Your Mother

is a great read. The

Vanity Fair

contributing writer pens a book about growing up in the shadow of her famous mother, Erica Jong, grappling with her dementia, and navigating her cancer diagnosis in 2023.

How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jung-Fast

$28.00, Bookshop

Law Roach
is not a stylist; he’s an image architect and has given us the playbook to become one as well. In his debut book,

How to Build a Fashion Icon

, Roach leverages his celebrity styling experience with stars like
Zendaya
to offer practical advice on working in the cutthroat industry. A few chapters in and you’ll realize that becoming an image architect is less about fancy clothes and more about understanding people, like when he reinvigorated Céline Dion’s public image.

How to Build a Fashion Icon by Law Roach

$28.00, Bookshop

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is back with another beautiful fiction story about Ghanaian life. In

My Parents’ Marriage: A Novel

, she writes the story of Kokui, a young girl who falls in love and works her way into another country where she has to find strength, purpose, and identity. “I was inspired by my parents’ experience as immigrants leaving Ghana in the ‘70s for university in New York,” Brew-Hammond says. “They were in their twenties, juggling multiple jobs while going to school, raising young children, and adjusting to a different country and culture. When I was a kid, I just didn’t understand how much pressure they were under, but now that I’m an adult, I have way more perspective.”

My Parents’ Marriage: A Novel by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

$28.99.00, Bookshop

Anita Kopacz’s second novel,

The Wind on Her Tongue

, debuted in January and takes readers on an epic journey from Cuba to New Orleans. Oya, who has otherworldly powers, is sent to study in America and encounters historical spirits that guide her through a dark post-slavery world. For those interested in learning more about ancient African mysticism and traditions, this is a fantastic read.

The Wind on Her Tongue by Anita Kopacz

$26.99.00, Bookshop

Céline Semaan has been ringing the alarm on mass consumerism for years, and in her debut book, she explains the origins of her passion. “Fashion can be empowering, but it can also be the reason why people in the Global South have been ‘othered’ by dominant cultures,” she tells

Teen Vogue

about the

A Woman is a School

chapter on her mother, who loves fashion. “My mother always used Fashion to her advantage; once we obtained our refugee status and were uprooted from our families to live in the Global North, she made it her quest to explore and share her identity through fashion, and continued adorning her children as a way to heal and to survive in times of war and displacement.”

A Woman is a School by Céline Semaan

$20.00, Slow Factory

Mental health in the Black community has long been a taboo subject, but journalist Antonia Hylton addresses it straight on in her debut book. Inspired by her family’s struggles with mental health, Hylton takes a historical journey back 90 years to one of the last segregated asylums in the country. She also traces how the legacy of slavery and racism dictated treatment, perceptions, and research around mental health in the United States.

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

$30.00, Bookshop

Poet Yrsa Daley-Ward is known for work that speaks to the complicated, introspective, and wise inner workings of young women. In her debut fiction project,

The Catch

, the author tells the story of twin sisters who grapple with a life-changing decision made by their mother, who they thought was deceased. Set in 1990s London, this book goes back in time but feels very relevant to today.

The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward

$28.99.00, Bookshop

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is back with a fiction novel everyone is talking about. Her latest book,

Dream Count

, is about four different Nigerian women who are all reflecting on their life choices — child rearing, career, marriage, and passions. This moment helps frame life’s priorities and also gives a glimpse into how women in different parts of the world think. Love, happiness, career, and fulfillment are all topics explored in this book, which she says took a decade to write.

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

$32.00, Bookshop

No one does generational storytelling like Isabel Allende. If you remember how spicy

The House of Spirits

was to read in high school, you’ll appreciate her new novel,

My Name is Emilia del Valle

, about a young woman in the late 1800s who travels to Chile to cover a war. While in South America, she meets her estranged father, and life gets all the more complex while she also falls in love with a man.

My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende

$30.00, Bookshop

Need a complex, layered love story of sorts to read while at the beach? Sally Rooney’s

Intermezzo

, about two brothers and complicated relationships to each other and the world, won’t disappoint. After the death of their father, Peter, an attorney, and Ivan, a professional chess player, deal with grief and entanglements with different women. This award-winning book
sold more than 1 million copies
in the UK alone, so we can guarantee it’s a page-turner.

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

$29.00, Bookshop

Indian American author Sanjena Sathian’s

Goddess Complex

is a worthy addition to your summer reading list. It follows Sanjana,
a 32-year-old woman
who recently had an abortion, is trying to divorce her actor husband, and is crashing on her sister’s couch while attempting to pursue a Ph.D. in anthropology at Yale. Meanwhile, it seems like all of her homegirls are trying to have babies and embrace the same things she’s walking away from! You’ll love this endearing, relatable read about making life choices on your terms — even if things get messy.

Goddess Complex by Sanjena Sathian

$26.97.00, Bookshop

We trust Jia Tolentino’s taste, especially after reading her 2019 book

Trick Mirror

. She’s put her keen eye for good writing to the test with this collection of recommended reads by different authors in

The Best American Essays 2025

. If you like a series of quick reads, this compilation of 20 essays picked from thousands of submissions is fantastic — especially to study good writing.

The Best American Essays 2025 edited by Jia Tolentino

$18.99.00, Bookshop

What we all need is a little motivation right now, and
Amanda Litman
, founder of Run for Something, has supplied it with her new book. The founder and executive spoke to more than 100 next-gen leaders about how to make a lasting impact in the face of current political, social, and professional challenges. The conversations she had for this book are not only informative about the future of our country, but also about what will be required to be a leader.

When We’re in Charge by Amanda Litman

$28.00, Bookshop