Memorial Hall Library

Camping is In-Tense

Are you nostalgic for your own summer camp experience? Maybe one of these novels will help you revisit your idyllic summer experience--or make you grateful that no one was ever murdered at your summer camp. And if you're looking to explore the great outdoors this summer (without committing to a week-long stay), don't forget about MHL's State Parks Pass!

Burnt Mountain : a novel
Burnt Mountain : a novel
by Anne Rivers Siddons

Thayer Wentworth marries an Irish professor and moves into her deceased grandmother's house in Atlanta, a short distance away from the summer camp she attended as a child, where begins to question whether her husband is the man she thought she knew. 
The Clover Girls
The Clover Girls
by Viola Shipman

The new owners of Camp Birchwood thanks to their late friend Emily, Elizabeth, Veronica and Rachel must spend a week together remembering the dreams they put aside and find a way to become the women they always swore they'd grow up to be. 
Confidence : a novel
Confidence : a novel
by Rafael Frumkin

A pair of best friends and occasional lovers who meet at a last-chance camp before juvenile detention embark on what they hope is a lucrative career in scam artistry with Nulife, a company that promises consumers a lifetime of bliss.
The drowning : a novel
The drowning : a novel
by J. P. Smith

Twenty-years-ago Alex Mason's negligence as a camp counselor lead to Joey Proctor's disappearance, but Alex was never found out and is currently a successful millionaire, but it looks like Joey Proctor may be back for revenge.
The hearts of men : a novel
The hearts of men : a novel
by Nickolas Butler

A scarred Vietnam veteran and successful businessman reflects on his teen years as a social outcast and friend to a popular youth during a summer camp reunion marked by selflessness and an unthinkable event involving his friend's family members. By the award-winning author of Shotgun Lovesongs.
The Interestings
The Interestings
by Meg Wolitzer

Forging a powerful bond in the mid-1970s that lasts throughout subsequent decades, six individuals pursue challenges into their midlife years, including an aspiring actress who harbors jealousy toward friends who achieve successful creative careers.
The last time I lied : a novel
The last time I lied : a novel
by Riley Sager

An artist who witnessed the disappearance of her bunkmates at summer camp as a young girl accepts an opportunity to return to Camp Nightingale as a painting instructor and tries to discover what really happened to her friends.
The lightness : a novel
The lightness : a novel
by Emily Temple

One year after her father leaves home for a meditation retreat and never returns, Olivia, yearning to make sense of his departure and to escape her overbearing mother, runs away and retraces his path to a place known as the Levitation Center. 
Lucky turtle : a novel
Lucky turtle : a novel
by Bill Roorbach

While at a reform camp in Montana. 16-year-old privileged while girl Cindra Zoeller escapes into the wilderness with her lover and they must both suffer the consequences of their naïve fantasy of a future together—and circumstances shaped by skin color. 
The scent of pine
The scent of pine
by Lara Vapnyar

A community college professor whose career has stagnated, and a wife and mother whose marriage has tumbled into a spiral of apathy and distrust, Lena is frustrated at the seeming "impossibility of happiness." As Lena makes her way to present a paper at a remote New England conference, a chance encounter with an old schoolmate a once average-seeming teenager who has since achieved international fame as a human rights advocate-catapults Lena into memories of their life changing summer together, as counselors at a summer camp in the backwoods of rural Russia during the massive cultural changes of perestroika in the 1980s.
The summer demands
The summer demands
by Deborah Shapiro

Approaching 40 and reeling from a miscarriage, Emily and her husband move to an abandoned summer camp in Massachusetts with plans to revitalize it and begin a strange an intimate relationship with a 22 year old squatter living there.
The summer of songbirds : a novel
The summer of songbirds : a novel
by Kristy Woodson Harvey

When they learn Camp Holly Springs, their childhood oasis, is in danger of closing, three best friends, in spite of their personal problems, come together to save it, rediscovering themselves in the process.
Swimming in the dark : a novel
Swimming in the dark : a novel
by Tomasz Jedrowski

When university student Ludwik meets Janusz at a summer agricultural camp, he is fascinated yet wary of this handsome, carefree stranger. But a chance meeting by the river soon becomes an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are fulfilled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks camping in the countryside, removed from society and its constraints, Ludwik and Janusz fall deeply in love. But in their repressive communist and Catholic society, the passion they share is utterly unthinkable. Once they return to Warsaw, the charismatic Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly-coveted position in the ministry. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.
The wild one : a novel
The wild one : a novel
by Colleen McKeegan

When her past begins to poison her present, threatening her relationship, Amanda Brooks turns to the two women who know her most monstrous self, and together they must decide how far they're willing to go to keep the truth of one fateful summer buried forever. 
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