Top Ten Books to Inspire Summer Vibes

Spark your summer reading with these top picks no matter how you like to holiday!

Not sure about you, but we are counting down the days until summer. We've found 10 books that are perfect to inspire all those summer vibes. Whether you are looking for some summer serenity, ideas for your next adventure, or planning a gathering with friends and family, these books will put a smile on your face and sun in your heart. These books are also great for hostess gifts and birthday presents for that hard-to-shop-for friend.

How to Go Digital Free: Expert Tips to Guide Your Digital Detox

by Fielding Banks, Orianna

More and more we rely on a digital connection to fulfill our needs. Zoom and FaceTime have taken place of meetings; digital devices are used to entertain children instead of playing with them; non-urgent emails and texts are read and responded to while in the company of others, lessening personal connections.

Through 100 simple tips, including self-help assessments, step-by-step programs, and rebalancing techniques, this essential guide shows you how technology can still play a useful and rewarding role in your life, but not at the expense of personal relationships and mental health.

Create: Overcoming Fear to Unleash Your Creativity 

by Silber, Marc

#1 New Release in Performing Arts & Personal Success -- Find Your Creative Artist Within

Creative conversations from some of the world's top photographers, filmmakers, Grammy award winners, TED presenters, actors, CEOs and more!

Time for a new mindset. Many of us think of creativity as something distant and incompatible with daily life--a skill that artists get to use, but not the rest of us. Maybe you feel like a land-locked surfer, yearning for exhilarating rides. Or maybe you live for the few hours a week when you can take photographs, paint, or write. It's time for a new mindset. Create shows you how to rediscover the artist within you.

Live a more creative life. People who make a living in the creative arts know that there is a cycle to unlocking the imagination. Visualize, know your tools, work your craft, refine, share. When you tap into this cycle, you'll find ways to operate at your highest state in all aspects of life.

Find your creative purpose. Overcoming the barriers to innovation is easier than you think. Marc Silber, best selling author, award-wining creative and educator, shows you how to avoid the traps of procrastination, overthinking, and self-doubt. The exercises in Create are specifically designed to help you find certainty and confidence in self-expression.

Learn how to:

• Master the techniques of visualization
• Draw inspiration from the world around you
• Collaborate with people who can further your vision
• Share with others to spread the joy

If you enjoyed motivational books like The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, and Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way: 25th Anniversary Edition, you'll love Create.

Everyday Calming Rituals: Simple Daily Practices to Reduce Stress

by Ahsan, Tania

'A warm, knowledgeable guide that will calm even the most frazzled soul' - Poorna Bell, author, In Search of Silence

Actively working with rituals and your senses to create daily practices that you can draw on to relieve stress is an easy, everyday way to work with your body. This book will enable you to create simple rituals that will allow you to work with your five main senses to ensure you have a first-aid kit of emotional associations that will calm you down when you are beset with a racing mind, insomnia, or general worry. Rituals featured include: vision boards, mindful listening, smudging, self-massage, and tea ceremonies. The book also includes daily, weekly, and monthly rituals which you can easily integrate into your life.

You Can Be Happy No Matter What: Five Principles for Keeping Life in Perspective

by Carlson, Richard - Dyer, Wayne

Many people believe they can only be happy when their problems are solved, relationships improve, and goals are achieved. In this simple guide, Dr. Richard Carlson shows readers how to be happy right now no matter the situation. His plan, based on the principles of Thought (thoughts are voluntary, not involuntary); Mood (thinking is a voluntary that varies function varies from moment to moment and these variances are called moods); Separate Realities (everyone thinks in a unique way and lives in separate psychological realities); Feelings (feelings and emotions serve as a barometer for when one is off-track and headed for unhappiness); and the Present Moment (the only time when genuine contentment, satisfaction, and happiness). This timeless book guides readers through life's challenges and restores the joy of living along the way."

Little Book of Wanderlust: Travel Quips & Quotes for Life's Big Adventures

by Wanderlust

The ultimate travel companion for voracious voyagers.

Do you yearn for a life off the beaten track? Brought to you by Wanderlust, the original travel magazine, this bite-sized guide is jam-packed with trivia, facts and quotes to help cure even the most serious cases of itchy feet. Find out which country has a museum dedicated exclusively to Pot Noodles, which country has more islands than any other nation and which holiday destination you're likely to prefer based on whether you're an extrovert or an introvert. With inspiring quotes from seasoned travelers, The Little Book of Wanderlust is the perfect gift for jet setters and journeyers.

Art of Picnics: Seasonal Outdoor Entertaining (Family Style Cookbook, Picnic Ideas, and Outdoor Activities)

by O'Neil, Alanna

Gourmet Grazing for the Great Outdoors--Picnic Ideas For Your Picnic Basket

"Full of fun tips to bring gatherings outside; the recipes, practical tips, and styling inspiration makes me want to make every meal a picnic." --Elizabeth Minchilli, author of The Italian Table

#1 New Release in Salads

What could be the hidden key to health and happiness? It may just be tucked away in your picnic basket. The Art of Picnics encourages you to take a break from your fast-paced life to pick up a picnic basket, and reconnect with nature.

Find perfect picnic ideas for seasonal eating. There's nothing more satisfying than yummy picnic foods and fun outdoor activities. If you're yearning for tranquility and the charm of nature, make your backyard your own special retreat! With a bounty of family-style food recipes for foodies of all skill levels, The Art of Picnics offers a new perspective on traditional picnics.

Easy-to-follow recipes for outdoor entertaining. The Art of Picnics is a beautiful guide to create a fun outdoor gathering. Whether it's cooking during the day for an upcountry lunch or preparing for a twilight gathering, you'll capture a spark of outdoor adventure with these seasonal picnic ideas.

Inside you'll find:

• Décor ideas with woven rugs, crate tables, mismatched china, plush pillows
• Planning recommendations like fresh-cut blooms, wine, and artisanal bread
• An outdoor cookbook full of one-of-a-kind recipes for sandwiches, grazing boards, and more!

If you're looking for charcuterie books, a picnic snacks cookbook, or recipes for food on the go--or enjoyed Platters and Boards, The Camp Cookout, or Paris Picnic Club--then you'll love The Art of Picnics.

Mixologist's Guide to Making Cocktails: 200 of the World's Best Cocktail Recipes

by Spence, Jordan

Master the art of mixology with these easy infographic cocktail recipes!

Prepare a first-class cocktail using these beautifully designed infographics, which show precise measurements in easy-to-see glass proportions and explain which garnish and type of glass work best for each drink. Two hundred recipes cover both old favorites and modern inventions, from coolers and coladas to slings, sours, and screws. An informative introduction gives details on equipment, bar stocking, basic techniques, and more.

Mapping America's National Parks: Preserving Our Natural and Cultural Treasures

by Burns, Ken - Duncan, Dayton - Us National Park Service

Get an insider look at the US National Park Service to see how they use maps and geospatial technology to protect and manage America's national parks.

Maps easily cap your first greeting upon arrival at a national park, allowing you to visualize its vastness, plan your trip, and keep a compact souvenir of your visit. But for the US National Park Service (NPS), maps do more than provide guidance and navigation. Maps help the NPS protect visitors and natural resources. They help manage fires, both unplanned and prescribed. They provide a basis for preserving cultural resources, such as archaeological sites and historic buildings, and for establishing needed facilities, infrastructure, and transportation.

The maps in Mapping America's National Parks: Preserving Our Natural and Cultural Treasures are not only beautiful representations of special places. Within the maps are layers of geographic information--a bevy of research and science--that the NPS uses to perform these myriad essential services and to ultimately fulfill their mission.

With over 240 full-color maps and photographs of national parks, monuments, battlefields, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, scenic rivers and trails, and more, Mapping America's National Parks takes you on a journey through our most treasured locations and shows how geographic information system (GIS) software helps the NPS keep the balance between park enjoyment and preservation.

Through stories told by their own staff, discover how GIS helps the NPS:

• provide security for individual wildlife species, members of a crowd at a peaceful demonstration, and entire ecosystems;
• analyze where people most likely are stranded, where they are least likely stranded, and distribute assets in search and rescue operations;
• develop strategic plans, budgets, and protection for fire management; and
• share intelligence on wildlife trafficking, zoonotic diseases, field medicine protocols, and more.

Go behind the scenes to see how mapping and geospatial analysis support the full range of NPS natural resource stewardship and science activities. With NPS planning aided by geospatial technology, future generations of park visitors--your children and their children--will be able to enjoy our national parks for years to come.

Get an insider look at the US National Park Service to see how they use maps and geospatial technology to protect and manage America's national parks.

Cottage Fairy Companion: A Cottagecore Guide to Slow Living, Connecting to Nature, and Becoming Enchanted Again 

by Merrill, Paola

A Cottagecore Inspired Guide for Mindful Living Anywhere

"This book presents an easy entry point for readers interested in exploring mindfulness and the cottagecore lifestyle." -Library Journal review

#1 Best Seller in Small Homes & Cottages, Folkcrafts, Architectural Decoration and Ornaments, Fiber Arts & Textiles, Seasonal Crafts, Architecture, Home Design Decorating & Design

The Cottage Fairy Companion is your accessible and beautiful guide to mindful living. It teaches the fundamentals of cottagecore style through the practices of The Cottage Fairy's daily life.

Romanticize your life anywhere. Open your eyes to the everyday magic right in front of you. Gain a new perspective through what nature teaches you about finding beauty through the good times and the bad. Everyone--from city-dwellers to country bobkins--can find delight in this book. You don't need a cottage in the rustic countryside to achieve a cottagecore aesthetic, or to apply aspects of slow living to your daily life.

Use mindfulness for healing and fulfillment. Paola Merrill, author and creator behind the popular YouTube channel The Cottage Fairy, left a hectic life in the city for the rural mountains in search of a deeper connection to herself and the world. She learned that nature is the biggest teacher of all--if we open our eyes to its wisdom. Mindful living can be applied in most walks of life, and Merrill's writing encourages you to find healing and fulfillment, wherever you are.

Inside this enchanting book on mindful living, you'll find:

• Insight to creating a cozy and inspiring space, living in alignment with natural cycles and seasons, and gardening and making tea
• Original illustrations and breathtaking photos of the author's cottage, crafts, and the countryside
• Calming, meditative prose to promote tranquility and stillness in a hectic world

If you liked Cozy White Cottage, Simply Living Well, or The Little Book of Cottagecore, you'll love The Cottage Fairy Companion.