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Book Summary and Reviews of The Summer I Remembered Everything by Catherine Con Morse

The Summer I Remembered Everything by Catherine Con Morse

The Summer I Remembered Everything

by Catherine Con Morse

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Publishes:
  • Apr 29, 2025, 304 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

In search of a summer escape from her overbearing family, an Asian-Latine teenager becomes the mentee to a chic elderly woman. But as her mentor's memory starts to fade, the teenager is confronted with a choice that may jeopardize their friendship.

Emily Chen-Sanchez can't do anything right. She's been grounded for a bad grade; she can't stop fighting with her perfect older sister; everyone's tense because her mother's just been diagnosed with thyroid cancer; and she hasn't spoken to her best friend Matt in two weeks, four days, and about seven hours (not that she's counting).

Her new summer job is the perfect escape: as companion to an eclectic, lively, Super Southern elderly lady, Mrs. Granucci. All Emily has to do is help Mrs. G 'remember" her likes, dislikes, anything Mrs. G has a habit of forgetting, even Emily's name. Emily feels closer to Mrs. G than everyone else until Mrs. G falsely accuses Emily. The betrayal will have ramifications for them both, and Emily must make a decision that will change their lives forever.

The Summer I Remembered Everything is a story of longing for an escape, finding yourself, caring for someone with an illness, and learning that sometimes the right decision is always the hardest.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[A] refreshing coming-of-age novel....readers will be left with a smile." —Booklist

"A gentle, emotionally astute coming-of-age story." —Kirkus Reviews

This information about The Summer I Remembered Everything was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Catherine Con Morse

Catherine Con Morse was one of the inaugural Writers in Residence at Porter Square Books. A Kundiman fellow, she received her MFA from Boston University, where she taught undergraduate creative writing for several years. Her work appears in Joyland, Letters, HOOT, Bostonia, the Racist Sandwich podcast, and elsewhere. The Notes was shortlisted for the CRAFT first chapters contest and is her first novel.

In high school, Catherine attended the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, a public arts boarding school, where she was as intrigued with her teacher as Claire is with Dr. Li. Catherine continues to play and teach piano today. Most recently, she taught English at Choate Rosemary Hall, and lives in the Connecticut River Valley with her husband and daughter.

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