What’s on Your Summer Reading List?
As summer 2026 approaches, SPS presents warm-weather reads from the Center for Publishing, Writing, and Media. We’ve gathered books from top writers to help you relax, unwind, and get lost in their pages. Beach reads and summer selections offer opportunities to learn and grow.
Great reads available now or very soon:
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke is a buzzy debut novel in which a “tradwife” influencer, who shares her highly curated farm-wife lifestyle with millions of followers, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855. She must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister.
June Baby by Shannon Garvey is a sun- drenched debut novel that follows family secrets, love, and loss on Block Island off the coast of New England. “The book of the summer!” says Elin Hilderbrand. “It has everything I want in a beach read: juicy romance, explosive family secrets, and a delicious island setting.”
The Midnight Train by Matt Haig, sequel to the celebrated Midnight Library, follows 81-year-old Wilbur Budd, who dies alone after a life of immense wealth but deep regret. A mysterious symbolic train takes him back through his memories, forcing him to re-evaluate his choices, ambitions, and the love of his life.
How to Start: Discovering your life’s work by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor offers a blueprint for young people about how to choose a career that merges “craft” with “need.” Kantor urges optimism and a sense of purpose, asking hard questions about risk and money, and offering advice on how to navigate sensitive choices.
London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth by New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe is a true crime book about the mysterious death of a teenager who plunged from a luxury London apartment balcony into the Thames in 2019. Keefe, who has written highly acclaimed nonfiction titles such as Say Nothing and The Empire of Pain, chronicles the young man’s journey into the tangled London underworld and his secret double life.
Angel Down by New York Times bestselling writer Daniel Kraus, told in a single sentence, imagines what might have happened if a group of soldiers in the trenches of WW1 stumbled upon – an angel. It recently won the 2026 Pulitzer for fiction.
Land by Maggie O‘Farrell, renowned author of The Marriage Plot and Hamnet, is a sweeping novel set in 1865 in an Ireland recently ravaged by “The Great Hunger.” A surveyor and his son set out against impossible odds to map the entire country and encounter rebellion, buried treasure, a persistent ghost, and more. Hardcover releases June 2nd.
Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See, inspired by the author’s own family history, follows three Chinese women on their journey from rural China to Los Angeles, a violent outpost in the late 19th century. They face unspeakable hardship and discrimination, yet survive in this unforgettable saga of friendship, endurance, and the ability to "eat bitterness." Hardcover releases June 9th.
A Tender Age by acclaimed author Chang-rae Lee is a coming-of-age novel that explores family dynamics as seen through the confused eyes of a child of immigrants, Korean-American Jeon-Gi. In this emotionally wrought return to literary fiction, Lee chronicles a staggering series of events reverberating far beyond the young protagonist and his family. Hardcover releases August 11th.
The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of the beloved bestseller Mexican Gothic, is set in 1940’s Mexico where a con artist targets lonely women. With an atmosphere described as “sizzling noir” (think Raymond Chandler), the story is one of danger and greed as the con artist meets his match. Hardcover releases July 14th.
Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty is her first-ever sequel, examining the complexities of modern women’s lives, shining light on shame and family secrets with wit and compassion. Whether you’ve read Big Little Lies or not, this is the perfect novel for longtime fans and new readers alike. Hardcover releases August 25th.
The Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead captures the electricity of 1980’s New York from Harlem to the East Village, replete with a heist, a criminal mastermind, and vintage Whitehead characters. This stylistic tale, which completes Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy, explores the underbelly of New York through the eyes of one of America's greatest storytellers. Hardcover releases on July 21st.