The 2026 Summer Reading Guide

100+ summer book recommendations for every trip, trope, mood, heat wave, spiral, etc.

Hi book lovers,

Vol. 2 of the Summer Reading Guide is here, and it’s bigger and hotter than last year.

Last year I wrote this guide fully pregnant in my third trimester. This year, while I have less time and am possibly equally exhausted in a completely different way, I do have a glass of wine in hand, which I maintain makes all the difference.

The proof is in the numbers. This year’s guide clocks in at more than 100 book recommendations across eight sections, which is considerably more than last year and entirely the wine’s fault.

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In this edition you’ll find:

By the Water for coastal and lake fiction with settings good enough to make you homesick for a place you’ve never been.

Messy in the Hamptons for wealth, secrets, and people behaving badly.

Hot, Humid & Psycho for psychological thrillers and twisted fiction when you want to feel genuinely unsettled.

Wet & Wild for steamy romances and books you’ll finish in one sitting.

Crazy, Stupid, Love for love stories worth losing sleep over, though a happily-ever-after is not always guaranteed.

Summer in Time for when you want to spend summer not only in a different place but in a different era. The books span the 1930s through the 2000s, and no, I am still not over the fact that the ‘90s count as historical fiction.

Read It First is your prep list for the biggest adaptations out now and hitting screens this summer.

And finally, the Book Bucket List is for anyone who’s ever thought, “I wish I had a book recommendation for this exact activity.”

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Below you’ll find:

• The flippable magazine, which remains my favorite way to consume the guide.

• A downloadable PDF if you’d like to print it out and circle books like it’s a 1990s holiday catalog. I will admit the text is easier to read in the PDF, but I am a sucker for the magazine page swoosh.

• The bones of the guide: every book and Goodreads link organized by mood (as featured in the magazine), by genre (you traditionalist, you), and by release date so you can get your holds and preorders in ASAP.

• My personal summer TBR.

  The Summer Stack

Keep the pages turning,