The 2026 All Things Summer Reading Guide
A guide to literary but readable books for your summer
A quick programming note before we dive in: I’m heading to Scotland this weekend for a couple of weeks and planning to spend time offline while I’m away. I’m excited to come back in June with some fresh reading lists, postcards, and a new season of Literary Leanings.
Every year, putting together this summer reading guide marks the unofficial beginning of summer for me.
Not because summer suddenly arrives all at once here in Maine (it absolutely does not), but because this is usually the point in the year when I start curating the stack of books I want to pull from for the next few months as reading takes up a little more space in my life.
So I’m very happy to share this year’s All Things Summer Reading Guide with you! The guide includes 40+ recommendations across a range of moods and categories, along with a few bookish extras designed to help you build a summer around good books. Some recommendations lean more literary, others make perfect beach reads for long afternoons.
But more than anything, I wanted this guide to feel like an invitation back into reading for pleasure. Not reading to keep up. Not reading because the algorithm keeps showing you the same five books. Just reading because a story pulls you in.
There are so many summer reading lists floating around this time of year, which I admittedly love, but it can feel a little overwhelming. Part of what I wanted this guide to be was a thoughtful sift through the noise: a collection of books I genuinely think are worth your time this summer.
My reading taste almost always lands in the same place: literary leaning but deeply readable. I love beautiful writing and emotional depth, but I also want a novel to feel immersive, compelling, and difficult to put down (or more compelling than picking up my phone).
Inside this year’s guide, you’ll find:
atmospheric books set by the sea
emotionally messy relationship stories
strange and compelling literary fiction
darkly funny books
immersive family dramas
books for long, hot afternoons
and a few under-the-radar novels for slow days
I also spent the last few weeks designing this year’s guide with a more editorial feel. My hope is that it feels more like a literary magazine you’d tuck in your bag than a generic list of books.
I hope you find at least one book (or more!) in these pages that makes you excited to visit your local bookstore or library.
The full guide is available below for paid subscribers.
Thank you, as always, for being here.
Michelle
Click the Download button below to get your copy of the 2026 All Things Summer Reading Guide. I hope something in here finds its way into your tote bag (or your library holds list).
Your subscription also includes access to past summer reading guides and the Literary Leanings archive. If you’re in the mood to keep browsing, I’ve also linked a few favorite summer reading posts from the archive below.