Summer Reading List - 2026

The Not-So-Basic Reading List

Since graduating from college, I've found myself craving something I never thought I'd miss: routine. 

Homework after a long day. A weekly quiz. Even a summer reading list. I know it is kind of weird. But I know I am not the only one. 

None of these things were particularly fun at the time, but as the saying goes, you never know what you'll miss until it's gone.

Every summer, it feels like everyone suddenly joins a book club or starts one with themselves. 

The best ones all have one thing in common: good taste.

 And let's be honest—that's becoming increasingly difficult to find.

Between BookTok recommendations, celebrity book clubs, and your friend who picked up a young adult novel and insists it completely changed her life, it can be hard to separate what's popular from what's actually worth reading.

This summer, I'm attempting to do exactly that.

Now, before I start handing out recommendations, I should probably explain why you're trusting me with your precious beach-bag real estate.

First, I'm following the same summer schedule as most of you. I'm working, seeing friends, going to concerts, spending weekends on boats, and somehow trying to convince myself I have my life together. The number one excuse people give for not reading is that they don't have time.

I don't buy it.

If you have time to scroll through social media, watch reality TV, or read this article, you have time to read a few pages a day. Books don't require a three-hour commitment. They require consistency.

Second, I'm an author. I have an undergraduate degree in English. No, this doesn't make me Shakespeare. It does, however, give me slightly more credibility than the average business student who has read one Colleen Hoover novel and suddenly became a literary critic.

So consider this your summer reading list—curated with equal parts literary appreciation, entertainment value, and a healthy amount of judgment.

Here it is: Curated taste made a list

You Want to Spend Your Night Partying: 

Read before the function, after the function, or while recovering from the function.

• Cleopatra and Frankenstein — Coco Mellors 

• Valley of the Dolls — Jacqueline Susann

• City of Girls — Elizabeth Gilbert

If You're Really "Busy" This Summer:

Books for people who keep saying they don't have time to read.

• Assembly — Natasha Brown 

• The five people you meet in heaven — Mitch Albom

• The White Album — Joan Didion 

When You're By the Water:

For when you're tanning but still want people to know you have thoughts.

• We were liars  — E. Lockhart

• Blue Sisters  — Coco Mellors 

• The Pisces  — Melissa Bruder 

For the Girl Trying to Become Her Pinterest Board:

Linen pants, lemon water, and a personality assembled from saved pins.

• Maybe in Another Life — Taylor Jenkins Reid 

• Outliers  — Malcolm Gladwell 

• The defining Decade  — Meg Jay, PHD

When You Want to Seem Smart and Act Performative:

(But maybe actually learn something.)

• The Guest — Emma Cline 

• Beloved  — Toni Morrison

Looking for a summer fling? 

Whether it’s working for you or not? 

• Just Kids  —  Patti Smith 

• Writers & Lovers  — Lily King 

• Everything I know about love  — Dolly Alderton 

If You're in an "I Hate Men" Summer:

Self-explanatory.

• Acts of Desperation — Megan Nolan 

• Strangers — Belle Burden 

• The woman destroyed — Simone De Beauvoir 

Hope this helps!