5 Books You Won’t Want to Put Down This Summer

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What makes an excellent summer read? Is it a description of a stunningly beautiful place where you wish you could sunbathe? Is it a page-turner that has you on the edge of your seat? Or is it a story you can easily dive into between your adventures?

If your answer is “yes” to any of the above, I recommend adding these five new and upcoming books to your summer reading list.

‘Yesteryear’

By Caro Claire Burke
Released: April 7, 2026

Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel Yesteryear is undoubtedly one of the most talked-about books of the season. Already set for a movie adaptation starring Anne Hathaway, the novel is a direct response to today’s “tradwife” social media influencers: people like Nara Smith, who you might recognize from her bizarre recipe videos where she makes cereal, toothpaste or bubblegum from scratch, all while dressed to the nines.

Yesteryear is the story of a similar influencer with a seemingly perfect life on camera. She has six children and a wealthy husband with a hefty inheritance from his family of U.S. senators, plus two nannies and a video producer on her payroll that make her image possible. So when Natalie wakes up one day to find herself in a house from 1855 — stuck with the amenities of that era, whose aesthetic she publicly idealizes — her instinct is to find a way back to her charming 21st-century farmhouse in Idaho. Deeply funny and thought-provoking at the same time, this book beckons to be devoured in one sitting.

‘Villa Coco’

By Andrew Sean Greer
Expected Release: June 9, 2026

Andrew Sean Greer might be splitting his time between San Francisco and Venice, but his writing will always remain quintessentially San Franciscan to me. After his Pulitzer-winning Less and its marginally less-lauded sequel Less Is Lost, Greer’s new novel Villa Coco conceives another flawed yet loveable gay protagonist navigating his career (this time, as a budding archivist) and romance. He’s entangled with a married man, and he helps the 92-year-old Baronessa Coco on a mission to locate the love of her life and reunite before it’s too late. It has everything I look for in a summer read. After all, if I can’t vacation in the Italian countryside, I might as well read something that can transform my living room into a European estate.

‘Big Little Truths’

By Liane Moriarty
Expected Release: August 25, 2026

“In the coastal town of Monterey, a homicide investigation reveals a fractured community behind the beautiful homes and pearl-white fake smiles.” When Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon joined forces to adapt Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies for TV, that’s the story they decided to tell — even though the original novel took place in Sydney, Australia. Her long-awaited sequel will provide direction for the HBO show’s third season, presumably starring Kidman and Witherspoon alongside series regulars Laura Dern and Zoë Kravitz. You have just over three months to inhale the first book, breeze through the show, and maybe even take a road trip to visit some of the filming locations around Monterey and Big Sur before Big Little Truths lands on shelves this summer.

‘Girl’s Girl’

By Sonia Feldman
Expected Release: June 2, 2026

Titling your book Girl’s Girl is catnip to me, because I have conflicting thoughts about the very concept of a girl’s girl, and I love talking to other women about it. Sonia Feldman’s debut, then, is a perfect candidate for a summer book club meeting. In this sapphic coming-of-age novel, three best friends in a suburban Midwestern town have to contend with a seismic shift in their relationship after an unexpected kiss of teenage desire. Modern yet nostalgic, this is a story that will have you reminiscing and thinking critically about girlhood, gossip, group dynamics and intimacy.

‘Good Woman: A Reckoning’

By Savala Nolan
Released: March 3, 2026

If a subtle discussion of girlhood isn’t your style, perhaps a more direct approach in UC Berkeley scholar and Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice director Savala Nolan’s new essay collection could be what you’re looking for. Part memoir, part history, the essays featured in Good Woman explore the benefits — or lack thereof — of playing by the rules of the patriarchy. Nolan reckons with the harsh reality that her efforts to always be agreeable and make herself smaller, as women are taught from birth, have not resulted in the protections promised by the purveyors of patriarchy. Pick this up if you enjoy authors that make hard conversations easier to digest.