Summer Reading List 2026
Every summer, we put this list together with the same care and genuine enthusiasm. We read widely, argue gently among ourselves, and eventually agree: these are the books we'd take to a lake house, a porch, or anywhere the hours slow down. Here is the 2026 edition.
New From the Hidden Shelf This Year
- Once We Forget by Elise Geither — As her mother slips into dementia, Rose keeps circling a memory she cannot place: a girl with golden hair named Lily. Atmospheric, tender, and built for a book club argument.
- Beauty in His Time by Candace Leon — A memoir that crosses Jamaica, North America, Italy and India, asking the whole way where home actually is. Good company if your summer involves airports.
- Back to One: Take 5 Hero Shot by Antonia Gavrihel — The fifth in the Back to One series. Glamour, tabloids, and a family with rather too much to lose. The kind of book that disappears an entire afternoon.
From the Hidden Shelf Catalog
- The Murrasons' Barn — Set against the violent, charged landscape of Bleeding Kansas in 1858, this historical novel is as gripping as any thriller and as morally serious as the era demands.
- Paint It Noir — A stylish, atmospheric work of fiction that moves in shadows and reveals character through what people don't say. Pleasurably unsettling.
- Deep Cries Out — A novel that reaches down to where language fails and finds something true anyway. One of those rare books that changes how you see things.
- Canadian Contraband — Propulsive, surprising, and full of turns. A novel that earns every one of its revelations and sends you back to the beginning when it's done.
- Not Enough — Quiet in the best sense. A book about longing, about falling short, and about the grace that sometimes arrives anyway.
Also Worth Your Summer
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey — A Booker Prize-winning novel set aboard the International Space Station over twenty-four hours. Meditative, gorgeous, and unlike anything else.
- Intermezzo by Sally Rooney — Two brothers, a loss, and the complicated loves that follow in its wake. Rooney at her most assured and mature.
- The God of the Woods by Liz Moore — A gripping mystery set in the Adirondacks, layered with secrets about family, class, and what we hide from ourselves.
- All Fours by Miranda July — Strange, funny, and profoundly honest about what women want and what culture refuses to give them. A book for this exact moment.
We hope one of these finds you at exactly the right time. The right book and the right summer afternoon can change the way you see everything. Shop the full Hidden Shelf catalog and find more titles worth saving for the season.
This is part of our Summer Reading List series. See all editions →