Our Culture’s Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2026

Every season when I begin this roundup column of new books I’m looking forward to, I find a way to say this is the perfect weather for reading—well, books are best when it’s cold out in the winter, or maybe a little cold in the fall, or maybe when it’s lightening up, in the spring. But I do think—and maybe I’ll change my tune in August, when it’s time to prepare the fall list—that summer is superior, and lazy weekends on porches or parks when the sun doesn’t set until after 8 are the best to pick up a new read. We have 32 here to choose from—from activist memoirs to fiction about Gertrude Stein to anti-government narratives. Let us know which you decide to pick up!