What We’re Reading: Summer 2026 Edition

Rebecca Wilkie 

I loved reading Maria Semple’s latest novel Go Gentle and have been recommending it to all my friends. It’s the story of a stoic philosopher (and former comedy writer), Adora Hazzard, living a happily single life in her New York apartment, supported by a ‘coven’ of other single women. It’s packed full of humour, warmth and emotional depth and is much more than the screwball love story you think it’s going to be at the start.  

I love Lizzy Stewart’s graphic novels and am saving her latest, The Wreck, for my holiday this year. This one is about two old university friends who, along with their partners, decide to try communal living in a rambling country house. What could possibly go wrong? Lizzy Stewart has a knack for making her characters and their relationships utterly believable and her illustrations are a visual delight. 

I’ve just finished a proof of Charlotte Vassell’s A Fatal Legacy, the most recent instalment in her crime series featuring DI Caius Beauchamp. This series is quirky, character-driven, fun: part whodunnit and part love story, Vassell writes with a lightness of touch and sharp humour. I find her books perfect escapist holiday reads and A Fatal Legacy is no exception. 

Fran Harvey 

I’m really enjoying Dissection of a Murder by debut author and ex-barrister Jo Murray, which I’ve picked up ahead of her event at a local-to-me literary festival this month. A husband and wife end up on opposite legal teams of a murder case – it’s twisty and brilliant and I can’t begin to predict what’s going to happen next. 

After that, I’m spending the summer on my to-be-read pile(s). I did a clear-out recently and put all the books I have that I’ve not got round to reading at the front of my bookshelves. I’m a bit ashamed of how many there are, but also looking forward to getting through them, starting with Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann.

Carys Vickers 

I bought Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson for my brother-in-law back in 2015, having never read it myself. He and my siblings got obsessed with everything Sanderson – and all this time I’ve been too intimidated to jump in. But no more. It’s the summer of Mistborn! It’s a basic rite of passage for fantasy lovers that I’m long overdue embarking on. 

In the grips of a major fascination with space, I’m also trying to choose between some modern classics of hard sci-fi: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, and Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. But when I’m finally ready to come back down to earth, Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is waiting for me – a man on a bus recently urged me to read it, and I must respect the providence of chance encounters. 

Caitrin Innis 

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid is coming with me on holiday in July.  

This book was recommended to me by my colleague Helena, who has brilliant taste and a real gift for recommending books which fit into my very narrow criteria. These days, I do most of my reading right before bed, so I’m trying to steer away from anything too sad or existential. A love story set against the backdrop of NASA in the 1980s sounds perfect! 

Science-fiction fan Carys’s one critique of this novel was that it was a little bit light on the aeronautics and astronomy, which made me want to read it even more. I’m just here for a good love story and maximum 1980s nostalgia. 

Susanna McGuinness 

When we had that burst of early summer weather in May, I spent an afternoon in the park with Lizzy Stewart’s The Wreck. I loved the balance of prose and illustration in this graphic novel, both are completely gorgeous and it felt like getting to use a different, more visual, bit of my brain after lots of academic reading for my PhD. 

I’m now waiting on my shot of a friend’s copy of John of John – I was so moved by Douglas Stuart’s event with us at Tyneside Cinema. If I can’t physically teleport to a white sand Hebridean beach this summer, I need to at least read about some! 

Alison Scurfield 

My favourite read so far this summer has been Jane Flett’s Freakslaw. When a travelling funfair descends on a small Scottish town overnight, the townspeople are riled by the depravity of its outcasts, its outlaws, its freaks. But soon they are lured in by the debauchery and hedonism of the Freakslaw. 

Written in vignettes, Freakslaw is a heady, visceral tale of difference, found family and revenge. It has such a vibrant cast of characters and is steeped in folk horror – I’d love to see this book adapted for screen! 

If you’re a fan of an audiobook, I also really recommend listening to this one – narrator Abigail Lawrie brings this macabre world to life with total magic. And if you’re visiting the fair this summer, be sure to keep your wits about you! 

Jill Read 

I immediately fell for Janina Duszejko, the animal-loving, William Blake-translating, astrologer at the heart of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated into English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Set in a remote Polish village, as the murders of some men in the village rack up, Janina has her own theories as to who’s behind it all. The writing is glorious and it’s a pacy, page-turning whodunnit with a richly drawn cast of characters, including Oddball, Dizzy, and Father Rustle, all named by our heroine (alternative naming being just one of her endearing idiosyncrasies). Dismissed as a batty old woman, Janina’s view of the world is the most compassionate and sanest take I have read for a long time. 

Claire Malcolm 

This summer the solace of art is calling to me. I’m looking forward to seeing the Gwen John exhibition Strange Beauties in Edinburgh over the summer so have just bought Judith Mackrell’s Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The lives and loves of Gwen and Augustus John. Continuing in the vein of the history of art I’ll also be reading The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessell, a fantastic overview of an alternative history. But of course, fiction is the ultimate summer kick-back comfort and I’ve got a merry pile of TBR’s ready to indulge in including Go Gentle by Maria Semple (joy!), Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller (true-crime needs, tick!) and No Such Thing as Monday by Sian Hughes (cracking working-class writing). I’m also looking forward to tucking Robert Colls’s tiny book about George Orwell into my pocket for a reminder of just how readable and influential he still is. 

Will Mackie 

I’m looking forward to reading The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley, a unique writer whose sentences can leave me awestruck. I’ve loved all her previous books with their unforgettable characters and dark humour, all written in such captivating and clear-eyed prose. This one feels like an ideal book for my summer holiday in Fife, when I’ll be walking in the forest and hopefully enjoying encounters with equally enigmatic red squirrels. 

I’d also like to recommend Kit Fan’s novel Goodbye Chinatown, which I’ve recently enjoyed. I loved this novel about Amber Fan, a young chef starting out with her own restaurant in London’s Chinatown in the years following Hong Kong’s return to China. It’s a gorgeous and immersive story of food, family and belonging that takes place under a shadow that remains strongly felt today. 

Sarah France

I would highly recommend Louise Powell’s Underdogs, which is coming out this July. Louise has crafted a stunning and beautifully written exploration of the world of North East flapping: gorgeous prose and characters that linger with you long after the final page. I’m very much looking forward to the launch event next month.

If you like a bit of an eery read over the summer as I do, I’d recommend Will Maclean’s Solace House: set in the summer of 1993, it follows student Alex Lane as he works a summer job clearing the labyrinthine contents of a derelict Victorian mansion. Incredibly unsettling and twisty, with hints of House of Leaves, Piranesi, and The Haunting of Hill House.

I’ve got a lot on my summer TBR, but at the top of my list is Tom Newlands’ Something Like Happiness (coming August 2026), which follows high school sweethearts Frazer and Caitlin as they grapple with adulthood, parenthood, and relationships. Tom is so good at creating fabulously compelling and complex characters, so I can’t wait to get to this!

Helena Davidson

I’ve had some excellent reads recently, having read Douglas Stuart’s beautiful new book John of John which carried me to the windswept Isle of Harris, with its tartan of colours speckling the landscape. I adored the way Douglas writes about this very small community from the perspective of Cal, a young, gay, art-school graduate forced to return to his aging-but-still-sharp grandmother Ella, and his strict Presbyterian father, John. The prose is so sweeping and epic, while honing in on such minute details that completely immerse you in island life.  

Another book I’ve just finished was Sophie Irwin’s A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting which was so witty and intelligent. It’s perfect for Bridgerton fans who like a really tight narrative with strong-willed characters who actually discuss the restrictions of social class and gender and hold their morals close. It’s also full of self-sacrificing sisterhood and delicious longing-glances between the romantic leads. 

Next on my TBR list is Anna Goldreich’s new novel, The Leveret, about a queer couple moving to the countryside to grieve the miscarriage of their baby, finding a leveret (a baby hare) who at first gives them some comfort, but in the end turns out not to be the refuge from grief they need. 

I’m also desperate to read Tom Newlands’ new novel Something Like Happiness after I was blown away by his debut, Only Here, Only Now. Tom was on our A Writing Chance programme a few years ago and it’s been amazing to watch his progression. I’ll read anything he writes.