Get ready for a reading retreat

[00:00:00] GINGER HORTON: I was telling Anne before we started this call that I had gone through as I proofread and noted the 15 books that I want to read for the summer based on my own reading intentions.

ANNE BOGEL: 15 for 15.

GINGER: 15 for 15. I did not do that on purpose, but you know I love when that happens.

ANNE: Hey readers, I'm Anne Bogel, and this is What Should I Read Next?. Welcome to the show that's dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader, what should I read next? We don't get bossy on this show. What we will do here is give you the information you need to choose your next read.

[00:00:44] This week we're giving you the information you need to find out about a whole lot of reads. We are sharing the excitement of our upcoming Summer Reading Guide — that will be our 15th edition — releasing this Thursday, May 14th. I am joined today by the absolutely perfect guest for this episode, if I do say so myself. That is our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club community manager, Ginger Horton, and we can't wait to tell you more.

If you are already a member of our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club or our What Should I Read Next? Patreon communities or you purchased your à la carte ticket, you are all set to get the guide on Thursday and attend Thursday's unboxing events at either 1:00 PM or 8:00 PM if you'd like to join us live. Those times are Eastern, New York City time.

[00:01:29] We are holding two book parties, and we call them book parties not because they're parties in the traditional sense. They're, you know, informative literary events, but we call them parties because they are so much fun. But there are two events happening live, so you can choose the one that suits you best, or some readers join us for both. And if neither time works for you, never fear. We have the recording for you available beginning very late in the day on May 14th, but any time thereafter, you have instant access.

Summer Reading Guide veterans make a big deal of unboxing for good reason. You'll hear Ginger and I talk more about that today. Readers do things like take the day off work, gather with friends, or plan whole weekend getaways to different cities because of unboxing and the Summer Reading Guide.

[00:02:19] With this year's theme of reading retreat, you could even create your own special day to watch the event, peruse your guide, and plan your to-be-read list. If you've never been to one of our unboxings before, here's what to expect.

I go through all the titles in the guide one by one, sharing more about why I chose each title, what the reading experience is like, and what kind of reader may most enjoy each book. I get to share more than I can say in print and answer your questions about tone, theme, content, comps, and more.

There's still time to purchase your à la carte ticket, and we do recommend not waiting until the last minute, although you could, but less stress is good for your reading life. Ticket holders get a copy of the beautiful digital guide in PDF form and are invited, if they so choose, to attend our live unboxings. Find out all the details you need to know at modernmrsdarcy.com/srg, that's for Summer Reading Guide. Modernmrsdarcy.com/srg.

[00:03:18] Readers, today I am delighted to welcome our book club community manager, Ginger Horton, to the show to talk about our Summer Reading Guide. If Ginger's name sounds familiar, well, lucky you. You may recognize her from our recent episode where she helped to recommend titles to Cheryl Drury, or because you're an MMD book clubber, a listener in our Patreon community, or just like to hang out in these parts.

Ginger's been on the podcast a time or, I don't know, six since you first made your debut a few years back, Ginger, and we couldn't believe you hadn't been on till then. But today, Ginger's here, and we're going to dive into all things summer reading.

And I love having you on the show today, Ginger, because I feel like you're the perfect bridge between what I'm holding in my brain for the 2026 Summer Reading Guide that has been, in one sense, in the works for many years. When like authors I know and love first mention, like, "Oh, in a few years I'm going to have a book come out about X," and I've thought, "Oh, I'm going to put that in a spreadsheet somewhere to remind me in four years that book is coming, because I want to read it, and maybe it's going to be great for the Summer Reading Guide."

[00:04:26] So I've been thinking like way long-term and have put this thing together piece by piece. But you have been collaborating on the guide for many years now, and were an integral part about deciding not just what our specific vision for 2026 would be with the reading retreat theme, but also really helping me think through how to present those ideas.

And we're going to get into that in detail. But Ginger, in one sense, you're a creator, but in another sense, you're a co-discoverer with readers because it's just been like hours since you saw the first draft of this year's Summer Reading Guide. So thank you for being the perfect guest and coming to What Should I Read Next? today. Welcome.

GINGER: I love this time of year. Anne, I'm so glad to be back in this space because I do... I have a complicated relationship with summer reading. But I love summer. We might get into that. I love summer.

ANNE: No, we're going to get into it right now. So, for those who don't know, tell us more.

[00:05:21] GINGER: Okay. Well, sometimes, not the last couple of years, but sometimes I have had a real dip in my reading life in the summer, and I have theories about why that happens. But the Summer Reading Guide is a resource that I start using in May, but sometimes it takes a long time for me to enjoy all of it because I make my way piece by piece through the year sometimes.

And so, yeah, I love holding out as long as I can. And as our team has grown, that has been available to me. I hold out as long as I can and kind of look at the guide as late as possible in the process, partly because my eyes are fresher to catch any typos or whatever, but partly because I love the delight and the discovery of to see what you have read, what ends up on the guide, hearing you, like you mentioned, four years coming, one year coming, this book is finally coming out, we have a release date, and now hearing why I might want to read it.

[00:06:13] ANNE: Well, I'm glad to hear it. There are 35 books in this year's guide once again, and they are broken down in two categories. We have things like historical happenings, literary and contemporary fiction that this year we've done something fun with. It's on a spectrum from serious and earnest all the way over to playful and quirky.

We have books that are about messy, messy relationships. And yes, that word is repeated, and I do mean messy in the best sense when it comes to fiction. We have a category for magical and strange. We have seaside stories, if I didn't already say that, mystery and suspense, memoir and nonfiction. There is good stuff in this year's guide.

So we want to create a guide that is compact and has lots of options, but not so many, not the thousands of titles coming out this summer or hundreds that are on my, like, I could consider this for the guide reading list, but really whittle it down to some likely to bring you reading joy this summer all in one little package. And we have fun features as well. We'll talk about that more in today's episode.

[00:07:17] But my friend, Nikki, shout-out Nikki, gave me the gift of describing back to me what the guide was to so many readers. She said, reading time is precious. Like, we all have... I mean, some of you tell us about how much you're enjoying the switch between retiring from a full-time job and becoming a retiree and having so much more reading time that it still feels abundant to you if that transition is new. But the vast majority of us feel like so many books, so little time is a serious dilemma, and the thing that really stands between us and the reading life we wish we could have.

And my friend was telling me how the guide every year is just such a gateway to reliable reading joy because if you're going to take your precious reading time and spend it metaphorically on only a handful of books, you want to make sure those books bring you a memorable experience.

[00:08:10] And having someone hold your hand as you make those choices can feel really, really good. And that's what we've done every year in the guide for... this will be our 15th edition. If you told me back in 2012, "This is the first of 15 and counting," I mean, I think it would've exploded my little readerly head. But here we are.

And every year since the second year, I have read every book in the guide cover to cover, and the reason that is, is the first year, I remember highlighting some new releases that I was really excited about, that I was really looking forward to spending my reading time on. And about half of them, I not only was disappointed, but was kinda angry that my precious reading time had been spent in that way, and I resolved then, like, I... In this context for the Summer Reading Guide, you know, guidance implied, I'm only going to talk about the books that I have read and can vouch for.

[00:09:09] And just because I've read a book does not mean you will love it as well. But in the guide, in that unboxing I try to be real specific about what my reading experience was like, not to tell you what yours will be like or that you should want that experience, but to help you wrap your head around, is this... I mean, is this a train I want to get on this summer? If I only have so much reading time at my disposal, how do I want to use it, and do I want this book to be in the mix?

And if you have questions, like, people will say things like, "Well, you know, I'm not feeling really sweary this summer. Can you guide me in that direction?" Or, "I need a book that's going to leave me in a hopeful space, and I'm thinking about X title. Is it a good fit?" I can answer those questions because I've read them all. Ginger, what would you add to that?

[00:09:54] GINGER: I think that we are all in a place that we could not have collectively seen 15 years ago, and that is, I feel this, that the marketing dollars are working harder than ever. I know that there is, I guess, lore in the publishing world that they don't quite know what's happening and what to do. But I can tell you, I feel the impacts of it because I see the same books, I see the big book list, everything that's getting published, and that does not mean that those books are right for me.

I love the publishing industry. I'm so glad they're marketing books. I am cheering any books that anybody wants to put in front of me. But that doesn't mean that's a book I want to read just because it's in front of me. And so, yeah, I think that having a trusted, guided source is so important.

When I walk into my independent bookstore, I know which of the staff members write those little cards that I am going to seek out, and I know which ones, God bless them, they're doing great work there, but I do not want to read the books that they suggest.

ANNE: Not your book twin?

[00:10:48] GINGER: They're not my book twin. That's such a helpful thing to know, actually. And like you said, sometimes that's even specific to the year. It doesn't mean that that's forever a no for me, but that can be tailored to my reading summer. Summer reading is precious time, like you said.

ANNE: We hear that. Also something that's unique about our guide is since 2019, shout out to Katie who designed our first one, we've done a beautiful user-friendly magazine style that you can print the whole thing if you want. You can mark it up. But it's just a really fun way to engage with something that a lot of people really enjoy and look forward to every year. And that is their summer reading... oh, what's a word that I can use that's not curriculum? Because that sounds a little too much like school.

[00:11:34] To some of us, anything that hints of school, like you want homework. You wish we'd make worksheets for your summer reading. But for others of you, you want nothing that smacks of that. But as you're imagining what literary joys could await you this summer, the magazine style can be a really fun way to dip in.

And since 2020... I mean, we've had loose themes for a while. Boot camp in 2024 was the first year where we leaned hard into a theme. Last year's was road trip. This year's is reading retreat. And we thought that would be such a lovely theme for right now. Ginger, you want to say more?

GINGER: It does. It feels like a sigh of relief. I love just the exhale that a reading retreat is, whether that is a literal one, as Anne mentioned. Some people build the start of their summer around the Summer Reading Guide, taking days off, booking an Airbnb, traveling to a location. But I think even if it's just figurative. I remember two summers ago, we had a specific Genius Moves class that was all about summer Genius Moves, and one reader said that she has this hour of the day that she opens up the front door, she has a screen on it, and she pretends she's reading on like a screened-in porch because, "No bugs, all books," was what she said.

ANNE: No bugs, all books.

[00:12:55] GINGER: Give me 20 minutes. That somehow you are creating this space for your reading life. And we keep hearing that recently from readers that, again, the publishing landscape is overwhelming in the best possible way. We love that big book party, but what we also want is just space to slow down, to savor.

Man, I think about all those summers when you were a kid, speaking of homework, where you would prop your feet up, you'd turn on the ceiling fan, maybe just me, I lived in the American South, and you just like had this long, expansive time to read. And that is the vibe I'm going for this summer.

ANNE: Oh, and you know, you may hear us say words like peace and calm, but I want you to know that is adamantly not code for boring. We are talking about a really energetic kind of entry into a space that you couldn't be happier to be in. But that is anti-frantic, not frenetic in any way, no FOMO allowed. What we're looking for is to cultivate vibes that feel really warm and supportive and enthusiastic and abundant.

[00:14:05] Our desire with our reading retreat Summer Reading Guide magazine is to come alongside you and help you discover good books that let you escape into... peaceful, new world? No. But that you would seep into interesting new worlds that you want to be in, and also enrich your life in meaningful ways. We are a bit nerds. You are going to go places and learn things with the books in this year's Summer Reading Guide, but on your terms. And you can choose how nerdy or escapist you wish to be.

And it's Modern Mrs Darcy, What Should I Read Next?. We believe in nerdy escapism, but we just really want to help you craft a season full of abundance, ease, and joy, whatever it is that you want in your summer, and also one that puts a heaping helping of potential four and five-star books on your readerly horizons. That's been a goal for years now.

[00:14:57] We just recently did a survey in these parts, and I wasn't really expecting the biggest shot of readerly joy for readers to be to read a book that I would give four or five stars to. The other thing most likely to give readers a big shot of readerly joy was finding out an author they love has a new book coming out. I'm certain some of those are in the guide among these 35 books.

Some of them you may already know. Like, "Oh, I've been looking forward to that author's new books." But I think some of them will be surprises, just because it's hard to know about everything happening in publishing world.

And also, we have a feature like we have in several years past that's books from authors you know and love that includes titles coming out between May and August from authors that you may already have read previous books in their series, or that you may have already read previous books by them, and we want you to know they're coming even if they're not specifically featured as one of the 35 titles in the guide.

[00:15:55] GINGER: Like Anne mentioned, anti-boring is absolutely what we're after. But there is nothing boring about sinking into that comfortable reading chair or comfortable reading spot, and then your heart beating out your chest because you cannot stop turning the page. So, absolutely, comfort can mean multiple things, but there is no more comfortable place for me to be.

I was telling Anne before we started this call that I had gone through as I proofread and noted the 15 books that I want to read for the summer based on my own reading intentions.

ANNE: 15 for 15.

GINGER: 15 for 15. I did not do that on purpose, but you know I love when that happens. And a good many of those, though, are the heart-pounding ones, or what I expect, yeah, kind of the page-turner ones. There might be some juicy, funny... A lot of these titles are really not at all like boring, pastoral vibes. They are absolutely, I'm going to power through those in two days straight.

[00:16:51] ANNE: Mm-hmm. There's definitely a purposeful mix of the heavy and the light, the long and the short. Lots of different vibes and settings this year, which we always try to do, but I don't know, life is hard. Good books help. I want to be sure I'm putting books for a wide variety of readerly experiences on your readerly horizons.

And for the reading retreat, I really wanted to communicate a vibe that was easy, but also really, really inviting, and that could help you imagine yourself taking place in a retreat that was either solo or communal. And bringing that to life with imagery was really fun.

I mean, I talked in a recent newsletter about how I really enjoy going to Trader Joe's and buying all the snacks. You should've seen our family group chat. Everyone was so enthusiastic about the leftovers they were hopefully going to get to eat, which they did, and it was great.

[00:17:51] And I hired a local photographer, shout out Laura, who was amazing. Ginger, I love collaborating with our team on so much. I love that. I mean, it was so life-giving to work with someone. Laura got it. Thank you, Laura.

GINGER: I love that.

ANNE: We were just arranging our snacks and our journals and our books and our blankets and our snacks and more snacks and our drinks and everything. And I had a few fellow readers on hands to help conjure the communal scenes. It was so fun to think about what would be inspiring and idea giving for you all this summer. I'm really happy with the results.

[00:18:28] GINGER: We had a Pinterest board at one point, and I think it's pretty hard to top a Pinterest board. But I think the way the guide looks, man, I gotta tell you, I think it might be better than a Pinterest board.

ANNE: I will pass that on to Laura. That's high praise.

GINGER: Shout out to Laura.

ANNE: So we want you to know if you're like, "I'm not doing a reading retreat this summer," that's cool. Like, we did one in the pages. So you could have the fun of flipping through that experience without thinking... Like, no actual retreat required to find good books in the guide this summer.

But this is a milestone for us. I mean, we've said that it's... Ginger chose 15 books for 15 years. This is our 15th Summer Reading Guide, and this is our year of celebrations around here. You've heard us say that this year we're celebrating 10 years of Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club. We hit 10 years of the podcast in January. Let's see. This is 15 years of the blog as well.

[00:19:23] GINGER: I love an anniversary. That's so much fun to talk about. You can absolutely celebrate, you know, four years into something. Why not? But there's just really something nice about those 10 and 15-year numbers.

ANNE: Yeah. And we had fun with 15. There's an anniversary feature in this year's guide where I walked down memory lane and really did the hard work of finding the original Summer Reading Guides, which are purposely not just something you can click on Modern Mrs Darcy and access. But there's a feature that walks you through, many of the covers from past years, going back to the first edition. And I recommend backlist books through the years because we love a juicy new release. But we also love a book that you can get your hands on immediately at your public library because there's not a bonkers wait list for it.

[00:20:14] And because we know you'll like backlist picks so much, I mean, as do you and I, Ginger.

GINGER: Oh, yeah.

ANNE: Like, we get this. Every title in the guide has a handful of "for fans of" picks is what... They're FFO picks in my reading journal, that are titles that would be really nice flight picks that just play really nicely with the new title I'm recommending in the Summer Reading Guide.

Sometimes it's because of setting, like all the books take place on the Camino de Santiago, for example. Sometimes it's because of the genre, but it's a book that has a similar tone or emotional feel to the book I'm recommending. So that you can both get a sense in this like really shorthand fashion of what the new book is like, but also, you can do a "Hmm, if I enjoyed reading this one. What should I read next?" kind of thing with all these books. It's just another way to help you discover older titles you may enjoy.

[00:21:14] GINGER: I love those bonuses because they do feel like a sneaky way to get a couple more books. You could build a personal curriculum out from there. And also, it's such a great way to see, "Oh, I liked both of those books. This one's going on my TBR list."

ANNE: That's what it's designed for. Ginger, would you like to do the honors of telling everyone about our team feature for this year?

GINGER: Yes. I absolutely love this. I might have already let Genius Moves tumble off of my tongue, because this is the time of year where I think it really occurs to me to think in a very specific way about my reading life. I hope to be intentional throughout the year, but that way is to get some wins. And Genius Moves are those short little pithy ways that we win in our reading lives.

[00:22:01] This started actually back at an in-person reading retreat for book club a while back, and we asked all the attendees to bring one quick win, one genius move for their reading life. They were so varied, so much fun, and so helpful that we've kind of used that as shorthand for the rest of book club. So we'll have a class every so often with just these collection of genius moves.

And so we asked the team to contribute their best genius move. Those are so much fun to read, to get tips, to see those little tiny tweaks. You're not going to overhaul your reading life with a genius move, but you might make one tweak that allows you to get, oh, let's say 30 more minutes of reading time on your family vacation. Hint, hint, that's mine. A sneaky way that I do it. I love to see the variety and the creativity of readers especially, man, our team members really came through. So that's going to be such a fun feature.

[00:22:57] ANNE: I really enjoyed that tip personally. Personally. Because 30 more minutes of reading time, especially... I mean, I'm an introvert.

GINGER: Same.

ANNE: So the way you worked that idea into your genius move, I really appreciated it.

GINGER: Well, you'll have to open your guide. I wish I knew the page number. It would fall off my tongue, but open your guide to the page with genius moves and find out what that would be.

ANNE: Well, it's in the beautiful table of contents. Because this year's guide is so li- It's just so pretty. It continues our same aesthetic, but the design is a little bit different this year. It's us, but it's different. I think you'll really enjoy it, whether this is your first guide or your 15th.

Let's talk a little more about the books.

GINGER: Yes.

[00:23:43] ANNE: There are 35 this year in those categories we talked about, and I want you to know there will be a Minimalist Summer Reading Guide this year. It'll go on the blog on May 14th, and then our first Tuesday What Should I Read Next? episode after the Summer Reading Guide releases, that's on Tuesday, May 19th. That will be me unboxing the Minimalist Guide.

And when it occurred to me to do this little preview episode in this way, I thought, "Why on earth have we not done it this way before?" It makes so much sense. But Unboxing means I'll give you a little more color and flavor, and you'll be able to hear the tone of my voice, a little more nuance, a little extra information, versus the short little blurb that will be on the blog.

But we're going to tell you what three of those books are right now. We don't do it this way every summer, but this summer we happen to be reading three new 2026 releases that are all in the Summer Reading Guide in Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club, and we announced those to our book clubbers a few weeks back in the middle of April, and we're going to tell you about all of them today. Da da-da-da.

[00:24:46] GINGER: I am so excited about these three titles. First of all, I think each one of them could totally stand on its own. But also, I think it's pretty representative of the breadth of the guide. I love that we are reading something that I think would be immediately hospitable to almost any reader. Just like that beach read, that airport read. You could pull this off the shelf, take it down, and it's going to just go down easy. But there's also a lot to talk about.

There is a more juicy, literary, family drama that's very discussable and a little nerdier, kind of midsummer. And then we sort of end our summer on a really avant-garde pick. There's ghosts, there's some more drama. I think this is so representative of what we do. A lot of fun, a lot of discussability, a lot of discoverability. And so Anne, would you like to do the honors and tell us which three books I've been obscurely describing?

[00:25:43] ANNE: I'd be delighted. In June, we're reading a romance author that I believe is no stranger to the vast majority of you. I am quoting Wallace Stegner all the time in Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club. He has a fictional novelist in Crossing to Safety say, "Hard writing makes for easy reading." And ooh, this book goes down easy in the best sense.

Our author is Annabel Monaghan, joining us for a chat to talk about her new May release, Dolly All The Time, in late June. It's a seaside story with a big-hearted, fiercely loyal protagonist that so many of you are going to want to root for, who we're going to cheer on to see her get her happy ending. And that is all I'm going to say about that until unboxing. You can look it up, but that's all I'm going to say until unboxing. So that's June, Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan.

[00:26:37] In July, we're reading another book that I inhaled. My initial two-sentence review was, "What a juicy, delicious, lavish, atmospheric, messy-in-the-best-way love triangle of a book. My first from this author, but won't be my last." We are reading Sisters of a Halved Heart by Nayantara Roy. I just had very different expectations from Dolly All The Time. The tone and setting are totally different, but oh, I sucked this down so fast.

It's messy in the best way. It's in the messy, messy relationships category. Really interesting family drama that also has a wonderful supporting cast. I love the relationship between the female protagonist and her female best friend. There's a kid in the book who's perfect, brings out things in the other characters without feeling overdone or annoying.

[00:27:32] There's a literary mystery woven throughout, because the protagonist works at a literary magazine that has cachet, and there's a manuscript that is like knock-your-socks-off fantastic that appears unsolicited on our protagonist's desk because of her role at the magazine, and the question of who wrote it and why'd they send it to her permeates the whole book. And it does get resolved, and it's very satisfying.

Plus, Ginger, I told you, we both have mixed feelings about epilogues, but ooh-

GINGER: Oh, yeah.

ANNE: ...we're going to have a whole forum in book club about the epilogue for this book. I mean, I think I really liked it. I don't ever feel that way about epilogues, but I think I really liked it.

GINGER: I'm so nervous. But it's going to make for great discussion.

[00:28:21] ANNE: I'll tell you more about the specifics of this story at unboxing, but that's Sisters of a Halved Heart by Nayantara Roy, out in July.

And then August is our debut novel with those ghosts that Ginger was just talking about. This is The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders. It is a powerful, multi-generational family saga about inheritance, a family farm, and the meddlesome, gossipy, nose-in-your-business, opinionated, judgmental family ghosts that reside on the farm and have strong, strong opinions on the family members' lives as they're still buzzing around the property. It's hard to not keep going, because I just want to talk about all these books. But that's August, The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders. It's her first novel.

GINGER: I can't wait to talk about that one, too. I spent six years of my life in Memphis, and so I am so always happy to see Memphis on the page as well.

ANNE: Well, this fictional family farm is right down the road.

[00:29:26] GINGER: Love it. And like Anne said, this is the beginning of a bookish conversation, and so not only will we be talking more about those books in book club, but there will be bonus episodes in the Patreon space all summer long. And yeah, this is just the beginning of the chatter about the 35 books and more. You know, we'll continue to talk about books all summer long.

ANNE: Yes, we will. Ginger, you said you just went through the guide and marked down 15 titles you were especially interested in reading. I'm curious on just getting some commentary that's not spoilery, but was there anything in there you've already read, anything you previously knew about that you were really anticipating, anything you previously knew nothing about that especially piqued your interest? Readers want to know things.

GINGER: Yes. Yes. Okay, so the books that I am leaning towards seem to have like two or three themes going on. Number one, I have been in grad school this year, and I want to do two things for my reading life. I want to read those gentle, pastoral, soothing, but something you could put on a child's bookshelf in the Lake District in the pastoral times. I want to read gentle stuff, and I also want to read-

ANNE: That's very specific.

[00:30:36] GINGER: Well, it's so specific because there's a forum about personal curriculum in the book club, and people have been helping me put together my exact reading list. It involves Winnie-the-Pooh and The Secret Garden and things like that.

But I also want to read the buzziest of the buzziest. You said that people aren't feeling very sweary this year. Oh, I want controversy. I want drama. Bring on all of the sweary, art theft, juicy... That is exactly what I want. And several of the authors that are on the Summer Reading Guide I think are going to come through on that for me.

There are destinations that are places I want to go. There are authors that are always auto-buy authors for me. There is at least one author that I am a complete... No, two authors that I am a completist for, and one that I would love to be a completist for. So I want to go places, I want buzzy, I want controversy. And then, you know, I'll just top that off in the evenings with a gentle breeze and James Herriot kind of calling over the plains to me. So I think we can contain multitudes, but that is what I am hoping for for my summer reading life.

[00:31:44] ANNE: Ooh, I like your very specific vibes. Well, for years now, I've done a remix of the books in the back of the guide. I just want to put them in front of you in a different way than they're originally categorized so that if a book that was set in a category that's heavy on historical fiction didn't catch your eye, maybe if I describe it as a book that had music galore that would inspire you to make a playlist, maybe that would get your attention and reconsider a book that you had glossed over the first time. Because there is a lot of that this summer. There are quite a few specific books I read to vet for the guide, but four that made it into the guide, that there are so many artists and even specific tracks name-checked that I was like, "Well, okay. I just put down my book, but now I'm making dinner. I have to listen to these songs they've been talking about." So I really enjoyed that.

[00:32:37] There were a weird number of mentions and epigraphs from Rainer Maria Rilke, the patron saint of What Should I Read Next?, because we quote him at the end of every episode, "Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading." There are five debut novels in this year's guide. The longest book is 592 pages. The shortest is under 100. There are… how many works in translation? There are four.

I'm going to tell you at Unboxing about the book that my 16-year-old saw sitting on the counter, one of those works in translation, and was like, "That looks cool. Would I like that? Can I take this to school?" So, you know, that made my heart sing.

We have books that are on the shorter side, like 224 or less. We have books on the longer side, 450 and up. Lots of books to take you around the world. I told you about the immersive books I gulp down in two days or sometimes... I was going to say closer to two hours. That's an exaggeration, but more like 24 hours. Yes, absolutely. Lots of thorny relationship dramas, a nice amount of magical realism. There's just lots of good stuff in this year's guide.

[00:33:41] GINGER: And aside from the books, both of our communities have so much fun stuff planned. We mentioned bonus episodes. Book club really comes alive in the summer. We have got our readers weekend, we have got Austin in August, and we have a really fun class planned for June that will involve a lot of team members, and a lot of tips for doing just what we hear that you all want to do, which is slow down and savor at certain points in your reading life. And so we're going to share a lot of strategies and tips for that.

So, we have got places in the community. If you want to not just read the books, but you want to talk about them, you want to talk about them with fellow readers, you want to celebrate your reading life and celebrate your reading wins, we would love to have you in either of those communities. They are both such warm and welcoming places. And especially in the summer, we know that we get people that kind of come in and out depending on their reading lives. Hello, so many teachers. We love you.

ANNE: I was just thinking that.

[00:34:39] GINGER: But if this sounds like a place that you would want to be in the summer, or any time of the year, this is a great time to jump in.

ANNE: And we really want to be at your service as you make your reading life work for you. And the Summer Reading Guide can absolutely be your beginning and your end of summer discovery, but it can also be the leaping-off point for summer of lots more discovery and enjoyment. So if you're interested in exploring more, I know many of you are… in our Patreon community, I just released a bonus episode a couple weeks back that was featuring April 2026 releases that I thought were 100% worth talking about, but were not in the pages of the Summer Reading Guide.

So I know many of you often read the guide thinking, "Is she going to include the whatever?" So preemptively, I'm telling you, here's some like early Summer Reading Guide-ish picks, and also if you're wondering where the new book by whoever is, it's not in. I can tell you now, it's right here. And if you want new releases that are already out, they are all out as of now.

[00:35:44] We also do a bonus Patreon episode that we also make available to all our book clubbers. This is always, for several years now, the first bonus after the guide releases, where I go really in-depth and answer so many Summer Reading Guide questions from unboxing and from our community comments in the wake of unboxing. And then our first Patreon mini matchmaking episode after the guide release will be specifically for Summer Reading Guide books, when you're saying, "Okay, Anne, this is what I've enjoyed lately. This is what I haven't. This is what I'm looking for." Readers will often tell me, "These are the Summer Reading Guide books I'm considering. What do you think?" And I'll tell you.

GINGER: It's one of the really nice things about this guide. And I have yet to discover in all the bookish worlds that I inhabit anyone who reads every book that they promote on the guide. And I just want to give you more props. I know you mentioned it, but it is so much work that you put in to reading, and not just vetting and making sure that they are right for the guide, but also the availability to answer questions for these communities to, you know, yeah, clock in, "No, that one probably wouldn't be right for you," or, "Yes, this one sounds right up your alley based on what you've told me." That is a huge part of the work that you put into this, and man, do we as readers get to benefit from that.

[00:37:00] ANNE: Well, one of our core values is trust. Sometimes you readers, our team members, hear me all the time refer back to the values that guide us as a team and me as a creator. And when it comes to trust, I feel like you need to know that I'm not just making stuff up or regurgitating marketing copy. Now, sometimes in our previews I'll say, "This is how the publisher is pitching it," and that is true, and I'll be very clear that I do not have the personal experience there. But in the guide, yeah, I have read every word, and I want you to know what you are getting from us. That's really important.

Maybe I should've started by saying thank you, Ginger. We work hard to make this really good, and I just really hope you all continue to find it a really useful tool, and, like my friend Nikki said, a gateway to reliable reading joy.

And I hadn't planned to talk about our philosophy, not just philosophy, but guidelines, laws about artificial intelligence that we have for our team, but it really just plays right into our team core value of trust. We want to be honest and forthright and dependable in our content, in its delivery.

[00:38:09] We are known, and we've worked hard to be known for our taste, whether or not you think it's good taste, I think you know it's my taste, and for our reliability in, you know, bringing news and opinions and ideas from the book world to you. We really want to celebrate the written word and the people who create the books we love to read. And we want you to know all these books are human-selected. We don't use generative AI. No ChatGPT, no Claude, no Gemini. No algorithms are picking these books. No any computers. No... I mean, I'm using my MacBook, okay? But machines are not writing our blurbs. We don't use digital tools to choose books for our guests or for our blog in any way. And not for the Summer Reading Guide either. All our work is our own.

[00:38:59] And this is the time-consuming, old-fashioned way, and y'all, it kills me to then see our stuff turned around and copied verbatim, and then... This is one of the reasons I'm not on Instagram anymore. It just makes me sad. But we do work hard to create good stuff that you enjoy reading or listening to. We take our reading lives and your reading lives... I hope at the same time, both we don't take ourselves seriously, but we take this stuff really seriously. Life is hard, and good books can be such a source of joy and connection and respite, that really energetic peace and rejuvenating calm, and we want that for you and think you deserve our best effort. And now I'm just going... I repeat myself for emphasis. I just repeat. I really mean it. You can tell because I keep saying it.

GINGER: It is fun work, but it is hard work. I was going to insert a joke here that you can not only trust that these are books that are picked by someone with taste, but you can also just trust that they are actually books that exist. Unlike one certain AI-generated book list that was traveling around the internet last summer. These all do exist.

[00:40:12] ANNE: Which was so funny and also so sad at the same time.

GINGER: Oh, such a moment. Such a moment in time, exactly. These all do exist. You can go to the bookstore and buy them or put them on your library holds list. We promise. That is our solemn vow.

ANNE: And that reminds me, just thinking about the generative AI, we do work really hard. It's expensive and costly in many ways, both financially, in time and energy and labor, to create good stuff for you. And we really ask that you respect the work that went into it. There's a page in the guide that shows all the covers, all the little thumbnail images. It's so pretty. Please don't put that on your Instagram. We would really like to keep that for the people who've gotten the guide.

And we hope you can understand that it hurts when our work is copied or misused, whether that's by the obvious plagiarism that has become more and more of an issue over the years, but also by feeding it for free to those large language models, like ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini. Please don't copy-paste our stuff in there. We don't want it to be used for training. We don't want it to be remixed, and we would be really grateful if you would refrain from any action that would result in our work being used for that kind of thing. We have a little note in the guide, but it's worth saying again.

[00:41:22] GINGER: This is the one time that imitation is not a sincere form of flattery. Well, I guess we've said a million trillion words about the guide, and so now if you're wondering where you can get that, Anne, you want to tell us?

ANNE: Oh, that does seem important.

GINGER: Yes. Tell us how one would get their hands on a copy digitally or a print guide, and an invite to that Unboxing. Hello, the big book party. I will start off by saying that it is a perk for Patreon members and book club members. If you are already in those spaces, you absolutely know that you are in the right spot. That will hit your inbox as it always has. It will be on all the pages, you know, all the spaces that you know to go look for events and resources.

[00:42:09] But we also offer an à la carte version, and so if you have chosen that those are not the communities that you are willing to commit to right now, totally understand, and we want to make sure that you have the availability to get yourself the guide and also an invite to the unboxing.

ANNE: Please visit modernmrsdarcy.com/srg, for Summer Reading Guide, to get your à la carte copy of the guide. We really would love you to join one of our communities if you are so inclined. That does financially, and really from a morale perspective, support the work we do day in and day out here for What Should I Read Next? And it's, I think, where we put our best stuff.

And you'll hear from more of our team in our communities, What Should I Read Next? Patreon for our bonus episodes and fun events, and Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club for community, classes, and conversation. This is where we host almost monthly author chats, regular classes, member meetups, and all kinds of stuff to help you get more out of your reading life by learning to read better together with your fellow book clubbers.

[00:43:11] GINGER: Can I put in a little plug? Because they are both valid ways to get the guide, à la carte or a member community. But if you are the kind of person who is excited about reading 35 potential blurbs of four books you might want to put on your TBR, and you want to talk about summer reading, and you want to nerd out about what books are going on your list, you might want some more bookish friends. So if that feels right to you, it might just be the place that you find your people, you find your book people, and you find a community. And I would just say, yeah, give it a try. Summer is a great time to find those bookish friends. And if you are the kind of person who nerds out about summer reading, you might find your people there.

ANNE: Indeed, it's a great place to be. And if you were fuzzy on what Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club was at the beginning of this episode, Ginger is our community manager for this space. And so Ginger, I feel like you're always singing the book club song.

[00:44:06] GINGER: I know. It doesn't feel like I have to sell it to anybody because I absolutely believe in this community. It has made me a better reader. I cannot even picture what my reading life would be like, what my reading list would look like without this community. I found out about so many books this way, and I have found so many true friends this way. So I just cannot even imagine my reading life without it. Can you hear me saying, "Come be my friend"?

ANNE: Well, I'm so glad to be your friend and to be a part of it. And if you don't have the time or inclination to join a community, we got you. It's at modernmrsdarcy.com/srg. Okay, I want to acknowledge the next part can be a little bit confusing, but you can also get a hard copy printed guide, Summer Reading Guide, that shows up as a magazine in your inbox via snail mail. You can get that independently, which will not include unboxing or the digital PDF, or you can buy it as an add-on. But that is an option.

[00:45:07] We did it for the first time last year, and the only thing I dislike about it is... I mean, it takes over my house for a couple days, but worth it. The only thing I dislike about it is the terminology. Like, I don't want anyone to be confused. I want you to know what you're getting and get what you expect. But if you are so inclined, or you like the sound of having a print copy, I really encourage you to go this direction.

I did a lot of printing the guide myself here locally in the years between 2012 and 2025, and it is really expensive, and the results are very hit and miss. But Will Bogel has worked just hand-in-hand with our local printers these past couple years. We printed a lot of things to ramp up to doing the guide for the first time last year to make sure we get a gorgeous edition at the lowest cost we can, and order as many as we can. So please order your guide. It makes it more affordable for everybody.

[00:46:05] But we get that nice bulk printing discount. We know we're getting top-notch quality, and we can pass that bulk printing discount along to you. So ordering from us will be cheaper, your result will be better. You'll have to wait for the USPS to bring it to your door, because we don't wrap this thing in March so that we know you'll have it ready and in your hands on May 14th, because I want to read as much as I can to get you as many books. But we do expect to have these in hand, I hope, before May 14th, so it'll be arriving then or shortly thereafter, but we'll definitely be mailing them by May 14th. And if you want one to pop up in your mailbox, we would be delighted to send one your way.

GINGER: It's worth the extra communication because they are really pretty. So it is worth a little extra moment acknowledging that you can get a hard copy because if you are so inclined. Oh, they're so pretty. I miss old school magazines coming to my mailbox, and this is one way to recapture that.

[00:46:57] ANNE: Oh, I still love a magazine. I love a magazine. I mean, the kids say print's coming back.

GINGER: Hear, hear.

ANNE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

GINGER: Love it.

ANNE: My 16-year-old is buying cassette tapes, and I'm here for the hard media resurgence.

GINGER: Oh, man. All right. I'll listen to a 16-year-old, right? Surely they know what's cool.

ANNE: I am so sorry to say that right now we are only shipping to the United States. That has not always been the case, and I hope it will not always be the case. But we're a small business. We cannot keep up with what's happening in the global landscape, and that is the case right now. So if you're in the US or have a US mailing address and want a copy, we would be delighted to send that to you. And we'll have links for everything we talked about in the show notes for today's episode. Oh, too many details? I do love a detail. Look, we want you to know what you need to know.

All right, Ginger, final question, because we gotta end on a more fun note than shipping. Something you're most looking forward to in your summer reading, or something you're most excited for readers to experience with their summer reading?

[00:48:00] GINGER: Ooh, that's a great question. Okay, there could be many answers to this, but I have got to say one thing that we have not talked about is in the guide that I am so excited for people to see, and that is that somehow in the archives, the team that put this together, probably mostly you, Anne, went through and found like 15 standout moments, one from every year. And some of them...

ANNE: That was me.

GINGER: Oh my gosh, I remembered many of those, but there were some that I had completely forgotten about. Delight upon delight upon delight. And so I thought, now, if you've been around here a long time, that is going to be the most blast from the past, look down memory lane. But also, we have had this year of celebration, and I keep thinking, if you are new around here, and you've discovered this warm, bookish community, and you are wondering, "I've got 10 years to catch back up on. I've got 15 years to catch back up on," this is kind of one of those things that's like a little shortcut to "here's the best of the best". And so start here. Check this out. It's not so overwhelming. Here are 10 or 15 things that we loved and that are great memories. I just love that part. It was so fun, and I giggled multiple times. And, I mean, again- it just looks really beautiful, so shout-out to the team who put that together.

[00:49:09] ANNE: It does look really beautiful. So thank you for the compliment for my editorial eye. But also, this year our guide was designed by a What Should I Read Next? alum.

GINGER: That's right.

ANNE: In fact, we first connected when Julie Van Huizen was on the podcast back on March 12th, 2024. She's episode 421, fittingly called Go Ahead, Judge That Book by Its Cover, because she is a designer, and she has an eye for that kind of thing. And so in this year's guide, she brought her eye to our summer reading explorations, and the final result is just, like... I mean, we gushed. We gushed about it.

GINGER: Yeah. Good job, Julie. It's real pretty, as they say. And yeah, what a full-circle moment here on What Should I Read Next?

[00:49:58] ANNE: Full circle. Okay, what I'm looking forward to for our readers this summer, I wish everyone the pleasure of reading and deeply, deeply enjoying a book from a favorite author that caught their eye that they thought, "Oh, that book's for me." And I want them to read it and love it and go, "Yes, that was so worth waiting for." And also, I imagine with joy, and I do wish for them the experience of finding a book that makes them go, "I'm intrigued. I don't even know why. This isn't what I was looking for. I'm going to take a chance on this unfamiliar thing that feels a little bit outside my lane," and read it and go, "Ugh, I had no idea I wanted a book like that, but I'm so glad I read it."

GINGER: Yes. May we all have all of those experiences this summer.

ANNE: All the books, all the things, all the feelings. Oh, Ginger, thank you for joining us as collaborator and co-discoverer and creator.

[00:51:04] GINGER: Thank you for having me, and I am always here to talk about summer reading. I hope to hear from many of you, whether that's in the comments here on the post, in both of our community spaces. I just can't wait to talk more summer reading. Anne, this was a delight to talk with you, and here we go. This begins the most nerdiest time of the year.

ANNE: Ah, the pleasure is mine, and I hope all of yours, and that it's just a really wonderful reading summer.

Readers, I hope you enjoyed our conversation today. I'd love to hear your Summer Reading Guide questions or whether there are any titles you're expecting or hoping to see featured in this year's guide, although mum’s going to be the word, so that thing is out on May 14th. You will find the list of titles that Ginger and I discussed today and all the Summer Reading Guide links and details you need to know at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com. If you want to go in and grab your à la carte access, that's at modernmrsdarcy.com/srg for Summer Reading Guide.

[00:52:06] Follow our show on Instagram at @WhatShouldIReadNext, where our capable, competent, delightful social media manager, Leigh Kramer, will be sharing some behind-the-scenes peeks. And if you do join us for Thursday celebrations, we'd love to ask that you wait to share your excitement about those actual selections so that we don't spoil any surprises for those getting the guide later.

The 2026 Summer Reading Guide is exclusively for our members and à la carte purchasers, so please do avoid spoilers when sharing about the Summer Reading Guide on social media. And thank you so much for supporting the work we do and looking out for your fellow readers.

Please join our email list. This is our favorite way to share all our news and events and happenings for stuff like our Summer Reading Guide, plus our weekly episodes and other bookish happenings. Sign up at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/newsletter.

[00:52:58] Thank you to Ginger Horton for joining me today and to all the people who make the show happen. What Should I Read Next? is created each week by executive producer Will Bogel, Media production specialist Holly Wielkoszewski, social media manager and editor Leigh Kramer, community coordinator Brigid Misselhorn, community manager Shannan Malone, and our whole team at What Should I Read Next? and Modern Mrs Darcy HQ. Plus the audio whizzes at Studio D Podcast Production.

Readers, that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening. And as Rainer Maria Rilke said, "Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading." Happy reading, everyone.