A powerful multigenerational saga about inheritance, a family farm, and meddlesome family ghosts. Things are tough for 32-year-old Aubrey: she’s broke, fresh off a break-up, fighting with her sister, and grieving her father’s death. But things start looking up when she learns her father bequeathed her his share of his family’s Tennessee farm. But little does she know, the farm is haunted by four hilarious, opinionated family ghosts who are deeply invested in that property—and, by extension, Aubrey. As Aubrey travels to Tennessee to connect with her father’s family and—to their horror—contemplate selling her share to a developer, the ghosts unspool the history of the land and how they came to haunt it. I ate up this debut. (This is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club August 2026 selection.)

I re-read 2026 Minimalist Summer Reading Guide pick The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders, this time on audio as narrated by Keylor Leigh, in preparation to talk to Shannon in Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club. Then, during our conversation when Shannon mentioned that her debut short story collection features characters from the same family as in The Great Wherever, I knew I had to read it next. The book's first pages contain a family tree showing who's who; then, in each of thirteen stories, we read about a different family member receiving a visitor. In other words, having company. I LOVED this collection: these were independent stories, but the sense of continuity provided by the characters in common propelled me through in a way I don't often experience with short stories.