Join us for our biggest and favorite annual tradition for 13 years running! Our team has been working for many moons now to deliver you THE handbook for your summer reading. How will you spend your precious summer reading time? We’re here to help you make a plan!
As always, I’ve sought to share everything from the season’s most-anticipated releases to fabulous reads that aren’t on your radar. Our guide includes a wide variety of genres and publication dates, so you can turn to books you KNOW you’ll love and also explore titles off your beaten path. Choose from books available right now, plus put in your library requests for books releasing later this summer in June, July, and August. We’ve also worked in plenty of backlist selections for variety and easy library access.
Our MMD Summer Reading Guide is not sponsored in any way. As always, there are no ads and no paid placements. Trust is our bottom line, and our #1 motivation is the sincere desire to help you get more out of your reading life this summer. That’s why our guide is brimming with books I’ve read and loved, plus fun and helpful features like our ever-popular Awesome on Audio selections, New in Paperback releases, piles of readalikes, and standout summer selections from our team members.
We began work on this year's guide last October!
(and counting!) that Anne considered for inclusion
to help you quickly find titles that are right for you
May 18 at 1:00pm and 8:30pm EDT. Plus a replay to watch anytime!
of summer reading goodness
for your summer reading enjoyment
Our guide stands on its own, but it’s even more exciting with the live Unboxing event! Our 90+ minute book party offers a casual, unscripted, and high-energy peek at our 2024 selections. I’ll share precisely what I love about each summer selection, so you can decide if it merits a place on your TBR.
Our Unboxing is packed with real talk about our summer selections, unfolding live with people who love books as much as you do. I love talking about great books, but I especially love answering YOUR questions—and that’s what we do at Unboxing! Want to know if a thriller is too dark for your taste, or why one of your most anticipated titles isn’t in the guide? Let’s talk about it.
We’ve hosted thousands of readers for online events like this over the years (since 2016!) and we know how to make them fun—and useful. While gathering live adds to the excitement, we include a replay of our Unboxing event with your purchase for you to watch whenever (and however many times) you want.
a brief clip of the 2023 Unboxing event
There are three ways to get the Summer Reading Guide–by joining one of our lovely book communities or purchasing the guide as a stand alone product.
The Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club has been home to delightful, life-giving bookish conversations since 2016. Daily book talk and regular events including author talks, readerly classes, and our four marquee live events—Unboxing, Fall and Spring Book Previews, and our team’s Best Books of the Year. Get more out of your summer reading with our Book Club.
Patreon is our audio-first community: enjoy more book talk at your pace and on your schedule. Patreon membership includes our four marquee live events—Unboxing, Fall and Spring Book Previews, and our team’s Best Books of the Year.
Simple one-time purchase for our Summer Reading Guide and Unboxing event. No ongoing commitment.
There are three ways to get the Summer Reading Guide–by purchasing the guide as a stand alone product or by joining one of our delightful book communities.
Your a la carte purchase gets you the Summer Reading Guide and access to the Unboxing replay to watch anytime. This is a great option for those who don’t have the time or inclination to join a community.
Order your a la carte Summer Reading Guide now, or read on to learn how to get it as a free perk of one of our member communities. Your membership gets you all sorts of bookish goodness—and sustains our work for the long haul.
Explicit education and deep connections. Community, classes, and conversation.
Book Club is for you if you’ve ever thought…
Book talk on your schedule. Book recommendations galore. Thoughtful insight into today’s literary landscape and how it connects to your reading life.
Patreon is for you if you…
This summer in Patreon
This summer in Book Club
Pick one of three ways to get the Summer Reading Guide, Unboxing & more!
Yes, simply choose the a la carte option. You’ll receive the guide by email on May 16th. Our a la carte readers also get access to the Unboxing event and later the replay in their MMD Shop Account.
Great question! Our communities have different scope and emphases: we think of our Patreon offerings as being bite-sized, while MMD Book Club is more like a buffet. We encourage you to choose the one that best works for you and your reading life. (20% of our readers are members of both communities.)
Our WSIRN Patreon community is an extension of the What Should I Read Next podcast, and offers Friday bonus episodes (e.g., One Great Book, Mini Matchmaking, Industry Insights), peeks behind the scenes, and additional curated book recommendations to our readers in that space. Patreon is audio-first, which means you can mostly participate when it’s convenient for you. We host two events each semester in Patreon: one seasonal preview (like Summer Reading Guide Unboxing) and occasional additional events like Ask Us Anything, Live Mini Matchmaking, or Trivia Night. Our patrons also influence the show by offering input on future episode themes and guests and voting on our episode titles.
Our slate of Book Club offerings is more robust, which is why we call it a buffet: we seek to offer lots of great literary content in this space, and don’t expect you to put everything on your plate! We host many live events in this space, including monthly book and author discussions, regular classes on literature and the reading life, and community events like our Readers’ Weekend, Best Book of Summer, Reading Life Rehab, Readalongs, Join Us for Journaling, and more. Our live events are video-driven, but you don’t need to attend live to participate: we record our events so you can watch on your schedule. Our custom-built member site also sets Book Club apart: our 24/7 forums makes it easy to enjoy all the book talk your heart desires, and connect with other readers who love books as much as you do.
The Summer Reading Guide Unboxing is our marquee event. In 90+ minutes, Anne runs through all the books in the guide telling you more about why she picked them and what she loves about them. Our giant book bash is a BLAST! Many readers even take the day off work so they can join us for Unboxing and then pore over their guide and schedule all their library holds.
Yes! We record all our events so you can participate on your schedule. But attending live is a lot of fun, plus live attendees get to ask Anne their summer reading questions. That’s why we host two live events to accommodate as many readers’ schedules as possible.
However, you choose to join us there is an Unboxing replay available on the website.
The short answer is no. However, we’d recommend you check your communication preferences and make sure you’re getting emails from us.
Book Club members will get their guide via Book Club email; they’ll also get a reminder email with their Unboxing invite (aka zoom link) in it on May 16. Please make sure you’re currently getting event reminders from us; we want you to get your guide and Unboxing invite!
Patreon members will get their guide via patreon post (those are delivered by email within minutes of posting); they’ll also get a reminder email with this Unboxing invite (aka zoom link) in it on May 16. Please make sure you’re currently getting notified of new patreon posts; we want you to get your guide and Unboxing invite!
We sent the guide out by email on May 18th at 8:00 am EDT (try searching for subject line “Your Summer Reading Guide is here!).
Unfortunately, as magical as email is it isn’t completely reliable, but don’t worry! If you can’t find the email you can still get your Summer Reading guide—it is attached to the Unboxing event pages.
If you are also not receiving 30 minute reminder emails or our new Sunday Dispatch please email [email protected] and we’ll get you sorted.
We published a Patreon post on Thursday May 18th at 8:00 a.m. EDT with the guide. If you do not have email notifications on for Patreon or you simply can’t find that email, don’t worry! The Summer Reading Guide is attached to this post.
We sent the guide out by email on May 18th at 8:00 am EDT (try searching for subject line “Your MMD Summer Reading Guide is here!).
Unfortunately, as magical as email is it isn’t completely reliable, but don’t worry! If you can’t find the email you can still get your Summer Reading guide—it is attached to the Unboxing replay page in your MMD Shop Account.
If you are not receiving any emails from us please email [email protected] and we’ll get you sorted.
This year for the first time, the Summer Reading Guide is an exclusive perk for our Book Club and Patreon community members or those who have purchased the guide a la carte. For more information about this change see the blog post What you need to know about the Summer Reading Guide coming May 18th.
We know many of you like to print your copy of the Summer Reading Guide and mark it up. That’s why we authorize readers to print one copy of the guide for personal use only: we’ve included a permission to that effect on the copyright page of the guide. If you choose to have the guide professionally printed, be sure to show them that permission.
We’ve also created a “printing file” for the Summer Reading Guide, which is styled in the way preferred by most professional printers. It’s in the Drive folder that contains your guide, and is clearly labeled as the “printing file.”
Please note that printing prices have increased significantly over the past few years and this not an option we feel we can truly encourage in good conscience. We wanted to test drive the printing process for you this year—since prices have increased even since last May—so Anne had one printed at FedEx as a booklet with saddle stitch binding (that just means it will be stapled together like a magazine). We were quoted $37, but when we picked it up the total was actually $51.28 including tax. All that to say, if you really want a professionally printed guide ask a lot of questions about paper weight and binding and perhaps get yourself a couple of quotes.
We’ve heard good things from our community about the online service Blurb. We have not tried this ourselves but many of you have told us that you’ve been happy with Blurb and have gotten good results at a significantly lower cost than the chain office supply stores.
Because printing is now so expensive, we created a standalone 2-page “2023 SRG Enthusiasm Meter” that’s designed for quick and easy home printing on 8.5 x 11 paper. This file is in your Drive doc and is clearly labeled. The “enthusiasm meter” appears in the final pages of the full guide, but we created this separate PDF to make it easy-breezy for you to print your own. This PDF contains every book title, grouped by category. Anne shared a photo of her home-printed enthusiasm meter on Instagram right here.
If instead you plan to print at home, be sure to use a PDF viewer (as opposed to Preview) or some of the pictures may not print clearly. We know that Acrobat Reader works well. You can install Acrobat Reader here. Please be aware that this is a full color design and will use a lot of ink. You can easily print the file labeled “2023 MMD Summer Reading Guide” on 8.5 x 11 paper. The font will be on the small side, but we thought it looked pretty darn good when we tested it!
Your Drive folder contains three gorgeous files:
1. Your “2023 MMD Summer Reading Guide”: this is your guide!
2. Your “2023 SRG Enthusiasm Meter”: the “enthusiasm meter” appears in the final pages of the full guide, but we created this 2-page 8.5 x 11 PDF for quick and easy printing of only these two pages. This PDF contains every book title, grouped by category. If you like to print things, you may want to print this PDF before you sit down for Unboxing. That way you’ll have all the titles in front of you, and can easily track which books you’re most interested in during our session. And then you can tuck your enthusiasm meter into your journal or tote so you have it handy at the library, bookstore, or whenever it’s time to choose your next read.
3. A “printing file” for the 2023 MMD Summer Reading Guide. You probably don’t need this file at all! If you’d like to have the guide professionally printed, most printers will prefer this file.
We will provide a replay after the Unboxing event. That replay will be available beginning May 19. Accessing it will depend on how you got your Summer Reading Guide.
We’re here to help! We really want you to get your guide as soon as possible so you can enjoy it! For any sticky issues we haven’t addressed above, please email us at [email protected] and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Our team is small but mighty! We typically respond within one business day, and often much sooner.
It’s always helpful to have as much information as possible so we can look into it right away for you. Depending on the trouble you are having this may mean: your email address, whether you are a Book Club member, Patreon member or a la carte purchaser, what type of device you’re using and the browser, or anything else specific to your situation.
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