We know you have a lot of things to do this summer, but surely some of it involves sitting on a beach chair or lounging on a blanket in a mountain park and opening up the pages of a book (or listening to one while on a road trip, perhaps)?
Here are our recommendations for 25 warm-weather, lazy-day reads.
‘The Calamity Club,’ by Kathryn Stockett (Spiegel & Grau, 2026)
Kathryn Stockett has written a huge book about three 20th-century Mississippi women who come together despite their differences. No, I’m not talking about “The Help.” Coming 17 years after that blockbuster, Stockettap second novel has a lot in common with her first. “The Calamity Club” also is set in her home state, takes place in the past, and is about a trio of strangers who create a community with other women. The protagonists are Meg, who is 11 and has lived in an orphanage since her mother disappeared; Birdie, who is 24, a virgin, and always takes care of others instead of herself; and 30ish Charlie, who doesn’t show up for about 200 pages and who launches a business venture with Birdie. Meg is the star of “The Calamity Club.” Her voice is singular and laugh-out-loud funny. The vibrant narrators keep you reading “Calamity Club” even when things flag in the middle of the book, which didn’t need about 100 of its 632 pages. But Stockett deftly unites her three main characters for an ending thatap as cozy and satisfying as the chicken pot pies her characters keep making and eating. — Chris Hewitt, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
‘Platform Decay,’ by Martha Wells (Tor Books, 2026)
If you’re a fan of the Murderbot Diaries (the books and/or the Apple TV show), you don’t need me to tell you the eighth novella in the award-winning sci-fi series is worth your trouble. You’re enthusiastically going to read “Platform Decay” and cheer for your favorite bot-human construct who is back in action, protecting humans from hostile pursuers while also watching soap operas on its recorded feed for stress relief. Murderbot (aka SecUnit) may be a rogue security guard no longer under the control of its corporate maker, but its combat skills, strategic risk assessment, and willingness to put human safety ahead of its own is still its modus operandi. Not unlike the half-human Mr. Spock of Star Trek, Murderbot finds human behavior mostly illogical and emotion-driven. Words that often come to mind while watching humans (readers are privy to its hilarious, foul-mouthed observations) are “stupid,” “slow” and “dangerous.” But itap learning to make friends. (If you are new to Murderbot, read the first book of the series, “All Systems Red,” or this one might be hard to follow.) — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kristen Kidd, Littleton
‘Prodigal Summer,’ by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins, 2000)
Three stories are set on Zebulon Mountain in Appalachia: Deanna is a divorced forest ranger and hermit; Lusa is an entomologist who “feels like a frontier mail-order bride” in her recent marriage to a tobacco farmer; and Garnett, a 60-something widower, is battling his neighbor who has newfangled ideas like organic apple farming. The stories don’t weave into a circular cliché, but they do all exemplify how nature teaches and supports us. Kingsolver illuminates science in the most intimate, relatable ways, with her glorious prose and clear-eyed view: “watching fog drift up the edges of the fields, uphill along the hedgerows like the ghost of some ancient river whose tributaries no longer heeded gravity.” I thank Barbara for my deep appreciation of carnivores and their role in our ecology. — 4 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
‘More Than Enough,’ by Anna Quindlen (Random House, 2026)
Polly Goodman is a high school English teacher who has a close connection with the three women in her book club. Polly has shared details about her students, her family relationships and her struggles with IVF. The women give her an ancestry kit as a joke and she is matched with an improbable stranger. Polly explores her family history while also trying to accept the terminal illness of her closest friend. Quindlen is again able to tell a story with warmth and insight into the value of loving relationships. — 4 stars (out of 4); Diana Doner, Lafayette
‘Whistler,’ by Ann Patchett (Harper, 2026)
A middle-aged woman randomly encounters her former stepfather, after a decades-long absence. Their reunion sparks forgotten memories and reflections on the meaning of this fleeting relationship during her chaotic childhood. A lovely novel that touches on love and loss, the impact of decisions outside our control, and how meaningful connections can endure. While it would reveal too much to explain the title’s significance, we all need a “Whistler” in our lives. — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘The Glassmaker,’ by Tracy Chevalier (Viking, 2024)
For 500 years, Murano, Italy, has been famous as the glass-making island of Venice. Chevalier layers Murano’s history into colorful, intricate scenes from the life of the Russos, a family of glass artists. This is primarily the story of Orsola, the only daughter, who defies restrictions against women working with glass to become an accomplished artist of lampwork beads. Time swirls around the Russos; decades and centuries pass while the Russos grow only a few years older. This creative approach allows Chevalier to highlight the changing fortunes of Venice and introduce us to historic characters from different eras. It’s an intriguing way to tell a longitudinal story while still focusing on characters I came to love. — 3 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert Parker
‘Take Me to Your Leader,’ by Neil DeGrasse Tyson (Simon & Schuster, 2026)
If you’ve been asleep for the last six months, you may have missed “Project Hail Mary,” Artemis II’s mission to the moon, and the release of government files on UFOs. For those of us paying attention, doesn’t all that make you wanna read more about aliens? Pick up this slim volume by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the celebrity face of all things cosmic and mysterious, to get his take on the question that haunts us all: Would it really be possible for extraterrestrial beings to visit Earth? — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Barbara Ellis, The Denver Post
‘Lake Effect,’ by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (Ecco, 2026)
This novel is set in Rochester, N.Y., where weather patterns are greatly influenced by its proximity to Lake Erie: “You could never be sure what was coming.” Life, in other words. Two neighboring families are suddenly and forever upended when the husband/father of one family runs off with the wife/mother of the other. No one outside the couple saw it coming. Reactions run the gamut: shock, rage, confusion, self-doubt. But relationships slowly realign over time. Some characters emerge stronger, happier; others stay stuck in the old, familiar though limiting, emotional range. This story explores themes of mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and family loyalties versus personal fulfillment. — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘This Story Might Save Your Life,’ by Tiffany Crum (Pine and Cedar, 2026)
Thrills, a mystery and romance are all found in “This Story Might Save Your Life,” a comic survival podcast from Joy and Benny. Weekly, they imagine how they would survive in life-threating situations, all with a good dose of humor. (How would you survive if you were in a whale’s mouth?) These two best friends’ podcast becomes a national hit — and then Joy disappears. The ensuing story develops with murder, friendship, domestic abuse, narcolepsy, mystery, suspense and romance. This book is destined to be a book club favorite in 2026, with an endearing cast of characters and fast pace. Reading it won’t save your life, but it will add pleasure to it. — 4 stars (out of 4); Terry Romer, Denver
‘Kin,’ by Tayari Jones (Alfred A. Knopf, 2026)
Reading this novel is like sitting down and talking with two old friends whom you’ve known forever. There is a certain ease and flow to the conversation with your forevers. Jones brilliantly creates authentic and distinct voices of the two lifelong friends who narrate “Kin” in alternating chapters. Though their adult lives diverge geographically and socially, they remain each other’s “kin” throughout. This novel explores themes of the responsibilities and expectations of mothers and daughters, the dream vs. the reality of family ties, and the power of kinship, whether biological or chosen. (An Oprah’s Book Club selection. ) — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk,’ by Kathleen Rooney (Thorndike Press, 2017)
On New Year’s Eve 1984, 85-year-old Lillian Boxfish dons her mink coat and fedora hat, steps outside into the cold winter night and takes a 10-mile walk around Manhattan to celebrate the upcoming new year and ruminate about her long, colorful life. On this journey she visits old friends and meets new acquaintances, as she recalls her younger years as an ambitious woman working in a man’s field, starting a family and trying to keep her marriage together. Loosely based on Margaret Fishback, the highest-paid female copywriter in Manhattan and a published poet, Lillian strove to have it all, until she became pregnant with her first child and was summarily dismissed from her position at R.H. Macy’s, where she was unquestionably the most talented copywriter yet paid less than her male coworkers who, not surprisingly, were encouraged to have families of their own. Having outlived most of her other relationships, Lillian reflects on perhaps her longest friendship with her beloved New York City, and how she has had to adapt and re-invent herself in order to stay relevant. — 3½ stars (out of 4); Karen Goldie Hartman, Westminster
‘Wild Dark Shore,’ by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron Books, 2026)
An Australian man, grieving the death of his wife, moves with his three children to a remote island between Australia and Antarctica, as caretaker for a research colony. The researchers have shut down operations due to rising sea waters, and the small family is packing up the precious global seed vault (an international stop-gap measure against the loss of plant species) and preparing to return to the mainland, when a shipwrecked woman washes up on the beach. As she recovers and gets to know the family, it becomes clear that both she and they are hiding crucial secrets from one another. Each of these characters, including the children, is grappling with some form of loss and grieving. Will they survive and overcome not only the increasingly harsh weather conditions fomented by climate change, but also the painful emotional landscape of their losses? A beautifully written homage to the flora and fauna of this unique place. — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘Still Life,’ by Sarah Winman (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2021)
“Beautiful art opens our eyes to the beauty of the world.” The beauty of this book is almost indescribable. After a quiet start, Winman leads us into the lives of a diverse group who become family, including Evelyn, a feisty, mature art historian helping save Italian masterpieces after World War II, and Ulysses, a young British soldier she encounters by chance. From there the story takes us from Florence to London and back, through decades, past near misses and lucky escapes. The characters are sometimes whimsical (a parrot who aptly quotes Shakespeare), sometimes heart breaking, and always dimensional. Descriptions are layered and subtly evoke all our senses. Art and wine and food and music contribute to the richness of Winman’s literary style. This is one of the very best books I’ve read. Ever. (Winman’s 2015 novel ‘A Year of Marvelous Ways’ is being reissued by Putnam in June.) — 4 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
‘Go As a River,’ by Shelley Read (Spiegel & Grau, 2025)
Read, a fifth-generation Coloradan, gives us a grimly pragmatic but hopeful heroine in this utterly engaging debut novel. In it, a young woman’s lover, an enigmatic drifter of Native American descent, is brutally murdered. He leaves behind only their as-yet-unborn child and his philosophy, “Go as a river,” meaning flow around obstacles, find a new path forward. In the wake of his death, the young woman strives to find that new path forward for herself, alone, shouldering her family’s heritage of growing peaches on Colorado’s western slope. Beautifully written, this novel is a love letter to southwestern Colorado and its flora, fauna, rivers, creeks, mountains and peaches. It’s a story of perseverance, survival and, yes, love. — 4 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘A Latte Like Love,’ by Michelle C. Harris (Berkley, 2026)
Audrey is a struggling engineering student working part-time as a barista at Deja Brew. One day, Theo walks in, wearing an N95 mask long after COVID. For weeks, Theo walks into the coffee shop at the same time each day, and orders an extra-hot large Americano but never drinks it while he sits in a corner sketching in his notebook for 40 minutes. He is hiding something. Then, a terrible event happens at the coffee shop, Theo’s mask is ripped off and his scars are revealed to everyone. But he leaves his sketchbook behind. Determined to return it, she begins tracing Theo’s steps and one day finally spots him walking in a crowd, following him to his therapistap office. Audrey leaves her information with the secretary, and is soon able to connect with Theo. They begin to realize just how much they like each other — while also recognizing how complicated their lives truly are. We see the good, the bad and the ugly in Theo and Audrey’s journey — but in the end, are gifted something beautiful. — Ashley Ivey, Tribune News Service
‘Canticle,’ by Janet Rich Edwards (Spiegel and Grau, 2026)
The daughter of a wool draper near Bruges spurns an advantageous marriage that would have sealed her family’s economic future and seeks, instead, a life of faith, bolstered by prayer and the diligent reading of biblical texts in Latin, a bold, rare act for a woman in the 13th century. She naively approaches a Franciscan monk for acceptance into his order, but lacking any means to support a woman, he hustles her off to a nearby beguine religious community of women. There, she gradually learns there are many possible paths to God. And then, her miracles begin, setting her even more at odds with the Church. Add yet more rumors about dangerous women, an ambitious bishop seeking favor with Rome and you know her fate is sealed. Edwards richly draws on the writings of medieval mystics and the literary lives of medieval women to create this fictional world whose characters and their spiritual journeys feel so very authentic. — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘Apostle’s Cove,’ by William Kent Krueger (Atria, 2025)
In this 21st novel in Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series, Cork’s son Stephen, now working as an attorney with an innocence project firm, informs his dad that he may have sent an innocent man to prison. Half the book then flashes back to 25 years prior, when Axel Boshey confessed to the murder of his wife, Chastity. Chastity and her mother Aphrodite lived a wild, unconventional life – multiple sex partners, multiple fathers to their children. Axel assumed responsibility for Chastity’s murder to protect his own paramour. Skipping to present day, Cork, now a private investigator, reopens the case to discover what he missed the first time around. Complicated characters, lots of bad actors, but as always, a good story with a positive ending. — 2 stars (out of 4); Jo Calhoun, Denver
‘Creation Lake,’ by Rachel Kushner (Scribner, 2024)
Psychopath “Sadie Smith” is hired by secret bosses to infiltrate an activist cult (inspired by the email missives of a shadowy guru) planning terrorism to block a huge water project in rural France. Sound crazy? The sardonic tone makes this Booker shortlist nominee an absorbing read. Contradictions proliferate: Sadie is supremely unlikable, except when she isn’t. The cult members are misguided hypocrites, but I applaud their eco-mindedness. The guru, Bruno, is my most intriguing character, writing about Neanderthals in our human history. Tragedy has turned him into a hermit, but the ponderings from his cave are alluring. Kushner’s ideas and writing fascinated me. – 3 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
‘Fire Exit,’ by Morgan Talty (Tin House Books, 2024)
Talty’s narrator is a white man who grew up on but left a Penobscot reservation in Maine. As a young man, he fathers a child with an Indigenous woman, who rejects him as a partner in favor of raising her daughter fully as a member of the native community. He watches his estranged daughter grow up, literally from just across the river. And he struggles with many of his own demons, while his mother slowly fades into dementia. When his daughter develops mental illness, he immediately makes the connection to his mother’s condition and determines to tell the daughter of her origins and the genetic link to his mother’s illness. A suspenseful family crisis proves cathartic for all, in the end. (Talty is the award-winning author of a short story collection, “Life of the Living Rez.”) — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘Rhine Journey,’ by Ann Schlee (First McNally Editions’ 2025 reissue of the 1981 novel)
In the summer of 1851, in a part of the world recently disrupted by workers’ revolts and crackdowns on liberty, the devout Rev. Morrison takes his family — wife, daughter and unmarried sister — on a luxury voyage down the Rhine River. The sister, Charlotte, spent 20 years housekeeping for an older gentleman. but he has died, so now she expects to serve her brother and his family. But Charlotte, quiet, honest, conscientious, reveals herself to be a simmering, roiling, wildly imaginative cauldron on the inside, not unlike this book. As if written by someone from early Victorian England, this slim little novel immerses the reader in that time and place, which makes it even more startling when Charlotte, without 20th-century psychology or self-help books, wakes up. (A finalist for the 1981 Booker Prize.) — 3 stars (out of 4); Michelle Nelson, Littleton
‘The Sea, the Sea,’ by Iris Murdoch (Penguin Books, 2001 reissue)
In his 60s, jaded and wrung out from a life in the theater, Charles Arrowby has returned to his home and purchased an odd house without electricity on the northwest coast of England. He hopes for solitude and stillness to reflect and write about the older woman who helped him make his career and to dally with a younger woman who loves him; but unexpected and uninvited visitors, not all of whom are corporeal, interrupt his repose. What he intends to write is not what ends up on the page. It was impossible for me to read the deep, rich, sensuous description of the sea on page one and not keep reading. Brilliantly constructed, and one of Murdoch’s finest novels. (This won the Booker Prize in 1978.) — 4 stars (out of 4); Michelle Nelson, Littleton
‘Buckeye,’ by Patrick Ryan (Random House, 2026)
A story of love, grief, war, betrayal and family secrets that spans six decades and three generations. Two families living in a fictional Ohio town become enmeshed through their multigenerational relationships, but most importantly, through their complicity in holding tightly onto their secrets. Slowly, they learn the hard truths of human foibles and how to live with that knowledge and move forward with grace and dignity. Ryan has created so many distinctive and interesting characters, one longs to know more about their futures. — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘The Sweet Dove Died,’ by Barbara Pym (New York Review of Books, 2025)
In 1960s London, Leonora Eyre lives alone, comfortably and happily, with beautiful possessions that mean the world to her. She is courted by a man her own age (approaching 50), an antiques dealer, but she turns her attention instead onto his 24-year-old nephew. Leonora is an unnerving character. apated but meticulously polite, she keeps others at bay and refers to herself not as me or I but as “one.” And oh, how she loves her carefully collected objects, or as Henry James would have said, her bibelots. The novel has been described as searching and scrupulous, but the reading is fast and delightful, and I laughed throughout; until the ending, which turned the book inside out for me, and I suddenly realized how much I resembled Leonora. — 3 stars (out of 4); Michelle Nelson, Littleton
‘Stay for a Spell,’ by Amy Coombe (Ace, 2026)
Coombe’s gentle romantasy plants its heroine determinedly in one place, a choice that lets the book grow surprisingly deep emotional roots. Coombe has the Diana Wynne Jones knack for starting with simple things — a princess, a curse — and letting them develop until they feel complex and engrossing. Princess Tanadelle — Tandy for short — is not her kingdom’s ruler or even its heir. While her parents and sister manage the actual work of statecraft, Tandy travels the realm kissing babies and cutting ribbons. This is her royal duty, and as empty as it feels sometimes, Tandy has never had a chance to learn who she is apart from her role as princess. Then she wanders into a small-town bookshop and finds herself cursed, unable to leave the premises until she finds her heartap desire. The more time passes, the more she starts to feel how tragic it would be to stay locked in place because you never found that something — or someone — that was your true heartap desire. At the start itap playfully comic; by the end, itap bittersweet and utterly gorgeous. — Olivia Waite, The New York Times
‘The Satisfaction Cafe,’ by Kathy Wang (Scribner, 2025)
Of necessity, Joan is the child selected by her Taiwanese family to attend graduate school at Stanford. Dutifully, she marries the architecture student her parents choose, but her compliance is unravelling, even before she stabs her husband. Beginning in the 1970s, we spend several decades witnessing Joan’s transformation, and I respected her more page by page. Her life’s purpose is found when she opens a cafe that touches people’s hearts in a surprising manner. Sometimes warm, cozy reads can overdo, but Wang’s novel is comfort food without a saccharine aftertaste — perhaps because itap seasoned with satire. — 2 1/2 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
‘Rears & Vices,’ by E.M. Caro (Tides & Troth, 2026)
Summer is the ideal time of year for a salt-crusted, grog-drenched pirate romance – and Caro’s “Rears & Vices” was everything I wanted. Our men have some impressive Age of Sail names: Everard Anderson de Anglada is a British Navy captain on the Great Lakes who teams up with a former lieutenant, Preston D’Arcy, to rescue his sometime hookup Vitya Varfolomey from a death sentence for piracy. Their naval careers in tatters, the three sailors escape to Vitya’s outlaw fleet in the Caribbean – with Everard as Vitya’s new matelot, or legally recognized partner. This real-life form of pirate marriage ties Everard to the mysterious Russian captain, even as he reconnects with D’Arcy, whose subordinate rank had always prevented Everard from pursuing the relationship. It’s a delicate poly romance, all simmering heat and devastating secrets – neither Navy men nor Caribbean pirates are known for forthright communication in relationships – and it unfolds amid gorgeusly textured sea battles. The heeling of the ship, the deafening blast of cannon! You’d swear you could feel the bite of the wooden rails beneath your hands. — Olivia Waite, The New York Times
