As the summer heat settles in, beachgoers, porch-swingers and couch potatoes alike are spending their days tearing into the season’s hottest books. Even with an overload of new biographies, young adult stories and romances lining library shelves, Jane Philbrick, manager of borrower services at the Cambridge Public Library, highlighted 2026’s strong crop of picks, ranging from a Southern multi-generational family saga to a time-spanning tale about a Wyoming ghost town.
“I’m usually a mood reader,” Philbrick said. “And so this year my mood is going sort of dark and creepy. Which is atypical for me.”
Philbrick also recommended Jennifer N. Brown’s “The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton” for a cross between the historical fiction of Hilary Mantel and Agatha Christie’s “traditional locked-room mystery”; and Steven Rowley’s “Take Me With You” for a “life-affirming” take on grieving loved ones in the aftermath of alien abductions.
“It’s really not about the aliens,” Philbrick said. “We do find out what happens in the end, but it’s more about loss, absence of people and how to live fully.”
For those craving a lighter love story with comedy and a sprinkling of crime, Veronica Koven-Matasy, head of the reader services department at the Boston Public Library, recommended Alisha Rai’s “Enemies to Lovers,” which follows the daughter of a crime lord going on a “crazy cross-country road trip” with a man posing as an FBI agent.
Prefer a story about men being chopped into fertilizer? She also teased the August release of Minyoung Kang’s “Plant Lady,” a “cozy horror” novella about the vigilante proprietor of an Insta-famous plant shop in South Korea
“Every single one of these murders, you’re like, ‘Yeah, this is justified,’” Koven-Matasy said. “All of these men are stalking women, they’re abusing women. So people come in, and are desperate… and she’s like, ‘I will make your problem disappear.’”
And on the graphic novel front, Robin Brenner, head of reference and programming at Woburn Public Library, travelled to a galaxy far, far away to endorse Renaud Rochon and Lauren Hoffman’s “Lucas Wars: The True Story of George Lucas and the Creation of Star Wars.” With the recent passing of Lucas’ first wife Marcia, Brenner commended the novel’s focus on her key contributions to the “humanity and emotion” of the Star Wars canon, and its willingness to examine the struggles behind one of cinema’s most iconic franchises.
“It’s the period of filmmaking when there were a lot of young, new maverick filmmakers, and they were all kind of working together against the studio system, figuring out how to build something like that,” Brenner said. “It was a huge gamble, and of course we know it paid off, but I love that kind of behind-the-scenes look at something like that.”
It’s all on Under the Radar’s hour-long Summer Reading Special!
Guests
- Robin Brenner, head of reference and programming at Woburn Public Library
- Veronica Koven-Matasy, head of the Reader Services Department at the Boston Public Library.
- Jane Philbrick, manager of borrower services at the Cambridge Public Library
Callie Crossley’s summer reading list
Biography
- “Judy Blume A Life” by Mark Oppenheimer
- “ The Queen And Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History” by Susan Page
- “1873:The Rothchilds, The First Great Depression And The Making Of The Modern World” by Liaquat Ahamed
Memoir
- “Backtalker” by Kimberle’ Williams Crenshaw
- “The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir Of Love, Race, And Family” by Dorothy E. Roberts
- “Nonviolent: A Memoir Of Resistance, Agitation, And Love” by Rev James Lawson Js. & Emily Yellin
- “Arsenio: A Memoir” by Arsenio Hall
- ‘Shut Up And Read: A Memoir From Harriett’s Bookshop” by Jeannine A. Cook
Nonfiction
- ‘Kings And Pawns: Jackie Robinson And Paul Robeson In America” by Howard Bryant
- “On Morrison” by Namwali Serpell
Fiction
- “Kin” by Tayari Jones
- “The Seven Daughters Of Dupree” by Nikesha Elise Williams
- “Bad Asians” byLillian Li
- “Now Then” by Morgan Radford
- “Life: A Love Story” by Elizabeth Berg
- “American Fantasy” by Emma Staub
- “Keeper Of Lost Children” by Sadeqa Johns
- “Cool Machine” by Colson Whitehead
- “With Love From Harlem” by Reshonda Tate
- “Love By The Book” by Jessica George
- “If I Ruled The World” by Amy Dubois Barnett
- “Leave Your Mess At Home” by Tolani Akinola
- “The Author Weekend” by Laura Zigman
Romance
- “Yours Forever” by Farrah Rochon
- “The Missed Connection” by Tia Williams
- “The Romance Revival” by Christina Lauren
- “Score” by Kennedy Ryan
- “The Close Up” by Kennedy Ryan
- “Big Girl Blitz” by Danielle Allen
- “The Bridge Back To You” by Riss M. Neilson
Children’s books
- “A Black Girl And Her Braids” by Jaylene Clark Owens
- “While We’re Here” by Anne Qynter
- “A Good Hide” by Natasha Donavan, Karing Icebery Illus
- “Faith Takes The Train” by Kesi Augustine
- “How Sweet The Sound: A Soundtrack For America” by Kwame Alexander
- “Cranky, Crabby Crow (Saves The World)” by Corey R. Tabor
- “Now Way Wash Day” By Adrienne Thurman
- “Your Truck” By Jon Klassen
Older kids
- “Just One Gift” by Linda Sue Park
- “ Melodies Of The Weary Blues: Classic Poems Illustrated For Young People” edited by Sharmar Knight-Justice
Young Adult (YA):
- “Breakout” by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas , Ashley Woodfolk And Nocola Yoon
Robin Brenner’s summer reading list
- “The Murder at World’s End” by Ross Mongomery
- “Cinder House” by Freya Marske
- “Piper at the Gates of Dusk” by Patrick Ness (YA)
- “Lucas Wars: The True Story of George Lucas and the Creation of Star Wars by Renaud Roche and Laurent Hopman (Graphic novel)
- “There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood” by Rasheed Newson
- “Packing for Mars” by Mary Roach
- “Time Travel for Beginners” by Jaclyn Moriarty
- “The Ending Writes Itself” by Evelyn Clarke
- “The Raven Scholar” by Antonia Hodgson
- “Murder Most Camp” by Nicolas DiDomizio
- “Lady Tremaine” by Rachel Hochhauser
- “All Hail Chaos” by Sarah Rees Brennan
- “The Children” by Melissa Albert
- “The Traveler” by Joseph Eckert
- “Obstetrix” by Naomi Kritzer
- “The Face: A Cultural History” by Fay Bound-Alberti
- “Decoding the Devil: Black Women Codebreakers and the Secret War Against Stalin’s Bomb” by Sarah Valentine
- “The Escape Game” by Marissa Meyer (YA)
- “Red Star Rebels” by Amie Kaufman (YA)
- “More Weight: A Salem Story” by Ben Wickey (Graphic novel)
Veronica Koven-Matasy’s summer reading list
- “The Intrigue” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- “The Last Contract of Isako” by Fonda Lee
- “Enemies to Lovers” by Alisha Rai
- “Plant Lady” by Minyoung Kang
- “The Unicorn Hunters” by Katherine Arden
- “Star Shipped” by Cat Sebastian
- “Japanese Gothic” by Kylie Lee Baker
- “Cool Machine” by Colson Whitehead
- “The Mortons” by Justine Larbalestier & Scott Westerfeld
- “Fish and Water” by Gengoroh Tagame
- “The Feywild Job” (Dungeons & Dragons) by C.L. Poll
- “Restrung: A Memoir of Music and Transformation” by Vijay Gupta
- “I Punched An Alien and Now We’re in Couples Therapy” by Kimberly Lemming
- “The Disaster Gay Detective Agency” by Lev A. C. Rosen
- “The Language of Liars” by S.L. Huang
- “Dominion” by Jean Kwok
- “Palaces of the Crow” by Ray Nayler
- “The Someday Garden” by Ashley Poston
- “Radiant Star” By Ann Leckie
- “Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches From a White Mountain Apache Chef” by Nephi Craig
Jane Philbrick’s summer reading list
- “The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton” by Jennifer N. Brown
- “The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence – Before It’s Too Late”by Cory Doctorow
- “The Great Wherever” by Shannon Sanders
- “Take Me With You” by Steven Rowley
- “Sunrise” by Tea Obreht
- “Two Ships: Jamestown 1619, Plymouth 1620, and the Struggle for the Soul of America” by David S. Reynolds
- “Rasputin Swims the Potomac” by Ben Fountain
- “The Things We Never Say” by Elizabeth Strout
- “Land” by Maggie O’Farrell
- “A Quiet Place” by Seicho Matsumoto
- “Country People” by Daniel Mason
- “Villa Coco” by Andrew Sean Greer
- “The Author Weekend” by Laura Zigman
- “Wasp’s Nest” by Kat Stoddard
- “Enormous Wings” by Laurie Frankel
- “Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945” by Ian Buruma
