Ready to Escape into a Great Book?

Discover 144 new reading recommendations based on summertime destinations.Ìý

As a fan of speculative fiction, I think it’s safe to say that you can’t be scared of a chunky 400-plus-word tome, but we deserve nice (shorter) things too and nothing’s better than a short story collection. Not only do you get a great range of stories—and a great way to get more from your favorite writers—but it's also an easier time investment to help your reading pace. Short stories can be just as immersive as full-length novels, with plenty of genre-bending and experimentation, and these authors certainly pull it off well.



To make sure this list leads you to your next favorite read, I decided to pass on the juggernauts of the genre and include as many amazing, slightly under-the-radar collections as possible. So, if you need a quick palate cleanser or a boost for your Reading Challenge, take a break from those thick novels and check out the collections below.

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Happy reading!

This year, as part of our Summer Reading celebration, we decidedÌýto open up some space for Å·±¦ÓéÀÖâ€� hardworking staffers to share the books that they plan to read over the summer.

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The rules are pretty simple: Name three books you have on your summer reading list. No restrictions—might be a new book, an old book, an upcoming book, or even a genre classic heist story set in an alternate-world Renaissance Italy. You know, stuff like that.



The idea is that anything goes, and you will find an amazing assortment of recommendations here from our thoughtful, widely read, and uncommonly good-looking staff members.

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Feel free to browse around. Click on the cover art images for more details about each book, and you can use the Want to Read button if a particular recommendation floats your summer reading boat.

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Ciara Fogarty, Ads Account Manager

Good news, romance and romantasy fans. This summer? It’s going to be goooooood.

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As part of our annual Summer Reading extravaganza, ·É±ð’v±ð sorted out 99 highly anticipatedÌýromance and romantasy novels coming between May and the end of August, according to your fellow Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ members. As you shall see, there’s a ton of good stuff on the summery horizon. We’ve sorted the books below by month, according to each title’s U.S. release date.

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Some starting points for clicking around, in no particular order: A streetwise urchin meets a good-hearted swindler in Joanna Shupe’s historical romance The Gilded Heiress. Old college sweethearts stumble into an odd second chance in Mia Sosa’s contemporary rom-com When Javi Dumped Mari. And a deathly ill assassin falls for a morally upright healer in Brigitte Knightley’s romantasy The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy.

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Also in the Book People Make the Best DetectivesÌýcolumn: Earlier this spring, readers on social media sleuthed out a surprise, previously unannouncedÌýnewÌýAli Hazelwood book publishing in May. Theories abounded, tea leaves were read, and lo, the people rejoiced when Hazelwood finally revealed the on her Instagram a month before the book's release.

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Click on the cover art images for more details about each book, and use the Want to Read button to add any good leads to your digital shelf.

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A Virginia crime family that operates out of a small-town crematorium. A new housemate who brings with her a curious graveyard smell. Two mysterious men who aren’t who they say they are—who might not even be two men at all.

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Those are just a few of the story hooks on offer from books publishing this summer—an especially busy one for mysteries and thrillers.

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To help with your summertime reading schedule, ·É±ð’v±ð dug deep into the stacks to sort out 72 of the summer’s most popular mystery-thrillers, according to readersâ€� Want to Read shelves. These are the books that have caught the collective eye of Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ regulars.

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The books are sorted by U.S. publication monthÌýfrom May to the end of August. You’ll find many of the usual suspects (Carl Hiaasen, Ruth Ware, Riley Sager) plus a generous assortment of subgenre types (the cozy mystery, the private eye story, the modern gothic). Adventurous readers will also find some historical mystery and metafiction fun.

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Click on the cover art images for more details about each book, and use the Want to Read button to add any good leads to your digital shelf.



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One of the enduring delights of reading is that immersive sensation of being transported to another place or setting entirely.

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And that, simply put, is the theme of this collection: Transport. Place. Setting. We've waded into the book stacks to provide 144 summer reading recommendations, sorted by the various types of vacation settings you might find yourself in this season. As a bonus feature this time around, we’re even including modes of transport.

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Scroll down a bit and you’ll get the idea. Maybe you’re in the mood for a story on a boat, or a train, or a classic road trip. Perhaps you’re looking for a particular destination: the mountains, the sea, a luxury resort. Or maybe you’re feeling really adventurous: Yellowstone National Park, the Arctic Circle, low-earth orbit at 17,000 miles per hour.

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The collection below spans pretty much every genre on the shelves: mysteries, romance, nonfiction, sci-fi, historical fiction, fantasy, thrillers, horror. The idea is to sort the stacks in a different, summertime, outward-bound kind of way. Click on the cover art images for more information about each book, and you can always use the Want to Read button to shelve a potential title for later review.

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Bon voyage! Safe travels! Watch out for alligators!

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How are you getting there?


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It’s no secret that we’re in a golden age of television, with multiple networks and streaming services in healthy competition. Movies, too, on screens big and small. The result is a wide range of quality options for anyone who loves the art of storytelling.

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Here at Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ World Headquarters, we’re devoted book people, of course. But when it comes to movies and TV shows, , too. There’s no reason we can’t enjoy the best of all worlds.

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Today’s collection is devoted to those who have found the kind of storytelling they like on-screen but don’t know where to turn for similar books. Luckily, our tireless editorial squad knows a little bit about TV/movies and a whole lot about books. We have some suggestions.

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For instance, perhaps you like The White Lotus, and you’d like to find a book with similar ratios of luxury and malfeasance. We have some ideas. Six, actually. Or you’re looking for interesting variations on the zombie apocalypse template, à la The Last of Us. Or Succession or Sinners or Yellowjackets or Nosferatu or ±á²¹³¦°ì²õâ€�

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Click on the book cover images for more information about each title. And you can use the Want to Read button to add books to your digital to-do shelf.

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Novels if you like

For today’s collection, we begin with an earnest appeal from the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ editorial team: If you’re not already in the habit, try mixing some short story collections into your regular diet of novels.

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It's great, we’re telling you. Short fiction moves to different rhythms, obviously, and it’s fascinating to see how different authors achieve different effects with the format. It’s also an absolutely fantastic way to discover new writers.

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We’ve gathered below a curated cross-section of new and recent single-author short story collections. All the books here have publication dates from the beginning of 2024 to April of this year.

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Some starting points, in no particular order: Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection features interconnected short fiction on the topic of, yes, rejection. Marie-Helene Bertino’s Exit Zero collects 12 strange tales on the guises of death. And dedicated fantasy readers already know that you just can’t miss with a Naomi Novik short story collection. Also look for new short fiction from Amanda Peters, Jared Lemus, Lydia Millet, and…hey, is that Rupert Everett? It is!

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Finally, our unofficial Best Book Title award goes to Jessie Ren Marshall for her exclamatory collection Women! In! Peril! Click on the cover images for more information about each book, and add any interesting leads to your Want to Read shelf.

As a genre, historical fiction tends to be restless. It often likes to jump shelves, wandering into other bookstore sections. This results in fun cross-category adventures like historical romance, historical fantasy, even historical sci-fi—a seemingly tricky maneuver, but it can be done.

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We’ve gathered several specimens of new and recent books in this area and sorted them into piles. Sarah Raughley’s The Queen’s Spade, for instance, is a streamlined historical mystery-thriller, with a kidnapped African princess fighting back against imperial power in 1862 London. Stephen Graham Jones� The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, likewise, brings historical horror—and vampires!—to the ruthless days of the American West.

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If you really want to cross some narrative wires, check out Kirsten Menger-Anderson’s new novel, The Expert of Subtle Revisions, which blends elements of mystery, love story, time travel, and Vienna circa 1933. You’ll find plenty of other veteran authors exploring these borderlands, including Jess Kidd, William Kent Krueger, Victor LaValle, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Brandon Sanderson.

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Scroll down for a tour of the cross-genre categories, and click on the book cover images for more details about each title. If anything looks promising, use the Want to Read button to add it to your digital shelf.

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