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Sarah's Bookshelves Live

2026 Summer Reading Special with Catherine Gilmore and Chrissie Whitley | Ep. 224

Sarah's Bookshelves Live

Sarah Dickinson

Arts, Books

4.7 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Episode 224, Sarah, Catherine (@GilmoreGuide) and Chrissie (@ChrissieWhitley) celebrate the release of the 2026 Summer Reading Guide with a special behind-the-scenes conversation about putting this year's guide together. Catherine and Chrissie share what it was like participating in the guide for the first time, from the reading process to narrowing down their final picks, while Sarah talks about how much more fun her spring reading felt with the guide becoming a team effort. Together, they reveal their secret books from the guide, share what's still sitting on their summer TBRs, and reflect on the kinds of books they found themselves gravitating toward while reading for summer.

This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).

CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog.

Get the 2026 Summer Reading Guide

This year's Summer Reading Guide is bigger than ever — and now available as a full PDF with in-depth write-ups on every book.

Here's how to access it:

When you sign up, you'll also get:

  • 2–3 bonus podcast episodes per month
  • Full back catalog of bonus content
  • Weekly reading updates + more

All the details in the recent IMPORTANT DETAILS bonus podcast episode and post.

The Secret Picks for the 2026 Summer Reading Guide

Catherine

Chrissie

Sarah

Other Books Mentioned

More From Summer TBRs

Catherine

Sarah

Chrissie

Other Books Mentioned

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live.

0:11.9

I'm your host, Sarah Dickinson.

0:13.8

Join me every other week as we get real and sometimes a bit snarky about books and reading.

0:19.2

Let's get rolling.

0:20.7

Welcome to our 2026 summer reading special

0:23.7

episode and this episode has gotten a makeover this year. First of all, Catherine and Chrissy are with me,

0:30.6

which makes sense because this year, the summer reading guide became a team effort for the very

0:35.7

first time. Hi, Catherine and Chrissy. Hi.

0:38.3

Hi, I'm so excited to be here for this one. It feels like a big moment after all the prep that we've been doing.

0:45.3

It's like you guys's debut.

0:47.3

I know.

0:49.3

Our 2026 summer reading guide dropped yesterday.

0:53.3

This is my 14th year putting the guide together,

0:56.2

but our first year making it a full collaborative team effort. This year's guide is bigger

1:01.9

than ever before as of recording date. So this could change a little bit by the time this

1:07.4

episode airs. It includes about 65 books that we think would make great summer

1:13.6

reading and have all been personally read and loved by either me, Catherine, or Chrissy,

1:20.6

or more than one of us. As usual, our guide is divided into mood-based categories, some of

1:26.6

which will be familiar to you from past

1:28.6

years, and then some that are new for this year. So we have something light or fun, something

1:34.0

fast-paced or intense, slow-burn suspense, something with a bit more substance, something

1:39.1

different. And our two new categories are, number one, sad, dark summer. That was inspired by how much I

...

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