Summer 2026 Book Preview with Catherine Gilmore | Ep. 226
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.7 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to the Summer 2026 Book Preview with Catherine of Gilmore Guide to Books!
Today, Sarah and Catherine share 12 of their most anticipated books releasing in June through mid – August.
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.
Announcements
- One of the many benefits to supporting the podcast through either our Patreon Community or our Substack Community (both for just $7/mo) is that you get access to several bonus podcast episode series, including Book Preview Extras! In these episodes, Catherine and Sarah share 4 bonus books (2 each) we are excited about that we did not share in the big show preview episode. Get more details about all the goodies available and sign up here for Patreon and here for Substack!
Highlights
- A lightning round of some big summer releases that are NOT our personal preview picks.
- Catherine's theme this season was following her initial emotional reaction to a book, while Sarah's picks skew a bit outside of her usual comfort zone.
- Catherine chose books across historical fiction, cultural fiction, romance, humor, and thriller.
- One of the season's more challenging reads for Catherine comes from an author she trusts, while Sarah has two books over 450 pages.
- There's one debut in Sarah's stack this season — along with some historical fiction.
- Sarah has already read one of her picks — not only was it 5 stars, it's already a strong contender for book of the year.
- Plus, their #1 picks for summer.
Big Summer Releases
- Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer (June 9) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:28]
- God's Country (Cork O'Connor, 22) by William Kent Krueger (August 18) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:33]
- The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson (June 30) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:36]
- Biological War by Annie Jacobsen (July 28) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:43]
- Cool Machine (The Harlem Trilogy, 3) by Colson Whitehead (July 21) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:48]
- A Tender Age by Chang-rae Lee (August 11) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:53]
- Under the Falls by Richard Russo (August 11) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:55]
- Sunrise by Téa Obreht (August 11) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:14]
- Dominion (The Silk and Iron Trilogy, 1) by Jean Kwok (July 14) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:26]
Other Books Mentioned
- Less (The Arthur Books, 1) by Andrew Sean Greer (2017) [1:32]
- Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson (2023) [1:41]
- Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen (2024) [1:47]
- Empire Falls by Richard Russo (2001) [3:04]
Summer 2026 Book Preview
June
Sarah's Pick
- Whistler by Ann Patchett (June 2) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [6:53]
Catherine's Picks
- A Year of Marvelous Ways by Sarah Winman (US Release June 16) | Amazon
| Bookshop.org [12:23]
- Leave and Come Back by Lavanya Lakshmi (June 16) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [18:29]
- The Top of the World by Ethan Joella (June 30) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [21:59]
- Keep Them Close by David Ellis (June 30) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [26:39]
Other Books Mentioned
- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (2023) [8:05]
- The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) [8:54]
- Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (2016) [9:12]
- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (2001) [9:16]
- The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (2019) [9:17]
- State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (2011) [9:18]
- The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne (2017) [10:07]
- Tin Man by Sarah Winman (US 2018) [13:39]
- Still Life by Sarah Winman (2021) [14:24]
- Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, 1) by Kevin Kwan (2013) [19:54]
- Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding by Lian Dolan (2025) [20:12]
- The Best Lies by David Ellis (2024) [26:44]
July
Sarah's Picks
- The Half Life by Rachel Beanland (July 14) |Amazon
- Dad, Love, Me by Matthew Quick (July 21) | Amazon
Catherine's Pick
- City of Widows by Nadia Hashimi (July 28) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [30:28]
Other Books Mentioned
- Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland (2020) [15:26]
- The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland (2023) [15:28]
- The Women by Kristin Hannah (2024) [16:27]
- The Wives by Simone Gorrindo (2024) [17:48]
- The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick (2008) [20:39]
August
Sarah's Picks
- Everything That Is Beautiful by Louise Nealon (August 4) | Amazon
- Sunlight Finds You by Laura Moriarty (August 4) | Amazon
- Kitten by Stacey Yu (August 4) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [33:07]
Catherine's Pick
- You'll Love It Here by Natalie Sue (August 11) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [36:41]
Other Books Mentioned
- Snowflake by Louise Nealon (2021) [25:05]
- Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane (2019) [26:25]
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (2014) [28:54]
- The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty (2012) [29:14]
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963) [36:01]
- I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue (2024) [37:51]
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm your host, Sarah Dickinson. Join me every other week as we get real, and sometimes a bit snarky about books and reading. Let's get rolling. Welcome to the 2026 summer book preview. |
| 0:23.7 | As usual for these quarterly preview episodes, Catherine is joining me. Hi, Catherine. Hi. Today, we are |
| 0:31.1 | highlighting the books we are excited about that are coming out from June to mid-August of this year. And all the books were highlighting |
| 0:40.0 | today, with the exception of one for me, were not in the summer reading guide. Oh, and I don't think |
| 0:47.8 | any of mine were. Yeah. So this is like a whole new crop of books. I really wanted to be intentional about not putting books we hadn't read yet anywhere in the summer reading guide. |
| 0:59.4 | It's going to be fresh. |
| 1:01.2 | Yeah. |
| 1:02.2 | I had already read one of my picks, so that is in the summer reading guide. |
| 1:06.0 | But I'm going to talk about it in more detail today. |
| 1:08.1 | Before we get to our own preview picks, we like to quickly let |
| 1:12.4 | you all know about some big time releases that are coming out that we are not going to talk about |
| 1:18.4 | on today's show. These are books we know a lot of people will be excited about, will be interested |
| 1:22.4 | in reading, but they're not our personal picks for today. So I've got four. |
| 1:30.4 | Villicoco by Andrew Sean Greer. |
| 1:32.6 | He is the author of Les. |
| 1:35.1 | God's Country by William Kent Kruger. |
| 1:37.9 | The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson. That is the sophomore novel by the author of Pineapple Street. |
| 1:42.8 | And Biological War by Annie Jacobson. Annie Jacobson wrote |
| 1:47.1 | nuclear war, which I read a couple years ago. I listened to it on audio. These are nonfiction |
| 1:54.2 | books about scenarios, let's say. Oh, yeah. So she did nuclear, obviously, and now we're going biological. They're |
| 2:05.1 | terrifying. Yeah. Why is this coming out in summer? I don't know. That's a great question. |
| 2:13.4 | It's not your average summer read, but I would have put it in the sad, dark summer category in the summer reading guide if I could have gotten a galley, which I could not get. |
... |
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