So many Summer Reading Guides!

because we need more guidance in the summer, I guess?

Happy Summer! It’s that time of the year again. The kids are home, the weather is hot, and everyone who’s anyone in the bookish world is putting out their summer reading guides.

I’m not exactly sure why we need more guidance in the summer than in the other seasons, but I for one, am here for this tradition. I adore a summer reading guide and look forward to seeing them come out during this time of year. (In fact, it’s been one of the bright spots for me this month when my whole family has been sick with a cold from hell—we’ve been tested for everything else—for a literal month. Ugh.)

The readers/bloggers/podcasters who put these together work incredibly hard, and I love seeing each person’s curated picks because everyone's tastes are so different. I thought it’d be fun to share a few if you haven’t run across these yet. Some are more literary, some more beach-read friendly. Some are free and others require a low one-time payment or a newsletter/Patreon subscription.

I’ve printed all these out so I can make notes on them and can’t wait to spend some time digging through them because I’ve been in a major fiction-reading slump. (Major.)

*Note: I don’t know any of these bloggers and haven’t been asked to promote any of these.

My Favorite Summer Reading Guides

Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide - the OG creator of summer reading guides. Anne Bogel’s guide is always well put together and thought out. She reads every single book that goes in ahead of time. Her tastes and my tastes line up in some genres and not in others, but I always like hearing what she thinks about books even if some aren’t for me. This one is $15 as a one-off, but I highly recommend just getting her $5 Patreon subscription for a month instead and you can get the reading guide that way plus get all of her bonus podcast episodes.

Sarah’s Bookshelves Live Summer Reading Guide - Sarah does one of my favorite bookish podcasts and I’m a longtime subscriber to her Patreon, which is well worth the subscribe. Sarah is not a big romance reader, but she has a wide variety of picks from other genres, and I find my tastes often align with hers. Like Anne, she also reads every single book and vets them first before putting them in the guide. (A lot of work!) Her main guide is free and you can get some extra perks as a subscriber.

New-To-Me Summer Reading Guides

The BiblioLifeStyle’s Summer Reading Guide - This one is new-to-me but beautifully designed and free! Victoria has put together a list that has a variety of genres and even includes some summer recipes.

When Maddie Read’s Summer Reading Guide - This one is also gorgeous and it’s big (60 pages!) plus FREE. This one has a ton of books from a wide variety of genres and quick little one or two-sentence blurbs about each. If you can’t find something in this one, I don’t know what to tell you.

Parade magazine’s Best Summer Reads - This one isn’t an official summer reading guide but is a romance-friendly list!

If you want to add some literary fiction to your reading list…

The FictionMatters Paperback Reading Guide - This one leans literary and you need to pay for a subscription, but there were definite new-to-me books on there.

The Atlantic’s Summer Reading Guide - Their definition of a “breezy summer read” made me laugh a little. Definitely a list for if you’re trying to dig into some literary reads.

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That should give you more than enough books to add to your beach TBR this summer. And remember, you could always add mine! The Ones Who Got Away has a new summery cover that sure would look great in a beach bag! ;)

Do you have any summer reading guides you loved but that I missed? Feel free to share a link in the comments!

What are you looking forward to reading this summer? Does your reading change in the summer?