June 7, 2026 — Superb Summer Reads

Superb Summer Reads

June 7, 2026 at 7pm ET

Julie Carrick Dalton
Hilary Davidson
Isabel J. Kim
Jessica Strawser

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Julie Carrick Dalton

Julie Carrick Dalton is the author of The Forest Becomes Her, The Last Beekeeper, and Waiting for the Night Song. She is the winner of the New Hampshire Book Awards’ People’s Choice for Best Novel, and was a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award, the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature, and the ASLE Book Award. Her novels have been named to Most Anticipated lists from CNN, Newsweek, USA Today, Parade, and others, and were selected as an Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Book of the Month. A former organic farmer, forest manager, and beekeeper, and a TEDx speaker, she is a frequent speaker on the topic of fiction in the age of climate crisis at universities, museums, and conferences, nationally and internationally. She currently serves on the teaching faculty of Drexel University’s Creative Writing MFA program and is a frequent guest lecturer at Harvard. When she isn’t reading or writing, you can probably find Julie kayaking, skiing, swimming, gardening, or trying to track down her four children and two dogs.

The Forest Becomes Her

In historic, bucolic Concord, Massachusetts, a centuries-old forest has been removed to make way for a new, eco-friendly housing development. The locals are upset by the destruction, but out-of-towners like Hazel Stoddard are flocking to put down roots in their new guilt-free dream homes.

Soon a tragedy leaves Hazel unmoored in her new life, and she begins to feel the pull of the absent forest. Hazel is not alone—her neighbors, real estate agent Stella Flint and teenage environmentalist Polly Bauer, each have their own trauma and relationship to the land. The three women are drawn together to save the last remaining oak tree, or they risk losing themselves to lingering shadows that only they can see.

Hilary Davidson

Hilary Davidson is a bestselling, award-winning novelist and journalist. She is the author of two mystery series, one featuring amateur sleuth Lily Moore (The Damage Done, The Next One to Fall, and Evil in All Its Disguises), and the other featuring police detective Sheryn Sterling (One Small Sacrifice and Don’t Look Down). Hilary is also the author of two standalone novels (Her Last Breath and Blood Always Tells), two short-story collections (The Black Widow Club and Love Is Cruel), a novella (Dangerous to Know), and some 50 short stories, which have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Thuglit, Mystery Scene, Beat to a Pulp, and other publications. Her fiction has won two Anthony Awards and a Derringer Award, and has been translated into French, German, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, and Russian. Her eighth novel, the standalone thriller Every Lie I Told, will be published by Blackstone in June 2026. As a journalist, she is the author of 18 nonfiction books. Originally from Toronto, Hilary has lived in New York City since October 2001.

Every Lie I Told

Jackie Swift does whatever it takes to succeed. At work, she spins lies to protect questionable clients at a shady public-relations firm. At home, she helps her younger sister, Madi, evade consequences for dangerous choices she’s made about friends and drugs. But Jackie’s professional and personal worlds collide one night when she gets a call from Madi telling her she overdosed. Rushing to the rescue, Jackie stumbles on an awful scene at an Upper East Side mansion. Madi is nowhere to be found, but she’s left behind a dead body.

Worse for Jackie, she knows the dead man all too well: He’s her former boss and mentor, and she’s been paid to cover up his crimes in the past.

Jackie is willing to do anything to protect her missing sister, even as the NYPD builds a case against Madi, who may be involved in the deaths of other sexually abusive men. As Jackie searches for her sister–and sets up plausible suspects to take Madi’s place in the eyes of the police–she’s haunted by the terrible things she’s done in service of her career. And she soon discovers there are people who’ve been waiting in the shadows for a chance to take her down.

Isabel J. Kim

Isabel J. Kim is a speculative fiction author who lives near New York City in an apartment filled with books and swords. Her short fiction has won the Nebula, Locus, and Shirley Jackson Awards. She has been published in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, among other venues, and has been reprinted in multiple best of the year anthologies, including Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy ‘23, ‘24, and ‘25, translated into multiple languages, and optioned for film and television. She is a two-time graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and is delighted that she uses the creative writing degree more than the law degree. When she’s not writing, she’s co-hosting her internet culture podcast, Wow if True.

Sublimation

The border cuts you in two.

When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home.

Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral.

She doesn’t know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life.

How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?

Jessica Strawser

Jessica Strawser is Writer’s Digest Editor-at-Large and the USA Today bestselling author of 8 suspenseful book club novels, including Almost Missed You; Not That I Could Tell (a Book of the Month selection); A Million Reasons Why; The Next Thing You Know (a People Magazine Pick); The Last Caretaker (an Amazon Editors’ First Reads); Catch You Later (an instant USA Today bestseller), and her latest, The Quitters Club, coming June 1, 2026. She has written for The New York Times Modern Love and Publishers Weekly, served as 2019 Writer-in-Residence for the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County, and is a two-time recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award (in 2024 and 2026). She lives with her husband and two children in Cincinnati and loves connecting with readers on Facebook or Instagram

The Quitters Club

When four ride-or-die friends reunite for a getaway, they’re desperate for a break, a chance to reconnect. But each is hiding a deeper reason why. Marie feels like an impostor teaching “How to Say No” seminars while her marriage has evolved into something she never said yes to. Brooke’s most heartfelt goal–motherhood–is proving out of reach. Lucy’s dream career has broken her spirit, possibly for good. And Collins feels trapped in grief by her late husband’s legacy.

All their lives, they’ve encouraged each other not to give up–but they can’t do this anymore. Now, at a breaking point, they make a pact: Quit. And help each other through the fallout.

At first, it’s positively liberating. A husband gets a much-needed wake-up call. A singles retreat is a widow’s perfect escape. A very public career exit becomes a never-too-late return to college. And a childless life becomes a bold new plan to travel the world. But letting go will be more complicated than they imagined. Confronting hard truths about love, loss, and starting over, these four women must discover what’s worth fighting for–and what’s truly best left behind.

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