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UD English professors reveal 2026 beach reads, tying summer picks to big themes in today’s culture

Jun 1, 2026

7 min

When summer rolls around, the best beach reads do more than just pass the time—they somehow capture what everyone’s talking about right now. That’s the vibe behind University of Delaware’s professor-picked list: books that are fun to sink into, but also surprisingly sharp about the world we’re living in. Think big feelings, messy relationships, culture shifts, and the kind of stories that make you look up from the page and go, “Yep, that tracks.”


"There Is No Antimemetics Division" By qntm


A Reddit novel turned print bestseller, "There Is No Antimemetics Division" is a surreal horror story that follows an X-Fileish government division fighting aliens whose battlefield is the human mind. How do you fight an enemy whose existence you cannot remember?

– Siobhan Carroll, Associate Professor

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"The Briar Club" By Kate Quinn

I'm a big fan of Kate Quinn. Her books never disappoint. Her writing is wonderful and captivating, and the voices and characters are authentic. This book, set in the 50s, is a post-war reflection on a group of tenants in a boarding house who, over food (recipes included!), become friends and navigate McCarthyism, conspiracies and fear. It is historical fiction written to remind us that history repeats itself.

– Christine Cucciarre, Professor





"Guido Brunetti mysteries" By Donna Leon

I've gotten completely hooked on these mysteries set in Venice. Fans will tell you the best is the fifth book in the series, "Acqua Alta," but be sure you read the first book to meet the characters!

– Emily S. Davis, Director of Graduate Studies


"When We Cease to Understand the World" By Benjamin Labatut

An English professor recommending a book detailing the lives of physicists, scientists and mathematicians? Yes! History, heady concepts, madness, melancholy and beautiful prose come together in a haunting way.

– Viet Dinh, Associate Professor

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"Dungeon Crawler Carl series" By Matt Dinniman

What if you smushed role-playing video games/tabletop games with The Running Man? Plus, there's a sassy cat who talks!

– Lowell Duckert, Associate Professor








"Just Kids" By Patti Smith

I've recently read "M Train" by Patti Smith, and now I'm looking forward to reading the book for which she won the National Book Award. Smith's memoirs can be impressionistic, but they often come down to some unexpected detail or some ongoing longing. If you know her music, you can sometimes hear it in the background, or you can spot those moments in her life when music would almost necessarily emerge as a great force gathered by her authentic approach to life. She's one of those writers who can change how you look for and find what most matters to you, how you look for and embrace your own soul.

– John Ernest, Chair in English


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"Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder"

By Caroline Fraser

I loved reading the "Little House" books as a child. It seemed like a life full of adventure and love, even through "The Long Winter." But this biography of author Laura Ingalls Wilder reveals a life full of struggle and loss behind the calico dresses and the fiddle lullabies. Caroline Fraser won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for "Prairie Fires," using unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records to pull back the pioneer spirit curtain and show readers the reality of life on the prairie.

– Dawn Fallik, Associate Professor




"The School for Good Mothers" By Jessamine Chan

Warning: Do not bring this book to the beach without plenty of sun screen, because you will not put it down and that might make YOU a candidate for enrollment in The School.


Second Warning: The book is compelling precisely because it will make you mad and freak you out. My wife gave it to friends as a Mother's Day present, and every mother who read it could relate.

– Peter X Feng, Associate Professor


"Audition" By Katie Kitamura

This book has been on my bedside table for months now, just waiting for the semester to end. I am a sucker for books that shift perspective in the middle (see also: Susan Choi's "Trust Exercise").

– Peter X Feng, Associate Professor


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"The Road to Tender Hearts" By Annie Hartnett

You might not expect a book that features domestic violence, children being orphaned and a 63-year-old man still pathetically dependent on his ex-wife to be funny. But I laughed out loud multiple times—and had some tears as well—as I read this novel! Follow the adventures of PJ, two children from his town, and a death-predicting cat as they road trip across the country. "The Road to Tender Hearts" was the best book I read all year!

– Jill Flynn, Professor






"The Stories of John Cheever" By John Cheever

One of the finest collections of short fiction ever published. Witty, magical, often devastating portraits of people navigating mid-century New York.

– McKay Jenkins, Cornelius Tilghman Professor of English


"Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches" By John Hodgman

This book is a collection of nonfiction essays by John Hodgman (Daily Show writer and "Judge John Hodgman" podcast and The NY Times Magazine column). It is laugh-out-loud funny in a very self-deprecating, Gen X way.

– Matthew Kinservik, Professor


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"Cloud Cuckoo Land" By Anthony Doerr

This is one of the best novels I've ever read. Ever. It follows three stories set in very different times and places (15th-century Constantinople, 21st-century Idaho, and the not-too-distant future on a spacecraft headed to a new planet that will support human habitation). It's a book about the value of books and human storytelling. The stories eventually get braided together in moving and surprising ways. Amazing.

– Matthew Kinservik, Professor





"The Wilderness" By Angela Flournoy

Have you wondered how your friendships in your early 20s might follow you into middle age? "The Wilderness" focuses on the friendships between four women: Desiree, Monique, Nakia and January from 2008 until 2027, when they are in their early 40s. They support one another through marriage, divorce, career anxiety, loss and a persistent set of questions about who they each want to be in the world and the lives they want to live. "The Wilderness" is told from many perspectives and details how culture, place, habits, friendships and childhood experiences combine to make and remake our adult lives.

– Davy Knittle, Assistant Professor


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"Kin" By Tayari Jones

"Kin" is about two motherless girls from Louisiana who find themselves as grown women on two very different paths, looking to other mother figures along the way. The writing is beautiful and engaging! I could not put this book down. I truly fell in love with all of the characters, and even the locations come alive.

– Meg McGuire, Associate Director of First-Year Writing

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"How to Solve Your Own Murder" By Kristen Perrin

This truly is a cozy mystery about a woman called Frances Adams—a resident of the moody Castle Knoll. When Frances is a teenager, she encounters a fortune teller who portends Frances's murder. Frances then spends most of her life sort of obsessively surveilling everyone around her, trying to figure out who will kill her. When she does die, her great niece Annie is surprised to learn that the late Frances has left Annie her entire estate, even though they have never actually met. When Annie arrives in Castle Knoll and at the estate, she follows in her great aunt's footsteps by holding all of the town's quirky characters at arm's length while she tries to discover who killed her late great aunt. This is an easy-breezy read, even if it does include a murder mystery at the center. Perfect for a day at the beach. Best of all, if you fall in love with the characters and the place, it's part of a series of three books, so you can keep going!

– Cathryn Molloy, Professor


"The Order of Time" By Carlo Rovelli

You could read any Rovelli book, really—I am reading the one on the birth of science at the moment— but this is the one that drew me in. He merges a physics/science‒centered approach to time with a human/experienced‒centered view of it, which I just cannot get enough of. It is beautifully written, at times verging on poetic, while also bringing in a lot of the information and knowledge I seem to have skipped over as a terrible science student. It's joyful and intense and meditative. And yes, this is what I read for fun!

– Amish Trivedi, Assistant Professor


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"The Season of Styx Malone" By Kekla Magoon

Two young Black boys in small-town Indiana fall under the spell of Styx Malone, a mysterious new kid who arrives for the summer and stirs things up by persuading them to pursue their biggest dreams and breaking a few rules along the way. I collect multicultural kids books and stumbled across this one six years ago. It captured me because it celebrates family and friendship, depicts young people with rich interior lives, and mixes in a little mystery and humor. There's something sweet and down-home about it. It's a refreshing little respite from, well, everything ...

– Délice Williams, Associate Professor


To speak to the professors more about what makes these books the perfect summer reads, email mediarelations@udel.edu. 

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