We’re a day away from welcoming June, the other side of El Niño, Love Island UK premiering, and summer-themed everything making its way into your shops, screens and wardrobe. To inaugurate a season that attempts to cover up the chaos around us, and succeeds with the promise of a holiday, I’ve compiled my June TBR list.

This was the first book I added to my June TBR list. While looking into books centered around rest and leisure, I read the phrases “fragmented, episodic narrative” and “investigative journalist,” immediately pulled out my list app, and decided it would be the perfect book to build anticipation before my holiday.

This collection of essays, vignettes, and reflections surrounds American author, journalist, and critic Renata Adler’s view of 1970s America. The New Yorker writer has always filled her work with irony and wit, and will definitely be an absolute breath of fresh air in a world that is never in order.

Does it have anything to do with summer? I don’t know, and I’m starting to doubt it. But this summer, I’ve decided to go into my reading list semi-blind.

This title has been on my mind since 2021, when someone mentioned that it felt like the kind of work Orion Carloto would enjoy. Five years of chasing a thought has led me here, and I only hope the book lives up to the feeling.

Writers & Lovers follows aspiring writer Casey Peabody at a pivotal point in her life. At 31, she faces financial instability while questioning both her art and the fulfillment it brings her. Summer does not appear to be a central theme here either, but a love triangle and a 1990s Boston setting already make it feel perfect for the season.

Rosa Montero has been one of my favorite Spanish authors ever since I first read La ridícula idea de no volver a verte in a crowded café in the center of Seville, near Calle Puerta de la Carne. I sat with my cortado for far too long, smoked a quarter of a Fortuna pack, and left before the final chapter could finish the job.

Montero’s new work explores the relationship between troubled, eccentric minds and the concept of the ordinary, made tangible only through those who exist outside of it.

Summer is still nowhere to be found as a theme or setting, but we continue.

Garvey’s story follows Ruth through two significant decades of her life as she navigates first love, grief, and growing up in the middle of it all.

June is in the title, so we’re finally getting closer to the theme. June Baby has been on my list since its 2026 release date was announced. I got a physical copy a week ago, and I can’t wait to read my first work by an author I’ve heard wonderful things about.

As much as I know I’ll enjoy reading this on a warm afternoon, I’m secretly relieved it wasn’t chosen for our online book club. We’ve had enough books about grief this year. At least for now.

The Land and Its People examines, or rather mocks, aging, global travel, and human behavior through a series of observations and encounters written with Sedaris’ unmistakable wit. Similarly to Speedboat, this looks at life’s trivial tensions due to prejudice, and laughs in the face of hate as it dismisses it.

Summer is always the perfect season for essay collections. As I run between activities and look for moments to rest, this is the kind of book I can read in fragments and still fully enjoy. This was an easy pick for my June TBR, and I hope to see more readers discuss Sedaris’ work.

I hope it’s summer-themed.

Pool House follows a widowed actress and her 20-year-old daughter as they navigate grief and loss. When financial desperation pushes them to rent out their home, they are forced to live in the property’s glass pool house instead.

Class, and the shame rooted in their perception of it, appears to tie this mother-daughter story together.

Grief seems to be a more obvious theme than summer so far, and I’m beginning to question my TBR list. I’m not going to change it, but I may start judging books less by their covers in the future.

Danika Crawley has it all, while Augie Elling has just lost everything. As the contrast between them grows through beauty, money, and family expectations, a shared love interest disrupts their dynamic. This one feels different. While looking into the upcoming release, I only caught the line: “Danika and Augie have one thing in common: they are both a little obsessed with Chat, the male nanny Danika hired for the summer.”

That alone was enough for me.

I try to avoid too many details before reading. Most media already seems to lack trust in my ability to understand what’s happening or predict where a story is going. Reading semi-blind also helps protect my opinions when it comes time to write reviews.

The Shampoo Effect follows Caroline Lash, a driven 28-year-old writer who leaves New York City for a quiet writing residency in a coastal town. A summer romance with a love-triangle twist feels destined to become the perfect mid-summer read.

This is the second book on the list set in Massachusetts, and one I plan to attempt to read in a single day since its release falls on the last day of the month. I am on a tight reading schedule by choice, and some of you hold me accountable.

And of course, our Online Book Club pick! Join us on Fable to read along and discuss all things summer, life, and literature.

Let me know what you’ll be reading this June, or even throughout the rest of summer.

Also, is anyone going on holiday? Have you already planned the books you’ll be bringing with you? Tell me everything!