The best travel companion isn't a person. It's a book that holds its nerve on a six-hour flight, still has something to say poolside, and leaves you a little altered by the last page. Summer reading is its own art form — not lesser than winter reading, just differently pitched. Less brooding, more propulsive. More likely to involve a glass of something cold and a view worth looking up for. These ten titles were chosen with a very specific reader in mind: someone with a window seat, a destination in mind, and the good sense to know that the right book makes anywhere feel more interesting. This is the Jules & Avery 2026 summer edit.
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01
Whistler by Ann Patchett
The novel of the summer. Ann Patchett — author of Bel Canto, The Dutch House, Tom Lake — returns on June 2 with a story that begins with a chance encounter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: a woman in her fifties, reunited with her former stepfather after decades apart. Early readers have called it her best. One reviewer noted that finishing it left them worried there might be nothing left to look forward to for the rest of the year. That is the review. Written after the death of a close friend, with all of that love transferred onto the page.
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02
Kin by Tayari Jones
Oprah's first pick of 2026 and her 121st book club selection — the one she chose to mark the club's 30th anniversary. Two motherless daughters from Louisiana, raised as cradle friends, who grow into entirely different women. Tayari Jones wrote An American Marriage. This may be better. 'Propulsive and compelling,' says the Boston Globe. 'A lush, beautiful novel about the family we make,' says the New York Times. Pack it for the long-haul. Read it slowly.
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03
Into the Blue by Emma Brodie
Reese's April 2026 pick, and one readers are already calling the quintessential summer read of the year. In 2000, AJ Graves is stuck in a video store in Massachusetts when Noah Drew — scion of a Hollywood dynasty — walks in and changes everything. Years later, she's cast opposite him on a sci-fi TV series. What follows is a love story about first love, the cost of ambition, complicated family dynamics, and what happens when fiction blurs with reality. 'A story that really stayed with me,' Reese said. One reviewer called it 'so much more than a romance' — and still completely devourable.
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04
The Missed Connection by Tia Williams
From the author of Seven Days in June — one of the most celebrated romance novels of recent years — comes this June 2026 release. A casting agent. A mysterious and handsome stranger met on a European flight. The detective she hires to track him down who may complicate everything. It is set partly in Europe, which makes it particularly apt for a carry-on. Tia Williams writes romantic longing with the kind of specificity that makes it feel real. Goodreads' most anticipated summer romance of 2026.
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05
Land by Maggie O'Farrell
Maggie O'Farrell wrote Hamnet, which means she has already earned the right to demand your attention. Her new novel, also arriving June 2, is set in 1865 Ireland in the aftermath of the Great Famine. A father and son. A map. The devastation of a country. O'Farrell maps the interior as precisely as the exterior — her prose is the kind that makes you put the book down not because it's hard to read, but because it's too good to rush. Save it for the beach. Read it in one long afternoon.
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06
Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser
Reese's March 2026 pick — a reimagining of Cinderella's stepmother as the actual hero of the story. Twice-widowed, raising two daughters and a stepdaughter she didn't ask for, managing a crumbling estate before a royal ball that has very different stakes than the one you remember. 'The evil stepmother is actually the hero,' Reese said. It reads like Wicked for people who prefer their fairy-tale retellings with more complex domesticity and less magic. For stepmothers, single mothers, or anyone who has ever wondered about the other side of a story.
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07
In Her Defense by Philippa Malicka
Reese's February 2026 debut pick — a legal thriller set in a London courtroom. A beloved TV star accusing her daughter's therapist of brainwashing. A former employee who holds the key to the entire web of lies. If you loved The Guest List or The Lying Game, this was made for you. Malicka's debut has the propulsive quality of a thriller you cannot leave alone at airports. The kind of book that makes you miss your boarding call.
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08
The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave
The sequel to The Last Thing He Told Me — Reese's January 2026 pick and the most-anticipated thriller of the new year. Five years after Owen's disappearance, Hannah and Bailey have built a new life. Then Owen reappears briefly. And then everything is in danger again. Beyond the Bookends gave it an exceptional review: 'I loved this even more than I loved the first book.' For readers who have been waiting since Apple TV+'s second season of the adaptation — this is worth the wait. For everyone else: start with the first book. Then board a flight.
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09
Room 706 by Ellie Levenson
Published by SJP Lit, Janury 2026 - Levenson has a gift for taking something deceptively ordinary—a hotel room, a fleeting encounter, a moment that could pass unnoticed—and turning it into a lens on intimacy, secrecy, and the stories we tell ourselves. Room 706 unfolds with a kind of controlled tension, where what’s left unsaid is often more revealing than what’s on the page. It’s the sort of book you read quickly, then find yourself thinking about later, replaying small details that suddenly feel much larger.
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10
Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune
Carley Fortune wrote Every Summer After and One Golden Summer — two of the most-read and most-loved beach novels of recent years. Her 2026 summer release follows two best friends with one week in paradise to either fix their friendship or let it fall apart entirely. It is heart-stopping and romantic and completely propulsive. Fortune is not trying to win literary prizes. She is trying to make you miss your stop. At this, she is flawless. The poolside closer.
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