What Should I Read Next? Ep 539: Our team's best books of summer (Part 2)
Aug 25, 2026
Holly Wielkoszewski, media production specialist who shares seasonal picks; Shannan Malone, community manager who sparks bookish conversation; Bridget Misselhorn, community coordinator and indie bookstore sleuth; Will Bogle, executive producer and merch lead. They trade summer favorite reads across cozy sci-fi, dystopian worldbuilding, darkly funny noir, gripping thrillers, candid memoirs, and investigative nonfiction.
59:01
Track Your Reads With A Journal And Library History
- Keep a reading journal and separate notes for seasonal reads so you don't forget what you loved.
- Will and Bridget both used journals and Kindle/library histories to track lost summer books and recommend checking library hold history if needed.
Unexpected Fever Dream Novella Discovery
- Anna Burns' Mostly Hero is a short, neon-green fever-dream novella featuring a superhero, Femme Fatale, and a supervillain great-aunt.
- Bridget found it on display at Schuler's Books and loved its Lemony-Snicket wit mashed with Avenger-style fight scenes.
How A Rotary Year Shaped Burial Rites
- Hannah Kent's memoir Always Home, Always Homesick recounts her year as a 17-year-old exchange student in Iceland and how it shaped Burial Rites.
- Holly discovered it at a Sydney indie and says it enriches the novel if read nearby in sequence.
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Intro
00:00 • 6min
Team summer reading kickoff
06:15 • 1min
Reading check-ins and summer surprises
07:29 • 1min
Bridget on a busy summer and bookstore finds
08:50 • 10min
Mostly Hero: a fever-dream novella
18:40 • 3min
Always Home, Always Homesick memoir
22:06 • 4min
The Other Side of Hard memoir
26:02 • 5min
The One Day You Were My Husband
31:11 • 6min
Mossed in Space: cozy sci-fi
36:46 • 4min
Seek the Traitor's Son overview
40:49 • 6min
London Falling: investigative narrative
47:17 • 4min
Empire of Pain: Sackler family exposé
51:39 • 5min
Get Lost: darkly funny noir
56:52 • 3min
Wrap-up and book discovery notes
59:22 • 1min
How to follow and support the show
01:00:25 • 1min
Outro
01:01:46 • 10sec
#136589
Mostly Hero
Anna Burns
Anna Burns' Mostly Hero is a compact, offbeat novella that reframes superhero conventions through a sharp, satirical voice.
The story centers on a superhero named Hero and his complicated entanglements with a femme fatale and a supervillain great-aunt, blending comic-book spectacle with intimate domestic absurdity.
Burns employs idiosyncratic naming and a playful, precise prose that undercuts and illuminates the novel's emotional stakes.
The narrative alternates slapstick and pointed social commentary, making surprising observations about family, gender, and power.
Mostly Hero is brief, strange, and emotionally resonant, showcasing Burns' talent for inventive character work and linguistic play.
#55424
Always Home, Always Homesick
Hannah Kent
In Always Home, Always Homesick, Hannah Kent revisits her formative year as a teen on a rotary exchange in Iceland and traces how that time influenced her life and writing.
The memoir interweaves memory, place, and research, demonstrating how Kent's attachment to Iceland later fueled her novelistic work, including Burial Rites.
Written with attentive detail and emotional honesty, the book examines the pull of multiple homes and the complications of belonging between cultures.
Kent reflects on returning to Iceland for research and how relationships, genealogies, and landscapes informed her imagination.
The memoir is a contemplative, evocative account of becoming a writer and living with a divided heart between countries.
#89840
Moss'd in Space
Rebecca Thorne
Rebecca Thorne's Mossed in Space (presented as a cozy sci‑fi) follows a ship's life support system that calls itself Moss and the human crew who discover it.
The novel blends gentle humor, a sarcastic AI voice, and themes of belonging, caregiving, and found family as a young protagonist seeks a better life for her sister.
Thorne crafts an accessible, warm universe with small-scale stakes and emotional payoff rather than epic conflict.
The book leans into charm and character bonds, making it appealing to readers who enjoy Becky Chambers-style comfort SF. An epilogue hints at further adventures in a series format.
#983
• Mentioned in 51 episodes
Empire of Pain
The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
Ricard Gil
Patrick Radden Keefe
Empire of Pain is a comprehensive and damning narrative about the Sackler family, who built their pharmaceutical empire through aggressive marketing and questionable ethics.
The book traces the family's history from their early success with tranquilizers like Librium and Valium to the devastating impact of OxyContin, which contributed significantly to the opioid crisis.
Keefe's work is based on extensive research and exposes the family's ruthless business tactics, their influence on medical and governmental bodies, and their attempts to evade accountability for the harm caused by their products.
#46872
• Mentioned in 2 episodes
Get Lost
Justin Halpern
Justin Halpern's 'Get Lost' is a mystery novel that follows a father-daughter pairing as they search for the protagonist's missing ex-wife, combining sharp comedic banter with a page-turning investigative plot.
The book explores complicated parental relationships, particularly a lovable but flawed father whose reputation masks private failings, and places those dynamics within a locked-room style disappearance.
Halpern draws on his comedic voice and experience in television to craft witty dialogue and vivid character interplay while maintaining suspense.
The novel weaves in baseball culture and small-town color, giving the story a grounded, distinctly American backdrop.
Overall, it balances humor and heart with a propulsive mystery that evokes writers like Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard.
#17399
• Mentioned in 4 episodes
The Fine Art of Lying
Alexandra Andrews
Alexandra Andrews' 'The Fine Art of Lying' follows Claire, an ABD art history PhD and Manhattan stay-at-home mom, who becomes implicated in a gallery murder and the disappearance of an $18 million painting.
The novel combines whodunit elements with penetrating looks at the contemporary art market, museum decision-making, and the visceral, often ineffable reasons people love art.
Andrews uses the protagonist's art-historical knowledge to illuminate debates about value, taste, and institutional choices like deaccessioning.
As a suspenseful narrative, it also probes personal obsession, academic frustration, and how art shapes identity.
Readers appreciated its insider art-world detail and the way it prompts further exploration of artists and museum practice.
#6660
• Mentioned in 10 episodes
The Other Side of Hard
Everything You Want is on the Other Side of Hard
Ken Rideout
#19511
• Mentioned in 4 episodes
Audition
Katie M. Kitamura
Katie Kitamura's Audition follows an unnamed narrator who travels to Tokyo to support her boyfriend during his audition for a film, and then becomes entangled in a mystery surrounding a young woman and a death.
The novel is spare and elliptical, examining the narrator's dislocation, desire, and moral uncertainties.
Kitamura uses precise, controlled language to build a sustained sense of unease and to explore how people narrate their own lives.
Audition meditates on subjectivity, the performance of identity, and the ethical slippages that occur in intimate relationships.
The book has been noted for its cool, observant prose and ability to unsettle through minimalism.
#21993
• Mentioned in 3 episodes
Can't Spell Treason Without Tea
Rebecca Thorne
#46152
• Mentioned in 2 episodes
Seek the Traitor's Son
Veronica Roth
Veronica Roth's 'Seek the Traitor's Son' is a fantasy-tinged science fiction novel centered on two protagonists caught on opposite sides of a war and entangled in a prophecy neither desires.
The book expands Roth's repertoire beyond dystopian young adult fiction into sprawling worldbuilding and epic stakes.
It examines themes of loyalty, identity, and the moral complexities of conflict through dual perspectives and intertwining narrative threads.
Roth's storytelling combines fast-paced plotting with character-driven emotional arcs, aimed at both young adult and broader audiences.
The novel continues Roth's interest in moral ambiguity and the consequences of choices made under pressure.
#42670
• Mentioned in 2 episodes
Open Throat
Henry Hoke
In 'Open Throat', Henry Hoke crafts a compelling narrative about a lonely, queer mountain lion living under the Hollywood sign.
The lion's journey through drought-stricken Los Angeles explores themes of identity, loneliness, and the impact of climate change.
The novel is a wry commentary on American society, weaving together elements of humor, tragedy, and social critique.
#1512
• Mentioned in 37 episodes
London Falling
A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth
Patrick Radden Keefe
London Falling chronicles the true story of 19-year-old Zac Brettler, who fell to his death from a luxury apartment building on the Thames in November 2019.
His grieving parents discovered that Zac had been leading a secret life, posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch and becoming entangled with dangerous criminals.
Patrick Radden Keefe masterfully reports on the family's desperate quest to understand their son's death while exposing the seedy truths behind London's glamorous facade of wealth, corruption, and money laundering by post-Soviet oligarchs.
#23660
• Mentioned in 3 episodes
Burial Rites
Hannah Kent
Set in 1820s Iceland, Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a servant condemned to death for the murder of her former master.
Sent to await execution on a remote farm, Agnes is met with fear and hostility by the family forced to house her.
Over time, as she shares her story with the young assistant priest Tóti and the family, her humanity emerges, challenging their assumptions and revealing the complexities of justice, guilt, and redemption.
The novel blends historical fact with fiction, offering a poignant exploration of a woman's final months and the stark landscape that shapes her fate.
Last week you heard part one of our team’s selections for their best books of summer. And as promised, today we’re back with another round of book talk.
In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Executive Producer Will Bogel, Community Coordinator Brigid Misselhorn, Community Manager Shannan Malone, and Media Production Specialist Holly Wielkoszewski.
As with last week, today’s team members represent a cross-section of the bookstore. Today’s conversation features sci-fi and fantasy picks that range from cozy to dystopian, thrillers and stories with non-stop action, memoir, and nonfiction.
Find the list of titles discussed today and tell us more about your favorite summer reads on our show notes page.
Today we’re talking about summer books we’ve loved, but fall is just around the corner and that means it’s almost (or already!) sweatshirt season. Our shop is freshly stocked with all colors and sizes of our MMD Sorority Sweatshirt. We spent literal years finding just the right source for this sweatshirt: after a long, painstaking process, we're thrilled with how it came together. Based on our original sales from our limited spring release, so were you. Order yours now and shop all our merch, including our newly available Fall Book Preview print lookbook, at modernmrsdarcy.com/shop.
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