HU’s Summer Reading List 2026 

As summer comes to a close, our staff reflected on the books that most impacted them this season. In this list, you’ll find a range of titles that challenged, moved, and inspired us, and we hope they do the same for you.

Maria Selde 

Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness by Jamil Zaki

Thank you to Farha Tahir for this recommendation! I found this book to be a real breath of fresh air, and a reminder how cynicism often tries to pass as wisdom, when really, it can trap our thinking. Zaki outlines how hope is an active, evidence-based skill. It really resonated with me, especially in my own attempts to keep finding the goodness despite the hurt and pain we see in the world. If we can lean into ‘hopeful skepticism’ and nurture trust even in the most challenging or fragmented spaces, we can build bridges back to one another.

Melanie Greenberg 

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

This beautiful novel takes place at the very beginning of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The love story at the center of the novel mirrors the hardening of identities across Catholic and Protestant communities, with devastating results to individual families. The audio version is especially lyrical, with the narrator capturing the accents and characteristics of all the voices.

Ayla Francis Foster

Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith

This is Zadie Smith’s newest book, a collection of essays written in recent years that discuss culture, art, global politics, and what it means to be in community with your neighbors and the wider world. While it was hard to put this down, I intentionally savored this book throughout the spring and summer months because it was such a pleasure to sit with her beautiful writing. She remains an essential voice of our time and has an ability to observe human behavior with clarity and humor that few others can.

Caroyln Dallman  

The Overstory by Richard Powers is a book I keep coming back to. A multi-generational exploration of human connection, activism, and the natural world around us. Overstory, or canopy, tree roots are often two to three times the width of the tree branches themselves, weaving and connecting trees together as one, supporting each other, and providing strength and nourishment…something we humans have much to learn from!

Joan Marshall-Missiye 

Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy is a radiant meditation on love, memory, and the mysterious ways our mothers live within us long after childhood has passed. With the fierce intelligence, lyrical beauty, and mind-blowing honesty that I have always admired in Roy’s writing, this memoir is steeped in grief and reckoning. Her mother was not perfect, even abusive, but Roy frames their lives within the larger forces of patriarchy, power, inheritance, and resistance. Mother Mary Comes to Me reminds us that the deepest love is often the most complicated and that understanding those who gave us life may be the hardest journey we ever undertake.

Mia Aeschliman

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten is a beautiful memoir that details Garten’s decades of growth from her difficult childhood to writing nuclear energy policy at the White House to building the Barefoot Contessa empire that I’ve loved since I was a child. Through the unexpected challenges and joys, Ina takes the failures in stride and reminds us that sometimes a bad break turns out to be a blessing in disguise. Be Ready When the Luck Happens is a light-hearted read, perfect for any pool day or beach vacation.

Jennifer Oh 

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma is a short story collection that explores relationships, identity, and belonging. As someone with a short attention span for reading, I loved being able to dip into individual stories, and Peking Duck especially stayed with me for its memorable take on family dynamics and the immigrant experience, while also reminding me why Asian American voices deserve a wider audience.

Sandy Tesch Wilkins

Moderation by Elaine Castillo is a look inside the world of content moderation, the “hidden” (intentionally) tech contractors, and the grueling work they do. I loved so much about this book: the rich details of everyone’s interests and social interactions, even the way a nuzzling dog feels. And what the Bay Area means to Girlie, the main character, and what it means to have to move away. What I loved most was the role Girlie plays in her family, a provider, a rock for those who depend on her. And what she gains and sacrifices in her relationship with work and her employer. It is a depiction of the human cost of technology and the realities of global labor migration I won’t forget.

August Clayton

I am reading both Queen Mother by Ashley Farmer and Tell No Lies, Claim No Easy Victories by Amilcar Cabral. I chose Queen Mother because of such depthful history unearthed about the role of elders, especially Black women elders fighting for our liberation in the United States from the UN to the grassroots!

Sarena Chan 

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe 

Though I’m only partway through, Keefe is a spectacular non-fiction writer (if you haven’t read Say Nothing) and covers an interesting story of Gen Z, wealth obsession and the dark web.

Mia Rabkin

My favorite book I read this summer was Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. I loved how Zauner weaves together themes of grief, family, identity, Korean American culture, and the role food plays in preserving memories and fostering connection. Since much of the memoir takes place when Zauner was around my age, I found her perspective especially compelling, and the book has stayed with me long after I finished reading it.

Emily Risko 

Demon Copperhead by Barbra Kingsolver is a gutting and raw story about the opioid epidemic and the foster system. The characters feel so real and the story stays with you in a way that’s almost haunting. Even though it’s fiction I still feel like I learned so much from this story about the realities of addiction.

Audrey Cortes 

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett is a beautiful tale of two siblings reimagining what home means and creating a fierce bond over decades of their lives. Even through incredible loss and heartbreak, their relationship remains constant. I first read the book a few summers back, and I just listened to the audiobook version this summer. It is perfectly narrated by Tom Hanks and was every bit as wonderful as I remembered.

Rachel Oyelola

One of my most poignant recent reads is Pageboy by Elliot Page, which chronicles his journey as an actor, the breakthrough that was his role in Juno, and his journey with gender dysphoria and transition as a transgender man. As a millennial, Page was a visible figure in movies during my high school and college years, and to read about his triumphs and tribulations navigating Hollywood as a trans individual, as well as his setbacks and heartbreaks, was one of the most touching memoirs I have ever read. Ultimately, Pageboy is a story of becoming, of holding true to oneself in the midst of the stress of being in the public eye. Highly recommend for both fans of his acting and anyone who is looking for a deeply human story.

Raé Eakins

All About Love by Bell Hooks explores themes and messages around love. bell hooks shares wisdom, personal stories, and insight to illustrate how society’s perception of love often coexists with harm. This book explores not just how love is theorized but how it can be practiced. What is love as an action, as a commitment, as social justice, and as a responsibility.