Cool Books, Hot Days Ahead: What We're Reading This Summer

Every summer, we make ourselves the same promise: this is the summer we finally get through the stack of books leaning precariously on the nightstand. Then June happens, then July, then August. And, somehow, the only things we actually finished were a TV season rewatch and roughly 4,000 emails.

So, consider this your permission slip. Reading is the rare kind of summer "productivity" that’s both good for you and fun. Every year, our team swaps recommendations for the season ahead: ideally, one book to sharpen the professional saw (this is a metaphor; we don’t typically use saws in our work) and one purely for the joy of reading.  We've done this in 2023, in 2024, and again in 2025 if you want to peek at the back catalog.

Here's what we're reading and recommending in 2026. Grab a cold drink and a comfortable chair (or a warm patch of sand).

Susan’s Recommendations

Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson

Let's address the title, because Thomas Erikson absolutely wants us to: no, your colleagues are not actually idiots (probably. I mean, I haven’t met them all). His premise is that most communication breakdowns trace back to a simple fact, which is that people are wired to send and receive information differently. He sorts those differences into four color-coded types: the driven, the social, the steady, and the detail-obsessed. Is it the final word in personality science? Definitely not, and I'd take the tidy categories with a grain of salt. But as a practical lens for consulting work, it earns its keep. So much of what we do comes down to getting very different people to collaborate on something hard, and this is a good reminder that the "difficult" person across the table usually isn't being difficult on purpose. More often, they're just speaking with a different accent. You'll start spotting the colors in every meeting you sit in. (You'll also, inevitably, try to diagnose yourself. I did.)

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

"Fun" might be the wrong word for a book this dark, but I could not put it down. S.A. Cosby writes Southern noir with a literary big-block V8 under the hood, and All the Sinners Bleed is his best yet. Titus Crown is a former FBI agent who comes home to Charon County, Virginia, gets elected its first Black sheriff, and then must hunt a serial killer through a small town held together by faith, history, and long-buried secrets. It moves like a thriller but lingers like literature, with Cosby caring as much about why Charon is the way it is as he does about whodunit. Fair warning: it earns its title and gets genuinely violent in places, so it isn't for everyone. But if you want a summer read with real weight to it, you're in good company. It made Barack Obama's summer reading list, and I'd put it on yours.

Emily’s Recommendations

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Careless People came out in 2025 to some not-entirely-unexpected controversy. It's Sarah Wynn-Williams's insider account of her years inside Facebook (now Meta). Is she a 100% reliable narrator whose recall of events is completely accurate? Perhaps not; but that, in itself, is almost a (dare I say it) meta commentary on human communication. What are we doing when we post about things? What are our motivations, and who gets to judge them?  Whose interests are served by the platforms we treat as neutral pipes? How much of what a person presents online is the truth, the performance, or some uneasy blend of both? These are just some of the questions you’ll be asking yourself as you read through Wynn-Williams’s insightful, gossipy (in the best way), and sometimes shocking memoir. Hilariously, Meta's efforts to silence the book ended up doing its marketing for it: after an arbitrator barred Wynn-Williams from promoting it, the backlash sent it straight to the top of the bestseller lists. Disputed details don't erase sharp observations, and where there's this much smoke, I'm inclined to go looking for the fire.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

In spite of the increasing Tick-Tockification of the fantasy genre (if I have to read about another uber-attractive immortal teenager with pointy ears, I might scream), there are still incredibly written stories out there; The Name of the Wind is one of them. I’ve said it before, but the best fantasy stories are deeply human stories, and this one is no exception. It follows Kvothe, a gifted young man trying to become a legend, as told by the older, quieter man he grew into. He's the beating heart of the book, and he'll feel instantly familiar if you were ever the smartest kid in the class, the class clown, or (for the elite among us) both. It's beautifully written, and it asks what it costs to become the story other people tell about you. One enormous, structurally load-bearing I-beam of a caveat: this series is unfinished. The third book has been "coming" for well over a decade, and a non-trivial number of fans have made peace with the idea that it may never arrive.

Amy’s Recommendations

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page

For me, this is the ultimate feel-good summer read because it captures the transformative power of reading in my own life, offering comfort, a much-needed vacation, and an escape from Sisyphean angst and reality. The story follows Tilly, a grieving London book editor who rediscovers her world through a year-long treasure hunt left by her late husband: twelve ribbon-wrapped novels accompanied by letters pushing her toward healing and new horizons. Tilly reflects on how books can change us, “Adventures are waiting for you. It's time to open the page.” Striking the perfect balance between a gentle exploration of resilience and a cozy bookstore romance, this uplifting novel is a love letter to the power of stories that will resonate with anyone who turns to books to find themselves.

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

I know I’m supposed to choose a professional development book as my second choice, but I rarely read them (I leave the harsh realities to Susan!), so this is as close as I get to nonfiction! Seascraper evokes an atmospheric, texturally rich style that makes you feel the cold coastal fog and the weight of physical labor on the northern English flats, so that the setting almost becomes a character. Wood's writing elevates the mundane routines of working-class life into poetry as he tracks a young shanker named Thomas, who is trapped by family duty yet secretly harbors a passion for folk music. When a charismatic American upends his world, Thomas must confront his reality and face a harrowing trial on the shoreline. In this dark, uncertain space, he realizes the importance of recognizing his creative voice and its power to pull him out of the daily grind: “The song was a map out of the mud, a way to build a shore where none existed.” For anyone struggling to claim their creativity, this book reminds us that art offers a tool for reshaping reality.

Andy’s Recommendations

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

A lot of the hurdles in higher ed are really problems of complexity. The people are smart and well trained; the systems they work in have simply grown too tangled for any one person to track alone. Atul Gawande (a surgeon, so he knows a thing or two about high-stakes checklists) pulls examples from medicine, aviation, and construction to show how even brilliant professionals start dropping critical steps under that kind of load. His solution is almost insultingly simple: a checklist. What stuck with me is his case that reliably executing what we already know often matters more than knowing more in the first place. For anyone wrangling compliance, accreditation, or organizational change, it's a useful reminder that a thoughtfully built process gives professional judgment room to breathe, freeing people up for the parts of the job that genuinely need a human.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

In 1922, a Russian count is sentenced to house arrest in a grand Moscow hotel, with the warning that he'll be shot if he ever steps outside. It sounds like a recipe for tedium, but instead, Amor Towles turns Count Rostov's shrinking world into one of the most charming novels I've read in years, full of wit, warmth, and characters you'll genuinely miss once it's over. Underneath the charm, the book is really about how much agency we keep when our circumstances close in around us. Rostov controls nothing about the terms of his confinement, yet he has enormous power over who he becomes inside it, a distinction worth remembering whenever the world outside the hotel gets loud. Few novels make "bloom where you're planted" feel this earned.

Chris’s Recommendations

Peak Higher Ed: How to Survive the Looming Academic Crisis by Bryan Alexander

I read Bryan Alexander’s Academia Next several years ago and have followed his work since then. Alexander is a futurist focused on higher education, and his writing is valuable because he does not simply ask what is likely to happen next. He employs a disciplined methodology to explore what futures may be possible and what this means for higher education leaders. In his most recent book, Alexander examines the possibility that U.S. higher education has passed its high-water mark. He considers whether it may be entering a more difficult decade shaped by enrollment pressure, financial strain, technological change, political conflict, climate disruption, and changing public confidence in higher education. As someone who thinks scenario planning is underutilized in higher education, I especially appreciated the way Alexander uses scenarios to explore possible futures rather than offering a single prediction. This is very helpful because rather than trying to predict the future, colleges and universities need more systematic approaches to examine assumptions, recognize emerging risks and opportunities, and make decisions that are viable across multiple futures. I would recommend this book to higher education leaders and others who want to think more seriously about what may be ahead for colleges and universities.

Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories

I find it difficult to set aside the time to read an entire novel, or I start it and then have a week or two break, making it a challenge to pick up the plot again. This is what makes flash fiction so appealing. Flash fiction consists of very short stories that still feel complete. I first encountered it when I was teaching philosophy and one of my colleagues, who taught literature, recommended reading flash fiction as a break from long philosophical works. I immediately bought Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories edited by Tom Hazuka, Denise Thomas, and James Thomas. As the name suggests, the book contains 72 unique stories, each 750 words or fewer. The stories range from reflections on one’s own life to relationships to moments when something ordinary suddenly changes. These stories are ideal for the way that our time is often structured: ten minutes before bed, between meetings, in an airport, in the school pickup line, or on a vacation where young children somehow make uninterrupted reading both more desirable and less likely. Reading a story or two a day is a satisfying way to fit literature into the small openings of a busy life.

Kathy’s Recommendations

Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career by Lorraine K. Lee

This book is a strong coffee-break read for anyone who wants to stand out in a workplace where doing good work is no longer enough. Lee, a former founding editor at LinkedIn and Prezi with more than a decade of experience, offers practical strategies for building executive presence, leading meetings with confidence, and developing a personal brand. She emphasizes staying visible, taking initiative, and communicating with influence, using real-world stories and actionable ideas throughout. I found the book especially useful because it connects well to consulting work, where clients expect us to be knowledgeable, confident, and present. It also builds on many themes I have encountered throughout my career, and what I appreciate most is that it is practical and hands-on rather than simply motivational.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

If you enjoy science fiction, this hard-science novel from the author of The Martian is a winner. The story follows a former biologist turned middle school science teacher who wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of how he got there. The narrative moves between his immediate crisis in space and flashbacks to events on Earth. I saw the movie before reading the book, as I did with The Martian, but the story is intense enough that knowing the plot in advance did not lessen the experience. The book has echoes of E.T. as an unexpected friendship develops, adding a warm counterpoint to the challenges of surviving alone in space. Although I am a big science fiction fan, readers should know that the story leans heavily on hard science, so it may not appeal to everyone.