Summer Reading Recommendations

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Woman reading on beach - Getty Images

With beach visits, warm weather and more time to slow down, summer often inspires reading. The season prompts many readers to pick up new books and explore different authors. In March, the Shepherd Express compiled a list of some of Milwaukee’s locally owned bookstores. We followed by asking those stores for summer reading recommendations. They share their current favorites and what their customers are loving. Our staff added their recommendations. Remember, shop local whenever possible!

Downtown Books

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, Out by Natsuo Kirino and the timeless The Lord of the Rings series by J. R. R. Tolkien were favorites at Downtown Books. Staff mentioned Ali Hazelwood and Emily Henry for light summer energy featured in their new romance section.

Lost World of Wonders

For fans of comic books or those interested in getting into the genre, Lost World of Wonders, Milwaukee’s biggest comic bookstore, recommended the Absolute Batman and related Absolute Superman series. The Lost Fantasy books were another favorite.

Melon

Staff of indie bookstore Melon suggested The Agony of Eros by Byung-Chul Han, an exploration of love; and Like a Mad Gardener by Charlotte Winkler, a book of essays and drawings, for artistic and introspective material.

Renaissance Books

Renaissance Books at Mitchell International Airport is the perfect place to pick up a vacation read or for Milwaukee natives looking to explore their collection. Staff mentioned Ellen Hilderbrand’s works for a breezy beach read and similarly Elle Kennedy’s popular Off Campus series. Other recommendations were evergreen classics like The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and they often carry Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl stood out for science fantasy fans.

Story Keepers Books

Top picks from Story Keepers Books’ used book collection include horror novel Legend Has It by DJ Slater and Flirtinis and Fireworks by Kristen Fray, a second-chance romance. Both are set in Wisconsin and by local authors, featuring familiar locations for readers to enjoy.

Voyageur

Voyageur’s cozy ambiance welcomes readers to revisit classics like Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky and works by the Brontë sisters and John Steinbeck whose East of Eden is reemerging in popularity. For younger audiences, staff cited the Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books by Jeff Kinney, and the Dogman saga by Dav Pilkey.

The Well Red Damsel

Romance-only bookstore The Well Red Damsel, great for summer love stories, included Adversity by Ren Browne, Chase Me If You Can by Heather Frances, Last First Kiss by Julian Winters, The Missed Connection by Tia Williams, Scandal of the Summer by Alexandra Vasti, The Very Definition of Love by Sophia Benoit, Bromantasy by Maire Roche and Sparks Fly by Zakiya Jamal.

Wonderland Bookshop

Wonderland Bookshop’s collection of largely children’s books is great for kids on summer break. Staff highlighted Don't Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson and Dan Santat for young readers. For middle grades, Impossible Creatures and its sequel The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell. For adults, Caro Claire’s Yesteryear, You Won't Forget Me by Mazey Eddings were endorsed.

Woodland Pattern Book Center

Woodland Pattern Book Center, known for its support of smaller independent publishers and vast poetry collection, listed Study of Sorrow: Translations by Shangyang Fang, The Sri Lankan Loxodrome by Will Alexander, The Endless Week by Laura Vazquez, She Will Last as Long as Stones by Kathy Wu, and The World After Rain by Canisia Lubrin for some unconventional, lyrical reads.

What the Shepherd Express Staff is Reading

Caroline Dannecker

Shady Hollow: A Murder Mystery by Juneau Black

For fans of cozy reads and mysteries, Juneau Black’s Shady Hollow ticks the boxes: a colorful cast of characters, an amateur sleuth and an immersive setting. Featuring an anthropomorphic society of forest animals waking up to discover a less-than-beloved neighbor has been murdered, Shady Hollow follows local journalist Vera as she attempts to discover which member of the seemingly close-knit community has committed the crime. The first in the Shady Hollow Mystery series, it’s also the work of a local author. Juneau Black is the pen name of authors Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel, the latter of which is a librarian at the White Fish Bay Library. (Caroline Dannecker)

Sophia Hamdan

Sunburn, By Chloe Michelle Howarth

Summers in rural Ireland hum to life with its warm and fresh coastal breezes, brilliant green fields and, for young Lucy, her classmate Susannah. In her debut novel, Sunburn, Chloe Michelle Howarth transports readers to the countryside of Ireland, where Lucy’s passionate romance with the fierce Susannah gradually unfolds in the very conservative and traditional village of Crossmore. Lucy is captivated by her friend but faces guilt and confusion as she attempts to uphold the expectations of her Catholic household while loving Susannah. Howarth’s poetic, tender portrayal of queer romance demonstrates the bittersweet complexities of first love and societal pressures in our adolescence.

David Luhrssen

Thomas Jefferson, by Christopher Hitchens

In this slender, cogently composed 2005 book, the formidably witty, erudite British essayist examined the author of America’s Declaration of Independence. Christopher Hitchens used no more words than necessary to outline Thomas Jefferson’s philosophy and chronicle his political career, adding just enough biography to illuminate his pathway from Monticello to the Jefferson Memorial. The hopelessly compromised idealist that emerges from Hitchens’ account is contradictory and complicated. Jefferson really suspected that “All Men Are Created Equal” and was troubled by slavery … and yet, the enslaved provided him with a life so comfortable that he couldn’t bring himself to free them or advocate on their behalf.

Blaine Schultz

Unforgetting Flubber: The Making of an Unremembered Classic by an Unremembered Band, by Camden Joy

In 1989 Souled American released its second album Flubber. In the days of college radio and alternative rock the band was out of time, playing an odd version of roots music—a slowed down bluegrass with dub reggae bass guitar—that got the album’s pick song played on MTV’s “120 Minutes” exactly once, at 2:53 a.m. Camden Joy chronicles Souled American’s fierce iconoclasm as the group writes and records the album at Chicago’s Trax studio. Along the way he delves into how the band came to release four albums for the esteemed label Rough Trade. Souled American recently returned after keeping a low profile for decades. But the pebbles they tossed in the pond back then caught the ear of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, David Lowery (Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven) and John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats.

Andreas Scocos

Evicted, Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond

Many American cities struggle with poverty, physically evident in decaying housing stock and welfare statistics. This is evident on Milwaukee’s North Side, where block after block is filled with decaying duplexes and trash strewn lots. But even in blighted neighborhoods, some blocks have remained stable; despite seas of concentrated poverty, some people and blocks fare better than others. Why is this? Well, it’s complicated, but Matthew Desmond’s Evicted, Poverty and Profit in the American City, offers a piece of this puzzle.

In Evicted, Desmond looks at the relationship of housing stability and poverty through the lives of real renters and landlords he shadowed in Milwaukee. The book successfully marries firsthand accounts with qualitative data, providing a wraparound account of the phenomena. In heartbreaking fashion, Desmond exposes a rental system that is broken at its core, giving voice to the pain and profit, vice and virtue and exploitation of the rental market the American urban poor are faced with. Written masterfully and well sourced, the book takes on poverty from a new sociological lens via housing, producing a masterpiece on the economy of exploitation that operates in the American city.

Julia Watt

What It Is, by Lynda Barry

Between glitter glue, infinitesimally small collage bits and Sharpie on yellow legal pad, Wisconsin's own Lynda Barry and makes doodling in the margins seem artsy. Barry's philosophical musings, tales from childhood and unique creative prompts paired with her whimsical artistic style easily captivate and inspire me when summertime inevitably reduces my attention span. I first picked up What It Is at the world's largest bookstore in Portland, OR in Spring 2025 and it has since accompanied me on many long train or plane rides, challenging me to illuminate details I might not otherwise think of in my own writing and storytelling. Oh, and if she's reading this over in Madison: hi, we should get coffee sometime.