Books We Loved, June 2026

As the longest day approaches, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere, curling up with a book can seem like the last thing one wants to do. But what better use can you make of those seemingly eternal evenings, not the mention the shortening days that lie beyond the solstice? Here are three books we love—two historical, one contemporary, all emotionally complex in their own ways—to get you into the right mood for the summer months.

April Howells, The Unforgettable Mailman (Alcove Press, 2026)

In the midst of texting and cell phones, online websites and GPS, it can be difficult to remember an era when almost all communication took place by landline or snail mail, as it’s now called, and driving depended on the ability to read a printed map. But April Howells’s debut novel vividly recaptures that world.

The Unforgettable Mailman opens in Chicago in October 1966. The post office, overwhelmed with unsolicited mail in the days before the ZIP code, has shut down temporarily, and an elderly resident named Henry Walton decides that someone must deliver the mail. People depend on letters, after all, and without them, connections with their nearest and dearest will fade.

Henry himself suffers from a bad leg left over from World War I and an increasingly dicey memory. But despite these obstacles, he succeeds in breaking into the post office and leaving with approximately 300 letters, destined for places as far apart as Canada and the Dakotas. Throughout the story we see Henry’s interactions with the recipients of the letters as well as the letters themselves, and through the exchanges Henry’s own past becomes ever clearer. After a while, his journey intersects with that of Roger, a high-school student in search of the father who left home, and the two of them pursue the delivery of the letters as we learn more about what makes each of them tick.

This haunting novel, which came out this spring, captivated me from the very beginning. You can find out more from my New Books in Historical Fiction interview with the author, scheduled to run in mid-July.—CPL

Allegra Goodman, This Is Not About Us (Dial, 2026)

At the heart of This is Not About Us is an apple cake. One of the three elderly Rubinstein sisters, Jeanne, dies, and during her shiva service, the two remaining sisters, Sylvia and Helen, feud over whether it is an insult for Sylvia to have served a cake based on a recipe belonging to Helen. Of course, it’s more complicated than that. Jeanne mothered two sons over the course of her life, both of whom married and had children: Steve and wife Andrea have two big “athletic” boys, and Dan and Melanie have one musically talented daughter, Phoebe. Sylvia has one son, Richard, and though he is divorced, he has two daughters, Sophia and Lily. Helen has two daughters, but one is single and the other marries a woman; Helen’s direct lineage stops there.

We first meet these well-drawn characters while Jeanne is still in at-home hospice. By the time she actually dies, we know them fairly well and understand some of the dynamics that drive them. But in the chapters that follow Jeanne’s death, we get to know many of them even better. Goodman gives some top billing in their own space, with family members (and sometimes friends) showing up in supporting roles. In this way the novel functions as much as a short story collection as it does a novel. Debra, Richard’s ex, for instance, finds out in one chapter that Richard is dating someone and argues that she must be allowed to meet the woman as Sophie and Lily will necessarily be impacted. Sylvia, who remains close with Debra in spite of the divorce from her son, involves herself in this argument. Even Corrine, the girlfriend, takes Debra’s side.

Another chapter focuses on Phoebe, Jeanne’s granddaughter, and the person to whom Jeanne, a musician herself, leaves her precious violin. Phoebe returns home from college depressed after a breakup with her boyfriend and Dan and Melanie argue about how best to help her. Phoebe explains she no longer wants to be a musician, but her father insists she take ownership of his mother’s instrument anyway, as Jeanne intended. And she does, eventually, but not with the aim of performing in concert halls as he had hoped.

Like Phoebe, the grandchildren are the real stars in this book. It is a pleasure to eavesdrop on the kids as they deal with their respective coming-of-age issues. The reader gets to follow them to dance recitals, music venues, and even a natural birth in water. Because the Rubinsteins are a Jewish family, the unaffiliated reader gets to sit in on a Seder, a Yom Kippur celebration, a Bat Mitzvah and more. But Jewish or not, readers will recognize their own extended families in many of these stories, and they will likely concede that even the worst offenders have the best intentions at heart.—JS

Samantha Silva, Sometime This Century (Harper Perennial, 2026)

Annabel Blake has never quite fit into her contemporary surroundings. Unlike her older sister—Cassandra, a social media influencer who lives life to the hilt—Annabel naturally dresses and acts like a woman of Jane Austen’s time. As we find out in the first paragraph of this delightful new novel by Samantha Silva, “The consensus among those who knew her … was that Annabel Blake had been born in the wrong century.” Annabel agrees.

Yet despite this mismatch and her mother’s insistence that Annabel should study something useful like business instead of working for a literary agent, Annabel wants to be a writer. And she does, in fact, complete a novel. Her boss doesn’t agree to represent her but instead sends Annabel off to a worn-down country estate in England, where strange things start happening. Soon Annabel, with her sister and Cassandra’s friend/creative consultant, Billy, find themselves in Austen’s England, where the decrepit estate is in its glory. Naturally, a gorgeous Mr. Darcy lookalike soon presents himself, and Annabel begins to wrestle with the conflict between her new reality and her dreams.

It’s all deliciously lighthearted and humorous, but there’s depth to this story as well. Would Mr. Darcy be able to cope with a modern woman? Would that modern woman, however much she loves Jane Austen, really want to fit into a world that imposed so many constraints on her options? You can find out more from my blog interview with the author.—CPL