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Long after I’ve closed a paperback, I can tell if it was on my personal summer syllabus. Sweat stains and sticky splotches of ice cream dot the pages. Sharing a bag with damp towels and slick sunscreen containers leaves the spine soft and perfectly conditioned for lying flat on picnic tables and lakeside grass. Summer isn’t easy on books – or maybe it’s just me – but it’s the only season where reading can win you a prize from the library. 

As a kid, I flipped furiously through Nancy Drew and Percy Jackson with my eye on a pizza coupon or a pool pass (and – I promise – cleaner, more courteous hands prepared to handle a borrowed read). I remain devoted to the summer reading program, though my logging abilities are lacking these days. The tradition of blocking off a season for for-fun reading and public page-flipping might be part of why I’ve become a seasonally minded reader. Fall is for horror and historical fiction, winter for cozy classics and gothic despair; spring is for trying new things, and summer, sweet summer, is for Westerns and travel odysseys and family stories and short collections and everything in between. Because, if you’re gonna win that free book (or mug, now that I’m an adult), it doesn’t matter what you’re picking up. You’ve just gotta find your summer spot, sit down, and read. 

In this centennial season of the Austin Public Library, you could spend your entire summer reading only recent releases from local authors and never touch two that are exactly the same. From mystery to poetry, nonfiction to middle grade, our shelves runneth over with exciting unique publications this season. Five of those writers share a little bit about their latest works and their favorite reading spots in this summer reading issue.

This article appears in June 26 • 2026.

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Since Caroline joined the Chronicle as Music and Culture Reporter in 2025, she’s been charmed by Old Austin characters and watched new cultural strongholds sprout. Writing about music, books, cultural news, and visual art takes her everywhere from backyard shrines to festival sidelines. Born and cornfed in Omaha, Nebraska, Caroline studied in Portland, Oregon before making her way to the Live Music Capital. When she isn’t at a concert or reading a book, you can find her walking her dog, covering...