The Summer We Turned Bookish
The Ultimate June Readin’ List
By Readin’ Team Members
Edited by Reilly Nelson
Welcome to the first month of the Summer Readin’ Challenge! This June, we’re prioritizing queer books by queer authors and books by Black authors about Black experiences to honor Juneteenth.
Need inspiration for curating your June Summer Readin’ list? Below there are recommendations for each prompt, from the Readin’ Team to you.
Debut Author (Circa 2025): Leave Your Mess At Home by Tolani Akinola
Recommended by Sabrina Moorer
A terrific debut from Tolani Akinola! Leave Your Mess At Home follows four Nigerian-American siblings, all trying their best to figure life out. There is the canceled social media influencer back home in Chicago for the first time in a decade, the college student discovering her sexuality and self-image, the girl in love with her best friend who is getting engaged to someone else, and the only son, soon to be a father. They all have unique, sometimes strained relationships with their siblings, and after an unexpected reunion, they must learn to come back to each other. I love a coming-of-age story, and this book was like a four-in-one. Leave Your Mess at Home is funny, big-hearted, and above all, messy. I can’t wait to read whatever Akinola has in store for us next!
Book That Was Adapted to TV/Film: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Kloots
Recommended by Hanna Holman
Art by
You can never go wrong with a plain colored tee shirt and a few plain colored tank tops. These should be in basic colors and patterns to be matched with anything! This is especially important for layering, so you want to make sure they are good quality for when you take off the top layer
Book That Feels Like Summer: Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi
Recommended by Sara Shahein
Images by @sara.s.reads
Picture this: You wake up with the sunlight dancing through the cracks in your curtains. You decide to lean into this sunshine by spending the day outdoors. Maybe you’ll go for a morning stroll, a la Nicole Kidman, or just touch grass and watch the clouds pass above you. The possibilities feel infinite—until you step foot outside, met with hot, sticky, dragon’s breath humidity. This is what Little Rot by Akwaeke Emzi feels like. I went into this story blind, besides knowing it had polarizing reviews, although I do recommend looking into content warnings before you begin. I became newly enthralled with Emezi’s writing after reading You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty and Little Rot maintains Emezi’s punch-to-the-gut dialogue and cinematic scene building. Based on Little Rot’s title, I suspected there might be something sinister beneath the surface of this gorgeous cover, maybe another “unlikeable” lead, an ominous setting, or a deeper metaphor at play. I was correct—Little Rot has all of the above.
Reading this book is like waiting in line for an amusement park ride with a sweat soaked shirt clinging to your back. There is no escaping its uncomfortability unless you walk away, if you’re brave enough you’ll wait it out and earn the thrill of completing the wild ride. Little Rot follows a cast of characters through a whirlwind weekend of partying in Nigeria. Navigating faith, relationships, sex parties, and morality are just at the surface of this story. Emezi explores sex work, homophobia, patriarchal control, and the impact a place has on one’s beliefs. They bring the uncomfortable to the forefront of the story, showing readers these realities exist beyond the page. Little Rot is for readers that love high speed car chases, following multiple POVs, and thought-provoking prose.
Book That Takes Place During Summer: This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Recommended by Carly Zimmerman
While this book may not have a typical summer vibe, This Poison Heart follows Briseis the summer she inherits an old house from her biological mom. Briseis has magical powers around plants—trees and leaves lean toward her when she walks by and she can make plants grow—but she hides her abilities from most people until she arrives at the mysterious house. After finding a secret garden filled with poisonous plants, unraveling the history of her ancestors, and making some new friends along the way, Briseis learns she’s not the only one keeping a secret. This book had me hooked through all the twists and turns, and I loved the atmospheric setting of the house and garden. If you’re a fan of mystery, magic, and a bit of romance, This Poison Heart might just be the summer book for you! And by the way, when you finish this book and your jaw is on the floor, you can pick up the next book in the series, This Wicked Fate, to continue Briseis’ story.
June 2026 Release: Love, Gods & Sinners by Camille Chong
Recommended by Gabby Aspiotis
Release Date: June 11, 2026
This action-packed sapphic urban fantasy is a perfect read for the Summer Readin’ Challenge!
Tia and Harper are roommates and coworkers that fight (and flirt) by day, and adopt secret identities to carry out missions for their respective magical clans by night. Tia is the descendant of the Moon goddess, and Harper is Raven, soon to be leader of the Foxes clan. A cat-and-mouse game begins when each is assigned to kill the other. As they grapple with their growing feelings for each other, they start to question if they really know what is right.
I haven’t read this one yet but I’m so excited to pick this up when it releases! An enemies-to-lovers sapphic fantasy set in an alternate futuristic Singapore with a sword lesbian x dagger bisexual? Sign me up!
Memoir by a Queer Black Author: Choosing Family by Francesca Royster
Recommended by Cielo Maria
Choosing Family by Francesca T. Royster is a tender, thoughtful, and deeply personal memoir about the intersection of queer motherhood, race, and a variety of critical topics. The book follows Royster and her wife as they start their journey to become adoptive parents and consider what it means to build a chosen family.
What makes Choosing Family so compelling is Royster’s ability to weave conversations about race, sexuality, motherhood, gender, disability, and community without ever feeling heavy-handed. Her writing is thoughtful and lyrical, which invites warmth into her personal reflection. At its core, this book is all about creating space, joy, and belonging in a world that doesn’t inherently make room for queer families.
I especially loved the emphasis on "chosen family” and the assertion that anyone can build family through and with love rather than traditional expectations. Choosing Family makes you reflect on the people, places, and communities that shape and surround you. Add this to your summer reading list if you enjoy memoirs that are full of emotional depth and confront topics that others tend to shy away from.
A Black and/or Queer Anthology: Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought edited by Briona Simone Jones
Recommended by Ally Hendricks
Jones, perfectly encapsulates this prompt because, well, it is specifically a Black and queer anthology. This collection features poems, fiction, essays, interviews, and more from 1909–2020, showcasing that Black lesbian thought exists, has existed, and will always exist.
In the editor’s introduction, she says, “I aspire to trace the long history of love between Black women because I have come to recognize that our love stories have been buried underneath our activism. But our love, too, is both personal and political. Love and living are sacred to Black lesbians. Their words outline a hope and a future.”
The anthology is divided into five parts:
Uses of the Erotic (1909–2020)
Interlocking Oppressions and Identity Politics (1980–2020)
Coming Out and Stepping Into (1978–2020)
The Sacred (1970–2020)
Radical Futurities (1976–2020).
With its variety of passages and representation within Black lesbian experiences, this anthology is sure to resonate with a wide audience.
Book That Takes Place on a Beach or at a Summer House: My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner
Recommended by Rebecca Hall
My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner is not your stereotypical romance on a beach, but it’s perfect for this summer Readin’ prompt. Ginny and Elsie have been best friends forever. Ginny, who is non-binary, has also been in love with Elsie forever. Which makes things rather complicated when Elsie breaks off her engagement and invites Ginny on her non-refundable honeymoon trip to the Caribbean. The two spend a week together on a tiny private island and things get hot! My favorite aspect of this book is the way it examines what it means to be honest with yourself—in your relationships, in your sexuality, and in your other identities. Elsie and Ginny, like many people, have to figure out who they are alone in order to figure out how to be together. It’s always a good time to read a book by a trans or nonbinary author, but June is especially perfect.
Book by an Indie Author: The Oath by T.M. Richardson
Recommended by Leah Thakur
Images by @wisterialeah
Tati Richardson—T.M. Richardson when she self-publishes—is a Black USA Today Bestselling romance writer whose books are sure to make you swoon and sweat! Richardson recently completed her Secrets series and in the first book, Tatum’s husband passes away but before he does, he tasks his best friends with taking care of all of Tatum’s needs, and they do just that while discovering a love between each other as well! The Oath by T.M. Richardson is a steamy, why choose? romance that’s kinky and raunchy but full of so much heart and love.
A Queer Book by a Black Author: Pomegranate edited by Helen Elaine Lee
Recommended by Dani Morico
Pomegranate is a contemporary fiction novel that follows Ranita, a queer Black woman, who recently concluded a prison sentence for opiate possession. Leaving behind her support system and lover, Ranita navigates sobriety, marginalization, and abuse while working to attain custody of her two children. Helen Elaine Lee’s strong storytelling uses humor and complex characters to explore themes of loss, healing, identity, and the effects of the American prison system on Black families and Black women in particular. Prior to Pomegranate, Lee worked directly with incarcerated individuals by leading creative writing workshops that she helped to form with PEN New England.