When it comes to reading, it’s a great summer to be a locavore in Wisconsin.
My annual summer reading suggestions have always included some Milwaukee and Wisconsin books. But in 2026 I have encountered a bounty of new books with Badger State bona fides, both fiction and nonfiction.
Here is a selection of 38 new books to choose from, with a subset of choices for children and teens. In each case, I’ve either read the book or browsed it, been impressed by a previous work from the same author, or had the new book recommended by a trusted source of information.
These suggestions are listed alphabetically by title, with the children’s set arranged in ascending order of recommended reader age.
“The Albany Trilogy” (Library of America), by William Kennedy. Three novels about gangsters, gambles and politicians set in New York’s state capital during Prohibition and the Great Depression, including “Ironweed,” winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle award.
“All That It Seems” (Cornerstone Press), by Jim Landwehr. This Waukesha writer’s short story collection has an impressive set of topics and approaches, from the nursing-home rebellion in “The Mayor of Pidgeon Ridge” to the “Flowers for Algernon”-style cautionary tale of “Through These Eyes.”
“Baker’s Dozen” (Jaded Ibis Press), by Dasha Kelly. After the sudden death of Shay Baker, “a preacher’s kid turned party girl turned entrepreneur,” her friend Royal tries to make sense of what happened. Kelly has been the poet laureate of both Wisconsin and Milwaukee. She’ll launch her novel with a free event at 6:30 p.m. June 16 at Milwaukee’s Boswell Books, 2559 N. Downer Ave.
“The Birth of a Widow” (Kelsay Books), by Kathie Giorgio. Michael Giorgio died in 2024 from severe injuries he sustained after a minivan struck him while he was walking across the street. The driver of the vehicle was cited for not yielding to a pedestrian. Waukesha writer Kathie Giorgio began writing these poems about her husband almost immediately after his death. They chart the ebbs and flows of her grief, and her fury at the driver. Giorgio is one of three writers who will participate in a Vision Zero Summit event from 5 to 7 p.m. June 10 at Centennial Hall, 733 N. Eighth St.
“Bomb Threats” (Pebblebrook Press), by Mark Zimmermann. Smart, accessible poems from a Milwaukee writer. Some pillage the language and tropes of advertising and commercial speak. Other playful ones draw from time he spent in Japan.
“The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss” (W.W. Norton) by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Not a birdwatching guide, but a literary and artistic celebration of 49 endangered birds from the avocet to the yellowhammer.
“Canon” (Viking), by Paige Lewis. The poet Lewis messes around with the conventions and tropes of epic storytelling in this brash, humorous debut novel.
“Chasing Lewis’s Monkeyflower: The Amazing Afterlife of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s Wild Plants” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), by Elizabeth Adelman. The great explorers of America’s interior collected hundreds of plants on their travels. What happened to them is crazy and, in some cases, criminal. Adelman, owner of Mukwonago’s Heritage Flower Farm, sorts it out.
“Cinematic Immunity: An Oral History of New York Filmmaking as Told by the Crews That Got the Shot” (Feral House), by Michael Lee Nirenberg. The author interviewed crew members of dozens of movies and some TV series spanning the years from “On The Waterfront” (1954) to “The Sopranos” (1999-2007).
“A City on the Edge: Pandemic, Protest and Polarization” (Indiana University Press), by Dennis R. McBride. The mayor of Wauwatosa chronicles the challenging period of 2020-’21 in his city and ones like it around the country, including an intense segment on his response to months of protests and community conflict related to then-police officer Joseph Mensah killing, over several years, three people of color.
“The Dark Time” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), by Nick Petrie. In local writer Petrie’s new action thriller starring Milwaukee’s Peter Ash, the hero finds himself on the run in Seattle with a rescued child, facing a doomsday cult.
“Daughters of the Sun and Moon” (Scribner, June 9), by Lisa See. Three Chinese women in 1870s California navigate a dangerous time for women and immigrants in See’s historical novel. See will speak at 6:30 p.m. June 23 at Milwaukee Public Library’s Centennial Hall, 733 N. 8th St. The event is free, but registration is encouraged.
“The Dog’s Gaze: A Visual History” (Penguin Press), by Thomas W. Laqueur. Historian Laqueur explores the many forms and meanings of canines in art history. Both art- and dog-lovers will enjoy the images here.
“Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About: A Memoir” (William Morrow), by Isabel Klee. Often disappointed in human love, TikTok star Klee gives her heart to dozens of foster dogs. This is her and their memoir.
“The End of My Life Is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker” (Zibby Publishing), by Annabelle Gurwitch. Determined not to write an inspirational memoir about living with stage 4 lung cancer, actor-writer Gurwitch shares her pratfalls, worst moments and comic misadventures. Yet her book still ends up being inspiring.
“Experiencing God: 36 Ways According to Saint Francis of Assisi” (Monkfish Publishing), by Jon M. Sweeney. Former Milwaukeean Sweeney, who has often written about the saint that even many atheists love, suggests three dozen ways, some wildly surprising, to be a little more Franciscan.
“Ghosts of Fourth Street: My Family, a Death, and the Hills of Duluth” (University of Minnesota Press), by Laurie Hertzel. Having grown up in a large, chaotic household in the 1960s, Hertzel, a former Minneapolis Star Tribune book editor, writes about experiencing the death of a sibling when she was a child and the effect of that death on her family in this memoir.
“Ignore All Previous Instructions” (Tachyon Publications), by Ada Hoffmann. For the sake of love, an autistic creator may have to break the rules of an all-powerful AI corporation in this sci-fi novel.
“Indian Stories” (Everyman’s Library Pocket Classic Series”), edited by Rudrangshu Mukherjee. Thirty-seven stories in English from all parts of India, including ones from languages and regions less familiar to American readers.
“A Long and Speaking Silence” (Tordotcom), by Nghi Vo. This new novella in the Milwaukee writer’s Singing Hills fantasy cycle finds traveling monk Chih in the middle of a conflict between locals and refugees.
“Making Art and Making a Living: Adventures in Funding a Creative Life” (Celadon Books), by Mason Currey. In a book laced with humor, Currey ponders how artists of all kinds paid the bills (or didn’t) while creating their art.
“The Making of American Girl” (American Girl Publishing/Mattel Press), edited by Jodi Goldberg. Rich in both text and visuals – including photographs, sketches, images of fabric swatches and historical illustrations – this book traces the story of Wisconsin-based American Girl dolls and books from initial ideas through the first six dolls.
“Man Overboard!” (Gallery), by Kathleen Rooney. The author of “Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey” and “Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk” returns with a humor-laced novel filled with the thoughts of a man who finds himself trying to stay alive while treading water in the Gulf of Mexico.
“On Witness and Respair” (Scribner), by Jesmyn Ward. The author of “Salvage the Bones” and “Men We Reaped” offers a collection of her personal essays and appreciations of such Black artists as Toni Morrison, James Baldwin and Octavia E. Butler.
“The Patchwork Players” (William Morrow), by Jennifer Chiaverini. In the latest installment in a Madison writer’s popular fiction series, an actor in a historical TV drama brings her castmates to the Elm Creek Quilt Camp to work some crises out.
“Sanctuary” (Berkley), by James Cleary. In this novel set in the aftermath of apocalyptic climate change, a billionaire and his people are holed up in a luxurious underground bunker. But some determined and desperate people aboveground are coming his way. “James Cleary” is a pseudonym for Wisconsin actor and playwright James DeVita.
“Stevie Nicks in 50 Songs” (Running Press Adult), by Annie Zaleski. Veteran music writer Zaleski’s book is broader than its title might suggest. Of course Zaleski writes about songs Nicks wrote or sang, such as “Landslide,” “Rhiannon,” “Sara” and “Stand Back.” But the author also explores songs by others that shaped the young Nicks, and songs by younger performers that bear a strong Nicks influence, including Taylor Swift’s “Clara Bow.”
“This Is Where the Serpent Lives” (Knopf), by Daniyal Mueenuddin. The novelist, who grew up in both Lahore, Pakistan, and the Wisconsin community of Elroy, writes about rural Pakistanis awkwardly straddling the feudal past and the capitalist present.
“Two Bodies Are Better Than One” (Thomas & Mercer), by Erica Ruth Neubauer. In Neubauer’s darkly humorous mystery, a local advice columnist in rural Wisconsin tries to figure out why there’s a body on her lawn without becoming the next corpse.
“Violent Femmes” (Bloomsbury Academic), by Nic Brown. A new entry in the famed 33⅓ series dives deep into the debut album of Milwaukee’s greatest rock band. This song-by-song examination is based on interviews with all three original band members.
“Wisconsin in Bloom: Find and Identify the 141 Most Common Wildflowers” (Timber Press), by Michael Homoya. A guide, filled with close-up photos, to finding and identifying these natural gems in the many different microenvironments of this state. Helpfully organized by the chief color of each wildflower.
“A Woman’s Guide to True Crime” (Rock and a Hard Place Press), by Mary Thorson. In this spooky fiction collection, Milwaukee writer Thorson begins with real historical crimes or disasters, some set here, then imagines stories around them, nearly always with a woman or girl as the focal character.
“Won’t Back Down: Heartland Rock and the Fight for America” (W.W. Norton), by Erin Osmon. Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, Tom Petty, John Mellencamp, Bonnie Raitt and others get their due as musical counterforces to the Reagan ’80s, and as artists who took advantage of the rise of the CD format.
For children and teens
“Kaleidoscope of Hope: How Butterfly Life Cycles Reflect Our World” (Greenwillow Books), written by Miranda Paul. illustrated by Hari & Deepti. Wisconsin writer Paul blends lyrical storytelling with age-appropriate scientific information. This book also includes suggestions for creating butterfly habitats. For readers 4-8 years old. Paul will speak about her book at 3 p.m. May 31 at Milwaukee’s Boswell Books.
“Baseball for Breakfast: A (Mostly) True Story” (Charlesbridge), written by Judy Campbell-Smith, illustrated by Maggie Carroll. Through the eyes of a Black boy who loves baseball, this book re-creates the splendid experience of morning baseball games by the minor-league Milwaukee Brewers at Borchert Field in 1943. Owner and master showman Bill Veeck staged the games to accommodate adults who were doing shift work during World War II. For readers 5-8 years old. Campbell-Smith will speak about her book at 11 a.m. June 27 at the Wauwatosa Public Library, 7635 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa.
“The Shrew Detective: The Case of the Pilfered Pearls” (Amulet/Abrams), written by Margi Preus, illustrated by Junyi Wu. Minerva, an actual shrew, has to solve a mystery in a dangerous human house before the exterminator comes. This mystery filled with wordplay is the first in a new series. For readers 6-9 years old.
“Change of Plans” (Simon & Schuster), by Sarah Dessen. In this coming-of-age novel, recent high school grad Finley unexpectedly spends summer in a small town with her distant mother and a possible romance. For readers 12 years and older.
“Medicine Wheels” (Heartdrum), by Byron Graves. In this novel from an Ojibwe writer, a teen moves in with his grandparents on the Wolf Creek reservation for a summer of activism, skateboarding competition and first love. For readers 13 years and older.
Jim Higgins is the author of the books “Sweet, Wild and Vicious: Listening to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground” and “Wisconsin Literary Luminaries: From Laura Ingalls Wilder to Ayad Akhtar.”
Note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of a name.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 38 new books for summer reading in 2026
Reporting by Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
