For the 18th consecutive year, the Swarthmore Libraries released its list of summer reading recommendations from staff, faculty, and students. Dedicated in memory of science librarian and “ultimate book lover” Meg Spencer, who passed away in 2015, the list includes personal accounts of Swarthmoreans’ favorite titles, with an array of authors, eras, and genres.

“When school's out, summer reading is in,” says Research & Instruction Outreach Librarian Abigail Weil. “Our annual crowdsourced Summer Reading Guide highlights not only the strength of the Libraries' collections, but also the diverse interests of our community.” 

“This year's guide ranges from graphic novels to literary fiction, plus non-fiction books about mushrooms, birds, and even anthropodermic bibliopegy (look it up if you dare!),” she adds.

Additionally, Swarthmore is continuing its popular Staff Summer Reading Program, inaugurated last year. The program encourages staff members to keep track of how much they’re reading this summer, and participants can earn prizes as they meet goals before gathering for an end-of-summer pizza party. The staff has already read over 250,000 pages this summer collectively, and is racing towards its 500,000 page goal.

Genre meet-ups were a new addition to the Staff Summer Reading Program this year. Over snacks, readers traded recommendations and bonded over shared interests in horror, poetry, queer literature, graphic novels, and more at these events hosted by friendly librarians in McCabe.

Read on for selections from this summer’s reading recommendations, and be sure to check out the full list and those of previous years. With nearly 400 recommendations in all, there is truly something for everyone.

Below is a sample of 10 recommendations from the Swarthmore community:

Nick Forrest ’08, Associate Director, Advancement Marketing & Communication

Recommending: My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel (translated by Katherine Silver)

Set in 1986 in Pinochet’s Chile, this novel not only shows how queerness can exist under authoritarianism, but how queerness can be a means of survival, revolution, and power.

Planning to read: Midwestern Death Trip by Meaghan Garvey

Sorrel Ricou ’28

Recommending: The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

As a long time lover of fungi I picked up Tsing’s book purely because of the mushroom illustrations on the cover but quickly became delighted with Tsing’s attention to the intricate ties between human societies and the ecologies which they inhabit and rely on. Storytelling and analysis are woven together to paint a picture of the mycelial networks underlying every step we take, Tsing offers a possibility for how these networks model a way of life and decay which has offered me some hope and led to plenty of good conversation.   

Planning to read: The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Quinn Mass ’28

Recommending: Recursion by Blake Crouch

It was such a thrilling and action packed sci-fi. I don't typically like this genre, but this book made me unable to put it down. The time travel and mystery of it all was also really fun to think about conceptually.

Planning to read: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara; The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin; Every Living Thing by Jason Roberts

Laura Melbourne, Public Services Archivist, Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Recommending: The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron

It was exciting! Read this if you loved Our Flag Means Death. We need more queer, feminist, historical, romantic, decolonial pirate adventures!     

Planning to read: The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields. It looks like a great cozy read for a long summer day.

Janet Barkdoll '22, Assistant Dean of Admissions

Recommending: Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home and Belonging by Tara Roberts

It is a smoothly enjoyable read that also includes important history of slave ship wrecks (and the scuba divers who volunteer to excavate them). It treats the topic with humanity and honesty through a captivating memoir! Tara Roberts is the first Black female explorer ever to be featured on the cover of National Geographic!

Betsy Durning, Academic Coordinator, Psychology

Recommending: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

The writing is so extraordinary with no sense of urgency. No wasted words — every sentence a poem. A story in 1985 Ireland, coal merchant Bill Furlong makes a discovery at a local convent that challenges his past and forces him to confront the church. It is a treasure.

Planning to read: A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

Erin Kruh, Area Coordinator, OSE

Recommending: 1984 by George Orwell

I got to reread this book as an adult and it truly changed my perspective on so much, both of the book itself and our world today. It has kicked off my "Orwellian Spring" as I have now (re)read three  more of his pieces since March 2026.

Planning to read: Fourth Wing or the Powerless Series (recommended to me by a student)

Ashley Netanel, Associate Director of Health Promotion

Recommending: My Education by Susan Choi

Choi builds a rich world of complex, flawed, intertwined characters who are navigating love and longing. Her writing is rich and dense with detail that makes you miss the story long after you've finished.

Planning to read: Big Swiss by Jen Beagin; Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

Roderick Wolfson, Senior Planner / Project Manager in Sustainable Capital Planning and Project Management Department

Recommending: Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel

I knew I had a visceral reaction to love some abstract expressionist paintings but not others; yet I never understood the movement. This long yet very engaging book is a wonderful portrait of the New York contemporary art scene from in the 1940s and '50s. This tells the story by focusing on four women whose importance has been overshadowed by men they supported. The circle of abstract art I enjoy widened as I read this book and I remain disparaging of William DeKooning!

Planning to read: The Spy in the Archive; How One Man Tried to Kill the KGB by Gordon Corera

Arynne Zhu ’28

Recommending: Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan

This book on the trans experience doesn't shy away from the difficult realities of trans people. It also made a huge impact on me as a trans asian girl who doesn't often see herself represented in main characters.

Planning to read: Detransition, Baby and Stag Dance, both by Torrey Peters