Good books are never out of season.
But the summer seems uniquely positioned — with weather and school schedules beckoning us to vacation — to offer the extended time for slipping between the covers of a novel, or a nonfiction volume, or anything that excites the imagination or intellect.
How to find them …
It’s never a bad idea to support your local independent bookstore. Here are some tools for deciding the best way to buy:
NewPages Guide: List of Colorado independent bookstores
Bookshop.org: Searchable database of bookstores nationwide
Here at SunLit World Headquarters, we work all year long to bring you excerpts from Colorado-connected authors, Q&As that peek further into their process and podcast conversations that delve even deeper. And at this time of year, we like to call on some of those authors to let us know what kind of books they think our readers might find worth packing for a beach read, tucking into a carry-on or just opening for an extended evening on the couch.
They responded as they always have — with imaginative and compelling selections across a variety of genres. From conventional novels, to history, to in-depth looks at burning issues, to experimental science fiction, there’s something to appeal to the widely variable tastes of Colorado readers.
As books often trigger an impulse buy, we’ve included links that can have a volume in your hands in short order. And aside from the authors’ selections, don’t forget to consider their own work, some of which we have excerpted in SunLit and to which we’ve also provided convenient links in their brief bios. The result is sheer literary abundance — and dozens of excuses to expand your personal library.
Summertime is a great time to read, but let’s be honest. There’s no time like the present.
Novel
Claire Boyles is a writer, teacher and former sustainable farmer. She received her MFA in creative writing from Colorado State University and lives in Loveland. Her short story collection, “Site Fidelity,” was featured in SunLit here and here. Her first novel, “Appraisals,” will be released in August but can be preordered here.
“How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder”
By Nina McConigley (2026)
This novel starts with a confession: The tween narrator, Georgie, and her sister, Agatha Krishna, have murdered their uncle. At once a wise reflective narrator and a naïve child, Georgie’s story of growing up Indian American in the heart of Wyoming includes intertwining colonial and family histories, power dynamics and the effects of abuse, and the complicated alliances and rivalries of sisterhood. The book, though serious, is delightfully funny, and anyone who grew up in the 1980s will appreciate the deep immersion in the era’s pop culture.
“I Am Agatha”
By Nancy Foley (2026)
Set in the rugged beauty of rural New Mexico, “I Am Agatha” follows the title character through a late-in-life romance that challenges her long-held commitments to solitude and independence. Agatha’s wry, unsparing voice is easy to love, even as her determination to live her own way threatens to reveal secrets best left buried. The novel was inspired by real-life painter Agnes Martin, and Foley’s prose is as striking and evocative as the art on which it is based.
Speculative Mystery
Tim Weed is the author of “The Afterlife Project,” featured in SunLit here and here, and two previous books of fiction. He serves on the core faculty of the Newport MFA in Creative Writing and is co-founder of the Cuba Writers Program. A former expert for National Geographic Expeditions, Weed spent the first part of his career directing international educational programs in Spain, Portugal, Australia and Iceland. He grew up in Denver and Littleton.
“What We Can Know”
By Ian McEwan (2025)
At first it may feel like a departure for this author because of the speculative far-future storyline, but as this novel goes on it morphs into something that is at once unexpected and, to McEwan readers, exhilaratingly familiar. There’s just something so immersive about McEwan’s fiction: the way he uses language, the vividness of his characters, the descriptive and emotional accuracy of his moment-by-moment storytelling. “What We Can Know” is a postapocalyptic mystery plot interwoven with a tense, page-turning contemporary love story. It possesses a cold-blooded inevitability similar to that found in the author’s other great novels, like “Amsterdam” and “Atonement.” To say more would spoil the fun, but read this novel, you won’t regret it!
“Nonesuch”
By Francis Spufford (2026)
A speculative historical thriller set during the London Blitz in the early years of World War II, this gripping English novel has a lot in common with McEwan’s latest: the immersive quality of the prose, the vivid characters and page-turning plot, and the admirably fluid, pleasurably musical sentence-level prose. “Nonesuch” starts out as a straightforward historical novel, but it gradually slips into realms of mystery and magic in ways that will both delight you and send chills up your spine. Like McEwan, Spufford is one of those writers whose work readers tend to seek out; once you’ve read one of his books, you’ll want to read them all.
Historical fiction
Mariko Tatsumoto is an eight-time award-winning author of Adult, Young Adult, and Middle Grade novels that explore Japanese and Japanese American history, culture and adventure. Her book “Blossoms on a Poisoned Sea” was featured in SunLit here and here. She was born in Japan and raised in the U.S. from the age of 8. Before she became a novelist, she was the first Asian woman attorney admitted to the Colorado Bar. In addition to fiction, she coaches aspiring authors in the craft of writing through her writing handbook.
“Climbing in Heels”
By Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas (2025)
The author was one of the first successful women talent agents in Hollywood in the 1980s representing A-list stars like Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez and Nicholas Cage, when the glass ceiling for women was 10-foot thick concrete. This book follows three ambitious young women seeking to break through the male-dominated agencies when women were expected to be secretaries. They do whatever they have to in a sexist climate for a chance to become an agent in a world most young women today don’t understand.
“Midnight Climax”
By Peter Kageyama (2024)
Based partly on the true operation carried out by the CIA as a subproject of Project MK Ultra, the mind-control research program that began in the 1950s, this fast-paced thriller is a fascinating immersion into what might have happened during the experiments. We learn all this while following Japanese American private investigator Kats Takemoto in San Francisco as he tangles with the U.S. government, the mafia and Chinese Tong gangsters to solve the murder of a perhaps not-so-innocent woman related to someone Kats cannot say “no” to.
Short stories
Pardeep Toor is the winner of the PEN American Dau Prize, and his writing has appeared in the Best Debut Short Stories 2021, Southern Humanities Review, Electric Literature, Catapult and Longreads. His short story collection, “Hands,” was published in April, and was featured in SunLit here and here. He grew up in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, and is currently a librarian in Colorado.
“Carryout”
By Hasan Dudar (2026)
Dudar’s short story collection follows a Palestinian family who settles in Toledo, Ohio. This family immigrant journey explores issues of labor, belonging and the challenges of persevering identity in midwest America. You’ll love this linked story collection if you enjoy nontraditional immigrant stories that are intrinsically tied to an underrepresented American geography.
“The Plan of Chicago”
By Barry Pearce (2025)
Pearce’s short-story collection can be considered a love note to Chicago and its thriving neighborhoods and rich history. It also challenges the notions of grandeur as Pearce’s characters struggle through relationships, jobs and making it in the big city. You’ll love this collection if you enjoy immersing yourself into a community while embracing all its faults and vulnerabilities.
History
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández is the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and an immigration lawyer. He has appeared in the New York Times, CNN en Español, NPR, The Guardian and many other publications. His book “Welcome the Wretched” was featured in SunLit here and here. He lives in Denver.
“The Wanderers”
By Daniela Gerson (2026)
Two continents and 100 years is a lot to cover, but journalist Daniela Gerson does so in a captivating blend of intimate personal reflection and deep research. Focusing on her family’s migration story from a small city in present-day Poland early in the 20th century to Los Angeles today, Gerson celebrates the courage required to migrate and refuses to hide from the unseemly aspects of leaving.
“In the Shadow of Liberty”
By Ana Raquel Minian (2024)
Whether a Republican or Democrat occupies the White House, locking up migrants is a central feature of immigration law in the United States, but it hasn’t always been that way. A historian, Minian details the lives of individual migrants whose ordeals became key turning points in the growth of this vast prison network. In the process, Minian reveals an intricate tapestry of heartache and death promoted by politicians and approved by judges.
Romance
Sheri Cobb South is best known for her award-winning romance and mystery set in England’s Regency period. Her first Regency romance, “The Weaver Takes a Wife,” was published in 1999. Her 2024 novel “Fairest of the Fayre” was featured in SunLit here and here. Though a native and long-time resident of Alabama, she moved to Loveland where she has a view of Longs Peak from her office window.
“Road to Roswell”
By Connie Willis (2024)
Willis is a Colorado treasure, and although she’s best known for her time-travel science fiction, she often treats readers to a madcap romance romp with sci-fi elements. Her “Road to Roswell” is an excellent example and a great choice for summer, featuring a road trip across the Southwest with a matchmaking alien named Indy riding shotgun.
“The Sugar Queen”
By Sarah Addison Allen (2009)
Allen is a new favorite of mine, and her book is a great selection for anyone looking to beat the heat with a light snowfall in the North Carolina mountains. Josie Cirrini’s secret stash of candy bars is her only defense against a critical mother and a nonexistent social life, but all that changes when she discovers tough-talking Della Lee Baker has unexpectedly taken up residence in her closet. Allen’s blend of the magical and the everyday is mesmerizing, and the twist at the end took me completely by surprise.
Biography/memoir
Jacqueline St. Joan is a retired lawyer and Denver County Judge (1987-94), fiction writer, poet and essayist. Her memoir, “Your Verdict: A Judge’s Reckoning With Law and Loss,” will be published on Loving Day, June 12. It was featured in SunLit here and here. She is a member of the Hearthstone CoHousing Community and sings in The Spirituals Project Choir.
“The Mixed Marriage Project”
By Dorothy Roberts (2026)
This is a searching memoir that begins as an investigation into Roberts’ parents’ interracial marriage and becomes a compelling exploration of the meanings of race, love, family and the ethics of observation. Roberts’ willingness to confront unsettling ambiguities about her father’s motives, and her mother’s role inside the story, provide powerful intellectual analysis and personal reflections on how private lives become entangled with history and the myths families tell themselves.
“The Time of Our Singing”
By Richard Powers (2022)
This is a generation-sweeping novel about race, family, music and the longing to belong fully in America. Powers uses his extreme talent for language to explore music as theme and as content for presenting the intricacies of a mixed race family with both musical talent and social intelligence. It is a deeply rewarding novel of immense ambition asking whether art can transcend history. I loved it.
Thriller
Caleb Stephens is an award-winning thriller author writing from Denver. His novels include “If You Lie,” which was featured in SunLit here and here, and “The Girls in the Cabin,” featured here and here. His short story “The Wallpaper Man” was adapted to film by Falconer Film & Media in 2022.
“King of Ashes”
By S.A. Cosby (2025)
This is a Southern noir crime thriller about Roman Carruthers, a financial advisor in Atlanta, who is forced to abandon his life of opulence in order to return home to settle his brother’s debt. In doing so, he’s pulled back into his family’s crematory business, and the life he thought he’d escaped: A mother who vanished. A family in crisis. And a world where everything burns. Cosby’s writing is a treasure. So is this book.
“To All Those I’ve Killed Before”
By J.L. Hyde (2025)
Rachel Marless is a killer with only months to live. After her diagnosis, she has a choice: Confess to her crimes or let them die with her? After much contemplation, she chooses to share them with her only niece, Linnea. Linnea is shocked by what she hears — Aunt Rachel has done terrible things in her life, but she’s done them for a reason, and it’s one Linnea needs to know. But will Rachel live long enough to tell it? Hyde’s thriller is a must-read that far too few readers know about. It’s one of my favorite thrillers.
Environmental nonfiction
Hillary Rosner is an award-winning, Boulder-based science journalist who grew up in New York City but has called Colorado home for more than 20 years. Her book “Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World” was featured in SunLit here and here.
“Homesick for a World Unknown”
By Miriam Horn (2026)
George Schaller is the most influential wildlife scientist you’ve never heard of — the man whose field methods inspired Jane Goodall and whose expedition Peter Matthiessen chronicled in “The Snow Leopard.” In this fascinating, meticulously researched, first-ever biography of the reticent researcher, Horn brings to life — through interviews, letters and 20,000 pages of Schaller’s own field journals from around the world — a legendary man who led a purpose-driven life inspired by his dedication to protecting the natural world.
“How It Feels to Be Alive”
By Megan O’Grady (2026)
This gorgeously written book defies categorization: It’s part memoir, part art criticism, part manual for how to think about the place of both art and ourselves in the contemporary world. I love many things about this book, but partly I love that it is accessible, meaningful and captivating even if you aren’t someone who dwells regularly in the world of art. You might find yourself, though, as I did, inspired to seek out more art in your life after reading it. Which is something we could all use right now.
Sci-fi/fantasy
Ian Patterson has dreamed of being an author for decades, but finally began the journey with the birth of his first daughter. He has lived in various places along the Colorado Front Range for the past 25 years, and currently resides in Colorado Springs with his family. His novel “Transference” was featured in SunLit here and here. His next novel, “Fruits of our Labor,” is scheduled for release in August and is available for pre-order.
“There Is No Antimemetics Division”
By qntm (2025)
Originally published as a web serial in 2015, “There Is No Antimemetics Division” by qntm (the pen name of Sam Hughes) was picked up by Ballantine Books, fully reworked, and re-published in 2025 in a beautiful new hardcover edition. It’s told in a fractured narrative that feels like it’s falling apart in your hands, full of redacted lines and missing text. How do you talk about a book whose own internal story is being actively corroded and erased by the malicious entities it revolves around? It’s something that has to be experienced with as little prior knowledge as possible, I think. Fresh, experimental, and compulsively readable — I’d suggest it for anyone who likes their sci-fi with a dash of horror and a big scoop of weird.
“The People In The Box”
By Eponynonymous (2025)
The novel opens with scientists discovering that one-third of all people are not conscious, are essentially simulacrum of experience, and the threads holding society together begin to unravel. America, because this is a story of that particular brand of American violence, paranoia and insanity that echoes our times, descends into camps of religious, political and separatist militia zealots; into cults, communes and intentional livers; into townships and states breaking free from federal control. To call this novel prescient is to sell it short — it is about tech companies coming up with a technology they can’t control, about capitalism unhinging the heart of the world and opening us all to the void, and it is about a country on the verge of violence because they see in everyone else “the other” and not an echo of themselves. There are times when a book comes along that makes me stand up and pay attention. I cannot recommend this hidden gem more highly. It deserves to be read widely.
This story first appeared in Colorado Sunday, a premium magazine newsletter for members.
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