Welcome to Booking Through Thursday, a weekly bookish meme about books and reading for everyone who loves both. Booking Through Thursday was first hosted by Deb. With permission, I’ve restarted it in 2026.
This week’s prompt:
Those big books of summer, the ones you see everywhere. (Not to be confused with The Boys of Summer.)
Have any caught your eye this year? Have you read any of them? If so, did the book live up to the hype? If you have a recommendation, be sure to let us know.
Any of this year’s summer blockbuster books catch your eye?
How to play:
- On your blog: Copy the question/image for your blog, answer it there, and post a quick comment here with a link or trackback to your post so we can read it.
- On social media: Copy the image, answer the prompt, and post a quick comment here with a link.
- Right here: Answer in the comments and start the discussion here. No need to have a blog to play.
Note: If it’s your first time here, your comment may end up in moderation. (My spam filter is aggressive.) I’ll be in after my writing sprints to set it free.
P.S. The prompt is always open, and you don’t have to play on Thursday. Comment whenever you like!
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I have several so I am just going to link my post lol
https://thegentlechapter.blog/2026/07/23/booking-trough-thursday-the-books-of-summer/
Great choices and lovely covers. Thanks for stopping by!
Ann Patchett’s Whistler. I’m listening to it on Audible, and so far, I really like it. I loved her book Dutch House, and I’m a huge fan of her essays, so it was an easy decision to give it a try. And truth–I’m a little obsessed with Ann Patchett, from her owning and running an independent bookstore to her friendship with Kate DiCamillo, one of my favorite children’s book writers. Also, her support of emerging writers like Virginia Evans–they became friends and pen pals years ago after Evans wrote Patchett a fan letter!
Hi Von! I think I need to steal your answer. Ann Patchett’s Whistler is my big book that I haven’t tackled yet. I meant to buy for myself for my birthday, but then ended up buying two WWII books (I’m sure no one is surprised by this). My favorite of hers (so far) is still Bel Canto. I re-read it every few years.
On a side note. Kate DiCamillo is going to be at the Deep Valley Books Festival in October and so will I! I’ll be selling my books there, but let’s be honest, I’m really going for Kate.
Even after all these years, Bel Canto is still my favorite, too.
Ann Patchett is a national treasure. If you ever have the chance to hear her in person, go! She’s so personable and funny and down to earth. And she talks a lot about books. Bring something for taking notes. She’ll provide enough recommendations to keep you reading for years.
Stealing Von’s suggestion. I’m looking forward to Ann Patchett’s Whistler. I’ll probably save it as a reward for finishing the revision of The Marigold Miracle.
Not sure it’s a summer read but the book I’ve been seeing on my social media feeds the most this year is Kin by Tayari Jones and because I knew I wanted to read it (having previously enjoyed her books Silver Sparrow and An American Marriage which, like Kin, was also an Oprah’s Book Club Pick), I’ve been dodging spoilers like Neo dodging bullets. I not too long got the audio book and am enjoying it so far, though I haven’t got very far as yet mostly due to time. It’s currently number3 on the African American Literature Book Club bestsellers list. Number 7 is Pulitzer prize winning James by Percival Everett which I read last year and which is apparently still going strong. It was my first read of his (though I had seen the movie American Fiction based on one of his books). Also in the top 20, already on my TBR are The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy, Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (whom I read forever ago – The Color of Water, I think), Seven Days in June by Tia Williams, and Ghalen: A Romance in Black by Walter Mosely (read one book of his, Bad Boy Brawly Brown, and seen the Denzel Washington movie based on his Devil in a Blue Dress). Here’s where I blog on books https://jhohadli.com/joannes-extra-ness/
Those are all great picks! Avoiding spoilers is hard. I just finished Death of the Author, which I discovered via your blog. I didn’t read the whole review because you mentioned spoilers (thank you!). But the notion of a story within a story was enough to hook me. I need to visit to see what you thought of the story.
Thanks for stopping by!
Some great ideas here for future reading! I’m always up for anything by James McBride or Walter Mosely, and I’ve been eyeing Tayari Jones’s books for a long time…
Like others here, as soon as I saw that Ann Patchett had a new novel out, it went straight to the top of my TBR list. And I’m sure I’ll get to it… eventually. The problem is that The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion — maybe a sleeper hit of this summer? — got in the way. And that series, coupled with the realization it provoked that I am shockingly poorly read in many areas, launched an entirely new line of reading: Whitman, Shakespeare (Midsummer’s Night Dream and Julius Caesar), Plutarch’s Lives (which dovetails nicely with my current, sporadic, reading in Herodotus), which threatens to waylay any other reading ambitions for months to come. Not that I’ve finished any of this, admittedly aspirational, reading. It’s more like I read bits and pieces of things, decide to watch productions of Shakespearean plays and attempt to follow along with the text, wonder whether I need a different edition or translation of a work, etc., and then intersperse this more serious reading (OK, Midsummer’s Night Dream is NOT serious; it just takes some attention), with a mystery thriller or Elin Hilderbrand novel. And so it goes. Ann Patchett, as much I adore her books, might have to wait for September.
I know what you mean about feeling poorly read while reading Emma. The only thing I remember from reading Julius Caesar in high school is that we walked around for entire quarter saying, “Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!” I can’t actually tell you why we thought this was funny.
As much as I adore Ann Patchett’s books as well, I need to be in the mood for her writing, and that may also be in September. Let me know when you plan to start. Maybe we can compare note.