It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Summer reading season is here!

What's so great about the MMD Summer Reading Guide?

2023 marks our TWELFTH annual Summer Reading Guide and we couldn’t be happier about it! Our team here at MMD has been working on this for months, and we’ve been scanning the horizons for summer 2023 selections for actual years. Anne reads every single book in our guide from cover to cover, so we can speak to each selection with confidence. And, knowing reading is personal, Anne seeks not just to tell you why SHE loved a book enough to include it, but what your own reading experience might be like, so you’ll be able to recognize which books are right for YOU this summer.

Anne always seeks to share fabulous reads that probably aren’t on your radar, as well as her take on some of the season’s most-anticipated releases. The guide includes a wide variety of genres and publication dates, so you can turn to books you KNOW you’ll love and can also choose to explore outside your typical genres. You’ll be able to choose from plenty of books available right now, and also put in your library requests for books releasing later this summer. 

The MMD Summer Reading Guide is not sponsored in any way. There are no ads and no paid placements. It’s full of books we love (50 of them, to be precise), plus more good stuff to help you make the most of your summer reading: like our ever-popular Awesome on Audio feature, a plethora of backlist selections, “flight picks” (that’s complementary reads) for every title, a guide to finding your summer reading style, and more.

This year's guide by the numbers

months

We began work on this year's guide last October!

books

(and counting!) that Anne considered for inclusion

Categories

to help you quickly find titles that are right for you

live Unboxing events

May 18 at 1:00pm and 8:30pm EDT. Plus a replay to watch anytime!

Years

of summer reading goodness

Great Books

for your summer reading enjoyment

Your 2023 guide includes Unboxing access

Our guide stands on its own, but it’s better with Unboxing! Our 90+ minute book party offers a casual, unscripted, and high-energy peek at what books Anne chose for the guide and why.

This session is packed with real talk about our summer selections, and it happens live with people who love books as much as you do. Anne will share precisely what she loves about each summer selection, so that you can get a sense of if it’s right for YOU.  

Anne loves talking about great books, but she also loves answering YOUR questions—and that’s what we do at Unboxing! Want to know if a thriller is too dark for your taste, or why one of your most anticipated titles isn’t in the guide?

We hosted a couple of hundred readers for two live Unboxing events on May 18th—and they were so much fun! A replay of our live Unboxing event is included with your purchase.

Order your 2023 Summer Reading Guide

Our Summer Reading Guide is out! 

The guide is an included perk for our community members in the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club and What Should I Read Next Patreon communities. Read on to learn which community is right for you, and sign up now to get your guide when it drops.  

By popular request, this year we’re offering an a la carte option for those who don’t have the time or inclination to join a community. Your a la carte purchase gets you the Summer Reading Guide and access to the Unboxing replay to watch anytime. 

Order your Summer Reading Guide and Unboxing access a la carte now, or read on to learn how to get it as a free perk of one of our member communities. Your membership gets you all sorts of bookish goodness—and sustains our work for the long haul.

Two ways to join us

For the reader who wants

Explicit education and deep connections. Community, classes, and conversation.

Book Club is for you if you’ve ever thought…

  • I don’t have many like-minded, passionate readers in my real life.
  • I rarely see authors on book tour because they don’t come to my area.
  • I wish I could go back to English class: I’d appreciate it so much more now!
  • My book club is more social hour than readerly communion.
  • I love to read, but struggle to find books I LOVE.

For the reader who wants

Book talk on your schedule. Book recommendations galore. Thoughtful insight into today’s literary landscape and how it connects to your reading life.

Patreon is for you if you…

  • can’t get enough of Anne and the team.
  • like to listen on your own schedule.
  • would enjoy Friday Patreon-exclusive bonus episodes in addition to our public Tuesday episodes of What Should I Read Next?
  • want Patreon-exclusive episodes of One Great Book, Dear Book Therapist, and personalized Mini Matchmaking.
  • always appreciate thoughtful ideas for what to read next.

Our Summer Reading Season

This summer in Patreon

This summer in Book Club

Get your Summer Reading Guide
and so much more...

Choose the community that fits your reading life best.

PATREON

Where What Should I Read Next podcast fans get a peek Behind the scenes, Bonus episodes, and more Book recommendations.
$ 5 per month
  • 2023 summer reading guide
  • summer reading guide unboxing
  • SEASONAL BOOK PREVIEWS
  • FRIDAY BONUS EPISODES OF ONE GREAT BOOK, MINI MATCHMAKING, DEAR BOOK THERAPIST, AND MORE
  • LIVE ASK US ANYTHING AND LITERARY MATCHMAKING EVENTS
  • GET CLOSER TO THE CREATIVE PROCESS
  • CONNECT WITH OTHER WSIRN FANS
  • BOOK RECS GALORE

BOOK CLUB

The loveliest corner of the internet and your online home for community, classes, and conversation. An ample buffet of bookish delight.
$ 15 per month
  • 2023 summer reading guide
  • summer reading guide unboxing
  • SEASONAL BOOK PREVIEWS
  • LIVE MONTHLY BOOK AND AUTHOR CHATS
  • LIVE CLASSES LIKE READING WITH A LITERARY LENS AND 1 HOUR TO A BETTER #BOOKSTAGRAM
  • EXTENSIVE LIBRARY OF PAST EVENT VIDEO SESSIONS
  • COMMUNITY EVENTS LIKE READERS' WEEKEND, BEST BOOK OF SUMMER, AND READALONG AND JOURNALING SESSIONS
  • MEMBER MOBILE APP

Can't commit to a community right now?

Get the Summer Reading Guide and Unboxing Event for a $15 one-time purchase.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, simply choose the a la carte option. You’ll receive the guide by email. Our a la carte readers also get access to the Unboxing replay in their MMD Shop Account. 

Great question! Our communities have different scope and emphases: we think of our Patreon offerings as being bite-sized, while MMD Book Club is more like a buffet. We encourage you to choose the one that best works for you and your reading life. (20% of our readers are members of both communities.) 

Our WSIRN Patreon community is an extension of the What Should I Read Next podcast, and offers Friday bonus episodes (e.g., One Great Book, Mini Matchmaking, Industry Insights), peeks behind the scenes, and additional curated book recommendations to our readers in that space. Patreon is audio-first, which means you can mostly participate when it’s convenient for you. We host two events each semester in Patreon: one seasonal preview (like Summer Reading Guide Unboxing) and one additional event like Ask Us Anything, Live Mini Matchmaking, or Trivia Night. Our patrons also influence the show by offering input on future episode themes and guests and voting on our episode titles.  

Our slate of Book Club offerings is more robust, which is why we call it a buffet: we seek to offer lots of great literary content in this space, and don’t expect you to put everything on your plate! We host many live events in this space, including monthly book and author discussions, regular classes on literature and the reading life, and community events like our Readers’ Weekend, Best Book of Summer, Reading Life Rehab, Readalongs, Join Us for Journaling, and more. Our live events are video-driven, but you don’t need to attend live to participate: we record our events so you can watch on your schedule. Our custom-built member site also sets Book Club apart: our 24/7 forums makes it easy to enjoy all the book talk your heart desires, and connect with other readers who love books as much as you do. 

The Summer Reading Guide Unboxing is our marquee event. In 90+ minutes, Anne runs through all the books in the guide telling you more about why she picked them and what she loves about them. Our giant book bash is a BLAST! Many readers even take the day off work so they can join us for Unboxing and then pore over their guide and schedule all their library holds.

Yes! We record all our events so you can participate on your schedule. But attending live is a lot of fun, plus live attendees get to ask Anne their summer reading questions. That’s why we host two live events to accommodate as many readers’ schedules as possible. 

However, you choose to join us there is an Unboxing replay available on the website.

The short answer is no. However, we’d recommend you check your communication preferences and make sure you’re getting emails from us.

Book Club members will get their guide via Book Club email; they’ll also get a reminder email with their Unboxing invite (aka zoom link) in it on May 18. Please make sure you’re currently getting event reminders from us; we want you to get your guide and Unboxing invite!

Patreon members will get their guide via patreon post (those are delivered by email within minutes of posting); they’ll also get a reminder email with this Unboxing invite (aka zoom link) in it on May 18. Please make sure you’re currently getting notified of new patreon posts; we want you to get your guide and Unboxing invite!

We wish! At this point in time, the technology does not allow us to create a dual membership. We’re hopeful this will change in the future! 

We're here to help

We sent the guide out by email on May 18th at 8:00 am EDT (try searching for subject line “Your Summer Reading Guide is here!).
Unfortunately, as magical as email is it isn’t completely reliable, but don’t worry! If you can’t find the email you can still get your Summer Reading guide—it is attached to the Unboxing event pages.

If you are also not receiving 30 minute reminder emails or our new Sunday Dispatch please email [email protected] and we’ll get you sorted.

We published a Patreon post on Thursday May 18th at 8:00 a.m. EDT with the guide. If you do not have email notifications on for Patreon or you simply can’t find that email, don’t worry! The Summer Reading Guide is attached to this post.

We sent the guide out by email on May 18th at 8:00 am EDT (try searching for subject line “Your MMD Summer Reading Guide is here!).

Unfortunately, as magical as email is it isn’t completely reliable, but don’t worry! If you can’t find the email you can still get your Summer Reading guide—it is attached to the Unboxing replay page in your MMD Shop Account.

If you are not receiving any emails from us please email [email protected] and we’ll get you sorted.

This year for the first time, the Summer Reading Guide is an exclusive perk for our Book Club and Patreon community members or those who have purchased the guide a la carte. For more information about this change see the blog post What you need to know about the Summer Reading Guide coming May 18th.

We know many of you like to print your copy of the Summer Reading Guide and mark it up. That’s why we authorize readers to print one copy of the guide for personal use only: we’ve included a permission to that effect on the copyright page of the guide. If you choose to have the guide professionally printed, be sure to show them that permission.

We’ve also created a “printing file” for the Summer Reading Guide, which is styled in the way preferred by most professional printers. It’s in the Drive folder that contains your guide, and is clearly labeled as the “printing file.” 

Please note that printing prices have increased significantly over the past few years and this not an option we feel we can truly encourage in good conscience. We wanted to test drive the printing process for you this year—since prices have increased even since last May—so Anne had one printed at FedEx as a booklet with saddle stitch binding (that just means it will be stapled together like a magazine). We were quoted $37, but when we picked it up the total was actually $51.28 including tax. All that to say, if you really want a professionally printed guide ask a lot of questions about paper weight and binding and perhaps get yourself a couple of quotes. 

We’ve heard good things from our community about the online service Blurb. We have not tried this ourselves but many of you have told us that you’ve been happy with Blurb and have gotten good results at a significantly lower cost than the chain office supply stores.

Because printing is now so expensive, we created a standalone 2-page “2023 SRG Enthusiasm Meter” that’s designed for quick and easy home printing on 8.5 x 11 paper. This file is in your Drive doc and is clearly labeled. The “enthusiasm meter” appears in the final pages of the full guide, but we created this separate PDF to make it easy-breezy for you to print your own. This PDF contains every book title, grouped by category. Anne shared a photo of her home-printed enthusiasm meter on Instagram right here. 

If instead you plan to print at home, be sure to use a PDF viewer (as opposed to Preview) or some of the pictures may not print clearly. We know that Acrobat Reader works well. You can install Acrobat Reader here. Please be aware that this is a full color design and will use a lot of ink. You can easily print the file labeled “2023 MMD Summer Reading Guide” on 8.5 x 11 paper. The font will be on the small side, but we thought it looked pretty darn good when we tested it! 

Your Drive folder contains three gorgeous files:  

1. Your “2023 MMD Summer Reading Guide”: this is your guide!

2. Your “2023 SRG Enthusiasm Meter”: the “enthusiasm meter” appears in the final pages of the full guide, but we created this 2-page 8.5 x 11 PDF for quick and easy printing of only these two pages. This PDF contains every book title, grouped by category. If you like to print things, you may want to print this PDF before you sit down for Unboxing. That way you’ll have all the titles in front of you, and can easily track which books you’re most interested in during our session. And then you can tuck your enthusiasm meter into your journal or tote so you have it handy at the library, bookstore, or whenever it’s time to choose your next read. 

3. A “printing file” for the 2023 MMD Summer Reading Guide. You probably don’t need this file at all! If you’d like to have the guide professionally printed, most printers will prefer this file.


We will provide a replay after the Unboxing event. That replay will be available beginning May 19. Accessing it will depend on how you got your Summer Reading Guide.

We’re here to help! We really want you to get your guide as soon as possible so you can enjoy it! For any sticky issues we haven’t addressed above, please email us at [email protected] and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Our team is small but mighty! We typically respond within one business day, and often much sooner.

It’s always helpful to have as much information as possible so we can look into it right away for you. Depending on the trouble you are having this may mean: your email address, whether you are a Book Club member, Patreon member or a la carte purchaser, what type of device you’re using and the browser, or anything else specific to your situation.