Suggested Reads for June 2026

Millstadt Library
6 hours ago
8 min read

Looking for some book inspiration? Here are some suggested reads for June!

These books have been on the New York Times Bestseller List and at the top of the Millstadt Library's most circulated list. At the end of these lists, Nichole picks a book or two that she personally recommends.

We just reviewed First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison and are reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn for our next Senior Center Book Club meeting on Monday, July 20 at 11 a.m.

Without further ado, here are this month's picks!

Land by Maggie O'Farrell

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

Land is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away.

384 pages, Hardcover | First published June 2, 2026

Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews

Maeve and Therese Dunigan are sisters—but the two have been estranged for years. They could not be more Maeve, a rule-follower and Therese, a rebel. But when their mother's death brings the family back together, the two find that they have inherited a painting—one that could be worth millions and could save each of them from their respective wolves at the door. The only issue is, the painting might be a fake and the only way the can solve the problem is to find the original. This means a road trip—to Ireland, to their family roots, and to a mysterious crime that occurred years ago. With tensions simmering, the two hit the road and find themselves on twisty lanes, in colorful villages, at local pubs, and with handsome men whose gift of the gab is surpassed only by their charm.

Can Maeve and Therese find the real painting, remove a family curse, solve a cold case, and actually survive without killing each other? Join Mary Kay Andrews on a road trip that will entertain you for miles.

448 pages, Hardcover | First published June 2, 2026

A River Red with Blood by John Connolly

New York Times bestselling author John Connolly delivers a gripping new thriller in the beloved Charlie Parker series about two intertwined disappearances that leave a rural community in shock.

In Maine’s rural Kennebec River Valley, the body of a young man who ran away from a “troubled teens” school has been found in the water, apparently drowned after breaking his leg. Meanwhile, a teenage girl, not connected to the school, has gone missing and only one man will be up to the task of solving the two linked disappearances.

416 pages, Hardcover | First published May 5, 2026

Crescendo by Jane Healey

A piano virtuoso and his twin sister become rivals for a new spotlight—the adoration of a mysterious French patron—during the hot Parisian summer of 1957.

“An enthralling literary symphony of ambition, desire, and obsession.” —Layne Fargo, bestselling author of The Favorites and They Never Learn

Twins Natasha and Max Kitson have lived their lives on the road, together building Max's career as a world-renowned pianist, famous for bringing even the most stalwart audience members to tears. But when, at age 20, the former prodigy begins making uncharacteristic mistakes, he abruptly cancels his remaining concerts and moves himself and his sister into the home of an enigmatic French patron, never realizing that Henri has been his sister's lover.

In Paris, over the course of one summer, Natasha's long-simmering resentments and Max's deep insecurities drive the siblings apart as each vie for Henri's attentions. But neither twin can have their host entirely to themselves, because while, during the day, Henri woos Natasha with lavish gifts and trips to the ballet, it's Max's music that draws Henri from bed each night.

One part delicious family drama, and one part twisted love triangle, Crescendo is an altogether un-put-downable escape to the concert halls, ballet theaters, and bedrooms of 1950s France.

320 pages, Hardcover | First published June 2, 2026

The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson

An ambitious young woman insinuates herself into a tight-knit social set, shaking up friendships and marriages in a small seaside town.

When Caroline Lash arrives in Greenhead, Massachusetts, she falls head-over-heels for Van Whittaker, a fleece-wearing, litter-collecting, kayak enthusiast with long, floppy hair and the personality of a Border collie. Born and raised in this picturesque coastal village, Van runs with the same crowd he did as a His ex-girlfriend, Bailey, a beautiful girl who attracts men like moths to a flame; Augusta, old money, horsey, and snobbish; and Fran, surrounded by brothers and sons, too fed up with boys to ever consider marrying one.

Together, the group runs wild through the marshes, beaches, and bars of Greenhead, drinking on houseboats, spending long afternoons sunbathing with their children, and playing games the way they always have. But when Bailey discovers that she is pregnant with Van’s baby, the delicate balance of the group’s friendship is thrown off. Soon Caroline is cast out of the circle and what she does next—in a potent mix of fury and heartbreak—exposes long-held secrets and works the entire town of Greenhead into a lather. Dazzlingly funny, sexy, and as juicy as it is astute, The Shampoo Effect is a story of late-night parties, early mornings with small children, the dawn of midlife, and a group of old friends finally growing up despite all their best efforts to the contrary.

352 pages, Hardcover | Expected publication June 30, 2026

A Year of Marvelous Ways by Sarah Winman

Set in 1940s Cornwall following the unlikely friendship between an eighty-nine-year-old woman at the end of her story and a young soldier, reeling from World War II, at the start of his own.

Marvelous Ways has lived alone alongside a winding creek near the rugged Cornwall coast for nearly all her life, and has recently taken to spending her days sitting on the steps of her caravan with a pair of binoculars. She is waiting for something, but she's not sure what. She will know when she sees it and that is good enough for her.

Francis Drake, a young soldier adrift after the death of a fellow comrade, is grateful for the mission that guides his days. He has agreed to fulfil his friend’s last to hand-deliver a letter to his father in Cornwall. But Francis’s journey doesn't go as planned. After a brief, sweet, and serendipitous reunion with a woman from his past, Francis washes up in Marvelous's creek, broken both in body and spirit.

Marvelous will come to his aid, and an unlikely friendship will grow between these two solitary souls. Marvelous has lived a long life, with many loves and countless stories to tell, and Francis needs a reason to keep going—even just the hope that life still has more to offer.

288 pages, Hardcover | First published June 26, 2026

The Housewife by Natalie Barelli

Jodie always dreamed of being a housewife. And after a whirlwind romance, she marries renowned psychologist Dr. Roy Davies and moves into his perfect Beverly Hills home. But the fairy tale fades fast. Roy is distant, his friends view her as a gold-digger, and the house still reveres his late wife, Deborah, whose presence still looms over everyone and everything.

When Jodie learns Deborah became a recluse before death, she begins to suspect Roy was behind it. And the deeper she digs, the darker Roy's past appears―obsessive, controlling, unfaithful. Increasingly convinced he had something to do with Deborah's death, Jodie knows she should go to the police, but that would require revealing her own secret. A secret that could destroy her.

But Jodie won't be silenced. Because the truth about Roy is worse than she imagined―and now, trapped in a house built on lies, she must find a way out before she becomes the next perfect wife to vanish.

368 pages, Paperback | Expected publication June 30, 2026

ADRIANA'S RECOMMENDATION

Did you miss the Gone Girl craze in 2012? It is never a better time to jump on the train. Whether you've watched the movie or already know the twist, it is a thrilling mystery you can't put down.

Unravel the drama between Amy and Nick Dunne. Their marriage is coming undone after 5 years together when tragedy strikes. Will Nick and Amy survive their relationship? I read this book in a single sitting, and I hope you find it equally as engaging!

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Who are you? What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

Genres: Fiction | Mystery | Thriller |

Book Club | Mystery Thriller | Crime | Suspense

415 pages, Paperback | First published May 24, 2012

NICHOLE'S RECOMMENDATION

Murder in Little Egypt was a fascinating read. It was a terrible tale of murder, but what I really enjoyed was reading about areas that are familiar. I learned so much about the Little Egypt area and read about their life in St. Louis and the surrounding areas.

The crime was a true atrocity, but justice did prevail after all.

Murder in Little Egypt by Darcy O'Brien

The unimaginable crime of filicide takes on the cast of tragic inevitability in this haunting true tale of violence, greed, revenge, and death. Fusing the narrative power of an award-winning novelist and the detailed research of an experienced investigator, Darcy O'Brien unfolds the story of Dr. John Dale Cavaness, the southern Illinois physician and surgeon who in December 1984 was charged with the murder of his son Sean.

Outraged by the arrest of the skilled medical practitioner who selflessly attended to their needs, the people of Little Egypt rose to his defense. In the trial, however, a radically different, disquieting portrait of Dr. Cavaness would emerge. For throughout the three decades that he enjoyed the admiration and respect of his community, Cavaness was privately terrorizing his family, abusing his employees, and making disastrous financial investments as well as brawling and womanizing. What was not revealed in the trial, however, was that seven years earlier, in a homicide that had never been solved, the body of Cavaness's firstborn son, Mark, had been found shot dead in the woods of Little Egypt. In addition to a compelling chronicle that uncovers the truth behind two ghastly crimes and lays bare the Jekyll–Hyde psyche of their perpetrator, Murder in Little Egypt brings into stark midwestern light the hidden, gothic underside of an America bred on violence and bathed in blood.

352 pages, Paperback | First published January 1, 1988

*all descriptions of the novels and the book covers are from GoodReads.com