Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer 2026 to-Read List (That Aren’t on My 20 Books Challenge)

The barbarian traveled far to consult the wizards of the empire. Instead of lending their aid, they ensorcelled him, exploited his strength, and stole his sword. They should not have done that.

Now the barbarian plans to kill every wizard who wronged him, even if that means blending in with their vile society: dressing in finery, taking tea in exclusive clubs, and reserving the best box at the theater.

Oh, he hates it all with the fiery passion of his savage heart—but not as much as he hates these wizards.

This just looks like a lot of fun. Some breezy summer reads.

A perfectly executed shadow step demonstrates synchronized elegance. It showcases a couple in near telepathic harmony with one another. It does not normally end with someone stone-dead in a lake.

DS Declan Miller is a magnet for strange cases, but an innocent man confessing to the crime? That's a first. Things rapidly escalate when the murder that isn't really a murder attracts the unwanted attention of a drug Queenpin, a deranged ex-squaddie, and a lovesick gangland enforcer. And when a real murder follows - and a student is kidnapped - all evidence points back to the same innocent man.

Throw in a wobbly dog, a pair of ceramic leopards, and the distracting smell from a biscuit factory, and Miller's only option to save a young man's life is to waltz all the way into the shadows.

Oooooh. DS Miller is such a fun detective, am eager to spend more time with him.

The next darkly-funny thrill-ride of a book in the bestselling Washington Poe series.

I’m so glad the Bookshop.org page didn’t give many details, I don’t want to know anything beyond the title about this one until I open it up. This is the one I’m least confident in reading this summer–International shipping is not going to be my friend when it comes to timely arrival.

In modern tech parlance, a centaur is a person who is able to use technology to be a better, more productive version of themself. A reverse centaur is a person who is forced by technology to work at an inhuman pace—a driver made to deliver all day long, nonstop; a warehouse worker made to work without food or bathroom breaks; a programmer made to crank out impossible amounts of code.

The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI is not another anti-AI screed. Cory Doctorow uses AI in his work every day. As a creative person, he has no moral or dogmatic issue with AI—he thinks the technology is useful, even exciting, and full of potential. And yet.

AI has arrived surrounded by unprecedented hype driven by a tech industry desperate to maintain its unprecedented valuation based on its own promises of endless financial growth. Despite the fact that almost all of AI’s real-world implementations have proved underwhelming, AI is projected to be worth more than $16 trillion—a number that only makes sense if AI replaces vast swathes of the wage-earning human workforce. To justify that level of “value,” every story about AI must be presented as inevitable, world-changing disruption. Even the tales of the robot apocalypse are a calculated attempt to bolster the fearsome power of AI.

For Doctorow, it is imperative to see through that hype to the real story, to understand the technology not just for what it does, but for who it does it to and who it does it for. From that point of view, the story of AI is indeed dramatic and unprecedented, having generated an investment bubble so big that it endangers the entire world economy. In The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI—as he so successfully did in Enshittification—Doctorow recounts both how we found ourselves in this dire situation and how we can get through it, to a life “after” AI in which the tools work for us, not the other way around.

Few people are as good as Doctorow when it comes to tech writing. This is going to be good.

The knives are out in this fast-paced, standalone Fungalverse novel. Set several months after the events of the award-winning Mushroom Blues, this side story combines the culinary wonder of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the kitchen chaos of The Bear, and the explosive tension of Hong Kong crime thrillers.

In the aftermath of the "Fuyu Massacre," riots and whispers of revolution continue to plague the Hōpponese capital of Neo Kinoko. As a result, the iron grip of a foreign military occupation tightens day by day. Amidst this, Pocho Jiro, a once-renowned makizushi chef, has chosen to cook for Duncan MacArthur-the Coprinian Military Governor in Hōppon-as his personal chef... and indentured servant.

A run-in with dangerous fungal gangsters sets off a chain of events that Pocho cannot escape from. He's left with two choices: Assassinate MacArthur, or watch his beloved sister die in front of his eyes. Will Pocho take up his knife and prepare MacArthur's final meal?

More time in Gibson’s Fungalverse is enticement enough for me. But this blurb seals the deal.

Edison Bixby is wealthy, handsome, and, due to a traumatic brain injury, impulsively rude. He's also a brilliant insurance investigator who solves baffling crimes by figuring out how the design of the man-made world around us makes them possible. Enter Wally Nash: a struggling actor hired to keep Bixby from offending everyone he meets.

Their first case together looks like a simple accident. Caroline Crowley took a nasty fall down a staircase at a shopping mall in front of dozens of witnesses. Video clearly shows the deadly misstep. But Bixby is certain she was murdered by design, subtly manipulated into causing her own demise. The mall itself made the crime intentional, if not inevitable.

Now Bixby must prove his outrageous theory before a very cunning killer gets others on his hit list to murder themselves, too.

A Lee Goldberg series premier. Of course I’m going to read it. As one would expect, this looks like a fun one.

Angelina Everhart-Trueblood and her brother Evan run Everhart Investigations, a PI firm in Chattanooga that solves paranormal crimes committed by supernatural beings. When their new client wants help finding her friend, who supposedly disappeared during a reception at Angie’s aunt Jane’s winter residence, things get . . . complicated.

The client is not who she appears to be, and demons strike the city for the first time since the Witch War. On top of that, evidence is pointing toward the involvement of an overly ambitious vampire—who just happens to be Angie’s ex-husband.

As Angie and Evan team up with CPD, they will have to dig deep into their magical reserves—and rely on some friends in high places—to rid Chattanooga of the danger creeping into their city.

Angie and Evan all grown up and PIs? Yes, please.

In True Romance: A Noir Anthology, passion isn't red roses and candlelight. Instead, it's obsession, betrayal, revenge, and the kind of desire that leaves bodies in its wake.

Collected and Edited by Troy Lambert and Vincent Zandri, this dark and razor-sharp collection gathers some of the most compelling voices in crime fiction, including Reed Farrel Coleman, Charles Salzberg, Paul D. Brazill, Frank Zafiro, Scott Kikkawa, Danica Favorite, Lawrence Kelter, Rebelry Stone, Samantha Ripley, J.E. Fishman, and more.

Inside these pages, you'll find:

• A philosophy professor who turns deadly revenge into an intellectual exercise.
• A society wife framed for her husband’s murder in a web of mob politics and betrayal.
• Lovers whose secrets rot beneath polished exteriors.
• Criminal masterminds are undone by passion.
• Killers who mistake lust for loyalty-and pay the price.

From quiet suburban rot to organized crime empires, from calculated seduction to explosive violence, these stories explore the dangerous intersection where love and darkness meet. Because in noir, love isn’t salvation. It’s motive. Perfect for fans of neo-noir, hardboiled crime, morally complex characters, and dark romantic suspense, True Romance proves that sometimes the most lethal weapon is the human heart.

It’s been a good year for short stories and me. This collection looks like it’ll keep that going.

On the Red Planet, oxygen is free. The truth will cost you everything.

Rosa Lakhani is a legendary Martian investigator, known as the "Ripper" for her uncompromising tactics and high-end clearance rate.

She's investigating a wave of terrorist attacks on Mars when her partner is nearly killed by a bomb meant for her.

With the help of an AI system built by her comatose partner, Rosa ignores her bosses and keeps chasing the money that’s funding the attacks, leading her all the way up the political food chain.

It also leads her to Parrish, an underworld fixer from the asteroid belt, or "savage," posing as a corporate lawyer on Mars to extract a dying informant who knows the dark truth about the Mars Terraforming Initiative.

These two natural enemies must forge an uneasy alliance as they uncover evidence of corruption that will shake the entire solar system — something the most powerful interests on Mars will do anything to keep hidden.

Rosa vows to bring them down, but Parrish might just be convinced to help them bury it . . . for the right price.

Trang’s style in a SF mystery? Please, oh, please.

Book 2 of the Asteroid Savage Series, a gritty, high-stakes science fiction thriller perfect for fans of The Expanse and Altered Carbon, where the line between hero and criminal is as thin as the Martian atmosphere.

I love the fact that we're getting the sequel a month after the first book. And the fact that all we're told is "Book 2" just makes this tantalizing.