Summer Reading Stack (2025 Edition)

I waited all day for the Amazon driver to arrive. When the box finally showed up, I tore it open and found the three new books I ordered to add to the memoir I’ve already started for my summer reading. Here’s what will be on my nightstand for the next couple of months:

You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith is known for her poetry, which shines through in her beautiful use of language in this memoir of heartbreak, reinvention, and hope. Written as a series of poignant micro essays, her rich sensory details make every scene feel real and relatable. 

No Ship Sets Out to Be a Shipwreck by Joan Wickersham

I love tales of the sea and of shipwrecks, and in this short book, author Joan Wickersham weaves together a collection of essays that are part memoir, part history to explore the aftermath of personal and historical tragedy. I’m curious to see how she takes an esoteric historical artifact (an sunken ship that was recovered and now lives in a museum in Stockholm) and uses it as a metaphor for her own life.

The Fix by Ian Morgan Cron

I learned about this new book by Ian Cron in an interview with Dan Allender on The Allender Center Podcast. (FYI, this is a fantastic podcast for learning all about trauma and the ways that story work can lead to profound healing.) I’m excited to dive into The Fix to see how Cron, the guru of the Enneagram, blends storytelling with a funny yet spiritual look at how everyone can be transformed by working the Twelve Steps.

Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas by Stephen Harrigan

I figured I ought to learn about this new state I now call home, but I may have bitten off more than I can chew. This Texas-sized book is 829 pages of history with another hundred pages for the index and bibliography. Yikes!

What’s one perfect beach read I should add to this serious nonfiction stack?

And how about you? What’s on your summer reading list?