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We all complain about the immense backlog of content to consume out there, but when it comes to good books, we always want more! The problem is knowing what's worth it.
That's why we look to publications like The Millions, an online literary publication known for its biannual Great Book Previews and annual Year in Reading series, to help us whittle down the candidates for our next read.
RECOMMENDED: Here are the six finalists for the 2026 International Booker Prize
Released on April 3, the Great Spring 2026 Book Preview names 140 titles that we should read or at least keep in mind this spring and summer.
"Some we’ve already read in galley form; others we’re simply eager to dive into based on their authors or subjects," wrote The Millions editor Sophia Stewart. "We leaned on our friends at Publishers Weekly to help blurb some of the many, many titles that we’re eager to put on your radar."
The list is broken down by the month these books will be released, from April through June, and contains novels, non-fiction memoirs, historical works, collections of short stories, biographies and more from writers of all sorts of backgrounds.
Below, we're highlighting three that stand out to us for each month, with summaries from their respective publishing houses. You can check out the full list here.
April
The Madness of Believing by Josh Owens
"The Madness of Believing follows Josh’s experience working at Infowars, where he became one of Alex Jones's most trusted employees. He began traveling across the world creating 'news' stories, staging chaos, and spreading outright lies to Infowars's ever-growing audience. As he rose through the ranks, his skepticism grew, and Josh underwent a personal transformation just as Infowars too changed from a fringe community to a mainstream disinformation machine."
"As Dunham takes us through her journey, tracking her rise to fame—from selling the pilot of Girls to the present—in three acts, it becomes clear that the spotlight casts long shadows, distorting the relationships she once held dear and isolating everyone in its glare. When an endless supply of drugs can’t protect you from pain—and begins to control your every move—being famous doesn’t stand a chance against the darker corners of the human experience."
Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness by Ashanté M. Reese
"In Gather, anthropologist Ashanté M. Reese argues for a vibrant new vision of food justice that places Black communities at the center and offers us a visionary, delicious path forward. Reese reveals that to truly create equity in our food systems, we must embrace the abundance that already exists around us—and recognize that the social body is as important as our individual health."
May
The Land and Its People by David Sedaris
"In The Land and Its People, Sedaris investigates what it means to be a traveler, a brother, a lifelong friend. Trying on the role of caretaker after his boyfriend Hugh’s hip-replacement surgery, he both succeeds and fails. He covers ground with his friend Dawn and challenges her to eat a truck tire. An ambivalent Duolingo bot becomes his unlikely confidante as he attempts to describe his family in a foreign language. Ever adding to his list of 'Countries I Have Been To,' he rides a horse named Tequila in Guatemala, buys a bespoke priest’s cassock in Vatican City, and goes on safari in Kenya without taking a single photo."
The Lost Soldiers by Andrey Kurkov
"Fresh from the case of the stolen heart, one that shattered his belief in the regime he works for, Samson Kolechko is confronted by a new mystery that borders on the impossible. A troop of Red Army soldiers has disappeared without a trace while visiting a banya, a traditional Ukrainian bathhouse, in the heart of Kyiv. Their abandoned boots and uniforms are the only proof that they ever existed."
Adrift in the South by Xiao Hai
"Adrift in the South is a memoir of life as a migrant laborer in the twenty-first century, making iPhones and baby clothes, hand-stitching football shirts, and cutting plastic into radios. Here, Xiao Hai reveals the alienation and tedium of factory life, the small indignities and indifference of the larger system. And he tells the story of how poetry led him somewhere unexpected: to join a small community of artists living, working, and studying together on the outskirts of Beijing."
June
Rasputin Swims the Potomac by Ben Fountain
"Reporter Clarence Thomas Jr. is looking for a great story, former country music teen star Faith Spack has parlayed her fame into a job at the White House, and the two-term incumbent president is campaigning for a constitutionally dubious third term. After an outbreak at a campaign rally, a mysterious new pandemic of 'weeping sickness' sweeps the nation, threatening the president's hold on the Oval Office. Desperate to retain power, he enlists the mystical pro wrestler Rasputin to help ensure his reelection and guarantee additional seasons of his presidential reality TV show, The Real West Wing."
The Hidden History of Conspiracy Theory by Andrew McKenzie-McHarg
"Truthers, birthers, flat-Earthers, the deep state, crisis actors, chemtrails, the Epstein files, Pizzagate, the Plandemic—it seems as though there’s a conspiracy theory for every situation. But what exactly is a conspiracy theory? And why is the term used to describe beliefs that are so very unlike theories (at least in the scientific sense of the word)? In this erudite and original book, Andrew McKenzie-McHarg answers these questions not by formulating a definition but by tracing a genealogy. He uncovers two crucial strands of contemporary conspiracy theorizing on the threshold of modernity: on the one hand, political analysis as realized by Niccolò Machiavelli in such works as The Prince and, on the other, apocalyptic prophecy as channeled by the charismatic preacher Girolamo Savonarola."
There's Only One Sin in Hollywood by Rasheed Newson
"Xavier C. Barlow, one of Hollywood’s young Black stars taking the industry by storm in the late 1950s, is Skyline Studios’s ambitious attempt to rival Sidney Poitier. His arrival into the industry is calculated, his charm is magnetic, and his seductive screen presence appeals to both audiences and celebrities across generations. But years later, after Xavier dies at the height of his fame, Aaron Touissant—Skyline’s designated backlot fixer who helps the studio’s stars stay as deep in the closet as humanly possible—is finally ready to expose the powerful culprits responsible for his untimely death."