- July 01, 2026
- By Sala Levin ’10
The sun shining on your shoulders, a breeze gently wafting through your hair, a cool, bubbly drink fizzing on the table beside you, maybe a tempting body of water in the near distance, and a new book open on your lap for you to dive into. Can anything improve upon the quintessential warm weather reading experience? Well, possibly just one thing: if that book happens to be written by a Terp.
This summer, University of Maryland alums are releasing books across genres and themes: A twisty crime story, a Cold War-set romantic comedy, a memoir of young adult embarrassments and a psychological thriller are among the Terp-penned books that might entice your literary fancy this season. Three books written by UMD graduates—“The Blue Flame” by George Pelecanos ’80, “Tradwife” by Michelle Brandon ’01 and “The Women in White” by Sarah Pekkanen ’90—even made a New York Times list of “the novels everyone will be reading this summer.”
Browse through these choices to check out how a Terp could help you turn the page on your summer reading goals.
“Read This to Look Cool” by Maeve Dunigan ’18 (May 12)
Dunigan has always longed to be cool. In her memoir-in-essays, the New Yorker contributor recounts the shudder-inducing ways she’s clawed at hipness: writing One Direction fan fiction, suffering through a ruptured appendix while on a maybe-date at a Howard County McDonalds, tweeting about her love of “Glee.” “In so many of them, the central joke is how I see myself versus how other people see me, and this kind of performance I’m putting on,” said Dunigan in an interview.
“Off the Record” by Sara Goodman Confino ’03 (June 9)
Confino’s sixth novel follows Judy Greenberg, a Washington, D.C., newspaper typist hoping to become a reporter in the macho days of 1962. When she answers her boss’ private line, she believes she’s stumbled into a story of Cold War espionage intrigue; she partners up with reporter Jack Fields to follow leads from Russia to Cuba to Texas—and do some flirting along the way.
“Lost in the Summer of ’69” by Eliza Knight ’01 (June 9)
In this multigenerational novel, Knight tells the story of Eleanor Ball, who yearned to be a musical star in her youth; her daughter, Leanne, who wants a more traditional life; and Leanne’s daughter, Nora, who’s ready to break barriers as one of the first women to attend Yale in the fall of 1969. “I love a book that has a backdrop of change in the world that pushes people to change who they are,” said Knight in an interview.
“Rewrite the Stars” by Lindsay Hameroff ’08 (July 7)
Inspired by the Hollywood love triangle formed by Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lopez, “Rewrite the Stars” tells the story of Marissa Morgan, a mostly retired actress who retreats to the Pocono Mountains when her ex-husband gets back together with his first wife. On the East Coast, Marissa buys a fixer-upper while navigating life with her children (one of whom has autism, based on Hameroff’s own experience with her children) and a potential new romance.
“Tradwife” by Michelle Brandon ’01 (Aug. 4)
Tradwives—women who gain viral fame by embracing traditional gender roles—are having a literary moment. Caro Claire Burke’s novel “Yesteryear” was a sensation this spring, and now Brandon (a pen name for Eliza Knight) has “Tradwife,” a “Stepford Wives”-esque novel about women living in an eerily idyllic community, where one of the three central women isn’t what she seems. “It’s a revenge thriller,” said Knight. “On the outside, she’s everything everyone believes a tradwife should be, but on the inside, she’s really looking for that opening to finally strike.”
“The Women in White” by Sarah Pekkanen ’90 (Aug. 4)
Pekkanen’s 15th book tracks two timelines: In the 1960s, a group of young women vanish after they’re the subjects of a strange psychology experiment by a radical scientist; years later, Riley Bell becomes the caretaker for a widow who lives in total isolation. The connections reveal themselves as Riley uncovers long-kept secrets.
“The Blue Flame” by George Pelecanos ’80 (Aug. 4)
The prolific crime novelist returns with his latest installment in the Derek Strange series, following the Washington, D.C., private investigator as he looks into a drug deal gone wrong. “Instead of a big reveal, Pelecanos provides an unsettling view of Strange’s dealings with D.C. Metro Homicide as he digs beneath the smug skin of the nation’s capital,” wrote Kirkus Reviews.