It seems like only yesterday that we published our Lenten reading recommendations, but here we are unrolling our 2026 summer reading list, which is altogether a very different animal than the books we recommended for the Season of Penance.
Summer books shouldn’t necessarily be unchallenging. In fact, it’s a perfect time for books that require the uninterrupted lounging-around time that summer affords, whether at the beach or pool, or in a hammock in the back yard. It’s the perfect time to get truly lost in a book — so lost that upon putting it down you feel a bit dazed, the way you might feel stumbling out of a movie theater into the blazing sun.
Those potentially-out-of-body-experience reads ought to be chosen carefully. To that end, we’ve asked a few Catholic writers, leaders and prominent figures what they are reading this summer. Here’s what they told us:
Alberto Fernandez, former diplomat and contributor to EWTN News:
I just devoured University of Chicago professor Anthony Kaldellis’ new 1453: The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople (Oxford University Press, 2026), a bracing, much-needed retelling of the fall of the Queen of Cities to the Ottoman Turks, one of the great sieges of history
