The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham

Let’s get back to school this month with my podcast co-host, friend and Queen of Nantucket beach reads, Elin Hilderbrand, who is back on shelves with The Academy, a novel co-written with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham. Welcome to Tiffin Academy, a New England boarding school with just as much juicy drama, memorable characters and dreamy details as any of Hilderbrand’s Nantucket novels. Everything you love about her books is packed into these pages. Campus novels are some of my favorites: The Secret History, Prep, I Am Charlotte Simmons, Skippy Dies, The Art of Fielding, I Have Some Questions for You. Hilderbrand and Cunningham move to “head of the class” in the genre with this new novel, and have built a whole world to get lost in from various perspectives, from the students to the teachers, the parents and the school’s chef. By page six, you’ll feel so attached to the Tiffin “Thoroughbreds,” it’s as if you’re reading about your own alma mater. Cliffhangers abound by the last page, but have no fear—a sequel is in the works. Available September 16.

Order an autographed copy with exclusive gift and bookmark from nantucketbookpartners.com. Listen to Elin, Shelby and I discuss the writing of the novel on our podcast Books, Beach & Beyond.

Seduction Theory  by Emily Adrian

What Happened to Lucy Vale by Lauren Oliver

If you loved The Academy and you are looking for more campus novels for the back-to-school season this month, check out Seduction Theory and What Happened to Lucy Vale. Seduction Theory introduces two married professors who tiptoe around infidelity. It’s dark academia at its finest with enough campus satire, classroom intrigue and great writing to keep you turning the pages. What Happened to Lucy Vale is addictively fun. Lucy, the new girl in school, moves into the Faraday House, where 16 years ago, Nina Faraday vanished without a trace. Now, Lucy is nowhere to be found, setting in motion another mystery to be investigated and solved two decades later. These dual timelines, multiple suspicions and secrets—along with generations of mystery and small-town gossip—make for the perfect autumn page-turner. You’ll never guess what happened to Lucy Vale

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

Buckeye just might turn out to be my favorite book of the year. If you don’t trust me, my two favorite literary Ann’s (Ann Patchett and Ann Napolitano) loved it, too. It’s my favorite type of novel—a multi-generational epic from World War II to the late 20th century. Think of the very best of John Irving. We meet Cal Jenkins on the very first page: “Born in the spring of 1920 with one leg shorter than the other.” From this introduction come dozens of loveable characters who struggle against the backdrop of some of our most transformative decades in history. I read this 500-page saga in almost one sitting because I needed to know how everything turned out for all the residents of Bonhomie, Ohio. One or two times a year a book touches my heart in such a special way, almost unexplainable, and Buckeye did that in such a way that I’m almost at a loss for words. I hope it does the same for you. Look out for Patrick Ryan at the 2026 Nantucket Book Festival. Available September 2.

The Wilderness  by Angela Flournoy

Some books you read and love for the characters, some for the fast-paced plot, and others for the setting. I recommend The Wilderness for the voice. Written in a  memorable third-person, this is an era-defining novel about five Black women over the course of their 20-year friendship. There is something about a decades-long friend, someone who knows you better than you know yourself. That complexity of relationships is explored in these pages, and their friendship becomes a sixth character all on its own. The five friends must figure out what they mean to one another as they find their way through the wilderness, that period of life we all face when becoming an adult sinks in. Available September 16.

At the end of this month, I will co-host the first ever Aspen Literary Festival along with The New York Times Book Review editor Gilbert Cruz and broadcast journalist Alisyn Camerota from September 26-28, where I will interview Angela Flournoy, as well as authors Kevin Kwan, Jess Walter, Nathan Hill, Jane Hamilton, Adriana Trigiani and many more.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Long-listed for the Booker Prize, and from the same author who won the Booker for The Inheritance of Loss in 2006, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is that book. The 700-page tome that will sit on your shelf beckoning you, making you ask the question, “Do I want to commit the time?” The answer is a resounding yes. It’s a colder season novel in that you want to have a cup of coffee and a blanket to curl up with to sink into the story for hours and hours. We meet Sonia and Sunny and follow their love story, as well as the interconnected stories of their two families. It might sound like a simple premise, one that has been done many times before, but this is more a novel of ideas, an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity .It’s a true reader’s novel, one that will have you daydreaming of the characters and the plot and reflecting on your own human connections, the life you are living, and the people you are loving. Available September 2.

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

What I know is this: Ian McEwan, the celebrated author of Atonement, has delivered yet another masterpiece. As a history aficionado, I am fascinated by digging into the past and weaving together threads to understand those who lived before us. This book, however, begins in the year 2119, as much of the Western World is underwater after a nuclear catastrophe. A lonely scholar is fascinated by the years 1990-2030, specifically a dinner party in 2014 where a famous poet reads a new composition aloud for his wife’s birthday to a group of friends. The poem goes missing and for a century, people will speculate about what exactly happened to the lost piece and the people who heard it read aloud. By using social media posts, emails, journals and digital information from the ’90s through the 2030s, the scholar hunts down and pieces together the words left behind to tell the full story. This is a literary mystery of the first order, one that is looking at the modern age from the future. We see how people living a century later will view our tastes, beliefs and stories. It also vividly explores the idea of what can ever be truly known across time and history. Available September 2.