Summer Blink Book Reviews are Back for 2026

If it’s summer, that means I’m back to my annual effort to get off the screens and back to the page by reading more.

In recent years, I’ve found my love of reading eclipsed by other things that pick away at my time and attention. Podcasts have been a real culprit digging into my audiobook reading time. Increasingly, I find myself listening to news and political podcasts that just make me mad. So they are pretty much on hiatus for the summer.

During the summer, I like to consciously refocus and intentionally make time to read – whether it’s a hard copy book or an audiobook. These Blink Book Reviews (so short you can read them in a blink) are my accountability.

Over the years, I’ve grown a bit of a community through the Blink Book Review Facebook page where friends have shared books and their opinions. And we’re back for the summer of 2026. I invite you to follow us and read along. 

The first review will be posted this week.

Summer intentions

Every summer I set a few intentions for my reading. This year’s are as follows:

1 – During the summer, I don’t finish books I’m not enjoying. Thus, all the reviews focus on what I like about a book.

2 – Hard copy books must be purchased at an indy bookstore (I have three on order right now from Columbia’s All Good Books, but my other top two are Litchfield Books at the beach and Square Books in Oxford).

3 - I try to mix up genres a bit, but you’ll find a lot of themes around dogs, politics, random historical topics, best sellers, celebrity bios, writing and authors I either know or have a connection to.

4 – Hard copies and audio books carry equal weight. It took me a while to accept the fact that “reading” an audiobook had the same heft as a hard copy. Finally on board with this!

5 - Thanks to my friend, Rachel, I have a handy book bag to hold my aspirational summer books! 

A few recommendations

I’ve been asked if I’ve got a few favorites from these 40+ reviews (link takes you to a search summary on the blog). Yes … but not really a fair question because they’re favorites for different reasons. Here’s five you may want to try this summer and why (in no particular order).

·       “The Personal Librarian” by Marie Benedict and “First Lades” by Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray – These two books got me past my perceived dislike of historical fiction.  Both have a bit of South Carolina thrown in which added to their appeal. “The Personal Librarian” is about JP Morgan’s personal librarian who rises to her own fame as an accomplished expert on art and books in New York. “First Ladies” is about the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Black activist Mary McLeod Bethune. I’m looking forward to attending a program with both authors at the College of Charleston on July 20.

·       “That Which Binds Us” by Cathy Rigg - This book weaves a story around five beautifully written characters living through the horrors of the Civil War in southwest Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains. I will admit that historical fiction isn’t usually my top reading genre choice. But between the fact I know Cathy and her talent, I dug in and loved this one.

·       “A Concise Guide to SC Government” by Vincent Sheheen – The author tells the story of teaching South Carolina government in the USC Honors College. However, he was frustrated there wasn’t a current textbook he could use for the class. The most recent was written in the 1990s and required him to tell his students to ignore entire chapters since they were no longer relevant. That was the inspiration behind the book.

·       “The Art of Calm” by Roger Hutchison - This is the perfect mix of thought-provoking, easy reading, insightful and practical help bringing new awareness to our daily lives. Roger is another old friend who had a dream to write a book (actually he’s written many). The book lays out calm, purposeful pathways acknowledging everyone’s narrative is unique while, at the same time, exploring universal practices of healing. It's on my list of favorites for the second year because I recently read it again.

Join my Blink Book Review Facebook group here if you’re so inclined to follow along as the summer progresses. The first review posts this week!