2026 Summer Read

Hello and happy summer, Radio Readers! Linzi Garcia from Emporia, Kansas, here. I work as poetry editor and publicist for Meadowlark Press, a small, regional press specializing in Midwest voices. There’s a book that we published earlier this year that I can’t get out of my head, and I really want to tell you about it.

Hello, Radio Readers. I’m Jane Holwerda in Dodge City, Kansas. My current mission is to read books I’ve collected. But I am sometimes waylaid by “new” things promoted by media I align with. And so, a few weeks back, I closed Thackeray’s Vanity Fair to read Caro Claire Burke’s novel.

This is Tracy Million Simmons, owner of Meadowlark Press in Emporia, Kansas, for High Plains Public Radio Reader’s Summer Reading List. As a regional press specializing in stories from the Midwest, I’d like to take this moment to introduce you to Heaven in a Wildflower, historical fiction set on the Kansas prairie of the early 20th century.

At the time of this recording, it is July. It's hot - 100-degree temperatures, severe weather. 
But this time of July, we now start thinking about August in the fall sports season. It won't be long, and kids will be at the football field practicing, and they'll be on the volleyball court. It's going to be in full session. 


My name is Charles Roamer, and I'm the author of 83 Odyssey---An Adventure Down the Spine of America on U.S. Highway 83. I'm an old road warrior who wrote a book for travel story enthusiasts, and those from the High Plains region where U.S. 83 courses through would, I think, be especially interested in my story.

If you are looking for high adventure this book is not for you. But if you are craving a beautifully written, heartwarming alternative to the negativity, noise and drama filling the news Theo of Golden could be a good choice. An elderly gentleman, obviously well off, shows up in the small Carolina town of Golden. We soon find out that he is Portuguese, but learn very little else about him until the end of the book.

Hey, Radio Readers. I’m Jane Holwerda in Dodge City Ks. Earlier this summer I promised my book shelves would be dusted by now. I made it only as far as the Americana section when I surrendered to my more natural state of sitting with cat on lap and book in hand. So be it. What better way to commemorate the 250th year of our nation than by reading about it?

Happy summer, HPPR readers. This is Andrea Elise coming to you from Amarillo, Texas, to discuss the novel Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy. The title of the book interested me from the start because one of my passions is studying migrations of all kinds: plants, animals, birds, people.

Hello, Tracy Floriani here coming to you from central Oklahoma with a summer readingrecommendation. This summer I've been reading Sunlight Finds You, the new novel by Kansas author Laura Moriarty. The book comes out August 4th, so be looking for it in the weeks ahead.

Hello, I am Don Paxton, a fellow reader from Amarillo. Along with being a recovering CPA my church is remarkably similar to the one in the series described below. If you are looking for a fun summer read, I suggest a series of paperback novels by Mark Schweizer known as liturgical mysteries.