What to Read this Summer? I Have a Few Suggestions

By Brendan Largay, Head of School
Post Date: May 22, 2026

First things first, as we reach this now annual tradition of the head’s Memorial Day summer reading list: Yes, I try to read them all during the summer. And, no, I haven’t succeeded yet. Yes, they are almost always recommendations from Belmont Day colleagues and community members or from the folks–my mom, my spouse, close friends–who consistently inform and fuel my love of reading.

This is my best attempt to look at different types of books across genres, intended to both align with the escape of summer and with the professional development that often comes with a break from the school year. What follows here are the books that I hope to read cover to cover this summer. As is tradition, there are thirteen books–one for each week between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This is the year I’ll get through them all! But even if I don’t, the reading is always an enjoyable and valiant effort. Here is this year’s list. Enjoy!

Inside the Box, David Epstein

For those of you who have read this Memorial Day list in the past, you might remember Epstein’s Range, a call to generalists to honor the ways in which multiple skills and experiences might lead to greatness as swiftly (and perhaps more comprehensively) than those raised with a more singular focus. Well, Inside the Box suggests that our ability to innovate, lead, and break through is a byproduct of the important and necessary constraints that force us to utilize creativity by way of problem solving rather than the (long heralded) limitlessness of outside-the-box thinking.

Land, Maggie O’Farrell (due out June 2)

The last Maggie O’Farrell book I read was Hamnet, which was a beautiful and heart-wrenching look at Shakespeare, Anne Hathaway, and their son. Land, it seems, hits closer to home for O’Farrell and is an historical look at post-famine Ireland and the mythology of the Irish.  From Shakespeare to Ireland … O’Farrell knows just how to get on my summer reading list!

What to Make of a Life, Jim Collins

I will spend the second week of summer break on the Salmon River in Idaho with twenty other heads of school, no doubt drawing parallels between leadership and the beauty and challenge that await me on that trip. All of us have been asked to read Collins’ latest before we go, as we consider how to keep our leadership novel and nurture our passions as we go.

The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking, Roman Kznaric

As the school engages in strategic planning in anticipation of Belmont Day’s Centennial, our consultant, Antonio Viva from Leadership + Design, discussed with me how we might approach a strategy to help Belmont endure for the next hundred years, and he directed me to Kznaric’s text. A study on legacy and generational selflessness as the salve to the short-term and immediate gain mindset aligns well with a school that will leverage its core values as a key part of our strategy for the future.

The Hunter, Tana French

With a shoutout to my mom who recommended this one to me (and who is a devoted Scoop reader and the most well-read person I know), The Hunter is the second of a three novel trilogy (the third of which came out this year, but I have yet to read the second) about a Chicago cop who moves to Ireland and quickly discovers life in a small Irish town can be more complicated, and more deadly than the South Side. I’m always up for a good thriller, and Tana French never disappoints.

Theo of Golden, Allen Levi

Courtesy of Jen Friborg, an avid reader and regular contributor to my Memorial Day list, Theo of Golden sits on this list as the most hopeful novel of the bunch. It has drawn comparison to the television series, Ted Lasso, for its hope and kindness, which, if you know me, propels Theo of Golden to the top of my summer list.

Startlement, Ada Limon

No summer reading list would be complete without some poetry. No one better than the twenty-fourth poet laureate of the United States, Ada Limon, to author this year’s recommended collection. Filled with wonderful summertime poems like “Sea Turtle,” Limon is a revelation and a welcome reprieve from some of the heavier texts in this list.

If This Be Magic, Daniel Hahn

Courtesy of Jen James, this is my nerdiest selection on the list. It is a look at the magic of Shakespeare’s text across other cultures and foreign languages. So, if iambic pentameter works in Elizabethan English, for instance, in the sonnet shared between Romeo and Juliet when they first meet, what happens to it when it is translated into Spanish? Can those translators preserve the magic Shakespeare intended? I suspect so, but If This Be Magic will no doubt explain how.

The Octopus Organization: A Guide to Thriving in a World of Continuous Transformation, Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner

Want to read something alongside my leadership team? Reading The Octopus Organization would be the way to do it. More of a ‘how to’ book replete with strategies for thinking dynamically, organically, and independently as a team, The Octopus Organization comes from Harvard Business School and invites teams to think differently about what distributive leadership looks like and means within a rapidly changing landscape.

Desert Notes River Notes, Barry Lopez

Shout out to Blair Fross, who heard about my Salmon River trip and immediately produced Lopez’s 1976 novel for me. An exploration of the natural and spiritual world that intersects between the desert and the river, Blair’s suggestion feels like another perfect partner text for my journey out west.

The Midnight Train, Matt Haig (due out May 26)

I just finished a year of teaching seventh graders about the genre of magical realism, and along comes Haig with his sequel to The Midnight Library (which also showed up on a previous Memorial Day reading list) to further explore the genre. Love, fate, regret, and second chances … the stuff of summer, and, apparently, the substance of Haig’s sequel.

A Guardian and a Thief, Megha Mujumdar

Courtesy of Divya Muralidhara, A Guardian and a Thief appeared on my office table early this year with a note from Divya about the power and delight of the story. It has been at the top of my bedside stack ever since, and summer feels like the absolute right time to take on a thriller-paced story of climate change, desperation, and morality. 

One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder, Brian Doyle

Another collection of essays and short stories inspired by my Salmon River trip, One Long River, was published posthumously and captures what Doyle became known for in his life: a meditation on beauty, wonder, and compassion in everyday life.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!