Last week, multiple newspapers around the country, including the Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, published an AI generated, syndicated summer book list that includes books by famous authors that don’t exist.
Percival Everett, whose book “James” won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, never wrote a book called “The Rainmakers.”
Supposedly set in a “near-future American West where artificially induced rain has become a luxury commodity,” again, no such book exists.
Isabel Allende never wrote a book called “Tidewater Dreams,” though the “Summer reading list for 2025” says it is the author’s “first climate fiction novel.”
According to Victor Lim, marketing director for the Chicago Sun-Times’ parent company Chicago Public Media, the list was part of licensed content provided by King Features which is owned by Hearst Newspapers.
So, a company that produces syndicated content used AI to generate the content and then didn’t double check the accuracy of the content— to a disastrous degree. And multiple major metro newspapers across the country bought the content— and didn’t check it either.
Though I have strong opinions on what this says about the state of corporate owned newsrooms, I will keep those to myself.
Instead, I’d like to share 12 of my own summer reading suggestions. Because I can attest, these actually do exist— and I’ve read them.
I started out 2025 with a resolution to read more. It was more of a resolution to actually track how much I read.
I read a fair amount but usually lose track of the book as soon as I’m done and it’s back on the shelf.
Jennifer maintains her reading log in a smartphone app. I’m not there yet, but I have kept track and— so far in 2025— I’m up to 12 books. This excludes two new textbooks I’ve read this spring for my day job at the university.
I’m not sure how that compares to years past— since I just started tracking these things— and I know it falls short of Jennifer’s 18 books so far in 2025.
I blame my lag on the more than 1500 pages I read over the course of a semester grading student work at the university.
It all amounts to 3,939 pages in 2025 and I honestly suggest each of them to you.
1. “Dad Camp” by Evan S. Porter
This was a Christmas vacation read and a darn good one at that. Porter tackles the realization that all fathers of daughters go through— the notion that your little girl is no longer your little girl. It is funny, moving and relatable. Porter also tackles contemporary stereotypes of fatherhood in hilarious ways. In the end, dads are reminded daughters are always our little girls after all.
2. “The Four Winds” by Kristen Hannah
This one came recommended by my wife who has devoured all things Kristin Hannah over the past year. Jennifer loves Hannah’s historical fiction and for good reason. I have become a fan, too. “The Four Winds” is a road story set during the American Dust Bowl and Great Depression. It is a testament to a mother’s love and the extents to which one will go to protect her children.
3. “The Rental House” by Weike Wang
Wang’s take on the modern, non-traditional immigrant family was eye opening. This one made me laugh— which was welcomed after the tear jerking “Four Winds”— but it also made me think. Even days after having completed the book, subliminal inferences were still coming to light as literal realizations of the authors’ inference. The sparks were still firing.
Her commentary on social order is telling. This book is new and notable and for good reason.
4. “Help Wanted” by Adelle Waldman
Also new and notable in 2024 was this hilarious commentary of the retail industry in America. Waldman weaves a love story about the people who keep merchandise on our store shelves while also bravely tackling disparity issues among the American lower middle class.
5. “The Devil’s Punchbowl” by Greg Isles
I love a good legal thriller, so I’m not sure how I lived this long without discovering Greg Isles. This is the third in his Penn Cage series set in Natchez, Mississippi. After reading the first two last year, I resolved to work my way through all eight Penn Cage books in order. As with the first two, this one did not disappoint.
6. “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison
After finishing a thriller by Greg Isles, John Grisham or James Patterson, I need a break. The constant suspense is exhausting. I finished the Isles book on a trip to New York and picked up Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy” at LaGuardia airport. I finished it the next day. Funny and full of hope, “Lawn Boy” is worth your time. It was a great introduction to Evison.
7. “The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving” by Jonathan Evison
I was so taken by Evison, I went to Recycled Books in Denton and bought every title of his on hand and jumped right into this one. The others are on my shelf and waiting. Like “Lawn Boy,” Evison finds humor and humanity in the lovable losers among us. It is a road story about three unlikely companions and how they find themselves by helping each other make their way.
8. “The Death Factory” by Greg Isles
The next in the Penn Cage series, this is actually a novella that sets up the final, fourth installment in the series (all of which were likewise sourced in Denton and sitting on my shelf ready to go). I hope to be through them all by the end of the year. Penn Cage is a former prosecutor turned author who always seems to find himself in the stickiest of situations in and around his hometown of Natchez. If you like Grisham, Turow or Patterson, you’ll love Greg Isles and his hero Penn Cage.
9. “The Local” by Joey Hartstone
Another legal thriller, this book takes my award for “Greatest New Find of the Year.” Jennifer and I picked this up at a bookstore in Waco. “The Local” is set in Marshall, Texas and revolves around the very real epicenter of US intellectual law that exists there. Having lived in East Texas, this was a fun read for me. Hartstone has all the elements of a great legal thriller and does Marshall justice. It’s worth your time.
10. “Playing for Pizza” by John Grisham
As much as I love Grisham, I sometimes find works of his I haven’t read. And this was one of them. Written in 2007, “Playing for Pizza” is one of those rare Grisham works that does not involve a lawyer. It is a fish out of water story about a terrible NFL quarterback who finds a new home playing Italian football. It left me laughing on every page and longing for football season to come back around.
11. “Wobegon Boy” by Garrison Keillor
Though Garrison Keillor might be best known for his 50 years of work on public radio, he is a prolific author. I predict history will remember him as one of the most influential in the last three decades of the 20th century and “Wobegon Boy” is worth mentioning among those titles. Written in 1997 it tells the hilarious story of one man’s midlife crisis and serves as a window in time— the main character’s personal crisis runs in tandem with the oncoming of the information age. He bemoans the immediacy of email and internet along with the toxicity talk radio. It almost serves as a cautionary tale, albeit one that may have been unintentional at the time of publication.
12. “The #1 Lawyer” by James Patterson
After Keillor’s thick literary prose— as eloquent as it is— I needed a quicker read. For that, James Patterson always does the trick. I am not hugely familiar with his bestselling literary factory that has dominated book sales for decades, but what I’ve read of his— I like. Back to the legal thrillers, “The #1 Lawyer” is a fast-paced saga that plays out in the courtrooms of Biloxi, Mississippi. His partnership with co-author Nancy Allen works well. So much so, I’ll soon be off to Recycled Books in search of her previously published work independent of Patterson.
And there you have it. A summer reading list that actually does exist. These titles are tried and true and well worth your time.
Author Jeannette Walls once said, “One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”
I hope you find more time to read this summer and let me know if you come across anything worth sharing. We are always looking for book suggestions at the Lewter house.
Happy summer reading!
Austin Lewter is the owner and publisher of the Whitesboro News-Record and director of the Texas Center for Community Journalism. He can be reached at [email protected].