July 4, 2026

by Chloee Weiner, producer of NPR's Book of the Day

Happy July 4th, newsletter readers! Last week’s note was all about the books we’ve loved so far this year. Some of you shared your own favorites from the first half of 2026 – those replies are below. As always, the inbox is bookoftheday@npr.org. If you want to hear the latest author interviews from across NPR, subscribe to NPR’s Book of the Day podcast. Here we go!

10 books to help us understand America

NPR

In Washington, D.C., a fireworks show is poised to break a record. In New York, there’s the annual hot dog eating contest and a procession of tall ships. And across the country, George Washington impersonators are booked and busy. America’s 250th anniversary is officially here. Of course, these celebrations come at a tumultuous moment for the country, between economic uncertainty, foreign conflicts and political polarization. But American history has always been a mixed bag.

Historian and Princeton professor Eddie Glaude, Jr. has been making the argument that this anniversary should reckon with the way the U.S. has failed to deliver on its founding principles. He has a new book out called America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries. Here’s the “blunt advice” he relayed to Fresh Air’s Tonya Mosley:

“America has to grow up. It can no longer hide in its adolescence … America imagines itself at once as a beacon of freedom and as a white republic. And to hold those two things together ... deposits the kind of madness at the heart of the country.”

In the spirit of celebrating this milestone birthday while acknowledging the United States’ complexity, our colleague Ivy Buck put together a list of 10 books that might help us better understand American history. These are all recent-ish nonfiction reads: There’s a second volume on the American Revolution by Rick Atkinson, a history of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore and Mary Annette Pember’s book about Indian boarding schools that’s “part journalistic research, part spiritual pilgrimage."

But this very short list barely scratches the surface of the nation’s history. So we’re asking you – what one book, fiction or nonfiction, would you recommend to someone hoping to better understand America? Tell us at bookoftheday@npr.org.

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TBR Pile

William Morrow/Berkley

Okay, that’s enough America 250 talk for now. Maybe some of you are spending today exercising your right to indulge in reading that has nothing to do with patriotism or politics. If that’s you, Paul Tremblay’s new novel Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep could be a welcome distraction. It’s about a gamer who is hired to – from afar – transport a man, who is stuck in a vegetative state, from California to the East Coast. All through a remote control device! NPR contributor Gabino Iglesias described the book as “psychological-dystopian-science-fiction horror.”

If historical fiction is more your speed, duo Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray wrote a new novel called A Pair of Aces. Set in 1930s New York at the height of mob life, two women on opposite ends of the law join forces to bring down the head of the five largest crime families. In her review, NPR contributor Keishel Williams said A Pair of Aces is “a page-turner that celebrates what women can accomplish when they work together.”

Mailbag!

Last week, we asked about your favorite reads of the year so far. A lot of you recommended new-to-me titles – here are some of them:

William B. wrote: “I found Maggie O’Farrell’s Land fascinating, often shocking, occasionally confusing. Through one character to another, one era to another, compelling.”

Valerie K. wrote: “I loved The Great Wherever. It's a perfect book to lose yourself in, complete with ghosts. Who doesn't love ghosts? And for those who read teen books, The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue is the best teen novel I've read in several years.”

Vicki M. wrote: “I cannot get S. L. Huang’s The Language of Liars out of my head. Smart, compelling, ultimately devastating sci-fi that packs so much in its 160 pages.”

That’s all for now. See you next week!

P.S., if a friend sent you this newsletter and you want to sign up, the place to do it is npr.org/newsletter/books. :)

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