The Incurable Humanist's June Reading List

My dearest incurable humanist,

Summer is in the air! Despite the moody weather New York has been throwing at us lately, there’s no mistaking it - the season has arrived. And with summer, of course, comes the best part: summer reads!

So without further ado, here is my reading list for June:

1. Strangers by Belle Burden

I have to admit I resisted reading Strangers for a while, even as it seemed to follow me across every social feed. It took some insistence from my friend E.V. to finally open it. The memoir centers on the abrupt unraveling of Burden’s marriage and her reckoning with betrayal, grief, and the disorienting task of rebuilding a life that once seemed secure. Now, in the early drift of summer, I find myself drawn into its devastating story, somehow softened, or at least made more bearable, by the Vineyard setting.

1. They All Came to Barneys by Gene Pressman

I’m very excited to read They All Came to Barneys by Gene Pressman, a memoir about the rise and fall of Barneys New York, told from inside the family that built the store into a fashion empire. There was something singular about Barneys — not just as a store, but as a cultural institution, a place that seemed to define a certain New York glamour, taste, and attitude.

1. Zabar’s: A Family Story, with Recipes by Lori Zabar

Continuing with the New York memoir motif, Zabar’s: A Family Story, with Recipes by Lori Zabar traces the immigrant family behind the legendary Upper West Side institution, and the rise of a shop that became one of the city’s most beloved culinary landmarks.

1. London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe is a gripping work of investigative nonfiction that reconstructs the true story of a young man’s mysterious death in London and the family’s search for answers, while also probing the darker world that lay beneath his carefully constructed life.

1. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, post-apocalyptic novel about a group of women imprisoned in an underground cage, watched by silent guards, with no memory of how they got there or what happened to the world above. As the story unfolds, it becomes less about plot than about isolation, survival, and what remains of human connection when almost everything has been stripped away. My coworker lent it to me—I haven’t gotten to it yet, but I plan to read it this week!

I hope this inspires you to pick up one or two from my list, or, to put together your own June reading list. Either way, I’d love to know: what are you reading?

Until next week!