Transcript
Ann Boekel (0:08)
Hey readers. I'm Ann Boekel and this is what should I read next? Welcome to the show that's dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader. What should I read next? We don't get bossy on this show. What we will do here is give you the information you need to choose your next read. Foreign this week we're taking you behind the scenes of our 2025 Summer Reading Guide and sharing an excerpt from our live unboxing party where I shared my commentary of three of the books in this year's guide, all from the first category, Family Sagas. In last week's episode, my husband and team member Will Bogle and I took you behind the scenes of the guide, discussing this year's road trip theme, my selection process, how this year's category sorted themselves out, and more. Now the guide is here. Maybe you've already seen it. 35 books across six categories, some among the most anticipated books of summer that I get to offer my own thoughts on, and some books that are likely to be hidden gems, I.e. books you may not hear about other places. As always, I'm not trying to persuade you to read any of these. That is not my job. Instead, I want to give you an idea of what your own reading experience might be like with each book so you can then decide if that's a reading experience that you want to have. This year's guide is 40 packed pages and we've built in fun features like more of summer's most anticipated new releases, tons of backlist titles that play into our road trip theme, our ever loved awesome on audio selections for both new releases and backlist books and more. I can't tell you every last thing. I really want to preserve some element of surprise for you when you open your guide. Last week we hosted our live unboxing party, which has been a tradition around here since 2019, when our modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club Community manager Jen Ginger first suggested I hop on Zoom to walk everyone step by step through the selections in the guide and we'd call it unboxing. I said, what are you talking about? That does not sound like a good time. Well, Ginger was right and I was wrong and we've been doing it ever since. Look, the guide absolutely stands alone. It did for many years before we started hosting unboxing. But if you'd like to hear more nuanced descriptions in my actual voice, more details I didn't include in the guide for space reasons, and also hear me answer lots of questions about the guide and the included books, Unboxing is for you and when you opt in for the summer reading guide, experience by joining one of our communities or purchasing a la carte. Our Unboxing video is available for you to access anytime on your schedule. Today we're sharing a snippet from Unboxing so you can get a sense of what it's like at unboxing. We begin with the Family Sagas, the first category in the guide, and you're about to hear me describe three books from that category. If you are burning with Curiosity, the other 2025 categories are Tales of Love and Friendship, Mysteries and Thrillers, Historical Fiction, Literary and Contemporary Fiction, and memoir and nonfiction. But something you will hear me say at unboxing, or maybe you've heard me say already, is that there are so many genre benders and blenders this year. Quite a few books could have gone in, like three different categories. I hope this little preview gives you a taste of what our summer reading guide and unboxing is like. To get the whole thing, go to modernmrsdarcy.com, everything you need to know is right there. This year, for the first time, we're also offering a professionally printed guide delivered straight to your mailbox. These are shipping out right now. Visit our shop@modernmrsdarcy.com shop to order yours. We also have some great new merch that we rolled out to go with our road trip theme. Check out our new hat, T shirt, sticker options and more at modernmrsdarcy.com/shop right now. Because of the unpredictable landscape out there, we are only shipping to US addresses. That's for the time being. All right, without further ado, let's get to the books.