45 new books for summer reading in 2022

Summertime — and to tweak a line from DuBose Heyward’s famous lyric — the readin’ is easy. 

If you’d like to rise up singing during the sunny season, here is a varied selection of 45 new books to choose from, with a hefty helping of Wisconsin writers, and including a subset of choices for children and teens. In each case, I’ve either read the book already or browsed it, or been impressed by a previous work from the same author, or had the new book recommended by a trusted source of information. 

Thanks to my colleague Chris Foran for contributing some pop-culture and baseball selections.

Speaking of summer reading, the Milwaukee Public Library encourages children to join its Super Reader Squad for children 12 and younger, and its Teen Summer Challenge program for youth ages 13 through 18. Check the library’s website, mpl.org, for summer reading program details in the near future.