10 books by Wisconsin authors to add to your summer reading list
Wisconsin isn’t just known for its dairy and brewing—it’s also home to a lot of great writers. Add some books by Wisconsin authors to your summer reading list.
Maybe you don’t have to do summer reading for school anymore, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still a great time to crack into a book. Because of the longer days and increased leisure time that summer brings, a lot of people spend the season diving into their to-read lists. According to American Libraries Magazine, more than 99% of public libraries offer a summer reading program. Whether or not you’re logging your minutes for a reading program, summer is a wonderful time to delve into hobbies, like reading.
If you’re searching for more books to add to your summer reading list, why not look locally? There are numerous authors, poets, graphic novelists and other writers that have called Wisconsin home. Whether they were studied in Wisconsin, were born and raised in the state, or choose to live there now, plenty of authors have proven that Wisconsin is no joke when it comes to literary greats. Here are some of the best books by Wisconsin authors to add to your summer reading list.
1. “Ghost Story” by Peter Straub
Peter Straub spent most of his adult life in Dublin, London, and New York City, but the novelist and poet was a native Wisconsinite. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Straub, who died at the age of 79 in 2022, attended Milwaukee Country Day School, and then the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He briefly taught English at the Milwaukee Country Day School, but didn’t start getting into writing until moving to Dublin in the late ’60s.
“Ghost Story“ was Straub’s fifth novel. It tells the story of a man who goes to an upstate New York town after the death of his uncle. While in the town, he discovers that the death might be linked to a group of men who call themselves the Chowder Society, and the ghost stories that they tell. The novel was a national bestseller, and two years after it was published, “Ghost Story” was turned into a film, directed by John Irvin.
2. “All This Could Be Different” by Sarah Thankam Mathews
Set in Milwaukee during the Great Recession of the late ’00s, “All This Could Be Different” follows Sneha, an Indian immigrant who is working an entry-level corporate job in Milwaukee’s largest city after graduating from university. Sneha is also exploring her sexuality throughout the novel, and dealing with problems that all young adults endure: job problems, questionable relationships, and awful housemates, while also dealing with the challenges of trying to take care of her family in India.
Mathews was born in Bangalore, India, and raised in Muscat, Oman, but when the author was 17, she moved with her parents to the United States. The author attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, serving as the president of the Wisconsin Union Directorate for one year, from 2012 to 2013. “All This Could Be Different” is her first novel.
3. “One! Hundred! Demons!” by Lynda Barry
Inspired by a 16th-century monk’s painting of demons chasing one another, cartoonist and writer Lynda Barry decided to confront her own demons in “One! Hundred! Demons!” Her demons are moments in life that have troubled her, or helped to form her: from ex-boyfriends, to the realization that childhood is over. One! Hundred! Demons! is a cross between a comic book and a graphic novel, filled with Barry’s vivid and colorful drawings.
Barry was born in Richland Center, Wisc., but grew up in Seattle, attending The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. The cartoonist and writer didn’t stay away from Wisconsin forever, though. After meeting her husband, Kevin Kawula, at the Ragdale Foundation, in Lake Forest, Ill., Barry and her husband moved to a dairy farm near Footville, Wisc., and is currently an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Creativity in the art department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
4. “A Death in Door County” by Annelise Ryan
“A Death in Door County” is not only written by a Wisconsin author, but is also set in the state—specifically in Door County, as the title suggests. Morgan Carter, the book’s protagonist, owns Odds and Ends Bookstore, in Sister Bay. In her spare time, she’s also a cryptozoologist—someone who studies and investigates animals whose existence is not scientifically proven. When two bodies get found in Green Bay with mysterious bites from a Loch Ness monster-type animal, Carter gets tasked with investigating what’s happening.
Annelise Ryan is the pseudonym for Wisconsin-based author Beth Amos. “A Death in Door County” is the first of three novels in the Monster Hunter mystery series, written under the Annelise Ryan pseudonym. She’s also written a 12 book mystery series all set within a Wisconsin town.
5. “Shotgun Lovesongs” by Nickolas Butler
Set in the fictional town, Little Wing, Wisc., “Shotgun Lovesongs” is about four childhood friends, and the paths that they take in adulthood: one stayed in town and works on the family farm, one trades commodities, one works in the rodeo, and another is a massive rockstar—and all four are brought back home for a wedding. For Bon Iver fans, the story might sound a bit familiar. In fact, it was inspired by the creation of the Wisconsin band’s 2007 debut album “For Emma, Forever Ago.”
That’s because author Nickolas Butler, who grew up in Eau Claire, is friends with Bon Iver’s frontman, Justin Vernon. The two attended school together in their native Eau Claire. After graduating from Eau Claire’s Memorial High School, Butler attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently, Butler lives on 16 acres of land in Washington, Wisc.
6. “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” by Matthew Desmond
Currently a professor at Princeton University, sociologist Matthew Desmond is well-known for his award-winning 2016 nonfiction book “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.” In the book, Desmond chronicles the stories of eight families set in some of Milwaukee’s most poverty-stricken areas, and the experiences that they had, during the 2008 financial crisis, with poverty and eviction.
The book won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 2017, as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. While Desmond now teaches in New Jersey, he earned his MA and PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
7. “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Beth Nguyen
At the end of the Vietnam War, author and memoirist Beth Nguyen’s family fled the country of her birth when she was eight months old. The family stayed in refugee camps in Guam and Arkansas, before settling in Grand Rapids, Mich. But her mother didn’t come with. She either stayed behind, or was left behind, and Nguyen didn’t see her again until she was 19.
Throughout “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” Nguyen writes about her experience meeting her mother, the times she’s seen her since, and her own experience becoming a parent. In addition to the memoir, which was published in 2023, Nguyen has also written a 2008 memoir “Stealing Buddha’s Dinner,” and two novels. Nguyen is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches creative writing and creative nonfiction.
8. “Auction” by Quan Barry
In her first poetry collection in more than eight years, Quan Barry spanned the globe to examine the nature of existence for her work in “Auction.” Throughout the 96-page poetry collection, which was published in 2023, Barry examines the plight of migrants, critiques the ethics of travel and consumption, among many other topics that she thought about while traveling the world.
Quan Barry was born in Vietnam, and raised in Boston, but is currently an English professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was the Diane Middlebrook poetry fellow at the university. Barry has also served as the final judge for the New American Poetry Prize in 2021.
9. “The Snowbirds: A Novel” by Christina Clancy
Like many other snowbirds, Madison couple Kim and Grant decide to spend the winter in Palm Springs after becoming empty nesters, in the novel “The Snowbirds: A Novel” by Christina Clancy. As they make the seasonal move to warmer weather, some of the couple’s long standing issues come to light. Then, Grant disappears on a hike, leaving Kim to wonder if he died, or intentionally went away.
“The Snowbirds” is Clancy’s third novel. The author was raised in Milwaukee, and earned a PhD in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After graduating, she taught English at Beloit College, but now is a full-time writer. Clancy lives in Madison, but like the characters in her latest novel, spends her winters in Palm Springs.
10. “The Family Chao” by Lan Samantha Chang
Born in Appleton to a waishengren family, who moved from China to Taiwan between 1945 and 1949, Lan Samantha Chang published her fourth book and third novel, “The Family Chao,” in 2022. The novel centers around a family of Chinese chefs in the fictional town of Haven, Wisc., who have to face their family’s reputation after their patriarch is murdered.
The book is divided into two sections, one which builds to the death of the family’s patriarch, Lee Chao, and the second, which follows the murder trial of one of his three sons. “The Family Chao” is the recipient of Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and was on numerous best-of lists in 2022, and former President Barack Obama’s 2022 Summer Reading List.
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