By Victoria Pearson Entertainment 19.05.2026

14 Brilliant Books to Read This Long Weekend

Whether you’re in the mood for a buzzy new fiction or an intimate memoir, these American reads are perfect for a leisurely long weekend.

Long weekends translate in different ways for different people. For some, the promise of that one extra day is all the incentive they need to pack up their lives in a four-wheeler and escape for some R&R (or digital disconnection). For others, it means not moving a muscle - staying put in your home and making the most of some uninterrupted hours to refresh your space or spring clean or catch up on your favorite TV shows.

For us, the Memorial Day long weekend affords extra time to get stuck into our next page-turner. Whether it’s the New York elite memoir everyone’s talking about or the thriller promising to be the next Gone Girl, these are the reads we’ll be tucking into come May 25.

Strangers

By Belle Burden

It’s the book of the moment, and for good reason. Born into a world of old-money New York privilege, Belle Burden had seemingly built an enviably stable life – until her 20-year marriage unravelled in an instant (at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, no less). In this intimately candid memoir, Burden examines how easily a certain thing – life, parenthood, partnership – can fracture, and what it means to remain visible to yourself when the life you thought you knew disappears.

True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen

By Lance Richardson

The Australian journalist and author Lance Richardson has been living and writing in the US for long enough to call it home, and his latest biography holds a mirror up to a quintessentially American figure: the celebrated writer and naturalist Peter Matthiessen. This expansive biography traces its restless, fascinating subject through literary circles, remote landscapes, and spiritual inquiry. From co-founding The Paris Review to travelling through Nepal, the Congo, and Alaska, Richardson examines the contradictions of a man shaped by privilege yet drawn to wilderness, Zen Buddhism, and environmental advocacy.

Martyr!

By Kaveh Akbar

One of the most talked-about literary debuts in recent years, Martyr! follows Cyrus, a young writer grappling with grief, addiction and questions of purpose after a childhood marked by loss. Fixated on the idea of martyrdom – what it means to live, or sacrifice, for something larger than oneself – Cyrus travels to New York, where an unexpected connection begins to shift his perspective. This one’s a compelling read for anyone drawn to literary fiction.

My Husband's Wife

By Alice Feeney

Thriller-lovers, rejoice! Alice Feeney’s latest is a gripping one you won’t be able to put down, built around a brilliant (if totally unsettling) premise: a woman returns home to find another person living her life. The kicker? Her husband insists the stranger is his real wife. As timelines intertwine, long-buried secrets surface, blurring the boundaries between identity and truth. Did we mention it’s set around a mysterious inherited house and a clinic that claims to predict the date of death? Trust us – you’ll be questioning what’s real and what isn’t until the final pages.

Small Town Girls

By Jayne Anne Phillips

You’d likely recognise Phillips’ name from the covers of novels (her 2024 release Night Watch won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction), but in Small Town Girls she’s writing in first-person. The memoir-in-essays mines Phillips’ personal history – reflecting upon the small college and mining town of Buckhannon where she was born, and how the area’s “long history and layered stories provided the perfect birthplace for a writer.” Elsewhere she examines her parents, an abortion she had at 20, and her literary aspirations. It’s haunting and riveting and wistful and insightful.

Famesick

By Lena Dunham

Hot off the presses, this candid (it’s written by Lena Dunham, remember?) and darkly funny memoir reflects the writer and actor’s complicated relationship with ambition, illness, and public life. Moving between hospital rooms, film sets, red carpets, and the White House, the architect of seminal Millennial text GIRLS examines what it means to pursue creative success while navigating chronic pain and the pressures of visibility, all served up with her signature honesty and vulnerability. Read it so that we can all discuss it together.

James

By Percival Everett

Percival Everett takes the classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and reimagines it from the perspective of Jim, placing the enslaved character at the centre of a story long shaped by other voices. It blends sharp humour with philosophical reflection, as Jim navigates a perilous journey along the Mississippi. The result is both a page-turner and a masterclass in reinterpretation.

Half His Age

By Jennette McCurdy

Half His Age – the debut novel by bestselling memoirist and actor Jennette McCurdy – is smart, and often very funny, despite its dark subject matter. The story circles Waldo, a 17-year-old student, and the relationship she embarks upon with her 40-year-old teacher, Mr Korgy. McCurdy has talked openly about the personal experiences that have inspired some of the novel’s fictional elements, using the writing process to “work through her rage, understand her desire and reclaim her power.” This one’s definitely a conversation-starter, perfectly suited to a long weekend.

London Falling

By Patrick Radden Keefe

The title doesn’t suggest an all-American read, but New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe is one of the country’s best investigative journalists and authors (he has published six books to date, including the bestselling Empire of Pain, and Say Nothing), known for combining rigorous research with compelling narrative momentum. In his latest book, London Calling, Keefe explores the mystery of London teenager, Zac Brettler, who fell to his death from a luxury apartment building in 2019. It’s a case of truth being stranger than fiction – when Brettler’s grieving parents began unpicking the tragic events, they discovered their son had been living a double (fantasy) life as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. Un-put-down-able.

The Friday Afternoon Club

By Griffin Dunne

The nephew of the late literary icon Joan Didion, Griffin Dunne has cultivated a pretty stunning creative career of his own (is now the right time to mention he directed cult classic Practical Magic?). A respected producer, director, and actor, for The Friday Afternoon Club he turns his attention to the written word, moving his prose between glamour, grief, Hollywood memoir and the strange intimacy of growing up around famous names. From his friendship with the late Carrie Fisher to the profound personal loss of his sister Dominique, who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 1982, it balances cultural history with personal reflection (oftentimes being quite funny), and reads like a movie you wished never had to end.

Hot Springs Drive

By Lindsay Hunter

Loved Gone Girl? This might be the next one for your hit list. Lindsay Hunter’s latest release is a deceptively complex steamy thriller, situated in a leafy suburban setting (tick, tick, tick). Theresa and Jackie first meet in the maternity ward and in the sleep-deprived haze of newborn parenting they form a close, years-long friendship. The story is fueled by the secrets lurking beneath the slick veneer of the neighbours on Hot Springs Drive, a clandestine affair, and the discovery of a dead body. You’ll finish it well before the long weekend is over.

Against Breaking

By Ada Limón

“If you need to remember what makes us human, tender, brave, flawed, and worthy of love, you need poetry.” So writes the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, Ada Limón, in her new book, Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry. In this slim publication, Limon makes a compelling case for poetry as something to live with, not just read. Drawing on her own experiences, she explores how language can offer comfort, connection and a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us – perfect for dipping in and out of across a slow long weekend.

This Land Is Your Land

By Beverly Gage

Road trips are a quintessential long weekend activity, and in lieu of actually turning your car on, Pulitzer Prize winner Beverly Gage takes readers on a journey across the United States, visiting sites that reveal how the nation’s past is remembered (and sometimes reshaped). Moving from battlefields to museums to unexpected landmarks, she reflects on the complexities and contradictions embedded in American identity – especially timely reading ahead of America’s 250th anniversary this July 4.

The Möbius Book

By Catherine Lacey

No one is writing like Catherine Lacey – the author’s inventive negotiation of form and prose makes her a singular voice in American literature. The Möbius Book only affirms this unsubtle fangirling. Part novella, part memoir, it unfolds in two (literal) directions – a playful structural choice that mirrors the emotional complexity at its centre. One side traces the disintegration of a relationship, while the other drifts into fiction tinged with mystery, blurring the boundaries between imagination and lived experience. It’s intriguing and unconventional yet still grounded and thoughtful. A literary choice for curious long weekend readers.