A MAINE summer reading experience
Read ME is Maine Humanities’ statewide community read. Offered every summer in partnership with Maine State Library and Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, the program encourages Mainers of all ages to read books selected by, and written by, Maine authors (or illustrators!).
Read ME is offered through public libraries across the state and even the smallest, most rural libraries can participate. All that’s required is a commitment to making each of the featured titles available to their patrons.
This unique program supports Maine libraries in their work to provide quality summer reading initiatives, connects Maine’s reading community through shared experiences, and elevates the work of Maine authors.
2027 Recommending Authors
Book selections will be announced in early 2027
Phuc Tran
Adult Fiction & Non-fiction
Phuc Tran (he/him)—writer, tattooer, and classicist— has a train wreck résumé. His memoir Sigh Gone won the 2020 New England Book Award and the 2021 Maine Literary Award. In 2022, Sigh Gone was the non-fiction selection for Read ME. Phuc has been a high school Latin teacher and tattooer for over twenty years, for which he has won no awards. His 2012 TEDx talk was featured on NPR’s Ted Radio Hour. He has a children’s book series with bestselling illustrator Pete Oswald entitled Cranky, and from time to time, he tells stories from The Moth’s MainStage.
X. Fang
Youth
X. Fang (she/her) is a Taiwanese-American illustrator. Her picture books include Broken, a New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award winner; We Are Definitely Human, recipient of the Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award; and her debut picture book, Dim Sum Palace, which won the Society of Illustrators’ Dilys Evans Founder’s Award and was named one of Slate’s 25 Greatest Picture Books of the Past 25 Years, among other honors. She lives in Midcoast Maine.
2026 Books
Adult Fiction and Non-fiction
Recommended by Maine State Library, Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, and Maine Humanities
YOUTH
Recommended by Alexandra S.D. Hinrichs
Adult Fiction
The Islanders
By Maine’s Lewis Robinson
Shaken by problems at home, Walt joins a new leadership program on Whaleback Island off the coast of Maine. As Walt and his fellow misfits are challenged by ex-military instructors, the reasons behind their intense training slowly surface. Walt and the others must use their new skills find a way to survive.
Adult Non-fiction
A Gardener at the End of the World
By Maine’s Margot Anne Kelley
A gardener’s pandemic journal that combines memoir with an exploration of the natural world both inside and outside the garden. Seeds and viruses are springboards for wide-ranging reflections, such as their shared need for someone to transport them, the centrality of movement to being alive, and the domestication of plants as an act of becoming co-dependent.
Middle Grade
Monster Locker
Co-written by Maine Graphic Novelist Andrés Vera Martínez
Something in the basement of sixth-grader Pablo Ortiz’s school has waited hundreds of years for its chance to open a portal into the realm of monsters. When Pablo accidentally breaks the seal and summons a vengeful Aztec goddess, his new friends and the wisdom passed down by his abuela help him take her on.
Picture book
Lucy!
Co-written by Maine’s Jacqueline Tourville
As a child, Lucy was sassy, bold, and funny. As an adult, she was a rule-breaking, chance-taking, comedy pioneer. In 1951, I Love Lucy took television by storm, and has made millions laugh ever since. Lucy! is the true story of how Lucille Ball overcame the odds to become the world’s Queen of Comedy.
Library Registration
Over 60 libraries participated in Read ME 2025. Join us again this summer!
Read ME is structured to enable even the smallest, most rural libraries to participate. All that’s required is a commitment to making each of the featured titles available to their patrons.
TOOLKITs
Everything you need to convene your community for Read ME.
Attend an Event
No Events scheduled for Read ME
AUTHOR TALKS
2026: Lewis Robinson
2026: Margot Anne Kelley
Watch More
2025: Nick Fuller Googins
2025: Jennifer Lunden
2024: Shannon Bowring
2024: Marpheen Chann
2023: Morgan Talty
2023: Meghan Gilliss
2022: Phuc Tran
2022: Meredith Hall
REad ME News
Read ME 2024 Books
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Read ME 2024 Recommending Author
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Read ME 2023 Books
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New Read ME Partnership
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