BEACH READS and beyond
What qualifies as a “summer book”? Sizzling romances? Bubbly rom-coms? Thrilling page-turners? h Any good book released when the weather is warm and the drinks are cold. And this summer is looking to be a hot one, literally and literarily. Sure, there are tantalizing beach reads. There also are vulnerable memoirs from actors Cecily Strong and Mena Suvari, a hard-boiled noir from horror master Stephen King and Sally Rooney’s much-anticipated follow-up to “Normal People.” h If you’re looking for more titles to add to your to-read pile, here are the 20 books we can’t wait to read this summer (on the beach or otherwise).
‘Filthy Animals’ by Brandon Taylor (out now)
The Booker Prize finalist and author of “Real Life” returns with a collection of linked stories set among complex young creatives in the Midwest and observing their fraught relationships.
‘Dear Miss Metropolitan’ by Carolyn Ferrell (July 6)
A longtime newspaper woman, advice columnist Miss Metropolitan, is shocked when it is discovered that a neighbor had kidnapped teen girls and held them for years in his dilapidated house in Queens. How could she have missed this story?
‘Build Your House Around My Body ’ by Violet Kupersmith (July 6)
In a debut novel drawing on a haunted Vietnam’s history and folklore, two linked young Vietnamese women go missing decades apart: One the teenage daughter of a wealthy family in the ’80s while fleeing her angry father, the other an unhappy Vietnamese-american woman in the 2010s who disappears without a trace.
‘Falling’ by T.J. Newman (July 6)
A pilot’s family is taken hostage and he’s given an impossible choice: Crash the plane and kill the 143 other passengers on board or his family dies. The kicker? The first-time author is a former flight attendant who landed a 7-figure book deal.
‘Wayward’ by Dana Spiotta (July 6)
Samantha Raymond’s life begins to come apart in middle age after the 2016 election when she flees her suburban life to buy a decrepit house in a hardscrabble Syracuse neighborhood.
‘Appleseed’ by Matt Bell (July 13)
This ambitious speculative epic and striking take on climate change follows three separate narratives in three different times: 18th-century Ohio; the near climate-ravaged future; and a thousand years from now, in a North America covered by a sheet of ice with one lonely inhabitant seeking out the last of civilization.
‘The Final Girl Support Group’ by Grady Hendrix (July 13)
The horror master behind “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” puts his unique spin on slasher movie tropes, imagining a group of real-life final girls who survived their attackers meeting in a therapeutic support group to process their traumas.
‘She Who Became the Sun’ by Shelley Parker-chan (July 20)
A queer, fantastical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. A sister claims her dead brother’s identity and his birthright, leading the battle to overthrow Mongol rule of China.
‘The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois’ by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (July 27)
This ambitious debut novel by a National Book Award-nominated poet chronicles the journey of an American family from the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to present day, and one Black woman’s coming-to-terms with her legacy.
‘The Great Peace’ by Mena Suvari (July 27)
The actress, best known for her career-making role in “American Beauty,” pens a harrowing coming-of-age memoir, detailing how as a young star in Hollywood she lost herself in drugs, sex and abusive relationships, sharing life lessons she learned along the way.
‘Stolen’ by Elizabeth Gilpin (July 20)
In this gripping memoir, Gilpin recounts how at 15 she was sent to a “therapeutic” boarding school for troubled teens, where she and others like her were brutally abused. “This unflinching account is impossible to put down,” says a starred review from Publishers Weekly.
‘Her Heart for a Compass’ by Sarah Ferguson (Aug. 3)
That’s right, the Duchess of York has written a novel. This costume drama tells the story of an outspoken young noblewoman’s coming-of-age in repressive Victorian England as she flees an arranged marriage.
‘Billy Summers’ by Stephen King (Aug. 3)
The horror master pens a noir about a complex killer for hire. He’s the best in the business, and he wants out – but his final job complicates everything.
‘This Will All Be Over Soon’ by Cecily Strong (Aug. 10)
The “Saturday Night Live” star writes a memoir about losing her cousin to brain cancer in early 2020, and learning to grieve him amid the loss and heartache of the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Velvet Was the Night’ by Silvia Moreno-garcia (Aug. 17)
From the author of “Mexican Gothic” comes a noir-flavored mystery about a secretary in 1970s Mexico City intrigued by the suspicious disappearance of her beautiful neighbor and sets out in search of the missing woman.
‘Seeing Ghosts’ by Kat Chow (Aug. 24)
The author explores grief and its fallout after her mother’s unexpected death from cancer, in a Chinese American family story that spans three generations. “The result is a moving depiction of grief at its most mundane and spectacular,” says Publishers Weekly.
‘The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal’ by Mary L. Trump (Aug. 17)
The niece of former President Trump and bestselling author of “Too Much and Never Enough” writes that America is suffering from PTSD, and that national healing must start with a reckoning.
‘On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint’ by Maggie Nelson (Sept. 7)
Drawing on a vast range of pop culture and critical theory, the celebrated cultural critic explores the ways we think, experience and discuss the concept of freedom.
‘Beautiful World, Where Are You’ by Sally Rooney (Sept. 7)
From the author of “Normal People” and “Conversations With Friends” comes a comingof-age story about four young adults – novelist Alice, her romantic interest Felix, her best friend Eileen and her friend Simon – and the life that’s catching up with them.
‘Harlem Shuffle’ by Colson Whitehead (Sept. 14)
The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author returns with an entertaining heist novel and family saga set in 1960s Harlem.