With summer — and some welcome downtime — on the horizon, we have just the thing to help you spend those hours by the pool, at the beach, or on a plane: New books!
Our critics have considered the great titles publishing this summer and are here to let you know which ones they are most excited about. Here's a look at what fiction and nonfiction they can't wait to read:
June
Culture Creep: Notes on the Pop Apocalypse by Alice Bolin
It's fair to say that I have been anticipating Alice Bolin's new essay collection since I turned the last page of her dagger-sharp debut Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession in 2018. If in Dead Girls Bolin probed what's underneath our appetite for true crime stories — and what our desire for such narratives reveals about our culture's attitudes toward women — in Culture Creep she widens her lens to interrogate a seemingly disparate array of millennial pop culture obsessions, from NXIVM to nostalgia for the teen magazines of the aughts. Under Bolin's gimlet eye, what connects these topics is the overlap between (post)feminism, late capitalism, and technology, which all inspire cultish thinking. It all makes for an ambitious and unexpected collection. (June 3) — Kristen Martin
Meet Me at the Crossroads: A Novel by Megan Giddings
I first got to know Megan Giddings' writing through her short stories and flash fiction, and I adored her first two novels — so it's no surprise to me that her third, Meet Me at the Crossroads, is gorgeous, heartfelt and wonderfully strange. Twins Ayanna and Olivia each live with a different parent: Olivia with their Christian mom and Ayanna with their Pathsong dad. Pathsong, the religion Ayanna comes of age in, is a belief system centered around the seven mysterious doors that have appeared around the world and which open at unpredictable intervals. Through the doors lies, maybe, the world of the dead — or, maybe, just a totally different plane of existence. When Ayanna takes part in a ritual that brings her through the doors, Olivia unexpectedly tags along and, well, you should read it and find out. (June 3) — Ilana Masad
The Slip: A Novel by Lucas Schaefer
When I first read about The Slip, I couldn't have been more intrigued: Not only did the book draw comparisons to Nathan Hill's The Nix, one of my favorite American novels of the past 10 years, but it is set in Austin, Texas, a city I know well. When the first chapter was printed in The Common, I rushed to read it — and was not disappointed. Schaefer wastes no time introducing a memorable cast of characters (including, because this is Texas, a coyote) in this novel about a 16-year-old boxing student who disappears, and another teenager who seeks answers to questions about his body via a phone-sex line. Schaefer's writing floats like a butterfly, and I can't wait for the next rounds. (June 3) — Michael Schaub
The Fire Concerto: A Novel by Sarah Landenwich
I'm perennially in search of classical music portrayed in fiction. It's not common. It's also tough to get this medium on the page. So hand me a novel with a pianist, a concert hall fire, a long-lost metronome, and tell me it's a "literary page-turner," and I'm on it. Toggling between the 1990s and the late 19th century, this book is also a murder mystery. It has a list of characters in the beginning like an ambitious Playbill. I'll look forward to immersing myself in the re-creation and righting of history, in the immersion of unknown dramas in the classical music world, and in discovering a debut author who has chosen to frame her novel around classical music. (June 10) — Martha Anne Toll
Great Black Hope: A Novel by Rob Franklin
I love a debut that shouts its arrival and a novel that thrills while making you think. Artful and transporting, Great Black Hope is a book I couldn't wait to get lost in. Smith is upwardly mobile but spiraling out at breakneck speed. One of his closest friends has died mysteriously, and just as he's trying to numb his brain with illicit substances, he runs afoul of law enforcement. As a queer young Black man from an elite Atlanta family, with family money and a Stanford degree, Smith knows his identity matters. He's privileged and protected by virtue of his class, but vulnerable on account of his race and sexuality. So when he's arrested for cocaine possession in the Hamptons, the next moves are crucial. This compulsive coming of age novel traces the ups, downs and twists in Smith's journeys, from grief to glam party circuit to gritty backrooms to recovery and beyond. (June 10) — Carole V. Bell
King of Ashes: A Novel by S.A. Cosby
When it comes to a new novel by S.A. Cosby, it's never just "can't wait to read" — it's "what do I have to do to be first in line to read?" King of Ashes, like all of Cosby's novels, isn't simply a book to look forward to; it's a literary event that demands our full attention. The award-winning, New York Times bestselling author returns with a Godfather-inspired Southern crime epic. And when Cosby writes about family, just know: Drama isn't coming — it's already here. Meet the Carruthers family: eldest son Roman, younger brother Dante, and sister Neveah, who, along with her father, runs the Carruthers Crematorium. Trust me, you won't forget a single detail of this scorching story. S.A. Cosby's King of Ashes promises to be another unforgettable and unflinching standout from one of today's most talented crime fiction authors. (June 10) — Denny S. Bryce
I'll Be Right Here: A Novel by Amy Bloom
Throughout her career, Amy Bloom's big subject has been love. This many-splendored thing has been the focus of novels such as Love Invents Us and short story collections such as A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You. I'm eager to read her new novel, her first book since the 2022 publication of In Love, her heartrending memoir about agreeing to help her husband end his life after he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. The characters in I'll Be Right Here are World War II refugees who forge new, nontraditional and often complicated found families in their adopted country. It once again showcases Bloom's signature open-armed embrace of love in its many forms. (June 24) — Heller McAlpin
July
The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature by Charlie English
When yet another headline about banning books from libraries popped into my newsfeed alongside the release date for The CIA Book Club, I put Charlie English's latest title at the top of my reading list. English's true tale of the federal government smuggling subversive books through the Iron Curtain sounds like a current-times call to action from the American Library Association. The CIA Book Club is English's latest story focused on official efforts to control or destroy narratives of civic culture. It's no surprise that the former journalist, who covered international intrigue, has an oeuvre that includes Nazi censorship of artists, and Al Qaeda's hunt for ancient manuscripts. His new book reports a CIA spy caper to flood the communist zone with The Gulag Archipelago, among other titles. The book's allure is intrigue, danger, and suspense in the service of meaning. I'm in. (July 1) — Marcela Davison Aviles
I Want to Burn This Place Down: Essays by Maris Kreizman
Typically, it's the plot, subject matter, or author that first piques my interest in a book. But sometimes, as with Maris Kreizman's upcoming essay collection, the title is enough. I Want to Burn This Place Down explores Kreizman's transition from being a "good Democrat" taken in by the American Dream and myth of meritocracy to someone who questions what "following the rules" means when the rules are rigged. I'm interested in reading her debut work because I'm curious about Kreizman's evolution. What changed for her and when? Was this a slowly dawning realization or a sudden epiphany? How has this discovery shaped her? Kreizman is known for her critical self-reflection, which only adds to the collection's appeal. That she's funny too? Well, that makes it a must read. (July 1) — Ericka Taylor
Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer, translated by Shaun Whiteside
Marlen Haushofer's Killing Stella has much in common with the claustrophobic-yet-idyllic milieu of the HBO White Lotus series or Patricia Smith's Ripley novels. Originally published in German as Wir töten Stella in 1958 and incisively rendered into English only recently by Irish translator Shaun Whiteside, this deceptively restraint novella by the Austrian author — framed as a written confession by an otherwise thoughtful housewife about her non-intervention regarding her husband's casual seduction of a guileless teenager — anticipated Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange and Hannah Arendt's "the banality of evil" thesis in Eichmann in Jerusalem. The novel's chilling dissection of moral apathy, while confined to a small group of well-educated bourgeois in an urban European setting, is especially prescient since it implicates all of us. Our natural sins of omission can be extended to any marginalized individual or group, due to our cowardice, our insistence on the status quo, or our need to maintain emotional safety and social stability. (July 1) — Thúy Đinh
The Age of Video Games: A Graphic History of Gaming from Pong to VR and Beyond by Jean Zeid, illustrated by Émilie Rouge, translated by Jen Vaughn
This charming graphic history tells the roughly 50-year-old account of an industry driven by the interplay of technological innovation, economic forces, and individual artistry and innovation. The story is presented through accessible, playful comics drawn with often-impressive levels of detail. For some readers (Gen Xers like me), the book will elicit the nostalgia of revisiting touchstones from childhood and young adulthood – from the early arcade boom of the 1970s, with games like Pong and Asteroids, to the 1989 release of the pocket console, Game Boy, a near overnight sensation. For younger readers, the book will fill in crucial gaps, serving as a reminder that the video gaming culture we live in was not inevitable. Throughout, the two enthusiasts behind the collaboration make a persuasive case for the potential of video games of all different stripes to bring complex stories into the world, evoking for their participants a host of complicated emotions and playful imaginings.(July 22) Tahneer Oksman
The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne by Chris Sweeney
In 1960, an Eastern Airlines flight suffered a bird strike and crashed into Boston Harbor. The FAA, aware that the safety of airline travel was on the line, sent the bird remains to the Smithsonian for further study — and Roxie Laybourne, an unassuming and overlooked ornithologist there, took the case. It was the beginning of what would become her legacy: the world's first forensic ornithologist, assisting with everything from poaching investigations to NASA flights. For those who love niche stories of nature, science and social history, journalist Chris Sweeney's The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne offers a timely story about the benefits of government-funded science, the invisibility of public safety's most important workers, and a fascinating — and peculiar — ecosystem: one woman, and lots and lots of birds. (July 22) — Genevieve Valentine
Necessary Fiction: A Novel by Eloghosa Osunde
I think everyone who read Vagabonds! is at least curious, if not downright excited, about whatever Eloghosa Osunde does next – and that next is here. Necessary Fiction takes readers into the hectic heart of Lagos and drops them into the lives of multiple queer characters looking for love, joy, freedom, and themselves while navigating their identity in a country where who they are can mean broken relationships and scorn. The lies these characters tell others are the tools that allow them to participate in everything the city has to offer, but these "necessary fictions" come at a price, and I can't imagine anyone better to explore that price than Osunde. (July 22) — Gabino Iglesias
Beasts of Carnaval: A Caribbean Historical Fantasy Tale of Mystery and Magic at El Carnaval De Bestias by Rosália Rodrigo
The el Carnaval de Bestias is a fevered bacchanal, a luxurious, exotic escape for the elite, and a descent into surreal torment for Sofía. Born enslaved and now free, Sofía arrives on Isla Bestia searching for her missing brother. Instead, what she finds is a waking nightmare. The island seethes with pleasure and energy, but for her, the past and present blend together in a disorienting collision. Her Taike'ri ancestors call to her, and she dare not turn away. This may be Rodrigo's debut, but she deftly weaves together Caribbean history, Taíno culture, and the Black diaspora into a profound experience. From the lush setting to the evocative prose to the can't-look-away characters, this is one of my most anticipated novels of the year. (July 29) — Alex Brown
August
The Hounding: A Novel by Xenobe Purvis
It's the 18th century in Little Nettlebed, an English village astir with strange happenings. Suspicions fall on the Mansfield sisters, five girls viewed by their neighbors as just a little too different. And now, could these girls be transforming into — dogs? I can't wait to fetch Xenobe Purvis' debut novel The Hounding from my local bookstore this summer. A few times a year, I visit family in Salem, Mass., famous for the historic Witch Trials; a memory of creepy, catastrophic groupthink and courageous defiance by victims lingers in the Salem air. I anticipate finding that same forceful mix in Purvis' fiction, spiced by the specter of human-animal transformations that blur species lines (Aug. 5) — Barbara J. King
Vulture: A Novel by Phoebe Greenwood
Imagine Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag as a war correspondent in Gaza and you'd get Sara, the cynical and raunchy antiheroine of Phoebe Greenwood's Vulture. Working from a generator-powered, four-star hotel for international media, Sara wreaks havoc on herself and everyone around her in a quest for an exclusive with the leader of a terrorist group. Greenwood covered the Middle East for the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, and the Sunday Times, and the book's portrayal of Gaza and its forsaken residents feels like an insider account. It's hard to say that the book is hilarious given all the graphic death and destruction, but Vulture is a daring dark comedy that doesn't shy away from the horrors that have been going on in the Palestinian territories for too long. (Aug. 12) — Leland Cheuk
A New New Me: A Novel by Helen Oyeyemi
Helen Oyeyemi is a brilliant and deeply imaginative writer, so it is no surprise that her latest offering A New New Me is an intellectually provocative story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. In her innovative new novel, Oyeyemi introduces us to Kinga, a woman who has a different personality for every day of the week. Can you imagine being present and conscious of your actions for only one day out of the week? Or, even worse, waking up to a man tied up in your apartment by one of your other personalities — one who might be trying to erase the rest of you? A masterful storyteller, Oyeyemi takes us on a wild ride as Kinga unravels this mystery and tries to keep her many lives from exploding. A New New Me is a clever and original story that makes you think about how one's identity is shaped and whether it can be controlled. A must-read. (Aug. 26) — Keishel Williams
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