June 2024 Most Anticipated New Book Releases

Contemporary & Literary Fiction

Fire Exit

Morgan Talty

Morgan Talty, author of the acclaimed short story collection Night of the Living Rez, returns with a debut novel about families, legacies, regret, and the aching pain of the path not chosen. Charles Lamosway lives across the river from Maine’s Penobscot Reservation, separated from his past by terrible secrets. Who gets to know the truth? Who gets to tell it? And should it even be told at all? 

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Tin House
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Malas

Marcela Fuentes

A story full of passion and revenge, following one family living on the Texas Mexico border and a curse that reverberates across generations–Fuentes has achieved something rare and indelible with this story of complex women. Rich with cinematic details—from dusty rodeos to the excitement of a Selena concert and the comfort of conjunto ballads played at family gatherings—this memorable debut is a love letter to the Tejano culture and community that sustain both of these women as they discover what family means.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Viking
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Godwin

Joseph O’Neill

From the acclaimed author of Netherland (a New York Times Book Review Best Book of the year): the odyssey of two brothers crossing the world in search of an African soccer prodigy who might change their fortunes. As only he can do, Joseph O’Neill investigates the legacy of colonialism in the context of family love, global capitalism, and the dreaming individual.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Pantheon
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Service

Sarah Gilmartin

Tensions are at an all-time high in an upscale Dublin restaurant as its employees grapple with the fallout from a shocking scandal involving its head chef. Beautifully written and cleverly told in 3 voices, this scorching novel explores uncomfortable truths about our changing social norms with nuance and complexity.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Pushkin Press
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Solider Sailor

Claire Kilroy

Award-winning author Claire Kilroy’s exquisite and provocative novel that reads with the pace of a thriller and is filled with astute and witty observations of life with a young child.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Scribner
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Margo’s Got Money Troubles

Rufi Thorpe

A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman’s attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: William Morrow
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Tehrangeles

Porochista Khakpour

Meet the Milanis. Fast-food heiresses, L.A. royalty, and your newest reality TV obsession. Dramatic, biting yet full of heart, Tehrangeles is a tragicomic saga about high-functioning family dysfunction and the ever-present struggle to accept one’s true self.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Pantheon
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Devil is Fine

John Vercher

From acclaimed novelist John Vercher, a profoundly moving novel of what it means to be a father, a son, a writer, and a biracial American fighting to reconcile the past. With the wit and rawness of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, Devil Is Fine is a gripping, surreal, and brilliantly crafted dissection of the legacies we leave behind and those we inherit.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Celadon
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Four Squares

Bobby Finger

From the beloved author of The Old Place comes a tender, funny, and fresh novel about a gay writer in New York City whose life is irrevocably altered, and then again thirty years later. Alternating between both timelines, Four Squares is an intimate look at what it means to find community at any age. With humor and compassion, it honors the enduring power of queer friendship, its history, and how essential it is to keep those stories alive.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Putnam
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God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer

Joseph Earl Thomas

A stirring, unsparing novel about Black life in Philadelphia and the struggle to build intimate connections through the eyes of a struggling ex-Army grad student that “reads like a direct communication from the soul,” (Justin Torres) from the virtuoso author of Sink.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Grand Central
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Little Rot

Akwaeke Emezi

Aima and Kalu are a longtime couple who have just split. When Kalu, reeling from the breakup, visits an exclusive sex party hosted by his best friend, Ahmed, he makes a decision that will plunge them all into chaos, brutally and suddenly upending their lives. Ola and Souraya, two Nigerian sex workers visiting from Kuala Lumpur, collide into the scene just as everything goes to hell. Sucked into the city’s corrupt and glittering underworld, they’re all looking for a way out, fueled by a desperate need to escape the dangerous threat that looms over them.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Riverhead
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Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books

Kirsten Miller

The provocative and hilarious summer read that will have book lovers cheering and everyone talking! Kirsten Miller, author of The Change, brings us a bracing, wildly entertaining satire about a small Southern town, a pitched battle over banned books, and a little lending library that changes everything.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: William Morrow
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The Memo

Rachel Dodes & Lauren Mechling

If you could rewrite your life story, would you dare? That’s the question at the heart of this charming and propulsive debut novel about love, life, and a woman finding herself and what it means to be happy and successful. Smart, addictive, bittersweet, and ultimately triumphant, The Memo will enchant readers of In Five Years and Cassandra in Reverse as well as fans of Emma Straub and Maria Semple.

Publication Date: June 18
Publisher: Harper Perennial
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Bear

Julia Phillips

A mesmerizing novel of two sisters whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor—a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods, by the celebrated, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth.

Publication date: June 25
Publisher: Hogarth
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Honey

Isabel Banta

A coming-of-age story that follows the meteoric rise of singer Amber Young as she navigates fame in the late-90s and early-2000s era of pop music superstardom. With the captivating style of Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter and the raw honesty of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, Isabel Banta’s debut novel, Honey, redefines the narratives of some of the most famous pop icons of the ’90s and 2000s. It reimagines the superstars we idolized and hated, oversexualized and underestimated, and gives them the fresh, multifaceted story they deserve.

Publication date: June 25
Publisher: Celadon
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Historical Fiction

The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye

Briony Cameron

This epic, dazzling tale based on true events illuminates a woman of color’s rise to power as one of the few purported female pirate captains to sail the Caribbean, and the forbidden love story that will shape the course of history. An unforgettable tale told in three parts, The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye is a thrilling, buccaneering escapade filled with siege and battle, and is also a tender exploration of friendship, love, and the search for freedom and home.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Atria Books
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Swift River

Essie Chambers

In this heartbreaking debut set in the 1980s, Diamond, a Black girl growing up in a declining New England mill town, feels like a misfit. When she gets a letter from an estranged branch of family, everything she thought she knew about herself is turned upside-down. Secrets from the women that come before her allow Diamond to realize her full potential.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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The Road to the Country

Chigozie Obioma

A sweeping, heart-racing, mystical novel about a university student in Lagos trying to save his brother, and himself, amid the chaos of Nigeria’s civil war—a story of love, friendship, and personal triumph by the two-time Booker Prize finalist and “the heir to Chinua Achebe.”

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Hogarth
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Shelterwood

Lisa Wingate

From the author of Before We Were Yours, this dual-timeline historical epic crosscuts between 1909 and 1990 in the wilds of Oklahoma. In the earlier story, two young girls flee from the worst kind of predator. In the later story, a park ranger comes across a long-hidden burial site. In between, we learn of courageous children, the long arm of justice, and the untold history of women pioneers in the era of ruthless American land barons.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Ballantine Books
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The Sons of El Rey

Alex Espinoza

A timeless, epic novel about a family of luchadores contending with forbidden love and secrets in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and beyond. Freddy describes life in the suburban streets of 1980s Los Angeles and the community their family built, as Julian descends deep into our present-day culture of hook-up apps, lucha burlesque shows, and the dark underbelly of West Hollywood. The Sons of El Rey is an intimate portrait of a family wading against time and legacy, yet always choosing the fight.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Husbands & Lovers

Beatriz Williams

Two women—separated by decades and continents, and united by an exotic family heirloom—reclaim secrets and lost loves in this sweeping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives.

Publication date: June 25
Publisher: Ballantine Books
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Romance

But How Are You, Really

Ella Dawson

A burned-out bisexual confronts old demons, her estranged chosen family, and the ex she maybe shouldn’t have walked away from when she attends her five-year college reunion.

Publication Date: June 4
Publisher: Dutton
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Just Some Stupid Love Story

Katelyn Doyle

For fans of Emily Henry, a debut about a rom-com screenwriter who doesn’t believe in love and a divorce attorney who does, forced together at their high school reunion fifteen years after their breakup.

Publication Date: June 4
Publisher: Flatiron Books
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Summer Romance

Annabel Monaghan

The romantic and hilarious story of a professional organizer whose life is a mess, and the summer she gets unstuck with the help of someone unexpected from her past, by the bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script.

Publication Date: June 4
Publisher: Putnam
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Triple Sec

T.J. Alexander

A jaded bartender is wooed by a charmingly quirky couple in this fresh and sizzling polyamorous rom-com, set in the glamorous world of high-end cocktail bars—from the acclaimed author of the “tender, decadent, and sparklingly funny” (Lana Harper, New York Times bestselling author) Chef’s Choice.

Publication Date: June 4
Publisher: Emily Bestler Books
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The Rom-Commers

Katherine Center

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies—good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates—The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god… who doesn’t want to write with anyone – much less “a failed nobody screenwriter.”

Publication Date: June 11
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
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Looking for a Sign

Susie Dumond

A newly single queer woman moves to New Orleans and sets off on a mission to find her most compatible match by going on a date with someone of each astrological sign in this rom-com from the Lambda Literary Award–nominated author of Queerly Beloved.

Publication Date: June 11
Publisher: Dial Press
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Not in Love

Ali Hazelwood

A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science—from New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood. Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Publication Date: June 11
Publisher: Berkley
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One-Star Romance

Laura Hankin

A struggling writer is forced to walk down the aisle at her best friend’s wedding with the man who gave her book a very public one-star rating in this fresh romantic comedy from Laura Hankin.

Publication Date: June 18
Publisher: Berkley
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A Novel Love Story

Ashley Poston

A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction…literally, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics.

Publication Date: June 25
Publisher: Berkley
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Thrillers & Mysteries

Bright and Tender Dark

Joanna Pearson

For readers of Notes on an Execution and I Have Some Questions for You, a wire-taut literary debut about a murder on a college campus and its aftermath twenty years later. Jumping between 2019 and 1999, Bright and Tender Darktakes us from the era of Reddit threads and online obsession to the evangelism-infused culture of the late ’90s to reveal what really happened to Karlie. It is a compulsively readable, prismatic literary debut that brilliantly mines the mythology of murder, the power of urban legend, and the psychological urge to both protect and exploit what you love but cannot have.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
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Such a Bad Influence

Olivia Muenter

For fans of Ashley Winstead, Jessica Knoll, and Jo Piazza, an electric debut thriller about what happens when one of the first child stars of the social media age grows up . . . and goes missing.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Quirk Books
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The Unwedding

Ally Condie

The White Lotus meets Agatha Christie in this bold novel from a #1 New York Times bestselling author: a recent divorcee’s exclusive Big Sur resort vacation unravels when she discovers a dead body on the day of a wedding, in this clever, witty and fast-paced whodunit.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Grand Central
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Assassins Anonymous

Rob Hart

In this clever, surprising, page-turner, the world’s most lethal assassin gives up the violent life only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the first option is off the table. What’s a reformed hit man to do?

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Putnam
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Middletide

Sarah Crouch

In this gripping and intensely atmospheric debut, disquiet descends on a small town after the suspicious death of a beautiful young doctor, with all clues pointing to the reclusive young man who abandoned the community in chase of big city dreams but returned for the first love he left behind. Perfect for fans of All Good People Here and Where the Crawdads Sing.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Atria Books
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One of Our Own Kind

Nicola Yoon

A hotly-anticipated and endlessly provocative new thriller of race and privilege set in an all-Black gated community from #1 New York Times best-selling author Nicola Yoon. Thrilling with insightful social commentary, One of Our Kind explores the ways in which freedom is complicated by the presumptions we make about ourselves and each other.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Knopf
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What Fire Brings

Rachel Howzell-Hall

A writer’s search for her missing friend becomes a real-life thriller in a twisting novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of These Toxic Things.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
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We Used to Live Here

Ally Condie

Get Out meets Parasite in this eerily haunting debut and Reddit hit about two homeowners whose lives are turned upside down when the house’s previous residents unexpectedly visit. As soon as the strangers enter their home, uncanny and inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. 

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
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What You Leave Behind

Wanda Morris

Award-winning author Wanda Morris returns with a powerful, haunting thriller following a lawyer who after the mysterious disappearance of a local landowner and the death of his sister just months before, uncovers a conspiracy that dates back to Reconstruction and persists in half the United States today.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: William Morrow
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Middle of the Night

Riley Sager

A newlywed librarian begins to suspect the man she married is a murderer in this spectacularly twisty and deviously clever novel by Peter Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Dutton
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All the Colors of the Dark

Chris Whitaker

From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that spans decade starting in 1975. A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession and the blinding light of hope.

Publication date: June 25
Publisher: Crown
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Letters to a Serial Killer

Tasha Coryell

An aimless young woman starts writing to an accused serial killer while he awaits trial and then, once he’s acquitted, decides to move in with him and take the investigation into her own hands in this dark and irresistibly compelling debut thriller.

Publication Date: June 25
Publisher: Berkley
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Horror & Gothic Fiction

Brat

Gabriel Smith

From a provocative new literary talent, a hilarious and haunted novel featuring an unlikable protagonist grappling with grief, inheritance, and the ghosts of his past. Gabriel Smith’s arrival heralds the next generation of fiction writers—formally inventive, influenced by the rhythms of the internet, and infused with a particularly Gen Z sense of alienation. Irreverent and boundary-pushing, but not for its own sake, the novel that follows is muscular yet lyrical, riddled with paradox, and told with a truly rare and compelling clarity of voice. Brat is a serious debut that refuses to take itself too seriously.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Penguin Press
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Horror Movie

Paul Tremblay

A chilling twist on the “cursed film” genre from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club and The Cabin at the End of the World. Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful feat of storytelling genius that builds inexorably to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: William Morrow
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The Eyes Are the Best Part

Monika Kim

Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective. This debut novel from L.A. author Monika Kim traces the origins of a budding serial killer. The setup: Korean American college student Ji-won is deeply unhappy with the obnoxious new boyfriend who is slowly ruining her mom’s life. When she confronts the problem, she finds that she rather likes his eyes. Anyone’s eyes, really. Kim’s novel is being billed as “feminist psychological horror,” and advance readers are freaking directly out.  

Publication date: June 25
Publisher: Erewhon Books
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Incidents Around the House

Josh Malerman

A chilling horror novel about a haunting, told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,” from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box.

Publication date: June 25
Publisher: Dely Rey
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Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Magical Realism

In the Hour of Crows

Rebecca Roanhorse

In a small town in Appalachia, people paint their doorways blue to keep spirits away. Black ferns grow where death will follow. And Weatherly Opal Wilder is a Death Talker. Imbued with magic, witchery, and suspense, Dana Elmendorf’s In the Hour of Crows is a thrilling tale of friendship, identity, and love.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: MIRA
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Mirrored Heavens

Rebecca Roanhorse

The interwoven destinies of the people of Meridian will finally be determined in this stunning conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Roanhorse’s Between Earth and Sky trilogy.  

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Saga Press
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Enlightenment

Sarah Perry

From the author of The Essex Serpent, a dazzling novel of love and astronomy told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friends. A thrillingly ambitious novel of friendship, faith, and unrequited love, rich in symmetry and symbolism, Enlightenment is a shimmering wonder of a book and Sarah Perry’s finest work to date. 

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Mariner Books
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Moonbound

Robin Sloan

In Moonbound, Robin Sloan has written a novel with the full scope and ambitious imagination of the very books that lit the engines of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: an epic quest as only Sloan could conceive it, mixing science fiction, fantasy, good old-fashioned literary storytelling, and unrivaled enthusiasm for what’s next.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: MCD
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The Stardust Grail

Yume Kitasei

Maya Hoshimoto was once the best art thief in the galaxy. For ten years, she returned stolen artifacts to alien civilizations―until a disastrous job forced her into hiding. Now she just wants to enjoy a quiet life as a graduate student of anthropology, but she’s haunted by persistent and disturbing visions of the future. Then an old friend comes to her with a job she can’t refuse: find a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction. Except no one has seen it in living memory, and they aren’t the only ones hunting for it.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Flatiron
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The Wren in the Holly Library

K.A. Linde

Can you love the dark when you know what it hides? Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination. Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight. In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce…of sorts. But tonight, Kierse―a gifted and fearless thief―will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library…not knowing it’s the home of a monster.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Entangled: Red Town
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The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands

Sarah Brooks

For fans of Piranesi and The Midnight Library, a stunning historical fantasy novel set on a grand express train, about a group of passengers on a dangerous journey across a magical landscape. There is only one way to travel across the Wastelands: on the Trans-Siberian Express, a train as famous for its luxury as for its danger. The train is never short of passengers, eager to catch sight of Wastelands creatures more miraculous and terrifying than anything they could imagine. But on the train’s last journey, something went horribly wrong, though no one seems to remember what exactly happened. Not even Zhang Weiwei, who has spent her life onboard and thought she knew all of the train’s secrets.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Flatiron
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Short Stories & Essays

I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: (But I’m Going to Anyway)

Chelsea Devant

A dynamic memoir-in-essays by comedian, screenwriter, and podcaster Chelsea Devantez, detailing her tumultuous upbringing and uproarious career path into Hollywood. Chelsea centers each story around a different woman who shaped her life, taking us on a tour of friends and strangers, fictional characters and celebrities, heroes and villains who will destroy any Netflix algorithm for a “strong female lead.” 

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Hanover Square
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I’ve Tried Being Nice: Essays

Ann Leary

New York Times bestselling author Ann Leary offers a literary feast of humor and wisdom told from the perspective of a recovering people pleaser. Prepare to laugh, cry, cringe and revel in the comically relatable chaos of Ann Leary’s life as revealed in this delightful collection of essays.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Marysue Ricci Books
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Zan: Stories

Suzi Ehtesham-Zadeh

In prose that is both unflinching and lyrical, Suzi Ehtesham-Zadeh presents Zan, a collection of stories that provide a deep and nuanced view of contemporary Iranian women as they navigate a crucial moment in their nation’s history.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Dzanc Books
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Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil

Amanda Lima

Strange, intimate, haunted, and hungry―Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is an intoxicating and surreal fiction debut by award-winning author Ananda Lima. At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the devil. She sees him again and again throughout her life and she writes stories for him about things that are both impossible and true.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Tor Books
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Memoirs & Biographies

Ambition Monster

Jennifer Romolini

A deeply personal memoir about workaholism, the addictive nature of ambition, and the humbling process of picking yourself up when the world lets you down—an anti-girlboss tale for our times for readers of Drinking: A Love Story and Uncanny Valley. Written with self-deprecation and wit, Ambition Monster is a gutsy and powerful look at workaholism and the addictive nature of achievement, the lingering effect of childhood trauma, and the failures of our modern rat race.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Atria
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This Ordinary Stardust: A Scientist’s Path from Grief to Wonder

Alan Townsend

A compassionate exploration of scientific wonder that offers “a fresh perspective on life, death, and the bittersweet consequences of impermanence,” (Jon Krakauer) as illuminated through the tragic dual cancer diagnoses of author Dr. Alan Townsend’s wife and daughter.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
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The Friday Afternoon Club

Nina St. Pierre

Griffin Dunne’s memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances. For all its boldface cast of characters and jaw-dropping scenes, The Friday Afternoon Club is no mere celebrity memoir. It is, down to its bones, a family story that embraces the poignant absurdities and best and worst efforts of its loveable, infuriating, funny, and moving characters—its author most of all.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Penguin Press
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I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Yourself: One Woman’s Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris

Glynnis MacNicol

When you’re a woman of a certain age, you are only promised that everything will get worse. But what if everything you’ve been told is a lie? In the spirit of Nora Ephron and Deborah Levy (think Colette . . . if she’d had access to dating apps), I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself is an intimate, insightful, powerful, and endlessly pleasurable memoir of an intensely lived experience whose meaning and insight expand far beyond the personal narrative. MacNicol is determined to document the beauty, excess, and triumph of a life that does not require permission.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: Penguin Life
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Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones

Priyanka Mattoo

From a wry, insightful, and very funny new voice, here is one woman’s search for home, from Kashmir to England to Saudi Arabia to Michigan to Rome and, finally, to Los Angeles—standalone essays that together form a sweeping portrait of a peripatetic life.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Knopf
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Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People

Tiya Miles

From the National Book Award–winning author of All That She Carried, an intimate and revelatory reckoning with the myth and the truth behind an American everyone knows and few really understand.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Penguin Press
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Kissing Girls on Shabbat

Dr. Sara Glass

A moving coming-of-age memoir in the vein of Unorthodox and Educated, about one young woman’s desperate attempt to protect her children and family while also embracing her queer identity in a controlling Hasidic community. Kissing Girls on Shabbat is not only a love letter to Glass’s children, herself, and her family—it is an unflinching window into the world of ultra-conservative Orthodox Jewish communities and an inspiring celebration of learning to love yourself.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: One Signal
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Nonfiction

Birds Aren’t Real: The True Story of Mass Avian Murder and the Largest Surveillance Campaign in US History

Peter McIndoe & Connor Gaydos

Have you ever seen a baby pigeon? You haven’t, have you? No one has, not in many, many years. They used to be everywhere. You couldn’t walk out of your front door in New York City in the 1930s without seeing dozens of those little guys scurrying around. Today, there are millions of grown up pigeons in New York, but not a baby pigeon to be seen. That’s because they come out of the factory as adults. In Birds Aren’t Real, whistleblowers Peter McIndoe and Connor Gaydos trace the roots of a political conspiracy so vast and well-hidden that it almost seems like an elaborate hoax.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
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Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever

Joseph Cox

The inside story of the largest law-enforcement sting operation ever, in which the FBI made its own tech start-up to wiretap the world, shows how cunning both the authorities and drug traffickers have become, with privacy implications for everyone.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: PublicAffairs
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There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America’s Biggest Catfish

Anna Akbari

Part memoir, part explosive window into the mind of a catfisher, a thrilling personal account of three women coming face-to-face with an internet predator and teaming up to expose them.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
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Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation

Tom McGrath

The entertaining and insightful first history of the Yuppie phenomenon, chronicling the roots, rise, triumph, and (seeming) fall of the young urban professionals who radically altered American life between 1980 and 1987 .

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
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When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day

Garrett M. Graff

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky and Pulitzer Prize finalist for Watergate comes the most up-to-date and complete account of D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history and the moment that secured the Allied victory in World War II.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
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When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion

Julie Satow

A glittering portrait of the golden age of American department stores and of three visionary women who led them, from the award-winning author of The Plaza. Journalist Julie Satow draws back the curtain on three visionaries who took great risks, forging new paths for the women who followed in their footsteps. This stylish account, rich with personal drama and trade secrets, captures the department store in all its glitz, decadence, and fun, and showcases the women who made that beautifully curated world go round.

Publication date: June 4
Publisher: Doubleday
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Hip-Hop Is History

Questlove with Ben Greenman

This is a book only Questlove could have written: a perceptive and personal reflection on the first half-century of hip-hop. In this landmark book, Questlove skillfully traces the creative and cultural forces that made and shaped hip-hop, highlighting both the forgotten but influential gems and the undeniable chart-topping hits―and weaves it all together with the stories no one else knows. It is at once an intimate, sharply observed story of a cultural revolution and a sweeping, grand theory of the evolution of the great artistic movement of our time. And Questlove, of course, approaches it with not only the encyclopedic fluency and passion of an obsessive fan but also the expertise and originality of an innovative participant.

Publication date: June 11
Publisher: AUWA
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Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership

Brea Baker

Why is less than 1% of rural land in the U.S. owned by Black people? An acclaimed writer and activist explores the impact of land theft and violent displacement on racial wealth gaps, arguing that justice stems from the literal roots of the earth. A testament to the Black farmers who dreamed of feeding, housing, and tending to their communities, Rooted bears witness to their commitment to freedom and reciprocal care for the land. By returning equity to a dispossessed people, we can heal both the land and our nation’s soul.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: One World
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The Myth of Making It: A Workplace Reckoning

Samhita Mukhopadhyay

We can bury the girlboss, but what comes next? The former executive editor of Teen Vogue tells the story of her personal workplace reckoning and argues for collective responsibility to reimagine work as we know it. A call to action to redefine and reimagine work as we know it, The Myth of Making It is a field guide and manifesto for all of us who are tired, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of hustle culture.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: Random House
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When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s

John Ganz

A lively, revelatory look back at the convulsions at the end of the Reagan era―and their dark legacy today. With the Soviet Union extinct, Saddam Hussein defeated, and U.S. power at its zenith, the early 1990s promised a “kinder, gentler America.” Instead, it was a period of rising anger and domestic turmoil, anticipating the polarization and resurgent extremism we know today. In a rollicking, eye-opening book, Ganz narrates the fall of the Reagan order and the rise of a new and more turbulent America.

Publication date: June 18
Publisher: FSG
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All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians

Phil Elwood

A bridge-burning, riotous memoir by a top PR operative in Washington who exposes the secrets of the $129-billion industry that controls so much of what we see and hear in the media―from a man who used to pull the strings, and who is now pulling back the curtain.

Publication date: June 25
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
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Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV

Emily Nussbaum

The rollicking saga of reality television—an ambitious cultural history of America’s most influential, most divisive artistic phenomenon, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning New Yorker writer. What happened to the first reality stars, the Louds—and why won’t they speak to the couple who filmed them? Which serial killer won on The Dating Game? Nussbaum explores reality TV as a strike-breaker, the queer roots of Bravo, the dark truth behind The Apprentice, and moreA shrewd observer who adores television, Nussbaum is the ideal voice for the first substantive history of the genre that, for better or worse, made America what it is today.

Publication date: June 25
Publisher: Random House
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Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves

Nicola Twilley

An engaging and far-reaching exploration of refrigeration, tracing its evolution from scientific mystery to globe-spanning infrastructure, and an essential investigation into how it has remade our entire relationship with food—for better and for worse. A deeply researched and reported, original, and entertaining dive into the most important invention in the history of food and drink, Frostbite makes the case for a recalibration of our relationship with the fridge—and how our future might depend on it.

Publication date: June 25
Publisher: Penguin Press
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