June is truly a fantastic month for the readers among us. Summery temps mean it’s the perfect time to reap the rewards of bringing books outdoors. Imagine cracking the spine of a fresh new title while lying in the sand. Or consider packing a novel for your upcoming weekend getaway. (Aren't summer Fridays the ultimate bliss?)
Escaping into a book while soaking up some vitamin D can benefit more than just your mind and body. There’s always the bonus possibility that you may spy someone else palming an actual bound piece of writing and spark up a conversation (@hotdudesreading exists for a reason — a handheld screen is really no match when it comes to public displays of bibliophilia).
Wherever your latest reads take you, we’ve got you covered with another installment of what you should be reading this month. From Southern epics to scintillating mysteries and haunting coming-of-age debuts, we've pulled together 10 incredible titles that should absolutely make your reading list. Without further ado, let's dive into the latest and greatest new books.
The Girls
By Emma Cline
Out June 7
This is not the story of the Summer of Evil. But you don't have to read too closely to see the tale of the Manson family emerge. Debut author Emma Cline crafts a thrilling coming-of-age novel imbued with an anxious urgency.
As the drama builds and your eyes widen, it becomes ever more impossible to find a stopping point in this beautifully written book. For that reason: Plan to pick it up on a day when you have literally nothing else to do.
Image: Random House.
Homegoing
By Yaa Gyasi
Out June 7
At the beginning of Gyasi's epic debut novel, two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born in different villages in Ghana: One is married off to an English slave-trader, while the other is imprisoned and sent to America to become a slave herself.
The stories of their families unfurl from those fates, and each chapter in this gorgeous and often heartbreaking book picks up with a new generation of the sisters' descendants, until the novel arrives in the modern moment.
Visceral and haunting, Homegoing traces three centuries of history, beginning in Africa and wending its way to modern-day San Francisco. If you're going to read one book the entire summer, let this be the one: Not only will it stimulate your literary sensibilities, it is an important and timely reminder of the legacy of Black existence in America.
Image: Knopf.
Rich and Pretty
By Rumaan Alam
Out June 7
Female friendships are a complex and beautiful thing. But what happens when your best friend — who has been like a sister to you for nearly 20 years — suddenly becomes someone you're not sure you even like very much anymore?
This delightful debut explores the longtime relationship between Sarah and Lauren, besties who have grown up and apart but still can't deny the tether that binds them. A charming and insightful meditation on what it means to mature and adapt to adult life while still holding on to our shared histories, Rich and Pretty is a perfect pick for book clubs and BFFs — and, of course, for a day at the beach with the most important lady friend in your life.
Image: Ecco.
Marrow Island
By Alexis M. Smith
Out June 7
It's been two decades since a massive earthquake wreaked havoc along the West Coast — and 20 years since Lucie’s father disappeared during an explosion at the Marrow Island oil refinery. After the quake, Katie and her mother fled the decimated isle to start over again on the mainland. But Katie has never stopped being drawn to this place where she spent her childhood, on the shores of Puget Sound.
But now, against all odds, Marrow Island has become habitable once again, and Katie can’t resist going back to explore it for herself. When she arrives on the island, she becomes part of a newly formed community — the Colony — that has taken over, led by a former nun who seems to be working miracles on the once-barren soil. But as Katie becomes more entrenched, she realizes that things aren’t quite as they seem — and that getting to the bottom of the mystery might come at a heavy personal price.
Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
This Is Not My Beautiful Life
By Victoria Fedden
Out June 7
Picture it: You're 36, pregnant, and living with your parents in Florida, when one morning the DEA knocks on the door to take your mom and stepdad down. Turns out, they've been masterminding a pump-and-dump scheme, and the only place their grandkid is going to see them for a while is behind bars.
So, what's a new mom to do when her family is in barely functioning order and she's got a new human on her hands? Work her way through it — and this laugh-out-loud memoir tells us how she did it.
Image: Picador.
The Good Lieutenant
By Whitney Terrell
Out June 7
This modern-day war novel begins with a bang — a literal one, when an operation led by Lieutenant Emma Fowler turns deadly. Several soldiers and one young Iraqi are killed, as is Signals Officer Dixon Pulowski, Fowler’s longtime lover.
But what caused the mission to go so spectacularly awry? To answer that question, Terrell’s novel veers back in time, delving into the backstory behind that tragic day. With each new added perspective and plot twist, a portrait of what truly happened becomes slightly less mystifying. But the search for the truth only leads to more questions — along with the realization that perhaps the only honest thing about war is the tragedy it leaves in its path.
Image: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality
By Debbie Cenziper and Jim Obergefell
Out June 14
It's hard to believe that it’s only been a year since the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal across the United States. Love Wins tells the story of the case that lives at the heart of that legislation: Obergefell v. Hodges.
Twenty years ago, Jim Obergefell and John Arthur fell in love in Ohio. In 2013, the Supreme Court mandated that the federal government provide gay couples with all the benefits offered to straight couples. Jim and John, who was dying of ALS, flew to Maryland, where same-sex marriage was already legal. But the state of Ohio refused to recognize their marriage; nor would it list Jim’s name on John’s death certificate. What followed was a fight for civil rights — and for the right to love — that changed America forever.
Image: Random House.
Under the Harrow
By Flynn Berry
Out June 14
When Nora arrives at her sister’s family home in the English countryside for a visit, she stumbles on something horrific: Rachel is dead, the victim of a brutal murder.
In the aftermath of Rachel’s death, Nora becomes obsessed with finding the person who killed her sister. But she doesn’t turn to the police, who bungled their response to her own assault in the past. Instead, Nora decides to go it alone.
But the deeper into the mystery she gets, and the more she finds out about who Rachel really was, the more danger Nora winds up in herself. This can’t-put-it-down psychological thriller delves into the tenuous relationship between two women who loved each other fiercely, while also lifting the veil on how little we often know about the people we consider closest to us.
Image: Penguin Books.
Bukowski in a Sundress
By Kim Addonizio
Out June 21
Somewhere between Jo Ann Beard’s The Boys of My Youth and Amy Schumer’s stand-up exists Kim Addonizio’s style of storytelling: In her prose as in her poetry, she is at once biting and vulnerable, nostalgic without ever veering off into sentimentality, and delightfully contradictory in every way.
With this sharp new essay collection, the National Book Award finalist looks back on her life and work, playfully recounting experiences about falling for a much younger man and spilling secrets about what writers really do all day, among other tales. Addonizio also turns the focus on her own family — a father who encouraged her love of words, her former tennis champ mother who succumbed to Parkinson’s in her later years, and her own daughter, who as a child chanced upon Addonizio’s erotic lit in Penthouse magazine — creating a nuanced collage of what it means to be a female writer in the 20th century and beyond.
Image: Penguin Books.
A Hundred Thousand Worlds
By Bob Proehl
Out June 28
Valerie Torrey and her son Alex fled Los Angeles for New York six years ago in the wake of a family tragedy, leaving her husband and her role on a cult sci-fi series behind. But now Valerie must confront her past, reuniting father and son: She plunks 9-year-old Alex in the car for a road trip across America, making pit stops at comic-book conventions along the way.
A tribute to the pleasures of fandom — as well as to the special connection between a mother and her only child — A Hundred Thousand Worlds is being touted as the Kavalier & Clay for a new generation. Equal parts great American road-trip narrative and coming-of-age novel, this brilliant story from a debut novelist is a treat for the diehard nerds and fans among us.
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