What are you looking for in a summer read? This June brings with it the release of a number of compelling books spanning a wide range of styles. Looking for absorbing true crime or incisive memoirs? We have you covered. Does a fictional jaunt into medieval Europe or present-day New York City sound more your speed? Those are there as well. Here’s a look at 10 new books that might give you your next great read.
Nabil Ayers, My Life in the Sunshine: Searching for My Father and Discovering My Family (June 7)
Music can shape a life in countless ways. Nabil Ayers has had a hand in releasing a host of critically acclaimed music in recent years — but he’s also the son of a renowned jazz musician. My Life in the Sunshine documents Ayers’s efforts to explore his family history, and the unexpected paths that search led him down — making for a moving and complex portrait of inheritances and bonds.
Patrick Radden Keefe, Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks (June 28)
Patrick Radden Keefe’s acclaimed books include the likes of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing — engrossing works of nonfiction that have revealed institutional flaws and sparked societal change. His latest book, Rogues, ventures into his shorter work as a journalist, covering everything from gripping true crime narratives to what it’s like to travel with Anthony Bourdain.
Sloane Crosley, Cult Classic (June 7)
Could your next summer read offer a deeply lived-in portrait of New York City? Sloane Crosley’s novel Cult Classic, about a woman experiencing a series of chance encounters in a handful of blocks, explores geographies both vast and personal. “There’s still so many lives and cultures going on on the Lower East Side and in Chinatown at once, it seems like fertile ground for a secret,” she said in a recent interview — all the more reason to follow her lead into this distinct vision of New York.
Alexandra Lange, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall (June 14)
If you’re looking for an insightful look at the design of both objects and public spaces, Alexandra Lange’s work is a great place to start. Lange’s previous book explored the role childhood plays in shaping certain spaces; with her new book, she takes on another complex subject — the mall. How did malls develop, and what role do they play in our culture now? Read on and find out.
Joanna Scutts, Hotbed: Bohemian Greenwich Village and the Secret Club That Sparked Modern Feminism (June 7)
Sometimes social change can come from unexpected places. In her new book Hotbed, Joanna Scutts — no stranger to acclaimed works of history — chronicles a secret social club that met in Greenwich Village over a century ago. This group, known as Heterodoxy, helped develop and refine feminist thought — and paved the way for the modern world.
Leah Sottile, When the Moon Turns to Blood: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a Story of Murder, Wild Faith, and End Times (June 21)
What happens when extreme belief systems take a turn into something much more unsettling? Leah Sottile’s When the Moon Turns to Blood recounts a haunting true crime narrative about apocalyptic ways of thinking and a series of mysterious deaths that connected to them — and led investigators to a series of harrowing discoveries.
Joseph Osmundson, Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between (June 7)
Since 2020 began, most people have gotten a crash course in how viruses work and the myriad ways in which they intersect with our everyday lives. In his new essay collection, Joseph Osmundson brings both his background in microbiology and a deft approach to language to a meditation on how viruses have affected — and continue to affect — even the smallest of quotidian moments.
Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona (June 21)
Over the course of the last few years, Ottessa Moshfegh’s published works have included everything from social satire to hallucinatory takes on maritime life. Where do you go from there? If Lapvona is any indication, the answer is simple: medieval times. Moshfegh’s new novel encompasses occult powers and natural disasters, and looks to be a gripping voyage into the past.
Corban Addison, Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial (June 7)
For anyone concerned with the natural world, the way that certain companies have polluted the environment is a major cause for concern. In Wastelands, Corban Addison chronicles a grassroots effort in North Carolina to push back against the environmental damage done by large-scale farming — all of which makes for a gripping true story.
Fariha Róisín, Who Is Wellness For?: An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behind (June 14)
There’s a lot of discussion of wellness online — and what it means in different contexts can have very different consequences. Fariha Róisín’s new book Who Is Wellness For? ventures into some of the most fraught elements of all things wellness-related, from the ease in which certain cultural traditions have been commodified to the psychological toll that wellness culture can exact.
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