Yahoo Lifestyle The 24 Best New Book Releases This Week: June 18-24, 2024
Here are 24 of the best books out the week of June 18-24. Does 24 books sound like a lot? That’s a lot of donuts to eat in one sitting. That’s a lot of bitcoins. That’s not a lot of episodes of Bridgerton. (We want more.) But 24 books? Literally thousands of books come out every week. Think of all the genres! Genres like romance, mystery, science fiction, thrillers, fiction, history books, fantasy, poetry, historical fiction, sports books, biographies, memoirs, picture books, crossword puzzle books, books of trivia and more and more and more.
Besides, think of everything a good book can do. Books provide comfort, make you laugh, scare the Dickens out of you, inform you, let you see travel the world, experience life from someone else’s perspective, venture back in time, sail the oceans, learn about nature, improve your hot yoga stances and on and on! Pretty amazing. Here are 24 books chosen with care for you from all the great books that came out this week.
So let’s get reading. At the head of the Parade is….
The 24 Best New Book Releases This Week: June 18-24, 2024
Courtesy of Viking, Doubleday, William Morrow, Harper
1. The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
2. Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
3. Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller
4. Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Four works of fiction that offer humor, heart and a dive into history.
In The Glassmaker, the author of Girl With A Pearl Earring returns with another work of historical fiction. It begins in Venice during the 15th century and follows the Russo family for the next 600 years. From the young woman who goes against convention to master the craft of a glassblower (and saves them financially) through centuries of change, Tracy Chevalier tells of the hardships they overcome, like plague, war and–most challenging of all–an invasion of tourists.
Claire Lombardo enjoyed one of the best reviewed and popular books around with her debut The Most Fun We Ever Had? Can she do it again with Same As It Ever Was? Repeating success is not familiar territory for its protagonist, Julie. She’s finally found some stability in life when everything goes klabooey via a rebellious teenage daughter getting all Inside Out, a dependable son proving not so dependable and a past romance proving all too current.
Book banning gets a comic comeuppance with Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. Beverly is on the school board, crossing swords with her nemesis Lula, who loves the attention when she denounces “filthy” books Lula hasn’t even read. Lula’s front yard contains one of those adorable lending libraries filled with “wholesome” books. But someone–don’t ask me, I don’t know!–yes, someone replaced all her spotless titles with books by Judy Blume and gay romances and black history…and everyone who borrows them absolutely loves them and has their lives changed. It’s a witty celebration of the power of reading, even naughty Judy Blume.
Lombardo’s Julie would identify with Rocky, the heroine of Catherine Newman’s modestly titled new novel Sandwich. Rocky is looking forward to her family’s annual vacation at Cape Cod. But any fantasies of idyllic afternoons and warm embraces are soon lost thanks to menopause, one crisis after another and–yes–the past, which as Faulkner might have said proves awfully present when you least want it. Ann Patchett for one praises this novel to the high heavens.
The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier ($32; Viking) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo ($30; Doubleday) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller ($30; William Morrow) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Sandwich by Catherine Newman ($26.99; Harper) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Related: The 23 Best New Books of June 2024
Courtesy of Dutton, Bantam, William Morrow
5. Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
6. The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
7. What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris
Three thrillers to keep you on the edge of your seat! (Hey, it’s good for your posture.)
Riley Sager’s latest suburban thriller hinges on a long-ago crime: two boys set up a tent in a backyard…but only one is there in the morning. Thirty years later, the boy who wasn’t snatched away reluctantly returns to the home where it happens, only to realize evil is still there too.
Liv Constantine enjoyed a massive hit with the Reese Witherspoon-endorsed The Last Mrs. Parrish. Now she’s returned with The Next Mrs. Parrish just as the “reformed” Jackson Parrish is let out of prison. It raises questions, such as “What will Constantine call the next book? The Final Mrs. Parrish?”
In Gone With The Wind, Scarlett O’Hara’s father said land is the only thing that lasts. He was wrong, because prejudice and bitterness and cruelty and pride and dignity last too. Wanda M. Morris tackles them all with the thriller What You Leave Behind, in which a lawyer looking for a little peace in her childhood home instead discovers unscrupulous developers who stop at nothing to grab the land they want–community and decency and family notwithstanding. Well, she won’t stand for that.
Middle of the Night by Riley Sager ($30; Dutton) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine ($30; Bantam) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris ($30; William Morrow) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Ballantine, Algonquin Books
8. Pets and the City by Dr. Amy Attas
9. Not Too Late by Gwendolyn Bounds
10. Better Faster Farther by Maggie Mertens
Dr. Amy Attas offers up a veterinarian’s memoir with Pets and the City. But instead of James Herriott, the Yorkshire countryside and lots of cows and sheep, Attas offers celebrities, the concrete jungle of New York City and lots of dogs and cats. BIlly Joel swears by her!
Journalist Gwendolyn Bounds says it’s never too late to reshape your body and push yourself to new limits. Bounds did it in her mid-40s by embracing science to supercharge her desire to tackle obstacle courses (think Marines more than American Ninja). I’ll get right on that, as soon as I get off the couch.
Author Maggie Mertens seconds Bounds. Instead of a personal story of renewal, Mertens tells the remarkable history of women and running. One woman raced in a modern Olympics marathon more than a century ago–she didn’t ask for permission (because none would have been given). She just ran. Women have been doing it ever since, rewriting the record books and our understanding of what the female body is capable of accomplishing.
Pets and the City by Dr. Amy Attas ($29; G.P. Putnam’s Sons) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Not Too Late: The Power of Pushing Limits at Any Age by Gwendolyn Bounds ($29; Ballantine) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Better Faster Farther by Maggie Mertens ($30; Algonquin Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Alcove Press, Crooked Lane Books, Berkley
11. The Lonely Hearts Trivia Night by Lauren Farnsworth
12. The Assassin of Venice by Alyssa Palombo
13. A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell
Love comes in many forms, such as three very different romances, all of which might be easily classified in other genres like book club worthy or thriller or historical fiction.
In The Lonely Hearts Trivia Night, romance comes in a group of people who bond over their shared delight over answering questions like “Which Mariah Carey song has topped the charts in more than 30 countries?” Along the way, they become friends and in one case, maybe more.
In The Assassin of Venice, love means being a ruthless assassin who will do anything to protect her adopted city of Venice…but not if it means killing the fellow assassin she’s fallen for.
And in A Shore Thing, queer love blossoms in Victorian England in one of the best reviewed romances of the year. Kit embraced his male identity and a new life as a bicycle enthusiast, even if it meant giving up the painting he loved. And now he’s head over heels in love with Muriel, a botanist cruising through town who might just give Kit the full life he never imagined possible.
NOTE: The Mariah Carey song? It's "All I Want For Christmas Is You."
The Lonely Hearts Trivia Night by Lauren Farnsworth ($30.99; Alcove Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Assassin of Venice by Alyssa Palombo ($30.99; Crooked Lane Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell ($19; Berkley) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing, Grand Central Publishing
14. End of Active Service by Matt Young
15. God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer by Joseph Earl Thomas
Two novels fired in the crucible of the Iraq War with both tackling the long march of soldiers after the war is over. (Which is never over, by the way.)
In End of Active Service, Dean is back home in Indiana, making a go of it with his girlfriend Max and their new baby. He wants to put the ghosts of Iraq behind him, which would be a lot easier if his buddy Ruiz wasn’t haunting Dean, despite dying a year ago. Debut novelist Matt Young also wrote the acclaimed memoir Eat The Apple.
The novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer captures a vet back home in Philadelphia, staying afloat as a single dad and doctoral student and EMS worker on the late shift and–always–a soldier, whatever clothes he may be wearing and whatever duties he may be tackling. Author Joseph Earl Thomas also wrote the acclaimed novel Sink. These two novels look to be among the best reviewed of the year.
End of Active Service by Matt Young ($28.99; Bloomsbury Publishing) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer by Joseph Earl Thomas ($28; Grand Central Publishing) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of St. Martin’s Press, Harper, Viking
16. Desperately Seeking Something by Susan Seidelman
17. 1974: A Personal History by Francine Prose
18. On Call by Anthony Fauci, M.D.
Three memoirs from people who witnessed or made history.
Director Susan Seidelman fought her way to success in Hollywood because for a female director in the 1970s it wouldn’t happen any other way. From the path-breaking indie Smithereens to the lightning in a bottle moment of Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan to directing the pilot of Sex and the City, Seidelman tells it all.
Author Francine Prose captures the surreal moment of 1974, the year she developed a strange bond with Anthony Russo (one of the people behind the leaking of the Pentagon Papers) and saw the dream of the Sixties fizzle away to nothing.
Dr. Anthony Fauci spent decades in public service. He’s truly seen it all. Fauci was the hated, pilloried face of the medical establishment during the AIDS crisis, only to listen and learn and help change how the scientific community interacted with the patients they were supposed to be helping. He pushed President Clinton to establish basic research centers that laid the groundwork for creating the mRNA vaccines…only to be vilified again when public health became a political football. In On Call, he tells his story.
Desperately Seeking Something by Susan Seidelman ($30; St. Martin’s Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
1974: A Personal History by Francine Prose ($27.99; Harper) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
On Call by Anthony Fauci, M.D. ($36; Viking) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Related: 15 Books You Must Read if You’re Obsessed With Taylor Swift’s New Album
Courtesy of Flatiron Books, Ace, Tordotcom book cover images
19. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide To The Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
20. Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs
21. Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera
Sarah Brook has the steampunk debut of the year with A Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands. It’s a fantasy novel that combines Murder on the Orient Express with a cast of characters on board the Trans-Siberian Express who must trust each other if they are to have any hope of surviving the journey. Across the board acclaim make this one fans of the genre should jump on.
In Winter Lost, Patricia Briggs offers the latest adventure for Mercy Thompson, shapeshifter and car mechanic, mated to a werewolf she loves and struggling to help her brother amidst a storm of immense, perhaps magical proportions.
With echoes of Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt, Sri Lankan author Vajra Chandrasekera tells a story in which love refuses to die. Two people fated to be together (or at least fated to try to be together) meet in the present and die and are reincarnated and meet again and again and again far into the future in a sci-fi epic that leaves this world and any limitations on love far far behind.
The Cautious Traveller’s Guide To The Wastelands by Sarah Brooks ($28.99; Flatiron Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs ($30; Ace) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera ($27.99; Tordotcom) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Riverhead Books, Vintage, Harper book cover images
22. Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi
23. The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh by Claudia Gray
24. Death in the Air by Ram Murali
Grab your passport! These three thrillers/mysteries transport you all over the world and back into time. In the thriller Little Rot, you’ll discover the underbelly of a Nigerian city when a sex party goes very wrong. (Don’t they always?) Head back in time and to the England of Jane Austen for the third in Claudia Gray’s charming mystery series. Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice fame is now an amateur sleuth (it happens) and he and his sleuthing companion Miss Juliet Tilney reunite to prevent the murder of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and–more perilously–perhaps admit their love for one another. Finally, we’ll fly to the Himalayas and the extremely exclusive spa Samsara, where the cast of characters range from a movie star to an heiress to a sleazy politician and death is on tap, all of it very Agatha Christie, thank goodness.
Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi ($29; Riverhead Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh by Claudia Gray ($18; Vintage) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Death in the Air by Ram Murali ($30; Harper) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
