The publication regularly compiles the best books published in the last month. In the meantime, check out our favorite titles released in the past year.
this week’s best new books
You are reading: Latest books to read
bad day breaking up
john galligan (fiction, atria books) a new religious sect has moved to bad axe, wisconsin. Armed with guns, they begin to set up their compound in an old storage lot. Rumors fly in town, and the reaction to the newcomers is hostile, to say the least. Sheriff Heidi Kick is just trying to keep order in an increasingly tense town, and then one of her followers turns up dead.
suburban hell
maureen kilmer (fiction, gp putnam’s sons)amy foster has settled down nicely in the suburbs and found a group of like-minded moms to drink wine with. But when the gang christens a shed in Liz’s backyard as a place to hang out (husbands and kids not welcome), strange things start to happen. Has the shed unleashed a demonic force on the neighborhood?
scenes from my life
miguel k. williams with jon sternfeld (memoir, crown) michael k. Williams was loved for his roles in The Wire, Boardwalk Empire and Lovecraft Country. This memoir from the late actor, who died in 2021, is a story of addiction, overcoming adversity, and tireless struggle to give back to his community.
wrong place wrong time
gillian mcallister (fiction, william morrow)a mother witnesses her teenage son kill a man, then wakes up the next day to find the murder hasn’t happened yet. the next day, it is two days before the fateful day. If she wakes up early enough on time, can she find a way to prevent it from happening and save her child’s future in the process?
a career in books: a novel about friends, money, and the occasional duck bun
kate gavino (fiction, pen)a graphic novel about a trio of friends who “want to work with books,” despite not having much idea what it entails. Shirin, Nina, and Silvia have gotten their first publishing jobs at the university press, and they’re not quite sure what to do with it. then they meet her old neighbor and it turns out that she is a booker award winner.
feed the little ones and beyond
Ali Maffucci, Megan McNamee, and Judy Delaware (Cookbook, Avery Press)This accessible family cookbook aims to raise babies and toddlers to be adventurous eaters, with 100 baby-led recipes for weaning (or baby-led feeding) that introduces little ones to a variety of scents, shapes, and colors.
best book releases to hit shelves last week
the stolen year: how covid changed children’s lives and where do we go from here
See Also: Bartending Books For Beginners: Top 9 | European Bartender School
anya kamenetz (nonfiction, public affairs) a reporter for npr explores school closures during the pandemic for far too long and the effect it had on american children and their families. But the crisis, Kamenetz points out, began long before 2020.
tanqueray
Brandon Stanton and Stephanie Johnson (Nonfiction, St. Martin’s Press)Anyone who follows the Humans of New York will remember Tanray, the fabulous woman who went viral in 2019 in a wild fur coat and hat, and telling an even wilder story about herself. Her name is Tantanaray, and this is her full story.
the path traveled
Senator Patrick Leahy (Memoir, Simon & Schuster) As the longest-serving senator, Patrick Leahy has had a front row seat to much of American politics and its characters. the history of our nation comes to life in these pages, with many stories about its main protagonists.
country of widows
cj carey (fiction, landmark sourcebook) in 1953 london, 13 years have passed since england surrendered to the nazis, forming a grand alliance with germany. women have now been classified into strict groups, based on their perceived worth. rose ransom works for the ministry of culture, rewriting the classics so no subversive ideas remain.
longpath: becoming the great ancestors our future needs: an antidote to short-termism
ari wallach (non-fiction, harpist) many of our biggest problems today are the result of short-term thinking, the author argues: we need to seriously broaden our scope and start playing the long-term game. doing so can get us out of the loop of constant reactions and “breaking news” updates, and get everyone focused on what really matters.
best book releases for the week of july 17th
Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis
beth macy (nonfiction, petite, brunette) from the bestselling author “high” comes another detailed report on the opioid crisis and the ordinary heroes who are on the front lines of this national debacle.
the last housewife
ashley winstead (fiction, sourcebook benchmark) at an upstate new york college, shay evans and her best friends met a man, her roommate’s father, who gradually attracted a strange sect that almost destroyed their lives. (yes, this one is ripped from the headlines of sarah lawrence’s cult story). Shay and her friend Laurel managed to escape, the others didn’t. Eight years later, she learns that Laurel committed suicide and returns to the university in search of answers.
shelter
emma donoghue (small, brunette) from the author of “room” comes something completely different from any previous novel donoghue has written. On a 7th century island, three men set out for an island their leader has imagined in a dream, determined to leave the world behind. what they find is nothing short of extraordinary.
accommodation and food
Miriam Parker (Fiction, Dutton) Gillian’s career has tanked, and she now finds herself in a job as the “dorm mom” at Glen Allen Academy, the boarding school she attended two decades earlier. Everything is in shambles, but she is shocked to find that she enjoys this new job, until a campus scandal rears its head and threatens to ruin everything.
paul
daisy lafarge (fiction, riverhead books)frances is a young graduate student who spends the summer in the south of france volunteering on a farm. The farm’s owner, Paul, is mysterious and strange, and she soon finds herself romantically involved with him. But as the summer progresses, Frances begins to realize that she doesn’t know much about him.
stories of the tenants below
See Also: 50 Best Read Aloud Chapter Books for Kids Ages 6-12 Years
sidik fofana (fiction, writer) eight interconnected stories set in a harlem skyscraper, from swan in apartment 6b, whose friend just got out of jail, to mimi in 14d, working as a waitress while raising the boy she shares with swan, and more. the reader supports each character as he tries to move forward with her plans and dreams.
best book releases for the week of July 10th
the family remains
lisa jewell (fiction, atria books) one morning, dci samuel owusu is called to the scene of a crime on the banks of the thames. When he sends the discovered bones to a lab for processing, he discovers they’re connected to a 30-year cold case that left three people dead in a Chelsea mansion.
a slaughter in disguise
zac bissonnette (fiction, crooked books) jay allan and cindy cooper, former soap opera stars and best friends, have opened a posh movie memorabilia store, hooray for hollywood, in palm springs. it’s just that customers are few and your balance sheet doesn’t look good. To give the store a boost, they are dying to get their hands on the collection of Yana Tosh, a 90-year-old diva looking to sell. But when the VP of a major auction house (competitor) dies, they’re suddenly prime suspects.
one hundred other girls
iman hariri-kia (fiction, sourcebook benchmark) noora is an aspiring writer who can’t believe her good luck when she lands a job as an assistant to loretta james, editor-in-chief of the iconic vinyl magazine . but loretta is horrible, the print side of the magazine is fighting for its existence, and loretta is constantly trying to undermine the digital director. hilarious shades of “the devil wears prada” for 2022.
stay awake
megan goldin (fiction, st. martin’s press)”stay awake”. that’s what liv reese’s handwritten message says when she wakes up in the back of a cab with no recollection of how she got there. no phone, she must have lost it. in its place is a bloody knife and crime scene reports on the local news.
creating her
bernadette jiwa (fiction, dutton) in 1990s dublin, the country of ireland is entering an economic boom and joan is part of it. life is good. Until one day a letter arrives from Emma, the daughter she and her husband gave up for adoption 30 years earlier, and she has a big favor to ask.
lightning path: the life of jim thorpe
david maraniss (nonfiction, simon & schuster)jim thorpe excelled in every sport he tried, winning gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 stockholm olympics, scoring as a football player in the Carlisle Indian School and playing Major League Baseball for John McGraw’s New York Giants, to name just a few. A fascinating new biography of America’s greatest athlete.
best book releases for the week of July 3rd
bookish people
susan coll (fictional, harper’s muse) independent bookstore owner sophie bernstein is mourning the death of her husband and would rather hide in the back of her store than interact with books and customers. When a poet named Raymond Chaucer, who is scheduled for a reading at the store, is suspected of being the culprit behind his wife’s suicide, his publicity tour is cancelled, except at Sophie’s store. Clemi, the store’s event coordinator, suspects he might be her father and has to find out.
in java path
Lawrence Osborne (fiction, Hogarth)British expat Adrian Gyle has lived in Hong Kong for two decades. As pro-democracy protests take over the city, he prepares to leave when a woman named Rebecca, a student involved in the protests, goes missing, and Adrian can’t resist investigating.
kismet
amina akhtar (fiction, thomas & mercer) new yorker ronnie khan never expected to end up in the desert of sedona, arizona, but when socialite wellness guru marley dewhurst proposed the idea of finding his best self at a wellness retreat, ronnie was sold. But when various gurus in town keep getting killed, Ronnie begins to think that he’s not healing much.
you are invited
Amanda Jayatissa (fiction, Berkley) When Amaya’s former best friend, Kaavi, invites her after years of silence to his wedding in Sri Lanka, Amaya is shocked. When she finds out that Kaavi is getting married to Amaya’s ex-boyfriend, the plot thickens. She heads to Sri Lanka to attend the wedding for better or worse, only for Kaavi to disappear and be presumed dead. Suddenly, Amaya is the prime suspect.
fixer upper
lauren forsythe (fiction, gp putnam’s sons) aly is a fixer, she just doesn’t get paid for it. she solves everything from her colleague’s work problems to the love lives of several of her friends. she then decides to launch fixer upper, an underground service for women who are tired of doing unpaid emotional labor. her mission: to get the men to do the work themselves.
when we were bright and beautiful
jillian medoff (fiction, harper)when cassie quinn’s brother billy, a junior at princeton, is suddenly accused of rape by his ex, diana, she runs home to help her family. As the Quinns scramble to assemble a top legal team, Billy is already guilty in the eyes of the media.
best book releases for the week of June 26
the new neighbor
Karen Cleveland (Fiction, Ballantine Books) Beth is moving from her cul-de-sac in suburban Virginia, saying goodbye to the neighborhood where she raised her children. The CIA recently pulled her from the project she’s been on for years: tracking down an elusive Iranian intelligence agent known only as her neighbor. But Beth can’t let it go, and she begins to investigate the woman who just bought her house, Madeline Sterling. The more she looks at her, the more Beth becomes convinced that Madeline is not who she pretends to be.
nfsw
isabel kaplan (fiction, henry holt)a young woman tries to make it in hollywood without selling her soul, which turns out to be more difficult than one might think. When rumors of sexual misconduct begin to circulate on the TV studio, she must decide who to protect.
nora goes off script
annabel monaghan (fiction, gp putnam’s sons)nora writes scripts for the romance channel. But when her marriage falls apart, she writes the best screenplay of her life, and it’s made into a movie for the big screen. While she is filming at her house, she meets Leo, the sexy male lead. she at first dismisses him as the typical spoiled actor, but the more time they spend together, the more he questions his first impression of her.
shielded
mark greaney (fiction, berkley)joshua duffy was a professional bodyguard, that is, until a mission in lebanon cost him his leg. It seems his days in elite protection are over, until a friend offers him a job on a peacekeeping mission in the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico, and it’s so dangerous only a desperate person would sign up. p>
violet acts
margaret montimore (fiction, flatiron books) nearly 10 years ago, famed magician violet volk disappeared in the middle of the act, and hasn’t been seen since. Ella’s sister Sasha Ella was always the calmest sister, uninterested in the spotlight that Violet sought. But as the tenth anniversary of her sister’s disappearance approaches, a podcaster aggressively searches for her, convinced she’s hiding secrets.
zelensky: a biography
serhii rudenko (non-fiction, government)volodymyr zelensky was elected as a political novice 3 years ago, and in recent months, he has captured the world’s attention and admiration as he leads ukraine through a terrible war.
See Also: 6 Historical Fiction Novels About Japanese Internment Camps – She Reads