The big book news for June circles around one day and one book: June 3, the day that Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel Atmosphere hits shelves. The author
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behind mega hits The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six, and Carrie Soto Is Back is likely to hit the number one spot on charts with her latest, a love story centered on two women attempting to make it in NASA’s astronaut corps amidst prohibitions against ‘sexual deviancy’ and risky missions. Kirkus calls it ‘unputdownable’; a movie deal is already in the works. Almost as anticipated is V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. The author behind 2020’s massive hit The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue again regales with a centuries-spanning, genre bending vampire story, entwining the lives of three women in what Publisher’s Weekly calls ‘haunting and worthwhile story about cruelty, grace, love, and what it means to live forever.’ Bury Our Bones is out June 10.
--While much attention will be focused on some established names in June, there’s a healthy crop of debut authors vying for readers’ attentions. The protagonist of Rob Franklin’s Great Black Hope grapples with his identity as a queer Black man whose privileged background of wealth and stability runs into boundaries of race and class after a drug arrest. In spite of the heavy topics, early reviews praise Franklin’s vivid storytelling that will keep readers rapt; Library Journal recommends it for fans of Rumaan Alam’s sharply observed contemporary fiction. It’s out June 10. Magic and family history are blended in Allison King’s buzzy debut The Phoenix Pencil Company. A granddaughter learns a family secret—pencils made by her grandmother’s company in wartime Shanghai have the ability to ‘reforge’ written words into lived memory—leading into a generational spanning epic of war, espionage and escape to the West, with a heady mix of magic. It has generated a lot of interest and a massive print run; it’s out June 3. Jon Cowan has already garnered acclaim for his TV writing, including hits such as Bones and Suits; he turns his hand to print fiction with Proof, out in late June. Deadbeat LA lawyer Jake West finds a new low when a friend and fellow lawyer is murdered in front of him. Prime suspect in the crime, West has no choice but to dig into the labyrinthine world of a possibly corrupt criminal defense firm to exonerate himself. Publisher’s Weekly calls it ‘terrifically tense,’ with ‘a deliciously serpentine plot’ ; fans of Grisham and Scott Turow will want to take a look.
--Literary fiction readers can look forward to new offerings from Leila Mottley (author of Nightcrawling, a recent Oprah pick), Jess Walter (previous bestsellers The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins). Thriller readers will certainly want to check out S. A. Cosby’s latest, King of Ashes, and Megan Abbott’s El Dorado Drive, which our own Jane enjoyed recently. Historical fiction fans might gravitate towards the World War II-set The Listeners, an adult debut by the much-praised YA author Maggie Stiefvater, featuring a group of high-profile Axis diplomats and dignitaries sequestered in a remote West Virginia resort. And romance readers can look forward to another fantasy-tinged love story from Ashley Poston, Sounds Like Love, due out June 17.
Check out the full list for more titles. Happy reading!