OKC, Ok May, 16 ( The Oklahoma Post) –
There are many wonderfully written books on the shelves for the 2022 summer reading season! Each category has an indulgent variety of choices, so many that we are sure one of these new releases is going to have you feeling nostalgic about reading again. As if you just left your elementary school book fair with a bag of sticker books and you are feeling fye fye (pre-gen x click here).
The new book releases listed below include works from established authors including Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Taylor Jenkins Reid; breakout literations from Katie Gutierrez, J.M. Miro, and Gina Chen; and get weirded out with Colombian fortune-tellers, genetically designed posthumans, and 19th-century divorcée destination vacations.
Thankfully we were gifted one of each of the books below! We can tell you that each is an outstanding read. Which ones catch your attention and made your reading list? Let us know!
FICTION
Woman of Light
by Kali Fajardo-AnstineKali Fajardo-Anstine, author of the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina, returns with this multigenerational western saga about a sprawling Indigenous Chicano family in Colorado. Luz “Little Light” Lopez must fend for herself after her brother is run off by a white mob. When Luz starts experiencing intense visions of her homeland and genetic history, she realizes that someone has to keep these family stories alive.
Release date: June 7
Cult Classic
by Sloane Crosley Ace essayist Sloane Crosley (I Was Told There’d Be Cake) returns to the novel format with Cult Classic, which looks like good, weird fun. One of the summer’s most anticipated novels, the book is a kind of literary mystery-thriller, featuring a New York City heroine who may or may not be the target of a very contemporary, oddly romantic cult.
Release date: June 7
The Hotel Nantucket
by Elin Hilderbrand Nantucket summer read specialist Elin Hilderbrand is back with this intriguing story about a derelict hotel and the team of locals who try to restore it to glory. The glamourous Hotel Nantucket went into terminal decline around 1922, when a tragic fire killed a teenage chambermaid. Now a London billionaire is bankrolling a restoration and has hired a motley crew of staffers. Oh, and that chambermaid is back, ghostlike.
Release date: June 14
Lapvona
by Ottessa Moshfegh If you like your historical fiction with a dash of occult mysticism—who doesn’t?—then bookmark this fascinating departure from marquee author Ottessa Moshfegh (My Year of Rest and Relaxation). In a tiny medieval fiefdom, a little shepherd boy and an outcast midwife bring some very old magic to bear against a tyrannical lord and a hypocritical priest. Get ’em! Get ’em!
Release date: June 21
Acts of Violet
by Margarita Montimore This innovative mystery from author Margarita Montimore (Oona Out of Order) centers on world-famous magician Violet Volk and her permanent disappearing act. Ten years ago, Violet vanished in the midst of her last public performance. Now her sister Sasha is trying to solve the mystery. But why is Sasha suddenly sleepwalking every night?
Release date: July 5
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
by Jamie Ford Winner of this summer’s unofficial Best Story Idea Premise, Jamie Ford’s foray into historical fiction/magic realism introduces poet Dorothy Moy, who’s worried that her crippling depression will be passed to her daughter. Through an experimental treatment, Dorothy connects with past generations of women in her Chinese family, including a World War II nurse, a little girl in San Francisco, and the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.
Release date: August 2
Carrie Soto Is Back
by Taylor Jenkins Reid From the author of Daisy Jones & The Six, Carrie Soto Is Back chronicles the return of an elite tennis champion who comes back to the game six years after her retirement. At age 37, Carrie Soto is determined to cement her legacy as the greatest tennis player ever. In her way: a fierce younger rival, Carrie’s own aging body, and a troubled relationship with her father/coach.
Release date: August 30
MYSTERY & THRILLER
More Than You’ll Ever Know
by Katie Gutierrez One of the summer’s buzziest debut novels, More Than You’ll Ever Know toggles between two timelines and stories. In the first story, set in the 1980s, international banker Delores Rivera leads a double life with families in Texas and Mexico. In the second story, a true-crime writer in 2017 investigates the murder of Rivera’s husband…by her other husband.
Release date: June 7
The Woman in the Library
by Sulari Gentill As the board game Clue taught us so long ago, the library is an excellent place for a murder. The latest from author Sulari Gentill (the Rowland Sinclair series) brings readers to a corner table in the Boston Public Library. A body has just been found, and police have locked down the building. Four strangers sit at a table. One of them is a murderer. The one with the candlestick, probably.
Release date: June 7
The House Across the Lake
by Riley Sager Superstar pseudonym Riley Sager (Final Girls) is back with another twisty thriller, this time concerning a widowed actress, a pair of binoculars, and a dangerous obsession. Casey Fletcher has been drinking-and-spying on the perfect couple in the house across the lake. When one of them disappears, Casey learns the dangers of drunken voyeurism. The hard way.
Release date: June 21
The It Girl
by Ruth Ware British author Ruth Ware works in the high classic mystery style of golden age crime writers like Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, and Dorothy L. Sayers. Her new whodunit begins in the tony environs of Oxford University, where vivacious young student April Coutts-Cliveden is murdered. Ten years later, her friend Hannah Jones discovers that the convicted killer may have been innocent all along.
Release date: July 12
Daisy Darker
by Alice Feeney A familial riff on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, the new mystery from Alice Feeney (Sometimes I Lie) also features a gathering of people who find themselves getting knocked off by a sinister killer, one by one. Only this time around, it’s a family affair. Daisy Darker’s entire family has reunited in a ramshackle island manor for Nana’s 80th birthday. Nana is the first to go, and it gets worse from there.
Release date: August 30
FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION
Ordinary Monsters
by J.M. Miro This debut novel from author J.M. Miro—the first of a trilogy—sounds like a kind of Victorian-era X-Men steeped in eldritch lore. Charlie and Marlowe are two teenage urchins with magical powers, traveling from London to Edinburgh to join other supernaturally gifted children known as the Talents. The world of the living and the world of the dead are about to collide, apparently. So heads up on that.
Release date: June 7
Thrust
by Lidia Yuknavitch Winner of this summer’s unofficial Most Interesting Book Cover Image, Portland author Lidia Yuknavitch’s Thrust combines elements of science fiction and historical fiction in the tale of a time-traveling orphan tasked with saving the world. Young Laisve uses her powers as a carrier to move through time, recruiting allies from the past two centuries to combat 21st-century threats both political and ecological.
Release date: June 28
Upgrade
by Blake Crouch Pivoting off contemporary fears of genetic editing gone rogue, the sci-fi thriller Upgrade follows government agent Logan Ramsay after he’s accidentally exposed to a virus designed to manipulate his core genetic structure. With each passing day, Logan’s brain is getting better, stronger, faster—evolving in fast-forward toward a posthuman future. It’s scary because it’s plausible, and author Blake Crouch is so good with this stuff.
Release date: July 19
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence
by R.F. Kuang Author R.F. Kuang’s cerebral brand of speculative fiction is enormous fun for nerds of sufficient intensity, and her new book looks amazing. In 1828, young Robin Swift—a Chinese boy raised in Britain—is recruited to study at Oxford, where he learns of England’s nefarious means of cultural hegemony via magic. Refusing to betray his motherland, Robin joins a new kind of student revolution. Power, brother.
Release date: August 23
Horror
The Pallbearers Club
by Paul Tremblay Genre professional Paul Tremblay (The Cabin at the End of the World) returns to the horror game with this story of a very unsettling friendship. In the 1980s, a lonesome metalhead kid starts getting attention from one of the cool girls. She’s a little morbid, maybe, and knows a lot about digging up corpses. Then the real weirdness starts. Forty years later, it starts up again.
Release date: July 5
Just Like Home
by Sarah GaileyHomecoming can be very dark when your father is a serial killer. Vera’s mother calls her back to the family home, a place full of secrets and a new tenant who seems focused on using her childhood for artistic inspiration. This new novel from genre-defying Sarah Gailey (Magic for Liars, The Echo Wife) is being described as spine-tingling, intense, and claustrophobic. Yikes!
Release date: July 19
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
by Silvia Moreno-GarciaH.G. Wells’ 1896 classic, The Island of Doctor Moreau, gets a wicked reimagining in this latest scary story from author Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican Gothic). In 19th-century Mexico, Carlota Moreau lives on a remote estate with her mad scientist father and his menagerie of human/animal hybrids. When a dashing young man enters the frame, all hell breaks loose. Call it historical romance horror.
Release date: July 19
What Moves the Dead
by T. KingfisherMore spooky fun from the vaults! This new horror story from T. Kingfisher (The Twisted Ones) is a fever-dream retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 classic, The Fall of the House of Usher. On tap: a crumbling mansion, a sinister lake, a perplexing disease, and a mycological nightmare of divergent fungal evolution. Mushrooms are scary. They just are.
Release date: July 12
NONFICTION
River of the Gods
by Candice MillardThis one looks incredible: River of the Gods chronicles the epic 19th-century expedition by British explorers Richard Burton (not that one) and John Hanning Speke to find the headwaters of the mighty Nile River. Author Candice Millard (Destiny of the Republic) finds a new way in to this old story by focusing on a third member of the party, largely forgotten by imperial history: East African guide Sidi Mubarak Bombay.
Release date: May 17
The Monster’s Bones
by David K. Randall This ambitious tome from veteran author and journalist David K. Randall (Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep) pivots off the 1902 fossil excavation of Tyrannosaurus rex, everyone’s favorite Cretaceous carnivore. On the menu: intrepid paleontologists, Gilded Age robber barons, tricky politics at the American Museum of Natural History, and four-foot-long jaws with 12-inch teeth.
Release date: June 7
The Divorce Colony
by April White In the 19th century, women in unhappy marriages didn’t have a lot of options. But for some, freedom was found in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where progressive divorce laws made the small town a very specific kind of vacation destination. The Divorce Colony digs into the rich culture and history that developed in this particular time and place. Bonus trivia: Author April White is a historian and senior editor at the very cool Atlas Obscura.
Release date: June 14
An Immense World
by Ed YongMalaysian-born science writer Ed Yong is an elite-level journalist; he won a Pulitzer Prize last year for his reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic. His new book, however, has a gentler topic. An Immense World explores the many strange ways that animals perceive their surroundings, from dogs to bees to squids to turtles that can read the earth’s magnetic fields.
Release date: June 21
The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir
by Ingrid Rojas Contreras A unique kind of memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds is a journey into family history and (real) magic from award-winning author Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Fruit of the Drunken Tree). Born into a lineage of Colombian fortune-tellers and healers, Contreras’ life takes an odd left turn when a head injury prompts a bout of amnesia. In the foggy aftermath, Contreras investigates her family’s magical heritage.
Release date: July 12
Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional
by Isaac Fitzgerald Author and TodayShow regular Isaac Fitzgerald has written about tattoos for grown-ups and pirates for kids, which is actually a good indicator of the range of themes offered up in his new memoir. Dirtbag, Massachusetts explores trauma and violence along with self-forgiveness and grace. Oh, and smuggling medical supplies into Burma.
Release date: July 19
YOUNG ADULT
Together We Burn
by Isabel Ibañez Zalvidar is the world’s most famous Dragonador—think dragon + matador—and he’s just been gravely injured. It’s now up to his daughter Zarela to defend the family’s ancestral home. Author Isabel Ibañez (Woven in Moonlight) combines traditional fantasy with Bolivian culture to deliver a new take on the old dragon tale. Also: flamenco dancing.
Release date: May 31
Blade Breaker
by Victoria Aveyard Sequel to last year’s YA fantasy Realm Breaker, this new installment continues the adventures of author Victoria Aveyard’s motley crew: a stalwart squire, an ancient sorceress, a rogue assassin, an obsessed immortal, and a magic-wielding pirate. Bonus trivia: Aveyard is also the author of the sprawling Red Queen fantasy series.
Release date: June 28
Violet Made of Thorns
by Gina Chen The usual palace intrigue goes insanely high-stakes when a morally ambiguous court prophet awakens a sinister curse that could wipe out an entire kingdom. Author Gina Chen’s fantasy debut, the first of a proposed duology, explores the intriguing idea of what happens when the kingdom’s official mystic prognosticator has trouble telling the truth.
Release date: July 26
The Final Gambit
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes In this third installment of The Inheritance Games series, mystery specialist Jennifer Lynn Barnes returns readers to the labyrinthine Hawthorne House, where every room poses a new puzzle, riddle, or conundrum. Teenager Avery Grambs stands to inherit millions if she can figure it all out, but a new stranger has arrived at the manse and all the rules have changed. No fair.
Release date: August 30
ROMANCE
Something Wilder
by Christina Lauren A new romance, Something Wilder, follows the fortunes of young Lily Wilder, who has inherited hand-drawn maps left behind by her father, a famous treasure hunter. Now a tour guide in the canyons of Utah, Lily finds herself on an adventure with old flame Leo Grady, who is still carrying a torch (possibly an actual torch) for Lily.
Release date: May 17
Bet on It
by Jodie Slaughter When bingo aficionado Aja Owens meets Walker Abbott, he’s just an irritant—the grandson of one of her elderly bingo buddies. Then the sparks start to smolder. This new romance from Jodie Slaughter keeps the mood light and also includes “a bingo-based sex pact,” which seems like a pretty interesting idea, actually. G-58? Hmm, how do I unclasp this?
Release date: July 12
Husband Material
by Alexis Hall The title of this sequel to the popular 2020 romance Boyfriend Material was kind of inevitable, really. Returning readers will find Luc and Oliver still together after all that business and now looking at the next step in their relationship. Author Alexis Hall summons that dilemma familiar to so many couples: All our friends are getting married. What do we do next?
Release date: August 2
Love on the Brain
by Ali Hazelwood Scientists need love, too. That’s the governing principle in Ali Hazelwood’s new “STEMinist rom-com” concerning neuro-engineering expert Bee Königswasser and her crush/rival Levi Ward—he of the piercing eyes, muscled arms, and formidable intellect. Just because Bee understands how neurons work doesn’t mean she can control things when they fire up. Don’t overthink it, you two.
Release date: August 23
Hope you enjoy your Summer Reading!
(Book Descriptions by Goodreads; Editing by Robbie Robertson)
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