22 New Books to Read This Summer
Wherever your chosen reading locale  beach, park bench, airplane, air-conditioned living room  make sure you're curling up with the best books of summer 2018. From novels to short story collections, historical yarns to nonfiction titles drawn from the headlines, there's something new for readers of all stripes to dig into this summer. Debut authors with buzzy fiction, teen activists marking a movement and historical experts populate this summer reading list for 2018. Below, TIME recommends 22 summer books to keep you turning pages all season long. Phoebe, reeling from the loss of her mother, arrives at college and finds herself enticed by a religious cult with ties to North Korea. When the group commits an act of terror, she vanishes  and her boyfriend becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth about her involvement. July, Faye, the son of a French father and a Rwandan mother, draws from personal experience with conflict and exile for his debut novel, already a best seller in France. In the book, 10-year-old Gaby's idyllic childhood slips away when war and genocide erupt in his home of Burundi. June, All the sweaty angst of high school and teenage relationships surges back when four former classmates return to their hometown. A decade after graduation, they reckon with the realities of having come of age during the conflict and recession of the early aughts. August, Behind the kitchen doors of the top Chinese restaurant in Rockville, Md. is a dysfunctional makeshift family of owners, cooks and servers. Its future lies in limbo as the sons of the late proprietor clash and some staffers get dangerously friendly. June, How well do you really know your partner? After 50 years of marriage, Gene suddenly loses his wife Maida. When his distant daughter, now grown, returns home, old memories resurface and Gene's long-held narrative of his own family's life begins to unravel. June, The tentacles of an epidemic reach across decades in two intertwining narratives. In one, set in 1985, a gallery director witnesses the ravages of AIDS all around him. In the other, 30 years later, the sister of his friend who died of the illness grapples with the aftershocks of loss. June, The story begins in 1960s South Dakota, where siblings Leon and Ren both love to dance  but only she enjoys the support of their father. Saunders, raised a ballerina in the Midwest, examines how chances received or denied in childhood can shape the course of a life. August, In this mysterious page-turner, a feminist artist is poised to make a splash with a show featuring portraits in which she styles herself as famed murder victims  art designed to interrogate a culture of violence against women. But on the night of her opening gala, she disappears. June, A dangerous energy, buoyed by rich and unsettling details, runs through the Fates and Furies author's new collection as her characters face down snakes, hurricanes and their own self-destructive behavior. June, With dark humor and sharp dialogue, Homes plumbs the depths of everyday American anxieties through stories about unexpected situations  take, for example, an affair that unfolds at a conference on genocide. June, The angst of modern life pervades the daily lives of the characters in these stories from the author of Netherland, whose subversive humor finds new angles on everything from facial hair to circumcision. June, A real estate broker named Nina anchors these loosely linked tales about people buying and selling homes in L.A. The cast includes a teen sex worker, a suicidal musician and a young mistress turned wife. June, The prolific thinker and sociology professor turns his focus to a frustrating 1963 meeting, organized by Baldwin at RFK's request, about the nation's racial divide. June, Fans of biographies might keep an eye out for this tale about the multitalented woman who, after her 1611 marriage to the man who ruled the Mughal Empire  making her his 20th wife  rose to a surprising and complex position of power. July, Pack this one if you're going abroad  or if you're simply hungry. The authors use food and wine as a way to trace French history from ancient times through today. July, For history buffs who prefer primary sources, this collection of writings from the South African leader promises a window into history as it was lived, with more than 250 letters  including previously unpublished ones  from Mandela's 27 years as a prisoner. July, This account of the U.S.S. Indianapolis promises to show that the ship's story is about much more than the torpedoes that ended it. July, Let's call it the Hidden Figures rule If there's a part of the past you thought was exclusively male, you're probably wrong. Case in point are these stories of Amelia Earhart and other female pilots who fought to fly. August, Parkland survivors David and Lauren Hogg crystallize their generation's call for gun reform in this manifesto for a growing youth movement. June, Sanger, a national-security reporter, charts the global rise of cyberwarfare and examines how digital weapons are rapidly changing geopolitics. June, The Pulitzer Prizewinning critic traces the creeping forces that have allowed opinion to be treated with as much credibility as fact. July, This look at the financial burdens on the middle class argues that the costs of raising kids in the U.S. are too high for all but the wealthiest Americans. June