The 20 Best Books to Read This Summer

Travel back in time, investigate a crime, or head for Nantucket — even if you can't leave home

By Kim Hubbard
May 27, 2020 09:30 AM
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Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan

Feeling unmoored after a move from Brooklyn to the suburbs, new mom Elisabeth embraces an unlikely friendship with the college girl caring for her son. What could go wrong? (June) FICTION

Buy It! $27.99; target.com

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28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

Summer on Hilderbrand’s Nantucket is never dull. This time she focuses on former lovers who now lead separate lives but share an island idyll once a year. Captivating and bittersweet. (June) FICTION

Buy It! $19.69; target.com

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A Star Is Bored by Byron Lane

Carrie Fisher’s spirit animates this funny, dishy and deeply affectionate roman à clef by her former personal assistant. The force is with him. (July) FICTION

Buy It!  $26.99; target.com

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The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

A heart-stopping tale of survival and heroism centered on a female forger who risks everything to help Jewish children escape Nazi-occupied France. (July) FICTION

Buy It! $28; target.com

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The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Inseparable twins Stella and Desiree are black but could pass for white. Then Stella actually does pass — and it tears them apart. A breathtaking plot tracks her secret into the next generation. (June) FICTION

Buy It! $23.49; target.com

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Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford

A shocking, anguished, beautifully written account of Crawford’s sexual assault at the elite St. Paul’s School in the days before #MeToo — and her belated understanding, after attacks at the school decades later, of just how badly the adults had failed her. (July) NONFICTION

Buy It! $28; barnesandnoble.com

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Humankind by Rutger Bregman

It’s the pick-me-up we all need right now: a historian’s reasoned (and riveting) argument that people are more kind than cruel. (June) NONFICTION

Buy It! $30; target.com

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The New One by Mike Birbiglia

Expanded from his one-man show of the same name (and including poetry by his wife), comedian Birbiglia’s rueful, hilarious take on new parenthood is a treat. (June) NONFICTION

Buy It! $24.49; target.com

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Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

The hosts of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend chronicle their decade-plus bond, providing a loving how-to on burnishing your own friendships. (July) NONFICTION

Buy It! $26; target.com

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The Book of Rosy by Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schwietert Collazo

The inspiring true story of a desperate mother fleeing Guatemala and the volunteers working to help her seek asylum. (June) NONFICTION

Buy It! $26.99; target.com

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Nothing Can Hurt You by Nicola Maye Goldberg

The killing of a college student connects 12 characters: the stranger who found her; the kid she babysat; the boy who killed her; the woman he marries ... Haunting. (June) MYSTERY/THRILLER

Buy It! $26; barnesandnoble.com

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The Distant Dead by Heather Young

A sixth grader’s discovery of his murdered teacher’s body uncovers chilling, heartbreaking family secrets in a Nevada community of outcasts. Powerful and poignant. (June) MYSTERY/THRILLER

Buy It! $27.99; target.com

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Take Me Apart by Sara Sligar

Secrets people leave behind propel this literary thriller about a troubled archivist who tries to reassemble an artist’s legacy after her mysterious death. (April) MYSTERY/THRILLER

Buy It! $17.79; target.com

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These Women by Ivy Pochoda

Serial killers usually steal the show, but in Pochoda’s riveting, nuanced novel it’s five marginalized L.A. women linked by one murderer’s ignored crimes who take center stage. (May) MYSTERY/THRILLER

Buy It! $25.49; target.com

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A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight

As an attorney builds a defense case for her client, she begins to suspect he’s guilty. A murder mystery filled with dirty secrets and moneyed mayhem. (May) MYSTERY/THRILLER

Buy It! $27.99; target.com

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The Kinder Poison by Natalie Mae

In this delicious high-stakes adventure, a girl fights for her life after she is chosen to be a sacrificial tribute in a contest to determine who’ll succeed the ailing ruler. (June) YOUNG ADULT 

Buy It! $18.99; target.com

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A Peculiar Peril by Jeff VanderMeer

An eccentric odyssey about a teen who will inherit his grandpa’s estate if he can catalogue its contents. Not a good sign that he learns this in a letter he’s instructed to destroy. (July) YOUNG ADULT 

Buy It! $17.59; target.com

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I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick

Hired as a summer nanny, Anna winds up confessing that she killed Zoe, a local who looks just like her. Wrinkle: Zoe went missing six months before Anna took the job. A shivery delight. (June) YOUNG ADULT 

Buy It! $18.99; target.com

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Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams

The oldest daughter in a fundamentalist cult must choose between obedience to the Prophet and love for her brother, who needs outside medical help in order to live. (June) YOUNG ADULT 

 Buy It! $17.99; target.com

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All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

Johnson grew up in a loving middle-class home in New Jersey but knew from age 5 that he was “different.” This is his moving “memoir-manifesto” about being black and queer in America. (April) YOUNG ADULT 

Buy It! $16.49; barnesandnoble.com

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