Collection Management Librarians Andrea, Dontaná, Jenna, and Kathy
Jump into summer with these new books, movies, and TV shows—for all ages—that we think will be hot, hot, hot all summer. And don’t forget to register and track your reading for summer reading.
Adult fiction | Adult nonfiction | Teens | Kids | Movies & TV shows
Adult fiction
Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim
Expected publication date: June 2
Why you should try it: This unique take on choice, immigration, and personhood, featuring extensive worldbuilding, has been hotly anticipated since at least December.
Description: Doppelgängers, corporate intrigue, heartbreak, betrayal, and the harsh permanence of the border: Sublimation is a thrilling and provocative debut for fans of Severance that asks what you’d sacrifice for a different life.
The Adventures of Juan Planchard by Jonathan Jakubowicz
Expected publication date: June 2
Why you should try it: In addition to the breakneck pace and totally gonzo nature of Juan’s story, this book is already the bestselling book by any Venezuelan author…ever.
Description: A wild, fast-paced ride through sex, drugs, revolution, and the morally gray hustle of a man who dares to game the system that destroyed his country—it’s The Wolf of Wall Street meets Scarface.
Rasputin Swims the Potomac by Ben Fountain
Expected publication date: June 9
Why you should try it: This whip-smart novel is perfect for fans of Idiocracy, but also for anyone who wants to see the absurdity of politics taken to its (il)logical conclusion.
Description: A biting satire of American politics and a searingly intelligent novel about the cruel absurdities of contemporary life, centering on a world champion professional wrestler with presidential ambitions.
The Revolution of Dionne Daphne by Mara Brock Akil
Expected publication date: June 30
Why you should try it: If you love Mara Brock Akil’s shows like Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane, and her adaptation of Forever, you’ll want to read her debut novel.
Description: An emotionally enthralling debut novel about enduring love, world-shattering secrets, and self-awakening.
A Real Animal by Emeline Atwood
Expected publication date: July 7
Why you should try it: This dark coming-of-age novel is one of Time’s most anticipated books of the year.
Description: In this unforgettable debut, a moment of metaphysical transformation launches a woman’s beautiful and terrifying journey through her twenties, through loneliness and complicated love that takes her from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the plains of Texas.
The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders
Expected publication date: July 7
Why you should try it: Library Journal calls this perfect for people who loved The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. If that’s not enough, this is for you if you’ve ever wondered if your ancestors are talking about you from the great beyond.
Description: An impulsive and heartbroken woman inherits her father’s share of a Tennessee farm that is rich in family secrets and occupied with busybody ghosts in this sweeping family portrait.
Wisdom Corner by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Expected publication date: July 7
Why you should try it: This is a thrilling novel of trying to do the right thing in the face of systemic inequities, something we can all relate to.
Description: Virgil Wounded Horse is desperately trying to escape his past as a hired vigilante on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. But when a legendary figure from the reservation is murdered, Virgil is forced to return to the job. With a heated tribal council election looming, as well as new revelations regarding past injustices at the local Native boarding school, the stakes grow even higher. Will Virgil find the justice he’s seeking before it’s too late?
Vera Stein Is Fine by Julie Murphy
Expected publication date: July 21
Why you should try it: Julie Murphy is a perennial favorite, showcasing women who learn to love themselves and be loved by others.
Description: A heartfelt and hilarious tale of a woman who thinks life and love have passed her by until she’s thrown into her grandmother’s quirky world of octogenarian free love and gets a second chance with the one man she never expected to see again.
Majestic Hills by Dawn Turner
Expected publication date: August 4
Why you should try it: Oak Parkers loved Turner’s Three Girls From Bronzeville, so we thought we should tell you about her new novel early.
Description: A Black couple leaves their downtown Chicago condo for a new suburban subdivision, only to find themselves at the center of a maelstrom in this gripping page-turner.
Unprecedented Times by Malavika Kannan
Expected publication date: August 18
Why you should try it: This is for you if you used college to completely reinvent yourself.
Description: Unprecedented Times captures the beauty, humor, pain, and straight-up chaos of relationships between best friends and lovers, mothers and daughters, and storytellers and themselves. Malavika Kannan’s fresh, arresting novel is a testament to the power of self-narrative for Gen Z American women: of writing oneself into existence where no previous script exists.
Crocodilopolis by John Manuel Arias
Expected publication date: August 25
Why you should try it: Sibling rivalry takes center stage in this novel of corruption, a perfect end-of-summer thriller. Also, this cover is eye-catching.
Description: Born into a corrupt political dynasty and raised on a seemingly idyllic coffee estate, the Oreamundo brothers were destined for greatness. But a dark family secret and a scandalous double crossing sent their lives into a tailspin, changing the country forever. With the wisdom of biblical myth and the soapy wit of a telenovela, Crocodilopolis is a masterful interrogation of power, masculinity, destiny, and legacy from a literary star on the rise.
Dèy by Edwidge Danticat
Expected publication date: August 25
Why you should try it: You’re feeling some summertime sadness. Danticat’s newest novel is a call to examine our relationships and what they mean to us.
Description: A vivid, timely story, moving from Haiti to Brooklyn to Miami, of a woman whose sense of self and family are called into question when she gets caught in a random act of violence one sunny Florida day.
Adult nonfiction
The Land & Its People by David Sedaris
Expected publication date: May 26
Why you should try it: Do you even have to ask? It’s David Sedaris!
Description: In The Land and Its People, Sedaris investigates what it means to be a traveler, a brother, a lifelong friend. He shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing our fascinating human species and the lands we inhabit with warmth and curiosity.
View From the East Wing: A Memoir by Jill Biden
Expected publication date: June 2
Why you should try it: Every FLOTUS has a unique perspective on the presidency and history; Jill Biden’s is sure to be compelling.
Description: Jill shares her White House experiences for the first time, in her own words. She reflects on the Biden presidency and its impact on her family. She brings you behind the scenes, from Camp David to Air Force One, from grading papers in the Rose Garden to witnessing the abrupt end of her husband’s bid for reelection. This is the story of a woman dedicated to her roles as a wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, and First Lady of the United States.
1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression & the Making of the Modern World by Liaquat Ahamed
Expected publication date: June 2
Why you should try it: Did you know there was a Great Depression before THE Great Depression? It’s probably worth finding out more from a Pulitzer Prize-winning economist.
Description: Over the course of the 1850s and 1860s, during the first era of globalization, the world experienced an unprecedented economic boom. Fueling this expansion was an explosion in the global bond market, at the hub of which stood one family—the Rothschilds, arguably the wealthiest banking family in history. With excessive euphoria leading to disappointed expectations, the bubble burst in the early 1870s. Stock markets from Vienna to New York crashed, and dozens of railroads and many governments defaulted. Financial officials responded by blundering into a precipitous remaking of the global currency system—exacerbating the ensuing economic collapse and setting the stage for decades of punitive deflation that sparked waves of anti-globalist populism.
Checkmate: Genius, Lies, Ambition & the Biggest Scandal in Chess by Ben Mezrich
Expected publication date: June 2
Why you should try it: Do you remember when chess dominated headlines with this bananas story?? It was wild, and it gets even wilder.
Description: In September 2022, the unthinkable happened: 19-year-old American chess prodigy Hans Niemann defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in a stunning face-to-face match. Within days, Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating—a bombshell allegation that rocked the chess world. But Checkmate is also the story of a teenager willing to risk everything to rise to the top; a reclusive genius suddenly fighting to protect his legacy; and a centuries-old game transforming into a billion-dollar industry fueled by streaming, sponsorships, and Silicon Valley power players.
Transcendent: A Memoir by Laverne Cox
Expected publication date: June 9
Why you should try it: Why would you not want to read a memoir from the first openly transgender person to win a Daytime Emmy and be nominated for a Primetime Emmy?
Description: Laverne Cox is a powerhouse in the fight for transgender rights and representation, but her path from a struggling trans actress to a cultural movement was anything but easy. Surviving a childhood full of trauma, dealing with depression, and working at a drag restaurant in New York City for seven years, Laverne was turning forty and felt it was time to throw in the towel when it came to being a Hollywood star; then she booked the character of Sophia Burset in Orange Is the New Black. Her world changed overnight.
The Yahoo Boys: Love, Deception & the Real Lives of Nigeria’s Romance Scammers by Carlos Barragán
Expected publication date: June 9
Why you should try it: You can find this book on several most anticipated nonfiction lists. Publishers Weekly says, “[I]t’s a remarkably empathetic view of both sides of the con.”
Description: When his mother started emailing with a handsome American soldier who promised to send gold bars to her Madrid apartment, the journalist Carlos Barragán came face to face with the human toll of online romance fraud. After tracing the emails to an IP address in Nigeria, he set off on a journey to Lagos to find his mother’s scammer, where he stumbled on a much bigger story. There, in a crowded and impoverished neighborhood in the midst of Africa’s largest city, he encountered thousands of young men engaged in romance scamming.
The Cruelty of Nice Folks: Why Minneapolis Is the Story of America by Justin Ellis
Expected publication date: June 16
Why you should try it: “Minnesota Nice” is a thing. So is “Midwest Nice.” But what does that really mean, and who actually benefits, or explicitly doesn’t, from this so-called “niceness”?
Description: It’s the “North,” they like to say, not the Midwest. It’s different. Minneapolis is a city for everyone. But in 2020, George Floyd’s murder by the city’s police left many Americans stunned and wondering, “How could this happen in Minneapolis?” To Ellis, the real question is: What made people think it couldn’t?
A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of Movies by David Thomson
Expected publication date: July 7
Why you should try it: I mean, the subtitle alone is totally intriguing.
Description: In tracing the progress of film, from the Lumiere Brothers to the Coens, Thomson glories in the great movies, but admits to increasing unease over what the medium has done to us—promoting fantasy, misleading models of sexual identity, the cult of authority, power, and happy endings.
They Stole a City: Wilmington’s White Supremacist Coup & the Families Who Live With Its Legacy by Lauren Collins
Expected publication date: July 14
Why you should try it: Think events from the 1800s don’t still affect us? Lauren Collins will make you think again.
Description: In this epic, multigenerational narrative, Lauren Collins traces the fates of four Wilmington families: the Howes, the Halseys, the Moores, and the Bellamy/MacRaes, all of whom were present on the day when a mob of white supremacists launched a murderous coup to “take the city.”
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception & Injustice on the Gulf Coast by Pamela Colloff
Expected publication date: July 14
Why you should try it: A scathing indictment of our justice system, written by an award-winning reporter and blurbed by Patrick Radden Keefe…just read it.
Description: For more than three decades, Paul Skalnik roamed the Gulf Coast lying about who he was. He passed himself off as a fighter pilot, a high-rolling oilman, a criminal defense attorney, an undercover agent, and a terminal cancer patient. In these guises, he married nine women—some at the same time. When Skalnik got caught, as he invariably did, he would run a different con. Locked up with other men awaiting trial, he claimed they confessed their crimes to him. Then he peddled those stories to prosecutors
Triage by Claudia Rankine
Expected publication date: August 4
Why you should try it: Claudia Rankine continues to write groundbreaking, beautiful, devastating books that demand to be read.
Description: Triage follows the turbulent friendship between two composite characters, the narrator and the theorist, self-identified sisters struggling to define their wounded histories and their shared but separate lives. During college, they invent a game of collapse: Every time they see each other, they have to stop and fall to the ground. As their kinship continues off and on for decades, “collapse” takes on new meanings that are seen and felt in the violence of their pasts, artworks depicting couches where someone might ease their exhaustion, the ongoing devastation in Gaza, and the antagonism of their conversation and their love for each other.
Black Designers in Chicago: Culture & Community in the Twentieth Century by Chris Dingwall
Expected publication date: August 14
Why you should try it: Building on a 2018 Chicago Cultural Center exhibition, this book is not only gorgeous but also a fascinating social history of modern design.
Description: In 20th-century Chicago, generations of Black artisans, craftspeople, art educators, clothing makers, commercial illustrators, sign painters, furniture makers, beauticians, graphic designers, art directors, and screen printers made and remade the city into an energetic center for modern design.
Teens
Goldenborn by Ama Ofosua Lieb
Expected publication date: June 2
Why you should try it: It’s an inventive sci-fi/fantasy mashup inspired by West African mythology.
Description: When 17-year-old Akoma Addo stumbles into a world of ancient gods and modern magic, she’ll have to choose between saving her father…or staying true to everything she’s ever believed.
13 Little Love Stories: An Anthology Inspired by Taylor Swift Songs
Expected publication date: June 30
Why you should try it: An ideal choice for Swifties, but this anthology is also a perfect vacation read with its short love stories.
Description: If you could live inside one Taylor Swift song for a day, which would you pick? In this shimmering anthology, 13 best-selling and acclaimed authors do just that, reimagining some of Taylor’s most iconic songs as love stories.
The Lure of Wolves & Whispers by Amanda Connolly
Expected publication date: July 7
Why you should try it: Romantasy is hot hot hot, and this debut—the first in a new trilogy—is sure to be an addictive, exciting read.
Description: One sister offers her life in exchange for the other’s in this dark, Irish lore–inspired romantasy.
Augusta Pine Does Not Exist by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Expected publication date: July 7
Why you should try it: If your preferred beach read is more action-packed, look no further than this thrilling spy story.
Description: After a hack gone tragically wrong, a teen girl is given an ultimatum: accept a harsh prison sentence or leave her old life behind, adopt a new identity, and use her talents in the service of a covert government agency.
To Dance the Moon & Stars by Tasia M S & Barbara Perez Marquez
Expected publication date: July 14
Why you should try it: It’s lush, it’s romantic, it’s fantasy…and it’s a graphic novel!
Description: In a kingdom where dance is forbidden, a future high priestess must bend the rules to stop an ancient evil from destroying everything and everyone she loves, including the crown prince.
Too Perfect to Die by Juliana Goodman
Expected publication date: July 28
Why you should try it: Fans of Holly Jackson and Karen M. McManus will get swept up in this twisty mystery.
Description: Bring It On, but with murder, this heart-pounding thriller follows Jonty, a star cheerleader forced to track down a killer and achieve her dream―before it’s too late.
Nest of Tongues by Randy Ribay
Expected publication date: August 11
Why you should try it: Vampires are so back.
Description: A brother and sister fight to protect their secrets, their community, and most of all, each other, in this lyrical, evocative horror about vampires from the Philippines.
Barbie: Dreamscape by Alex Aster
Expected publication date: August 18
Why you should try it: It’s Alex Aster, author of the Lightlark saga, writing a Barbie fantasy novel-the combo we never knew we needed but are so delighted to have.
Description: Step out of the box and into the unexpected with Barbie—like you’ve never seen her before!—in an immersive, pink-tastic, fantasy tale.
Kids
Incredibly Fast & Not Fun at All by Tadgh Bentley
Expected publication date: June 30
Why you should try it: Who doesn’t love bears and roller coasters?
Description: In this rollicking picture book, a quiet-loving bear accidentally invents the world’s first roller coaster.
Through the Black Gate by Alfredo Cáceres
Expected publication date: June 30
Why you should try it: It’s an exciting fantasy quest and an emotionally resonant tale of grief. Plus, there’s a cat.
Description: An orphaned girl and a music-loving boy venture into the land of the dead with the hope of seeing their loved ones again in this stunning graphic novel.
How to Dive to the Deepest Place on Earth by Kathryn D. Sullivan
Expected publication date: June 30
Why you should try it: Couldn’t get enough of Artemis II? Follow along with an astronaut’s exploration of the deep ocean!
Description: Journey seven miles below the surface of the ocean in this thrilling moment-by-moment recounting of astronaut and oceanographer Kathryn Sullivan’s real-life deep dive to the “bottom of the world.”
Offside by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
Expected publication date: July 7
Why you should try it: Realistic middle-grade graphic novels are all the rage, and this one is sports fiction with Breakfast Club vibes.
Description: Five very different students on the school soccer team may just have more in common than they thought.
Sneaks by Amy Tern
Expected publication date: July 7
Why you should try it: Amateur detectives, take note! This unlikely duo will have you looking for mysteries in your own neighborhood.
Description: A missing child and an apartment that should be empty spur two tweens to solve an increasingly tangled neighborhood mystery.
Airrelle of the Maroon Witches by Sumayyah Beck
Expected publication date: July 14
Why you should try it: Promoted as Kiki’s Delivery Service meets Black Panther, this is a perfect choice for fans of inventive, magical stories.
Description: A shy but resourceful girl discovers her own power in this fantasy set in a richly imagined world where once-enslaved people have built an enchanted network of hidden witch communities.
Swing! by James Yang
Expected publication date: August 4
Why you should try it: With extra appeal to tennis fans, this picture book highlights positive role models and good sportsmanship.
Description: A young girl who loves playing tennis with her father learns how to manage her emotions and channel her hero, Arthur Ashe.
Shook by Julian Randall
Expected publication date: August 4
Why you should try it: This Chicago-set, novel-in-verse about basketball and mental health is sure to be a quick yet impactful read.
Description: Shake’s dream of making the varsity basketball team is in peril when he gets injured. Can he rebound and make his way back onto the court―and back to feeling like himself?
Movies & TV shows
It: Welcome to Derry Season 1
Release Date: May 5
Why you should try it: With summer comes parades, fairs, and circuses, and with those come the clowns. And we can’t forget our (least) favorite clown, IT. Send in the clowns!
Description: Welcome to Derry is based on King’s novel It and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films It and It: Chapter Two. In 1962, a couple and their son move to Derry, Maine, just as a young boy disappears. With their arrival, very bad things begin to happen in the town.
Mistress Dispeller
Expected Release Date: May 5
Why you should try it: What’s summer without a little spicy drama? Mistress Dispeller has so much drama that you’ll forget it’s a documentary and not a work of fiction.
Description: A Chinese woman hires someone to secretly end her husband’s extramarital relationship in an attempt to save her marriage.
Hoppers
Release Date: June 2
Why you should try it: Great voice acting cast, cute and silly animals, and comedy bits for all ages.
Description: What if you could talk to animals and understand what they’re saying? In Disney and Pixar’s all-new feature film Hoppers, scientists have discovered how to “hop” human consciousness into lifelike robotic animals, allowing people to communicate with animals as animals! The adventure introduces Mabel, an animal lover who seizes an opportunity to use the technology, uncovering mysteries in the animal world beyond anything she could have imagined.
Magellan
Expected Release Date: June 23
Why you should try it: We know the story of Magellan, but what about the story of Magellan played by Gael García Bernal?
Description: Magellan follows the 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan as he embarks on his epochal quest to cross the Pacific, a voyage that spirals into zealotry and violence when he attempts to impose Christianity upon the people of the Philippines. Abetted by García Bernal’s radically antiheroic portrayal, Diaz composes a stark vision of the brutality at the heart of European conquest and a haunting elegy for a lost precolonial past.
Queen of the Ring
Expected Release Date: June 28
Why you should try it: Summer brings in a lot of wrestling main event shows. Let’s turn the dial back and learn the history of one United States historic wrestler, Mildred Burke.
Description: An extraordinary, true-life tale that follows Mildred Burke, the legendary professional wrestler and single mom, who defied incredible odds to become the first million-dollar female athlete and longest reigning champion at a time when the sport was banned across most of America.
Stranger Things: Complete Series
Expected release date: June 28
Why you should try it: We waited a long time for the finale. Why not rewatch the series in one summer?
Description: After a boy vanishes into thin air, his close-knit friends and family search for answers and are pulled into a high-stakes and deadly series of events. Beneath the surface of their ordinary town lurks an extraordinary supernatural mystery, along with top-secret government experiments and a dangerous gateway that connects our world to a powerful yet sinister realm.
They Will Kill You
Expected Release Date: June 30
Why you should try it: There’s dry humor, cultists that are in way over their heads, and Zazie Beetz with creative weapons.
Description: A young woman must survive the night at the Virgil, a demonic cult’s mysterious and twisted death-trap of a lair, before becoming their next offering in a uniquely brazen, big-screen battle of epic kills and wickedly dark humor.
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
Expected Release Date: July 14
Why you should try it: Is it summer without a little bit of Presley? In high definition, the video footage makes you feel like you’re an audience member seeing him in person.
Description: Elvis Presley tells his own story through candid conversations, dazzling performance footage, and unearthed archival film. Visionary filmmaker Baz Luhrmann presents a riveting cinematic portrait of the greatest performer of all time.
About Andrea
Collection Management Librarian Andrea is an avid audiobook and manga reader. When she isn’t chipping away at her reading list, she’s attending local pop culture conventions.
About Dontaná
Dontaná is a Collection Management Librarian who was born with an unending reading list. She is almost always reading two books simultaneously and is easily distracted by cool covers.
About Jenna
Collection Management Librarian Jenna believes the world would be a better place if more adults read kids’ books. When her nose isn’t buried in a picture book, you can find her snuggling foster kittens, hiking a mountain, or watching an old movie.
About Kathy
Kathy is a Collection Management Librarian who loves reading, sharing, and talking about books. Her missions in life are to create communities of readers, convince folks that her official title should be “Book Pusher,” and refute that “disco” is a dirty word.