Come the dog days of summer, when the heat begins to grind you down and the days start to blend, there’s nothing better than encountering a story that will provide a spark of excitement. Maybe a little humor, some gripping tension, or a reason to shed a tear. Couldn’t we all use a good book right about now?
Well, you’re in luck! Our list this month features a wide variety of genres and approaches and plenty of reasons to get excited. Meditative fantasies, terrifying horror, and deep explorations of the human psyche. There’s no wrong choice when it comes to our 12 Must-Read Books of August!
Déy
By Edwidge Danticat
Knopf
I love an author who knows how to emotionally wreck me, and few do it better than Edwidge Danticat. Her latest, Déy, follows a successful Haitian-American real estate agent in the aftermath of being caught in the center of an active shooter situation at a mall. As she balances her work and her struggling family life, we see how our main character grapples with the weight of the trauma she’s just faced. Danticat is a writer of both nuance and emotional force, and in Déy, she captures both.
The Book of the Jaguar
By Victor Ladis Schultz
Fairwood Press LLC
I was so entranced by Victor Ladis Schultz’s debut novel The Book of the Jaguar, which follows the last surviving soldier who is tasked with returning the bodies of his fallen comrades home to their families. The Book of the Jaguar is both a gripping high-fantasty epic and a probing meditation of loss. It’s a book you’ll want to pore over again and again, both for the inventiveness of the world and the questions with which it leaves you. This is an absolute feat of imagination and love.
Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II
Edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Vintage
Like any good horror film, this fantastic anthology series returns bigger, better, and bloodier all around. Featuring twenty-one brand new entries from Indigenous writers, these stories will draw you into an unforgettable world of terror that will show you just how deep our modern horror landscape is. Drawing upon the oldest storytelling tradition in North America, every story in Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II is worth your time.
Majestic Hills
By Dawn Turner
Scribner
The latest novel from Chicago author Dawn Turner follows a Black couple who decides to move to a new, primarily white suburban subdivision, only to find themselves in a growing conflict between neighbors that threatens to unearth long-held prejudices and spill over into violence. Turner draws upon her background as a journalist in this captivating thriller that perfectly captures the faultlines in American society. With fantastic characterization, masterful tension, and plenty of big ideas to dwell on, Majestic Hills is a can’t-miss release this August.
The Responsible Party
By Claire Carusillo
Henry Holt and Co.
This hilarious debut from Claire Carusillo follows a family of women dating back to their great-great grandmother Fanny who became famous in 1915 for washing ashore in England nearly a year after her ship sank. The Responsible Party is full of sharp satire and messy family dynamics; a maximalist story of dysfunction and legacy.
Bisquick: An American Seance
By C. Russell Price
Triquarterly Books
“Venus is in Pisces and America is falling apart.” With lines like this, how can you not immediately dig into C. Russell Price’s new poetry collection? Bisquick is a reality-bending spiritual journey that conjures the spirits of lost friends, loved ones, dreams, and the mysterious Ghost Cowboy and his eponymous steed. Price’s poetry is consistently uncompromising, filled with humor, spirit, and a “fuck you” attitude in the face of American facism. What more could you ask for?
Makeshift
By Peter Rock
Soft Skull
In this lyrical apocalyptic novel, three sisters leave their home where they believe to be the only survivors to discover a wider—and increasingly dangerous—world. Makeshift is beguiling and mysterious, a dystopic puzzle box wrapped intricately with incredible tenderness and love for its three young characters. Come for Peter Rock’s intoxicating language and stay for this beautiful tale of sisterhood and hope in the face of destruction.
Sunrise
By Téa Obreht
Random House
Sunrise tells the story of three lives separated by one hundred years and connected by a mysterious ghost town called Sunrise that holds explosive secrets. Novels that span long lengths of time and multiple perspectives are often the most exciting and the highest degree of difficulty in fiction, yet Téa Obreht handles the challenge with ease to create a riveting literary thriller that will leave you speeding through it while also wondering how she was able to accomplish such a feat.
Guapa
By Saleem Haddad
Other Press
Set over the course of twenty-four hours, Guapa tells the story of Rasa, a gay man living in an unnamed Arab country, as he tries to build a life amidst political and social upheaval. When he is caught in bed with another man, the repercussions force him to flee his home and roam the lonely city. Saleem Haddad’s Guapa is a heart-wrenching and soaring tale, offering a nuanced look into queerness in the face of oppression.
Burnside
By Devyn Defoe
Astra House
In Devyn Defoe’s debut novel, two disaffected young women in a collapsing and polluted city become obsessed with a homeless man and the violence they see in their neighborhood. This Lynchian nightmare is stitched tightly with the horrors of American life and the numbness it has left us with. Strange, surreal, and inescapably intriguing, reading Burnside brings the ideal level of acidity and satire.
The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shape the Way We Experience Everything
By Kathryn Jezer-Morton
Viking
It’s common knowledge that social media is warping our reality and perceptions of ourselves and others. The Story of Your Life is an adept exploration of these algorithmically-driven platforms and the ways in which their rules dictate not just the way we share information but also shape the content itself. Journalist and New York magazine columnist Kathryn Jezer-Morton brings together deep research, thoughtful interviews, and her own history to question why we share so much of ourselves through social media and what happens when our stories are only told through passing posts online.
Hello Baby
By Kim Eui-Kyung
Translated by Sora Kim-Rusell
Hogarth
At a fertility clinic in Seoul, six women in their thirties and forties become friends, creating a group chat called “Hello Baby” to comfort one another while undergoing IVF. While there are many stories about parenting in literature, stories of the struggles to have a child are regrettably rare. Kim Eui-Kyung brings the world a much-needed and empathetic story about the yearning, fear, and hope that comes with navigating infertility. This slim novel packs a remarkably resonant punch.
