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Readers' Most Anticipated Books of August
August has arrived with plenty of interesting destinations for the discerning summer reader—from spooky offshore islands to an alternate-history version of Oxford University.
New this month: Alice Feeney returns with a murder mystery riff on a classic Agatha Christie whodunit. Lisa Jewell delivers a standalone sequel to her 2019 thriller The Family Upstairs. And Sunyi Dean proposes a strange nutritional program with The Book Eaters. Also on tap: spring in North Carolina, the 1980s in New York City, and a fascinating book of stories in verse.
Each month the Goodreads editorial team takes a look at the books that are being published in the U.S., readers' early reviews, and how many readers are adding these books to their Want to Read shelves (which is how we measure anticipation). We use the information to curate this list of hottest new releases.
Twenty Grand Slam titles! Dozens of world records! The slow tyranny of time. From the author of Daisy Jones & the Six, the new novel 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. But first Carrie must confront a fierce young rival, her own aging body, and a troubled relationship with her father.
Check out our interview with Reid here.
Check out our interview with Reid here.
Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
by R.F. Kuang
by R.F. Kuang
We can say from personal experience that this cerebral new adventure from R.F. Kuang is one of the year’s must-read novels. 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. The book is being billed as a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
Check out our interview with Kuang here.
Check out our interview with Kuang here.
Daisy Darker’s entire family has reunited in a ramshackle island manor for Nana’s 80th birthday. It’s a good time, until the tide comes in and Nana is found dead. This new mystery from Alice Feeney (Sometimes I Lie) is, in part, a riff on Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None: A gathering of people find themselves getting knocked off by a sinister killer, one by one. Only this time around, it’s a family affair.
From the acclaimed author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, this inventive foray into historical fiction/magic realism introduces poet Dorothy Moy, who’s worried that her crippling depression will be passed to her daughter. Thanks to an experimental treatment for inherited trauma, Dorothy is able to connect with past generations 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.
Fans of the 2019 mystery thriller The Family Upstairs will want to check out this standalone sequel, which expands on the original mix of family secrets and twists within twists. London investigator Samuel Owusu has just discovered that the bones from a recent murder case are connected to a 30-year-old cold case, and an old mansion in Chelsea. Lucy Lamb is back in London, too, trying to forget a peculiar trauma—from 30 years ago.
One of the more intriguing books to come down the historical fiction chute this year, Anthony Marra’s Mercury Pictures Presents is set in 1940s Hollywood, as World War II thunders on the horizon. In the nooks and crannies of Tinseltown, jobs are being filled by European émigrés fleeing persecution in Europe. Italian exile Maria Lagana, associate producer at Mercury Pictures, is our tour guide for this little slice of Hollywood history.
Those of us with advanced reading addictions are often accused of “devouring” books. It’s a cute little image—until it isn’t. British author Sunyi Dean gets pretty literal with The Book Eaters, concerning a reclusive clan in the Yorkshire Moors who consume books as sustenance. (Spy novels are peppery, evidently, and romance books are sweet.) It works out pretty well, until one member of the family develops a more sinister kind of hunger.
As a native of the charming village of Asheville in North Carolina, author Sarah Addison Allen knows how small towns can be quite magical. Other Birds, her new novel of adventure and magical realism, takes place a little to the south, on Mallow Island, off the coast of South Carolina. When young Zoey comes to claim her inheritance, she finds one of those soft places in the time-space continuum and makes friends both living and deceased.
Set in 1980s New York City, author Rasheed Newson’s queer coming-of-age story follows young Earl “Trey” Singleton III as he finds liberation and tribulations in the big city. After fleeing from his wealthy family, a penniless Trey works his way through a tumultuous decade, fighting for gay rights and volunteering at a home hospice service for AIDS patients. He eventually becomes a founding member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Bonus trivia: Author Newson is a TV writer and producer (The Chi, Narcos, and Bel-Air).
This buzzy debut short story collection from debut author Sidik Fofana weaves together eight interconnected narratives among tenants at a low-income Harlem high-rise. As gentrification threatens the old order, we watch the community adapt and change, with people hunting for a way forward for themselves and the ones they love. Stories from the Tenants Downstairs is being compared to Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place and Lin Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights.
Alora Young, the 2021 Youth Poet Laureate of the Southern United States, delivers an astounding debut work of family love and rigorous research with Walking Gentry Home, a collection of short stories in verse. Combining her own imagination with the historical record, Young tells the stories of her forebears—her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and on back in time. The stories are built from family lore, formal interviews, historical paperwork, and emerging DNA technology.
If you or your kids watched Nickelodeon around 10 years ago, you’ll remember Jennette McCurdy, childhood actor and costar of the series iCarly and Sam & Cat. In this tough and darkly funny memoir, McCurdy recounts her experience as sudden fame and fortune curdle into addiction, eating disorders, and a toxic relationship with her controlling mother. Now in recovery and out of the show business game, McCurdy tells her story with candor and compassion.
Which new releases are you looking forward to reading? Let's talk books in the comments!
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Aug 01, 2022 08:55AM
oooooh, this is a good list!
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Can't wait for "My Government Means To Kill Me" and "Carrie Soto Is Back"!!!
Babylon is fallen by Gary Johnson is an absolute must read ! Great information.
Born to be a bestseller, Taylor's new novel "Carrie Soto Is Back" delivers her most intimate and emotional narrative to date. It's definitely a must read.→ The Book Guide®
I'm sooooo excited for Jennette's memoir, been hyped for months!
So many new ones to choose a few would be problematic! Been waiting for the new Lisa Jewell, so it will be one of the first, but not the only....
I am excited for reads that aren't on list
I already added “The Family Remains” and “Daisy Darker” to my BOTM box! 😃
Karin Slaughter’s Girl Forgotten as well as Lisa Jewel’s The Family Upstairs. Two favorites.
Looking forward to reading Heal Your Way Forward: The Co-Conspirator's Guide to an Anti-Racist Future by Myisha T. Hill
All these books are really cool that’s the one I like is the Jeanett mccorie
Surprised to see that no one is talking about Mohsin Hamid's newest novel "The last white man"
Asheville is not a “charming village” — it’s a city of 90,000 people!
Other Birds sounds interesting. Wish there were more Fantasy books on this list.
Waiting for Jane Kirkpatrick’s new book, Beneath the Bending Skies.
Jessica, that was my reaction too! Though Sarah Addison Allen can make most anything magical, and Asheville is halfway there.
I’m looking forward to Bully Market by Jamie Fiore Higgins. It’s a memoir about her rise to managing director at Goldman Sachs despite the misogyny and other bad behavior of colleagues. I preordered it!!
The many daughters of afong moy is so good! I’m reading it now and am hooked!
I’ve been waiting forever to read Babel. I’m so excited to finally get to read this. I’ve heard so many rave reviews for this
