August is pretty much synonymous with vacations as people try to eke out the last of summer fun before school resumes. So it’s no surprise that the publishing industry is a bit similar, with houses holding back for the big Labor Day weekend sales push. But there are still a few notable releases heading to shelves this month for readers who might have some space in the luggage…
–Thriller readers will be spoiled for choice with offerings from Fiona Barton, Karin Slaughter, Karen Rose, Sarah Pekkanen and James Rollins. More traditional mysteries include Ann Cleeves’ newest Vera Stanhope The Dark Wives, William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor returns in Spirit Crossing and the PI’s best friend Bernie the dog bows in Spencer Quinn’s A Farewell to Arfs.
–Probably the biggest news for science fiction fans is the launch of James S. A. Corey’s new series The Captive’s War. Corey (authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) scored a massive commercial and critical success with their Expanse series, so expect a lot of attention when The Mercy of Gods comes out August 6. Early word is good–it’s been called ‘space opera at its best’ and ‘compulsively readable’ in industry reviews. Fantasy readers: A Sorceress Comes to Call in T. Kingfisher’s latest work of folkloric horror, and P. Djeli Clark offers a novella, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, which reviewers have singled out for its ‘quick wit, offbeat characters, and plenty of intrigue’ and which my co-MADreads-er Jane loved.
–Attention book groups: discussion favorite Jodi Picoult wades into the Shakespearean authorship controversy with By Any Other Name–it’s out mid-month. Elif Shafak, Booker Prize finalist, releases the sort of epic, century-spanning novel great for groups with There Are Rivers in the Sky. Abi Dare returns to Nigeria and the characters of her 2020 hit The Girl With the Louding Voice (also loved by Jane) a sequel, And So I Roar.
–It’s not summer without some lovin’. Casey McQuiston matches a pair of ex-lovers with an epic European food and drink tour for a perfect Pairing. Romantasy fans see another installment of Jennifer Armentrout’s Flesh and Fire series with Born of Blood and Ash, and the queen of dark romantasy, Katee Roberts, offers Dark Restraint in her Dark Olympus series.
–Summer doesn’t always mean light reading, and nonfiction fans can look forward to memoirs (Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler), weighty histories (The Eastern Front: A History of the Great War 1914-1918 by Nick Lloyd), and the unending flood of politics (H. R. McMasters’ At War With Ourselves or Heath Lee's The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon).
Click on through for a selected list of upcoming titles. Happy reading!