First proclaimed Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999 and expanded by President Obama in 2011, LGBTQIA+ Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan and celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community. The following titles, ranging from romance and mystery to social sciences and poetry, honor the experiences, legacies, and accomplishments of LGBTQIA+ people.

In 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than 3.5 million enslaved people living in Confederate states to be “forever free.” It wasn’t until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX, on June 19 two years later, however, that the enslaved first learned of their freedom. That date became known as Juneteenth, first celebrated in 1866, first declared a federal holiday in 2021. This book list is a Juneteenth commemoration in the form of fiction and nonfiction about its history and the long-standing implications of enslavement and the Jim Crow era.

The top reads from our June issue, ranging across mystery, suspense, romance, fiction, horror, science fiction, fantasy, arts, science, and more.

This sometimes unsettling yet consistently delightful fairy tale feels like a marriage of the clever schemes of Trip Galey’s A Market of Dreams and Destiny and the metaphors of Kelly Barnhill’s The Crane Husband.

In this delightful spy thriller romance, disrespectful kids and mob bosses alike fall victim to special agent Gabby Greene, a stay-at-home mom with the lethal combination of a dart gun, just-dyed roots, and a minivan. Bad guys beware.

Inspired by a real-life crime in Australia, the sixth DI Fawley novel is an intricate, carefully plotted police procedural comparable to the best of Ann Cleeves’s Vera novels or Louise Penny’s mysteries.

David Baldacci, James Patterson, and Lisa Scottoline are just some of the names topping the charts.

Eruption by Michael Crichton & James Patterson is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.

Julia Armfield writes a speculative retelling of King Lear, Gu Byeong-mo considers motherhood and parenting in a new novel, and Amanda Lee Koe reimagines a Chinese folktale.