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June Book Clubs & Summer Picks

B&N selects Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea (Little, Brown). Urrea will discuss his book in a free virtual event on July 11. ElectricLit has a conversation with the author about “his mentor Ursula Le Guin and turning his mother's WWII memories into a novel.

Jenna Bush Hager picks The Celebrants by Steven Rowley (Putnam). 

GMA selects Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs (Morrow; LJ starred review). 

Datebook highlights 17 books for summer.

AARP shares 32 hot summer novels.

LitHub has 26 new paperbacks for June. 

Shondaland previews the best books for summer 2023. 

Reviews

NYT reviews Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style by Paul Rudnick (Atria): “Though Rudnick delivers the multiple-laughs-per-paragraph pace that fans of his sendups in the New Yorker might expect, the aim of Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style is closer to heart-tugging than to rib-jabbing”; and Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks by Scott J. Shapiro (Farrar): “Readers who start this book assuming they will be handed a more sweeping conclusion will find that their expectations have been (entertainingly) subverted: In other words, they’ve been hacked.”

The Washington Post reviews Open Throat by Henry Hoke (MCD): “Yes, Open Throat is about a queer mountain lion, but only in the way The Metamorphosis is about a large bug. Give this sinewy prose poem a chance and you’ll fall under the spell of a forlorn voice trapped in the hellscape of modern America”; and A Wing and a Prayer: The Race To Save Our Vanishing Birds by Anders Gyllenhaal and Beverly Gyllenhaal (S. & S.): “In this time of massive environmental crises, it is understandable to feel overwhelmed to the point of inertia. We should applaud those who do otherwise, those who do not retreat but fight back against the darkness, as well as those, like the Gyllenhaals, who tell their story.”

The Guardian reviews The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (Farrar): “You won’t read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year.”

NPR reviews three new books in translation: The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu by Augusto Higa Oshiro, tr. by Jennifer Shyue (Archipelago), The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone, tr. by Oonagh Stransky (Europa), and Cousins by Aurora Venturini, tr. by Kit Maude (Soft Skull). 

Autostraddle reviews Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir In Archives by Amelia Possanza (Catapult): “Through the story of seven lesbians from different decades of the twentieth century and one ancient lesbian romance, Possanza documents the friendships, partnerships, and love lives of women who have seemingly been forgotten (or purposely obscured) in our historical narratives while also giving us glimpses into the story of her life as queer woman from when she first recognized her attraction to women to her life right now.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for The Celebrants by Steven Rowley (Putnam), the top holds title of the week. 

Publishing Perspectives reports on the Canadian book market, including news that graphic novels are seeing major boost in interest. 

LJ's Barbara Hoffert has new year-end prepub alerts in thrillers, and literary, historical, and pop fiction. 

Megan Abbott discusses the inspiration behind her new book, Beware the Woman (Putnam), at Shondaland. Amelia Possanza talks about researching her new book, Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir In Archives (Catapult). 

Ebony talks with Dr. Ian K. Smith about his new mystery, The Overnights, out this week from Amistad. 

The Rumpus talks about “swarms, storms, antidotes, and what it’s like to reimagine the engineering of masculine language” with Emerson Whitney, author of the forthcoming book, Daddy Boy (McSweeney’s), due out June 27.

Christian Science Monitor interviews Camille T. Dungy about her latest book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (S. & S.), and telling Black history through stories about her garden. 

People previews musician Jana Kramer's forthcoming memoir, The Next Chapter: Making Peace with Hard Memories, Finding Hope All Around Me, and Clearing Space for Good Things To Come, due out from HarperOne in October.

Annie Ernaux discusses winning the Nobel Prize, in conversation with Sally Rooney at the Charleston festival. The Guardian has the story. 

BBC explores “the fierce debate over rewriting children’s classics.”

An excerpt from Vanity Fair reporter Maureen Ryan’s new book, Burn It Down : Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood (Mariner), explores a culture of toxicity on the set of Lost. Deadline has more on the story. Vulture shares a response from Lost showrunner, Damon Lindelof.

Mara Wilson will narrate Chuck Tingle’s first traditionally published novel, Camp Damascus (Tor Nightfire), due out July 18. Gizmodo has the story.

Esquire has “15 Books to Read Now That Succession Is Over.”

HipLatina shares “15 Contemporary Books by Latina Authors That Have Become Classics.”

BookRiot shares 9 books by trans and nonbinary Asian authors, 15 new short story collections by Asian authors, and the best under-the-radar books from the 2000s.

Authors On Air

NPR’s All Things Considered talks with former FBI director James Comey about his new thriller, Central Park West (Mysterious Pr.). 

Brandon Taylor, The Late Americans (Riverhead), talks about writing sex scenes and “what’s so American” about his book, with NPR’s It’s Been a Minute podcast.

Parade previews “All About the 2023 Remake of The Color Purple.”

CrimeReads highlights the best new crime shows of the month. 

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