This summer might not look quite like any other one we’ve experienced, but one thing has persisted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: summer reading. After all, beaches are one of the lower-risk places you can be right now (if you’re masked and socially distanced, of course). Even if raucous beach parties are currently a thing of the past, you can still enjoy the time-honored tradition of flopping down on a towel and sinking into a good read. Below, check out seven of our favorite books coming out in August: There’s still time to read them in your bathing suit!
Luster by Raven Leilani (August 4)
In this compulsively readable, much-buzzed-about debut novel, a lonely young Black artist in Brooklyn comes to terms with herself and what she wants out of a relationship as she commences an affair with a man in an open marriage.
Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jerkins (August 4)
The mass migration of 6 million Black Americans from the rural South to the North, West, and Midwest is given a deeply personal framing by writer Morgan Jerkins as she attempts to better understand her ancestors’ treacherous journey across America.
Tomboyland by Melissa Faliveno (August 4)
Gender, class, geographic placing, and so much more are explored honestly and fully in this collection of essays by Melissa Faliveno, who grew up in working-class Wisconsin and and is now a writer, editor, teacher, and musician in New York.
What Can a Body Do?: How We Meet the Built World by Sarah Hendren (August 4)
The lived experience of disability in a word designed largely for—and by—the able-bodied provides the jumping-off point for this series of stories, which invite the reader to question their understandings of “normalcy” and function.
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel (August 18)
A young girl born to white and Cherokee parents comes of age in a large family in rural Ohio in this breathtaking novel, which was inspired by generations of author Tiffany McDaniel’s family.
Summer by Ali Smith (August 25)
The latest installment in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet novel series, Summer is interconnected with the books that came before it, but its story—which concerns a family on the brink of change—stands strong enough to read on its own.
Aria by Nazanine Hozar (August 25)
Iran in the 1950s provides the setting for this story of a young orphan girl raised by three mother figures, each of whom remain mysterious to her as she grows up, attends university and takes part in a popular uprising against the shah.
