Arts & Entertainment
The 10 Best Books To Read In June
This selection of new releases curated by the experts at Book of the Month is bound to please.
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If you're in the market for your next great read, you're in luck: Book of the Month is a cool service that searches high and low for new books you wouldn't have found on your own, narrowing the selection down to the top five each month. The BOTM team has been uncovering new books and original voices since 1926. With a subscription, you pick your favorites, and Book of the Month ships them right to your door for less than what you'd pay purchasing the books à la carte.
Below are Book of the Month's top five books for the month of June, and five picks from previous months. You can nab any one of this month’s titles and start your subscription today for just $9.99 by using code "PATCH" at BookoftheMonth.com.
#1 "Home Before Dark" by Riley Sager
In this heart-pounding work of suspense, a woman inherits her creepy childhood home, only to find it's haunted by more than just memories. Interior designer Maggie Holt has a complicated relationship with the house her parents fled decades ago, a house her father claimed was haunted in a best-selling book that inadvertently turned Maggie into a minor celebrity. When she inherits Baneberry Hall, which she definitely does not think is inhabited by ghosts, she intends to fix it up quickly and flip it. But as she becomes reacquainted with her childhood home and its terrifying backstory, she begins to suspect that Baneberry may really be haunted after all. Ruth Ware calls this one a “deliciously terrifying story” and recommends reading it after dark.
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#2 "A Burning"by Megha Majumdar
As an anthropology major-turned-editor-turned-novelist, Megha Majumdar is no ordinary debut writer. And in "A Burning," Majumdar's clear interests in humanity — the good, the bad and the very ugly — play out beautifully. Set in India, the novel follows three main characters: Jivan, a young Muslim woman who tutors English, hoping to rise above her childhood poverty; Lovely, a trans woman determined to make it as an actress despite the biased obstacles in her way; and PT Sir, a gym teacher whose unapologetic ambition leads him to a life of political corruption. When a social media comment leads to Jivan's arrest on suspicion of terrorism, these three lives are cast into a web of violence, politics and tragedy.
#3 "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett
Identical twins Desiree and Stella Vignes were once thick as thieves. But when Stella chooses to pass as a white woman — cutting off all contact from Desiree and the small southern town they grew up in — their lives take two very different turns. In "The Vanishing Half," Brit Bennett traces the lives of these sisters and their families through the decades — from the suburbs, to college campuses, to the NYC theater scene — revealing the myriad ways in which their decisions have impacted their lives and the lives of their daughters. Like Bennett’s lauded debut novel, “The Mothers,” this new novel confronts themes of race, identity, family ties and our relationships to the places we're from.
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#4 "One to Watch" by Kate Stayman-London
If you took the best parts of "The Bachelorette," mixed them with your favorite rom-com, added a dash of sweet wisdom, and stirred, you’d arrive at Kate Stayman-London’s breakout summer debut, "One to Watch." The story follows Bea Schumacher, a plus-sized fashion blogger who’s given dating a hard pass after suffering a bad breakup. But when a viral blog post lands her a spot on the reality dating show "Main Squeeze," she bites in the hopes of making a name for herself. She's sure she won’t actually fall in love … of course, life tends to have other plans. If you're an unapologetic feminist who loves reality television, you'll find much to love in this smart debut.
Learn More About "One To Watch"
#5 "The Last Flight" by Julie Clark
Ever wanted to walk out of your life? That wish becomes reality in this thriller about a woman desperate to disappear. Claire Cook's life seems like a dream — she has a rich and powerful husband and a beautiful home — but the truth is that her husband is abusive and controlling. She concocts a plan to escape, swapping lives, and plane tickets, with Eva, a woman she meets in a chance encounter at an airport bar. Safe in her new life, she learns that the plane she was supposed to be on has gone down, with Eva on board. Oh, and her husband suspects Claire is out there somewhere …
Learn More About "The Last Flight"
With a Book of the Month subscription, you can add up to two add-on books a month, choosing from the current monthly selections or the top books from previous months. As always, shipping is free.
Here are five past BOTM picks you're bound to love.
#6 "Big Summer"by Jennifer Weiner
Meet Daphne Berg: shy and unpopular in high school, she's recast herself in adulthood as a successful plus-size social media maven. Focused on her career, she's shocked when her erstwhile frenemy, Drue Cavanaugh, waltzes back into her life with a maid-of-honor offer. Unable to resist, Daphne commits to a weekend of Cavanaugh wedding celebrations. There, she loses herself in a gorgeous one-night stand, but wakes to find that a murder has been committed …. Fans of Weiner's books will love this latest entertaining and wry romantic mystery from a seasoned author.
#7 "Untamed" by Glennon Doyle
If you binge-watched "Tiger King" and empathized deeply with the big cats trapped in cages — Glennon Doyle might know a little something about that. In her latest memoir, Doyle takes the patriarchy to task in a manifesto for all women looking to break out of the cages in which society has placed them. From topics like body image, to motherhood, to learning how to speak up for what you want, "Untamed" is jam-packed with life lessons for all the modern feminists struggling to find their place in today’s world.
#8 "The Boyfriend Project" by Farrah Rochon
Being cheated on? Not so fun. Befriending the other women? Very fun. When Samiah Brooks discovers she's being three-timed by the man she’s been seeing, she loses no time in teaming up with the other women to make sure he gets a dose of public shame. After, she and her newfound friends create a pact to ignore men for a few months — but a hitch occurs almost immediately in the form of Daniel, the hot new guy at work. Will Samiah focus on her career in tech or fall back into another fling? In this utterly modern romance, it's female friendship, and not necessarily dating, that provides the happily-ever-after.
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#9 "The Boy in the Red Dress" by Kristin Lambert
Step inside a New Orleans speakeasy and buckle up for a twisty whodunnit with a cast of swoonworthy characters. Millie is a wisecracking teenager just trying to keep the party going smoothly at her aunt's club, the Cloak & Dagger. Her friend Marion, aka the boy in the red dress, is the club's star performer. When a young clubgoer is thrown off a balcony one rowdy night, local detectives are quick to pin the murder on Marion. Suddenly, it's up to Millie to locate and bring the real killer to justice. Between the late-night cemetery snoopings and the glitzy Gatsby-esque soirees, this book is a whole summer mood.
Learn More About "The Boy in the Red Dress"
#10 "The End of October" by Lawrence Wright
Sometimes, fiction feels like a journey into worlds and lives unlike our own — and sometimes fiction feels so real it might as well be fact. Enter: "The End of October," a book about a deadly new outbreak that's so eerily relevant you might wonder if Lawrence Wright is, in fact, a psychic. Here, a mysterious fever breaks out at an Indonesian internment camp, leaving epidemiologist Henry Parsons to discover what happened. What follows is a race to quarantine cities and track down a cure as the disease threatens not just lives, but the economy and the world's most influential institutions. If you're the kind of person who turns to novels for answers when life feels unsure, you'll find much to fascinate in "The End of October."
Learn More About "The End of October."
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