25 Books That Should Be On Your Radar: June 2020

Editor’s note: You’ll notice all the links we feature below lead to Bookshop.org or IndieBound. We encourage you to do whatever you can to support your local bookstore, including purchasing audiobooks from our sponsor Libro.fm. Feel free to share what’s on your bunker reading list by tweeting us @WritersBone or in the comments section below. Stay safe, stay home, and keep reading!—Daniel Ford

Daniel Ford: Michelle Alexander added a new preface to the tenth anniversary edition of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness that should be required reading (along with the rest of the book). “Everything has changed. And yet nothing has,” she writes. “Today, racial bigotry, fear mongering, and scapegoating are no longer subterranean in our political discourse; the dog whistles have been replaced by bullhorns. But contrary to what many people would have us believe, what our nation is experiencing today is not an ‘aberration.’”

A Bend in the Stars by Rachel Barenbaum

Daniel: Rachel Barenbaum’s sensational debut recently pubbed in paperback and we can’t stop looking at the cover. It is beautiful. As are the words inside. The fact that she’s a passionate advocate for her fellow authors is an added bonus.

Destination Wedding by Diksha Basu

Daniel: I'm partial to any book that features a character named Sid. I'm also a big fan of family shenanigans, witty banter, and characters full of warmth and surprises.

The Yellow House by Sarah Broom

Daniel: There’s a reason this Sarah Broom’s incredible memoir won the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Awe-inspiring prose. A story you will feel in your bones. Her brother telling her, “You gotta let these dudes know you got people” hit me between the eyes. Such a family thing to say. *texts parents, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins*

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Daniel: I adored Brit Bennett’s debut The Mothers, so I am dying to get my hands on her new book The Vanishing Half. Kiley Reid, author of Such A Fun Age and recent podcast guest, says, “Bennett's tone and style recalls James Baldwin and Jacqueline Woodson.” Praise doesn’t get much higher than that.

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

Stephanie Ford: What better way to spend quarantine in a cozy North End apartment than by reading about early 20th century immigrants who lived in a...cozy North End apartment? Although the references about the 1918 flu pandemic hit a little too close to home, Anita Diamant’s sentimental work of historical fiction—told through the eyes of a 85-year old woman speaking to her granddaughter—was the perfect companion for those early spring nights.

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Daniel: Read. Learn. Listen.

Careful What You Wish For by Hallie Ephron

Daniel: Yard sales and a murder mystery. What more could you possibly want?

What I'm Looking For by Karen Grey

Daniel: I publicly admit that I love romantic comedies all the time, most recently on a Noir at the Bar – New England featuring Karen Grey. She gave us a preview of her just published novel What I'm Looking For and we’re all in. The main character’s description belongs in a writing museum (and a bar): “Recipe for a Boston Classic Cocktail: one part finance geek, one part starving actor, two shots of stubborn and a healthy squeeze of passion. Shake well and serve in a vintage glass.”

Daniel: When your fiercely independent goddaughter lets you read something to her, that book immediately goes on your favorites list.

The Glass Forest by Lisa Lieberman

Daniel: Lisa Lieberman read from her engrossing and deeply researched novel The Glass Forest during our most recent Noir at the Bar – New England and you could swear you were sitting at the bat at the Continental Palace Hotel in Saigon in 1957. Atmospheric, lush, entertaining, and illuminating, The Glass Forest should find its way to the top of your #TBR pile as soon as humanly possible. Preferably with your favorite cocktail.

Come and Get Me by August Norman

Daniel: August Norman’s acting background came in handy during our last Noir at the Bar – New England, and you could tell that it permeates his fiction. There’s an ease to his dialogue, a theatricality to his prose. He really sealed the deal with me with his journalist main character. We’re excited we don’t have to wait long for the follow up (Sins of the Mother pubs in September).

Park Avenue Summer by Renée Rosen

Stephanie: I’ve been on a historical fiction kick lately, and Renée Rosen’s Park Avenue Summer was the ideal pick to transition me into the season. Set in 1965, the novel is told by Alice Weiss, a 20-something Ohio-native who moves to New York City to chase her photography dreams. She lands a secretarial gig at Cosmopolitan magazine, working for the legendary Helen Gurley Brown, and finds herself along the way. Pair this breezy, coming-of-age read with Cosmo and you’ll be good to go.

Daniel: Well, hello again, Barbara Ross! We've been gobbling up Ross' Maine Clambake Mysteries and we're so excited to add Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody to our #TBR list!

High Tide by Andrea Fisher Rowland

Phoef Sutton: Published last year and written by the late Ms. Rowland, this unbelievably prescient novel deals with a pandemic outbreak, but not in the disaster-movie style of most such novels. Rather it is the story of the first victims of the virus, dying from a disease they don’t even understand. Haunting and moving. Highly recommended.

Hid from Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Daniel: Julia Spencer-Fleming’s cat briefly interrupted her before her reading at Noir at the Bar – New England, but that didn’t stop her from sharing a terrific selection from Book 10 in the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series. We’re eager to catch up on the mystery series so we’re ready for it when it gets into our hands!

Exile Music by Jennifer Steil

Daniel: We’ve been fans of Jennifer Steil since we did a print interview with her way back in 2015 for her novel The Ambassador’s Wife. We can’t wait to dig into her new one, which features a young Jewish girl in love with music who flees the Nazis with her parents and ends up in Bolivia.

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Daniel: You sense something uneasy (and perhaps sinister) simmering beneath the surface early on in Elisabeth Thomas’ debut. Much like Rachel Harrison’s The Return, Catherine House invites you in, locks the door, and eventually turns off all the lights. Hold your breath and hang in there.

Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

Daniel: Saving Ruby King is one of those debuts that makes you question whether or not it’s actually a debut. West writes with such assurance and compassion that you’ll swear she’s well into her fiction writing career. From the opening lines to the final pages, Saving Ruby King captures your full attention. You’ll be hard pressed to put this book down, even when West is wringing your heart out.

Death at a Séance by Carolyn Marie Wilkins

Daniel: You must, and I mean must, Carolyn Marie Wilkins reading from Death at a Séance during the Noir at the Bar – New England on June 11. It is an experience. A dazzling storytelling display. Plus you can’t deny a book whose description begins “Carrie McFarland's psychic gifts land her in trouble wherever she goes.”

Turn to Stone by James Ziskin

Daniel: 1960s Florence, Italy. A plucky female journalist. A body fished out of the Arno. That’s the perfect recipe for summer mystery reading.

Author’s Corner

Catherine Adel West, author of Saving Ruby King, stopped by the podcast recently and gave us a ton of great recommendations, so you should add them all to your reading list and buy them from your local bookstore by any means necessary.

NovelClass

This month, host Dave Pezza is joined by Kelly J. Ford, author of the novel Cottonmouths, to discuss How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang.

Writers Bone

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