It’s typical to experience a reading slump, especially during the summer. A general malaise might result from the combination of hot weather, frequent social interactions, and concern about what the fall will bring. Fortunately, these five authors have written books that will make you want to read again. This month has something for everyone: a memoir set in Paris, a potential murder mystery during a wedding, a grandmother-granddaughter team, and more. We hope that these reads will give you the extra push you need to emerge from the August rut.
Mika in Real Life
Emiko Jean
At thirty-five, Mika Suzuki’s life is a mess. Her last relationship ended in flames. Her roommate-slash-best friend might be a hoarder. She’s a perpetual disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents. And, most recently, she’s been fired from her latest dead-end job.
Mika is at her lowest point when she receives a phone call from Penny—the daughter she placed for adoption sixteen years ago. Penny is determined to forge a relationship with her birth mother, and in turn, Mika longs to be someone Penny is proud of.
Release Date: August 2, 2022
All Signs Point to Paris
Natasha Sizlo
It’s the cusp of Natasha Sizlo’s forty-fourth birthday. Still reeling from her disastrous divorce, she’s navigating life as a single mom and doing her best to fake it till she makes it in the cutthroat world of LA real estate. In the meantime, her ex-husband is dating a Hollywood star, and she’s just broken it off—for the hundredth and final time—with her devastatingly handsome but impossibly noncommittal French boyfriend.
Just when it seems things can’t get any worse, her beloved father is given months to live. So when she’s gifted a session with LA’s most sought-after astrologist.
Release Date: August 16, 2022
Walking Gentry Home
Alora Young
Walking Gentry Home tells the story of Alora Young’s ancestors, from the unnamed women forgotten by the historical record but brought to life through Young’s imagination; to Amy, the first of Young’s foremothers to arrive in Tennessee, buried in an unmarked grave, unlike the white man who enslaved her and fathered her child; through Young’s great-grandmother Gentry, unhappily married at fourteen; to her own mother, the teenage beauty queen rejected by her white neighbors; down to Young in the present day as she leaves childhood behind and becomes a young woman. The lives of these girls and women come together to form a unique American epic in verse.
Release Date: August 2, 2022
You’re Invited
Amanda Jayatissa
When Amaya is invited to Kaavi’s over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, she is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: She must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost. But as the week of wedding celebrations begin and rumors about Amaya’s past begin to swirl, she can’t help but feel like she also has a target on her back. When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya. However, nothing is as it seems as Jayatissa expertly unravels.
Release Date: August 9, 2022
She’s Up to No Good
Sara Goodman Confino
Four years into her marriage, Jenna is blindsided when her husband asks for a divorce. With time on her hands and her life in flux, she agrees to accompany her eccentric grandmother Evelyn on a road trip to the seaside Massachusetts town where much of their family history was shaped. When they hit the road, Evelyn spins the tale of the star-crossed teenage romance that captured her heart more than seventy years ago and changed the course of her life. She insists the return to her hometown isn’t about that at all—no matter how much she talks about Tony, her unforgettable and forbidden first love.
Release Date: August 1, 2022