Recommended Reading: Most Anticipated 2021 Releases (Vol. 3)
There were so many titles our booksellers are excited about this year that we had to split the list into smaller, more manageable pieces. Take a look at some of the summer releases our booksellers are most excited about! You can catch up on our most anticipated winter and spring releases here and here.
With Teeth by Kristen Arnett (June 1)
New Kristen Arnett! Huzzah! Expect, as Kristin’s editor says, “shitty gay moms” in a sultry locale. Arnett’s prose is clear-eyed and sharp, and I am so excited to read. –Emma
I don’t really read contemporary fiction at all but I fell in love with Arnett’s salacious debut, Mostly Dead Things, and so her sophomore novel is a book I am extremely eager to get my dirty little mitts on. –Abby
Somebody's Daughter by Ashley Ford (June 1)
Do you already love Ashley C. Ford? Of course you do! I have been waiting years for Ashley to write a whole dang book for all of us to read, and now she has. Praise be. –Emma
I can. not. wait for this. Ford is such a talented writer, and her story of her childhood and family’s fragmentation by her father’s incarceration is one that people are already calling one of the best of the year. –Colleen
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris (June 1)
This zippy debut begins as the story of a young Black woman working at a publishing company and then turns into...something more mysterious! I won’t spoil it, but I gobbled this book up, and think it’ll be a smash hit this spring. –Emma
This thriller takes place in the ivory towers of a publishing house and sounds twisty and unsettling, with sharp commentary on privilege, class, and racism, in the workplace. –Colleen
Future Feeling by Joss Lake (June 1)
Future Feeling is a journey of self-acceptance, community, found family, and finding your place in the world. Filled with witches, succulents, and holograms—all bathed in aural shades of measured emotion in ultraviolet, turquoise, lime green, pleasant pastels, and black. –Anthony
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (June 1)
Come for the lesbian time travel romance, stay for the best public transportation sex scene since Risky Business. –Emma
Ham Helsing #1: Vampire Hunter by Rich Moyer (June 1)
This graphic novel made me laugh so hard I cried. It’s perfect, 10/10, best book of 2021. –Abby
Walking on Cowrie Shells by Nana Nkweti (June 1)
These dark, short stories are absolutely gripping. Nkweti is a master at wielding tension on the page and I had to take day long breaks between each fantastic story so I could wipe off some perspiration and let the gorgeous narration sink in before diving into the next one. –Shulokhana
The Girl From the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag (June 1)
Molly Knox Ostertag is the incredible creator of The Witch Boy series as well as one half of the Noelle Stevenson/Molly Knox Ostertag artist/animator/creator power couple; I’m wildly obsessed with both of them and so excited to pick up this fantasy graphic novel! –Abby
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (June 1)
The Riva family are about to have a party that will change their lives forever. Coupled with flashbacks that chronicle their rise and falls, this page turner will keep you guessing. –Mike FS
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (June 1)
When I read Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune in January I said this was going to be one of my top five books this year despite having read it so early. The Chosen and the Beautiful, it seems, will be joining that list! As someone who is skeptical of retellings of classic novels, I was immediately and utterly proven wrong by the gorgeous and atmospheric prose that grabs you right from the very first page. This is the The Great Gatsby, vibrantly retold by Jordan Baker, a queer Vietnamese woman and paper magician. Indulge yourself and read one of the very best fantasy releases of the year. –Shulokhana
Slipping by Mohamed Kheir (June 2)
Slipping offers readers a prismatic view of one man’s journey to reconcile his past trauma with his present by way of a tour of Egypt’s magical places. It sounds magical, hallucinatory, enigmatic, and made to be unraveled–rest assured, I’ll be counting down to pub day all spring. –Nika
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi (June 8)
Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji was one of my favorite, most revelatory reads of 2020. Their YA novel, Pet, was just as eye-opening. As a huge fan of their work I’m excited to see them branch out into a third genre. –Shulokhana
Migratory Birds by Mariana Oliver (June 8)
These meandering essays explore some of my favorite things to read about–language, memory, movement, and space. In elegantly understated prose, Oliver contemplates how to create a personal reality between boundaries physical, linguistic, and historical. Like some of my favorite essay collections, Migratory Birds leaves you with a sense of expansiveness that’s absolutely intoxicating. –Nika
The Hidden Palace (Golem and The Jinni #2) by Helene Wecker (June 8)
When I found out Helene Wecker was writing a sequel to one of my favorite books of all time, my heart burst with joy! In short, it’s a continuation of two human-like magical creature’s journey together in NYC. If you’re into historical fiction as well as fantasy, this is your cup of tea. Trust me. –Jacque
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton (June 15)
Thieves, pirates, and henchmen, oh my! This fantasy historical romance looks like the best of times! Lady thief Cecilia Bassingwaite is pleasantly enjoying her life in a Victorian crime sorority, until the men get involved and try to ruin everything. The enemies-to-lovers trope is front stage in this story and promises a delightfully adventurous time! –Lindsay
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides (June 15)
Mariana Andros is a group therapist. Edward Fosca is a charming Greek tragedy professor with an adoring following of female students called The Maidens. And Mariana thinks he is also a murderer. A story of secrecy and obsession, The Maidens will deliver on all the dark academia vibes as it dives into the atmosphere of Cambridge University. –Lindsay
Everything Now by Rosecrans Baldwin (June 18)
Told with humor and insight, Everything Now explores various corners of the sprawling behemoth known as Los Angeles. Baldwin introduces us to many interesting people that make up the City-State. It made me fall in love with LA even more. –Mike FS
Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir by Rajiv Mohabir (June 22)
In this highly-saturated and multi-textured memoir, Rajiv Mohabir invents a mode to encompass the complexities of his existence as an Indo-Guyanese poet who is “queer sexually, queer religiously, queer by caste, and queer countried.” With an intergenerational life story marked by various migrations—and some may say, transgressions—Mohabir carves a vessel to contain his multitudes using the instruments of prose, song, poetry, and prayer. Authentic and defiant, this memoir responds to erasure with assertion, to derogation with reclamation, and to fragmentation with relation. Fans of Ocean Vuong, Alexander Chee, and Saeed Jones will adore this book! –Serena
Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor (June 22)
I loved Real Life, Brandon Taylor’s debut novel, and this collection of stories is sure to be equally gorgeous. –Emma
Wild Souls by Emma Marris (June 29)
Award-winning science journalist Emma Marris directs our attention to challenging questions about the future of wildness and our roles and responsibilities as humans to these ecosystems. We tend to think of ourselves as so removed from “wilderness” but humans have touched and changed nearly every environment on the globe. Marris combines philosophy, science, and adventure in answering, what do we owe these wild animals in terms of our intervention, conservation, and preservation? –Colleen
Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta (June 29)
An action-packed scifi adventure with an F/F enemies to lovers romance–I cannot wait!! –Abby
Survive the Night by Riley Sager (June 29)
I have been a fan of Riley Sager ever since I read his first novel, Final Girls–highly recommend if you’re a fan of slasher horror flicks. In Survive the Night, we travel back to 1991 and follow Charlie as she takes a carpool ride home from college with a man who may turn out to be a serial killer. –Lindsay
Seek You by Kristen Radtke (July 6)
This graphic memoir about loneliness hits home for me, and I think it will for you, too, unless you somehow have escaped feeling sad and lonely and disconnected this year –Emma
Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell (July 6)
Wayward Son ended on an absolutely brutal cliffhanger with so many questions unanswered–I’m going to drop everything to read this as soon as it comes out! –Abby
Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung (July 13)
Fung writes about an unnamed Chinese-Canadian protagonist whose father stayed back in Hong Kong to work while the rest of the family emigrated to Canada. This book is about grieving a parent’s death in a family where it’s difficult to talk about your feelings. I love a good story about immigration and family so I can’t wait to read it! –Shulokhana
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad (July 20)
Written with nimble, piercing prose, and told from shifting perspectives, this novel follows two children navigating the harsh indifference of an inequitable society. Amir is a nine-year-old Syrian boy who is the sole survivor from a sunken ship of migrants, whose bodies have just washed up ashore a small island. Vänna is a teen girl, native to said island, who rescues Amir. Together they attempt to find their way towards a more safe and secure life. –Serena
The River in the Belly by Fiston Mwanza Mujila (July 20)
My love for Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s Tram 83 is well-documented among my colleagues, so I was thrilled to discover another one of his books was slated for this summer. Mwanza Mujila’s writing has a beautiful musicality to it that is equally engrossing and propulsive, and The River in the Belly promises to be just that. Learning about it genuinely made my week, and I cannot wait to tell everyone all about it. –Nika
The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig (July 20)
This novel has a classic horror story premise: a married couple, both with childhood traumas, return to their hometown with their young son and a haunting ensues! –Lindsay
Pilgrim Bell by Kaveh Akbar (August 3)
I’m already enamored with this highly-anticipated follow up to Calling a Wolf a Wolf, from one of the most generous, open-hearted poets of our time! I believe the core of Akbar’s work is abolitionism. Why? Because Akbar is a poet who is not only deeply aware of harm—and almost remarkably accountable to his role & relation to it—but deeply committed, even reverent towards, man’s capacity for redemption. This belief extends beyond principle into discipline. In a world that rewards the constant transaction of violence-for-violence, it takes courage to respond to violence with reflection, with repair, with faith and devotion. Such is the pulse, and nerve, of Pilgrim Bell. –Serena
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson (August 3)
I love a good, all-enveloping epic. You know, big books that sweep you away? In this one, Davison takes us to a Pacific Northwest logging town where the Gundersens have lived for generations off the redwoods, but as more and more women miscarry in the area and the land becomes less and less stable, their future families and their way of life become uncertain. –Colleen
Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman (August 3)
Whew, I’m so ready for this book and maybe a little scared? On the set of a movie adaptation he hopes will revive his career, novelist Patrick Hamlin discovers the dark side of a near-future California amid environmental collapse and a highly suspicious synthetic water company. –Colleen
Savage Tongues by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi (August 3)
This story follows an Iranian American woman who returns to Spain after inheriting her estranged father’s apartment. Once there, she begins to unpack the traumatic affair she had there with a 40-year-old Lebanese man when she was just a teenager. Here, Pen/Faulkner Award-winning author Van der Vliet Oloomi bravely illuminates the taut, trembling cords between violence, power, and desire. With comps to Marguerite Duras, Shirley Jackson, Rachel Cusk, and Samantha Schweblin, how can we—my fellow gothies (undercover or otherwise)!—not read this?? –Serena
An arresting and moving book that explores the boundaries between violence and desire when an Iranian teenager enters an illicit affair with a much-older man while staying in her estranged father’s apartment in Spain. This promises to be one of those books that lives in your head rent-free long after you’ve turned the last page. –Colleen
The President and the Frog by Carolina De Robertis (August 3)
I read De Robertis’ Cantoras after Carmen Maria Machado recommended it while visiting the store, and it was absolutely one of my favorite novels of 2019! I think De Robertis is such a unique storyteller who manages to be both far and clear-sighted, when I read her work I feel strongly the sense that she is writing for the future, despite, or perhaps because of, how grounded in history her stories are. She certainly heeds the Camus assertion that “fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” This particular fictive-but-true story follows the ex-president of an unnamed Latin American country, who is considering revealing his life secrets to a Norwegian journalist who has come to interview him. One of these secrets is that, while imprisoned, he conversed frequently with a talking frog. It’s sure to be a romp! –Serena
Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So (August 3)
In these interconnected stories Anthony Veasna So perfectly blends humor and trauma focusing on identity, sexuality, race, and class. Sadly the author passed away in December, so we will not get to see what more he could have brought to the world.–Anthony
Songs for the Flames by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (August 3)
From the well-decorated, internationally beloved author Juan Gabriel Vasquez comes this new collection full of complex and unforgettable characters having a suite of unexpected encounters. Having already been published in Spanish and received with wide acclaim, these nine stories are sure to leave as big a splash for English readers as well—I eagerly await the cascade! –Serena
Me (Moth) by Amber McBride (August 17)
One of the most beautiful novels in verse I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading; it’s about identity and love, and it’s some damn good poetry. –Abby
Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow (August 24)
Seeing Ghosts is part examination of generational grief through the lens of her Chinese heritage, and part excavation of her family history after her mother’s passing. It promises to be one of the defining memoirs of the year, blurbed by such greats as Ocean Vuong, Jacqueline Woodson, and Alexander Chee. If you won’t listen to me — listen to them! –Michael C
Eyes of The Forest by April Henry (August 24)
When a famous author vanishes, only his biggest fan is brave enough to uncover the truth. I’m confident this young adult mystery can be perfect for mature thriller readers of all ages! Check it out! –Jacque
Witches of Brooklyn: What The Hex?! by Sophie Esabasse (August 31)
This is my most anticipated graphic novel read of 2021! It will be the second book in the series, so please read the first if you haven’t yet! Here’s the rundown: Effie is just coming into her powers as a witch. After losing her mother, she moves in with her two aunts in Brooklyn who help her handle her grief as well as her magic! I’m confident the sequel will be a bestseller, just like the first! –Jacque
