Great new book recommendations for our Woke Up Like This Reader Types this Spring
Spring isn't over yet. And that means we have your top June New Release book recommendations.
We've done the work for you by finding the top books for your Bookfinity Reader Type. Be sure to add them to your “Read” list so that you can find them later.
June May Releases
We Could Be Heroes
by Philip Ellis
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear high heels and a wig.
Patrick's acting career is on the rise, and the superhero movie he's filming might put him on the map . . . if the endless reshoots ever stop. Meanwhile, Will, a secondhand bookseller and part-time drag queen, is just trying to live his best life. After a chance encounter on a particularly chaotic night, a curious friendship sparks between the two men.
At least, that's what they tell each other. Sure, Patrick finds Will captivatingly hilarious, and Will can't help but keep thinking about who is really behind the perfect mask Patrick shows the rest of the world, but nothing could ever really happen, right? Superheroes don't date drag queens, after all.
When reality crashes into the fantasy world they've built together, Will has to make a choice between the man of his dreams and being true to himself. Can Patrick be the hero Will's been waiting for, or will Will be the one to save Patrick after all? Uproarious and touching, We Could Be Heroes is an ode to queer joy and a romance that just might save the world.
Lady Eve's Last Con
by Rebecca Fraimow
Hearts will race and anti-grav boots will fly in this scifi rom-com perfect for fans of WINTER'S ORBIT and THE RED SCHOLAR'S WAKE.
Ruth Johnson and her sister Jules have been small-time hustlers on the interstellar cruise lines for years. But then Jules fell in love with one of their targets, Esteban Mendez-Yuki, sole heir to the family insurance fortune. Esteban seemed to love her too, until she told him who she really was, at which point he fled without a word.
Now Ruth is set on revenge: disguised as provincial debutante Evelyn Ojukwu and set for the swanky satellite New Monte, she's going to make Esteban fall in love with her, then break his heart and take half his fortune. At least, that's the plan. But Ruth hadn't accounted for his older sister, Sol, a brilliant mind in a dashing suit... and much harder to fool.
Sol is hot on Ruth's tail, and as the two women learn each other's tricks, Ruth must decide between going after the money and going after her heart.
The Stars Too Fondly
by Emily Hamilton
In her breathtaking debut--part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com--Emily Hamilton weaves a suspenseful, charming, and irresistibly joyous tale of fierce friendship, improbable love, and wonder as vast as the universe itself.
So, here's the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn't mean to steal this spaceship.
They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace. But then the stupid dark matter engine started all on its own, and now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri, unable to turn around, and being harangued by a snarky hologram that has the face and attitude of the ship's missing captain, Billie.
Cleo has dreamt of being an astronaut all her life, and Earth is kind of a lost cause at this point, so this should be one of those blessings in disguise that people talk about. But as the ship gets deeper into space, the laws of physics start twisting, old mysteries come crawling back to life, and Cleo's initially combative relationship with Billie turns into something deeper and more desperate than either woman was prepared for.
Lying somewhere in the subspace between science fantasy and sapphic rom-com, The Stars Too Fondly is a soaring near-future adventure about dark matter and alternate dimensions, leaving home and finding family, and the galaxy-saving power of letting yourself love and be loved.
The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye
by Briony Cameron
This epic, dazzling tale based on true events illuminates a woman of color's rise to power as one of the few purported female pirate captains to sail the Caribbean, and the forbidden love story that will shape the course of history.
In the tumultuous town of Yáquimo, Santo Domingo, Jacquotte Delahaye is an unknown but up-and-coming shipwright. Her dreams are bold but her ambitions are bound by the confines of her life with her self-seeking French father. When her way of life and the delicate balance of power in the town are threatened, she is forced to flee her home and become a woman on the run along with a motley crew of refugees, including a mysterious young woman named Teresa.
Jacquotte and her band become indentured servants to the infamous Blackhand, a ruthless pirate captain who rules his ship with an iron fist. As they struggle to survive his brutality, Jacquotte finds herself unable to resist Teresa despite their differences. When Blackhand hatches a dangerous scheme to steal a Portuguese shipment of jewels, Jacquotte must rely on her wits, resourcefulness, and friends to survive. But she discovers there is a grander, darker scheme of treachery at play, and she ultimately must decide what price she is willing to pay to secure a better future for them all.
An unforgettable tale told in three parts, The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye is a thrilling, buccaneering escapade filled with siege and battle, and is also a tender exploration of friendship, love, and the search for freedom and home.
May new Releases
Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk
by Kathleen Hanna
Kathleen Hanna's band Bikini Kill embodied the punk scene of the 90s, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like "Rebel Girl" and "Double Dare Ya" are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from?
In Rebel Girl, Hanna's raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumul-tuous childhood to her formative college years and her first shows. As Hanna makes clear, being in a punk "girl band" in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.
But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her, including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman. And her friendships with musicians like Kurt Cobain, Ian MacKaye, Kim Gordon, and Joan Jett reminded her that, despite the odds, the punk world could still nurture and care for its own.
Thirsty: A Novel
by Jas Hammonds
It's the summer before college and eighteen-year-old Blake Brenner and her girlfriend, Ella, have one goal: join the mysterious and exclusive Serena Society. The sorority promises status and lifelong connections to a network of powerful, trailblazing women of color. Ella's acceptance is a sure thing--she's the daughter of a Serena alum. Blake, however, has a lot more to prove.
As a former loner from a working-class background, Blake lacks Ella's pedigree and confidence. Luckily, she finds courage at the bottom of a liquor bottle. When she drinks, she's bold, funny, and unstoppable--and the Serenas love it. But as pledging intensifies, so does Blake's drinking, until it's seeping into every corner of her life. Ella assures Blake that she's fine; partying hard is what it takes to make the cut . . .
Another Word for Love: A Memoir
by Carvell Wallace
Wallace is an award-winning journalist who has built his career on writing unforgettable profiles, bringing a provocative and engaged sensitivity to his subjects. Now he turns the focus on himself, examining his own life and the circumstances that frame it--to make sense of seeking refuge from homelessness with a young single mother, living in a ghostly white Pennsylvania town, becoming a partner and parent, raising two teenagers in what feels like a collapsing world.
With courage, vulnerability, and a remarkable expansiveness of spirit--not to mention a thrilling, and unrivaled, storytelling verve--Another Word for Love makes an irresistible case for life, healing, the fullness of our humanity, and, of course, love. It could be called a theory of life itself--a theory of being that will leave you open to the wonder of the world.
The Guncle Abroad
by Steven Rowley
Patrick O'Hara is back. It's been five years since his summer as his niece Maisie and nephew Grant's caretaker after their mother's passing. The kids are back in Connecticut with their dad, and Patrick has relocated to New York to remain close by and relaunch his dormant acting career. After the run of his second successful sit-com comes to a close, Patrick feels on top of the world . . . professionally. But some things have had to take a back seat. Looking down both barrels at fifty, Patrick is single again after breaking things off with Emory. But at least he has a family to lean on. Until that family needs to again lean on him.
When Patrick's brother, Greg, announces he's getting remarried in Italy, Maisie and Grant are not thrilled. Patrick feels drawn to take the two back under his wing. As they travel through Europe on their way to the wedding, Patrick tries his best to help them understand love, much as he once helped them comprehend grief. But when they arrive in Italy, Patrick is overextended managing a groom with cold feet; his sister, Clara, flirting with guests left and right; a growing rivalry with the kids' charming soon-to-be-launt (lesbian aunt), and two moody young teens trying to adjust to a new normal, all culminating in a disastrous rehearsal dinner.
The Bump
by Sidney Karger
Wyatt Wallace is a practical, super organized director of TV commercials. Biz Petterelli is a child-actor-turned-magazine-writer who thrives on spontaneity. Though polar opposites, they are fully committed to their relationship and their life in Brooklyn with their dog, Matilda. They're also about to have a baby together.
And they're freaking out.
They've both dreamed of becoming parents, but now that it's happening, they're doubting everything. Their baby is due in a few weeks and instead of flying to California just before the birth as planned, Biz has a better idea. They could use one last hurrah, along with some serious "us-time" to mend the issues they've been having lately--before they get tied down by fatherhood and its impending responsibilities. So the daddies-to-be load up their 1992 Volkswagen Cabriolet and embark on an epic cross-country babymoon. They attempt to recharge at the beach in Provincetown, stumble through their impromptu baby shower in Chicago, and endure a Star Wars-themed wedding in Colorado before heading west for the baby.
April NEW RELEASES
Rebel Rising: A Memoir
by Rebel Wilson
For decades, Rebel Wilson had single-mindedly focused on her career, making a name for herself through her iconic roles in Pitch Perfect, Bridesmaids, and Isn't It Romantic. Now, she's ready to chronicle the emotional and physical lessons she learned, as well as her most embarrassing experiences. A malaria-induced hallucination? An all-style martial arts fighting tournament? Junior handling at dog shows? And this was all BEFORE she moved to Hollywood!
Rebel Rising follows Rebel Wilson's incredible journey of "making it," constantly questioning, "Am I good enough? Will I ever find love? Will I ever change and become healthy?" Rebel writes for the first time about the most personal and important moments in her life--from fertility issues, weight gain and loss, sexuality, overcoming shyness, rejections, and, well...okay there's at least one story thrown in about Brad Pitt! It's all here. This memoir shows us how to love ourselves while making us laugh uncontrollably.
Dear Wendy
by Ann Zhao
Sophie Chi is in her first year of college (though her parents wish she'd attend a "real" university rather than a liberal arts school) and has long accepted her aroace (aromantic and asexual) identity. She knows she'll never fall in love, but she enjoys running an Instagram account that offers relationship advice to students at her school. No one except her roommate can know that she's behind the incredibly popular "Dear Wendy" account.
When Joanna "Jo" Ephron (also a first-year aroace college student) created their "Sincerely Wanda" account, it wasn't at all meant to take off or be taken seriously--not like Wendy's. But now they might have a rivalry of sorts with Wendy's account? Oops. As if Jo's not busy enough having existential crises over gender identity, whether she'll ever truly be loved, and the possibility of her few friends finding The One then forgetting her!
The Prospects
by Kt Hoffman
Minor leagues. Major chemistry.
Hope is familiar territory for Gene Ionescu. He has always loved baseball, a sport made for underdogs and optimists like him. He also loves his team, the minor league Beaverton Beavers, and, for the most part, he loves the career he's built. As the first openly trans player in professional baseball, Gene has nearly everything he's ever let himself dream of--that is, until Luis Estrada, Gene's former teammate and current rival, gets traded to the Beavers, destroying the careful equilibrium of Gene's life.
Gene and Luis can't manage a civil conversation off the field or a competent play on it, but in the close confines of dugout benches and roadie buses, they begrudgingly rediscover a comfortable rhythm. As the two grow closer, the tension between them turns electric, and their chemistry spills past the confines of the stadium. For every tight double play they execute, there's also a glance at summer-tan shoulders or a secret shared, each one a breathless moment of possibility that ignites in Gene the visceral, terrifying kind of desire he's never allowed himself. Soon, Gene has to reconcile the quiet, minor-league-sized life he used to find fulfilling with the major-league dreams Luis inspires.
Henry Henry
by Allen Bratton
It's London, 2014, and Hal Lancaster, son and heir of Henry, Duke of Lancaster, is in a holding pattern: his mother is dead, his father is dying or remarrying or both, his siblings are fighting, his internship is pointless, and nobody will leave him alone.
Everything is as it should be and yet nothing is right. Over the course of a year of partying, drinking, and flirting to dubious consequence, Hal is tested by brutal family legacies, Catholic guilt, and the terrifying possibility of being loved. All of which is complicated by a pattern of abuse that threatens to chase Hal into adulthood. The House of Lancaster will never be the same.
Crackling with intelligence and wit, Henry Henry is a brilliant recasting of the Henriad in which Hal Lancaster is a queer protagonist for a new era. Allen Bratton arrives as a successor to Waugh and St. Aubyn with this lush, stylish novel of family, legacy, and what it means to be alive today.
Gay Science: The Totally Scientific Examination of LGBTQ+ Culture, Myths, and Stereotypes
by Rob Anderson
Class is in session, babe! Discover the inner workings of the LGBTQ+ community with this humorous and informative book. Author and comedian Rob Anderson borrows the familiar science textbook format to skewer ridiculous queer stereotypes with his own version of science.
Using the principles of natural, social, and formal sciences, Rob answers extremely serious questions like: Why can't gays sit in a chair properly? Why don't lesbians have electricity in their movies? Are colleges turning people bisexual? How does gaydar work? Will bottoms survive the apocalypse?
You'll read about the three subtypes of the gay uncle species, examine the Periodic Table of LGBTQ+ Elements, understand gay crime and punishment, and get educated on the types of bacteria and viruses that exclusively affect the LGBTQs, like the state of Florida.
Here We Go Again
by Alison Cochrun
A long time ago, Logan Maletis and Rosemary Hale used to be friends. They spent their childhood summers running through the woods, rebelling against their conservative small town, and dreaming of escaping. But then an incident the summer before high school turned them into bitter rivals. After graduation, they went ten years without speaking.
Now in their thirties, Logan and Rosemary find they aren't quite living the lives of adventure they imagined for themselves. Still in their small town and working as teachers at their alma mater, they're both stuck in old patterns. Uptight Rosemary chooses security and stability over all else, working constantly, and her most stable relationship is with her label maker. Chaotic and impulsive Logan has a long list of misguided ex-lovers and an apathetic shrug she uses to protect herself from anything real. And as hard as they try to avoid each other--and their complicated past--they keep crashing into each other. Including with their cars.
But when their beloved former English teacher and lifelong mentor tells them he has only a few months to live, they're forced together once and for all to fulfill his last wish: a cross-country road trip. Stuffed into the gayest van west of the Mississippi, the three embark on a life-changing summer trip--from Washington state to the Grand Canyon, from the Gulf Coast to coastal Maine--that will chart a new future and perhaps lead them back to one another.