Great new book recommendations for our Woke Up Like This Reader Types this Summer
Summer has just merely begun. And that means we have your top July, August, and September New Release book recommendations coming your way. From fiction to nonfiction, the Woke Up Like This Reader Type selections this season are thought-provoking as well as highly entertaining. Check them out below (or at your local library)!
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.
september new releases
Frighten the Horses
by Oliver Radclyffe
A textured, sharply written memoir about coming of age in the fourth decade of one's life and embracing one's truest self in a world that demands gender fit in neat boxes
From the outside, Oliver Radclyffe spent four decades living an immensely privileged, beautifully composed life. As the daughter of two well-to-do British parents and the wife of a handsome, successful man from an equally privileged family, Oliver played the parts expected of him. He checked off every box--marriage, children (four), a white-picket fence surrounding a stately home in Connecticut, and a golden retriever named Biscuit.
But beneath the shiny veneer, Oliver was desperately trying to stay afloat as he struggled to maintain a facade of normalcy--his hair was falling out in clumps, he couldn't eat, and his mood swings often brought him to tears. And then, on an otherwise unremarkable afternoon in September, Oliver Radclyffe woke up and realized the life of a trapped housewife was not one he was ever meant to live. In fact, Oliver had spent his entire life denying the deepest, truest parts of himself. In the wake of this realization, he began the challenging, messy journey toward self-acceptance and living a truer life, knowing he risked the life he'd built to do so.
One Day I'll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman: A Mother's Story
by Abi Maxwell
A fiery, heartbreaking, riveting memoir that follows one New Hampshire family over the course of three years, unspooling a story of gender identity, class, trans youth, and a child caught in the riptide of America's culture wars
Abi Maxwell grew up in rural New Hampshire, one of eight kids in a poor town abutting a wealthier lakeside village. As a young couple, Maxwell and her husband planned not to have kids, but when Maxwell became pregnant, she knew she wanted to raise her child near the mountains and lake of her youth. When her six-year-old, who was known to the world as a boy, asks to wear pink sneakers, asks to be a witch for Halloween, asks to wear a girl's dance costume, Abi worries about how their small community will react. But when that child changes her name, grows her hair long, and announces that she is a girl, a firestorm engulfs the family.
Weaving together the story of her own youth, marked by long afternoons skiing the mountains, a cottage on the lake, and a proud gay brother, but also by neglect and bullying that pushed her brother to the brink, Abi Maxwell contends with the rural America where she was raised and, years later, where she is now raising her daughter, as lawmakers nationwide push to erase the very existence of trans youth. Intimate and stirring, this book is essential reading for this moment in our history.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea
by Tj Klune
Hope is the thing with feathers. And hope is the thing with fire.
Featuring gorgeous golden yellow sprayed edges! Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the hugely anticipated sequel to TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade.
A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.
Arthur Parnassus lives a good life, built on the ashes of a bad one. He's the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six magical and so-called dangerous children who live there.
Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. And he is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth; Zoe Chapelwhite, the island's sprite; and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.
The Whitewashed Tombs
by Kwei Quartey
Vicious hate crimes are rocking the LGBTQ+ community in Accra, and prejudice and politics threaten to stymie PI Emma Djan's investigation.
Author Kwei Quartey tackles a real-life--and deeply personal--issue as an anti-gay bill threatens to tear Ghana apart.
Marcelo Tetteh, a twenty-seven-year-old LGBTQ+ activist, is butchered one night after being lured on a dating app to a deserted building site. With rampant homophobia in Ghana, Marcelo's wealthy father doesn't trust the Ghana Police Service to find the killer, so he goes to the Sowah Private Investigators Agency for help, partly because he still feels guilty for disowning his son when he came out.
PI Emma Djan is assigned the case but quickly learns of a complication that prevents her from teaming up as usual with Jojo, her trusted colleague. Emma is the only one at work who knows Jojo is gay, and now he reveals something else: for some time, Jojo was dating Marcelo, the victim.
Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare
by Will Tosh
A dazzling and "highly readable" (Guardian) portrait of Shakespeare as a young artist, revealing how his rich and complex queer life informed the plays and poems we treasure today
"Was Shakespeare gay?" For years the question has sent experts and fans into a tailspin of confusion. But as scholar Will Tosh argues, this debate misses the point: sex, intimacy, and identity in Elizabethan England were infinitely more complex--and queer--than we have been taught.
In this incisive biography, Tosh reveals William Shakespeare as a queer artist who drew on his society's nuanced understanding of gender and sexuality to create some of English literature's richest works. During Shakespeare's time, same-sex desire was repressed and punished by the Church and state, but it was also articulated and sustained by institutions across England. Moving through the queer spaces of Shakespeare's life--his Stratford schoolroom, smoky London taverns and playhouses, the royal court--Tosh shows how strongly Shakespeare's early work was influenced by the queer culture of the time, much of it totally integrated into mainstream society. He also uncovers the surprising reason why Shakespeare veered away from his early work's gender-bending homoeroticism.
Farewell Yellow Brick Road: Memories of My Life on Tour
by Elton John - David Furnish
In this lavish retrospective authored by the icon himself, Elton John shares his fondest memories, most unforgettable moments, and previously untold stories from his record-breaking final tour.
Farewell Yellow Brick Road is a full-color celebration of Elton John's record-breaking, globe-spanning farewell tour--from the first show in Allentown, PA in 2018, to the final show in Stockholm in 2023. Featured concerts include Elton's dazzling performances at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium in November 2022, the finale of which streamed live on Disney+. Fans will be treated to a behind-the-scenes glimpse into every aspect of these spectacular shows, including Elton's legendary touring wardrobe by Gucci, the set design, official tour photography, and more.
On this epic visual journey, Elton reaches back in time to reflect on key moments from his life on the road and to reminisce about the beginning of his career. Readers also get a rare glimpse at Elton's personal archive of posters, sketches, and never-before-seen photographs and postcards. A poignant foreword by David Furnish, Elton's husband and manager, as well as the tour's creative director, rounds out this incredible insider's look. Join Elton on his remarkable, career-affirming farewell.
august new releases
Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope, and Cake
by Komail Aijazuddin
I'm just a man, standing in front of a salad, asking it to be a cake.
What do you do when you're too gay for Pakistan, too Pakistani to be gay in America, and you're ashamed of your body everywhere? How can you find happiness despite years of humiliation, physical danger, and a legion of Brooklyn hipsters who know you only as a queer from Whereveristan? How do you summon the courage to be yourself no matter where you are?
Even as a young child in Lahore, Komail Aijazuddin knew he was different--no one else at his all-boys prep school was pirouetting off their desks, or bullied for their "manboobs," or spontaneously bursting into songs from The Little Mermaid.
You're Embarrassing Yourself: Stories of Love, Lust, and Movies
by Desiree Akhavan
Writer, actor, and director Desiree Akhavan shares the stories she was told to shut up about--hilarious, horny, heartbreaking tales of a life in pursuit of art, love, and a better haircut.
When it comes to shame, Desiree Akhavan knows what she's talking about--whether it's winning the title of the Ugliest Girl at her high school, acquiescing to the nose job she was lovingly forced into by her Iranian parents, or losing her virginity to a cokehead she met in a support group for cutters. In You're Embarrassing Yourself, Akhavan goes to the rawest places--the lifelong struggle to be at peace in one's body, the search for home as the child of immigrants, the anxious underbelly of artistic ambition--in pursuit of wisdom, catharsis, and lolz.
The Voyage of the Damned: A Fantasy Novel
by Frances White
THE TIKTOK SENSATION FROM THE UK HAS COME TO NORTH AMERICA!
A mind-blowing murder mystery on a ship full of magical passengers. If Agatha Christie wrote fantasy, this would be it!
For a thousand years, Concordia has maintained peace between its provinces. To mark this incredible feat, the emperor's ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage to the sacred Goddess's Mountain. Aboard are the twelve heirs of the provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique and secret magical ability known as a Blessing.
All except one: Ganymedes Piscero--class clown, slacker and all-around disappointment.
Napalm in the Heart
by Pol Guasch - Mara Faye Lethem
"Pol Guasch must be one of the best young writers working today. This novel is entirely resolute and clear-hearted." --Catherine Lacey, author of Biography of X
"Profoundly strange and beautiful, formally bold and lyrically elevated." --The Guardian
Survival is a moral quandary in this jagged, otherworldly debut charting forbidden love during an apocalypse.
In a near future devastated by war and unspecified natural disaster, a young man and his mother cling to survival at the edge of a forest. The young man spends his days taking care of the home and exchanging letters with his lover, Boris, who lives in a city on the other side of the woods. It's barely a life, but it's a life nonetheless, despite the menacing soldiers patrolling the land. But after the young man commits a brutal act of desperate violence to protect his mother, he leaves home to find the mercurial Boris, who travels with him on a search for safety.
A World of Hurt
by Mindy Mejia
When someone dies to save your life, how do you ever forgive them?
Kara Johnson always knew she'd die young and violently. It didn't matter who delivered the final blow, she would deserve it--her years spent running drugs and spreading violence would guarantee it. But death doesn't always go as planned. When her girlfriend sacrifices herself to save Kara's life, Kara is left grieving and adrift. She doesn't know why she's alive until the DEA shows up and offers her a choice: go to prison or turn informant to lure out the last of the drug trafficking ring that murdered her girlfriend.
Pairing
by Casey McQuiston
#1 New York Times bestselling author Casey McQuiston's latest romantic comedy.
Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other's lives once and for all.
Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Sure, nothing really compares to what they had, and life stretches out long and lonely ahead of them, but--yeah. It's in the past.
"Move over 'hot girl summer' - 'hot bisexual summer' is ready for its moment and Casey McQuiston's new novel The Pairing is here to usher it in." - USA Today
JULY May Releases
Bury Your Gays
by Chuck Tingle
Bury Your Gays is a heart-pounding new novel from USA Today bestselling author Chuck Tingle about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.
An Indie Next and LibraryReads Pick!
Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell.
But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm," in the upcoming season finale.
Nicked
by M T Anderson
From the award-winning and bestselling author of Feed comes a raucous and slyly funny adult fiction debut. Based on a bizarre but true quest to steal the mystical corpse of a long-dead saint, Nicked is a fantastical, genre-defying, and delightfully queer historical romp
"M. T. Anderson is one of our greatest and most precious voices. His books aren't just brilliantly witty and vastly entertaining, they're fixed stars of wisdom and sanity in our increasingly unhinged universe. When lost, I use them to steer by."--Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians Trilogy
The year is 1087, and a pox is sweeping through the Italian city of Bari. When a lowly monk is visited by Saint Nicholas in his dreams, he interprets the vision as a call to serve the sick. But his superiors, and the power brokers they serve, have different plans for the tender-hearted Brother Nicephorus.
We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay: (Tips, Tales, Travels)
by Gary Janetti
A Town & Country Must-Read Book of Summer 2024!
In this hilarious and often touching collection, the New York Times bestselling author, television writer, and producer takes us with him on travels across the globe.
Gary Janetti has gained a devoted following, with a huge audience on social media, and two bestselling collections of essays under his belt. His new collection will prompt laughter but also delighted recognition as Janetti tackles the absurdity and glory of travel.
In We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay, he shares stories of his varied trips around the world. Tag along as he enjoys an unexpectedly transformative stay at a rigorous Italian spa where he and his husband go from deep grumpiness to exaltation. Take a ride on the Orient Express to Venice and discover a surprising side of London, including a hilarious dinner with actress Maggie Smith. And pull up a deck chair to watch the entertainment as Gary embarks on a family cruise on the Queen Mary 2.
Drop in: The Gender Rebels Who Changed the Face of Skateboarding
by Deborah Stoll
The bad*ss story of the female, queer, bi, and nonbinary skaters who charted a path to the Olympics and changed the face of skateboarding.
Who gets to tell the story of skateboarding? Drop In is the first book to recognize and historicize the female, queer, bi, and nonbinary humans who blazed the path that led to today's more equitable skate culture. It wasn't easy getting here.
Like the rest of the world, skateboarding has long been patriarchal. In the 70s, it personified the punk rock, lock-up-your-daughters, middle-finger-to-the-man ethos. In the 80s, it was Miami Vice soundtracks and parachute pants, neon graphics and fingerless gloves. In the 90s it was New York City--graffiti, hip-hop, and skating in the street. Rarely did you see a woman's name in a skate video--either on a deck or behind the lens.
Toward Eternity
by Anton Hur
Negotiating the terrain of Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun and Emily St. John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility, a brilliant, haunting speculative novel from a #1 New York Times bestselling translator that sets out to answer the question: What does it mean to be human in a world where technology is quickly catching up to biology?
In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer. The body's cells are entirely replaced with nanites--robot or android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal.
Literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. When Yonghun--himself a recipient of nanotherapy--mysteriously vanishes into thin air and then just as suddenly reappears, the event raises disturbing questions. What happened to Yonghun, and though he's returned, is he really himself anymore?