Summer is officially on, and here is a great book list for you to enjoy it reading all along!
Here are all the diverse books coming out this month that you should add to your list:
✴ The King is Dead by Benjamin Dean
✴ Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen
✴ Queen of Exiles by Vanessa Riley
✴ Tropicália by Harold Rogers
✴ My Week With Him by Joya Goffney
✴ A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow
✴ All the Yellow Suns by Malavika Kannan
✴ What a Desi Girl Wants by Sabina Khan
✴ One Summer in Savannah by Terah Shelton Harris
✴ Banyan Moon by Thao Thai
✴ Silver Nitrate by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
✴ When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era by Donovan X. Ramsey
✴ The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella
✴ The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
✴ The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero-Lacruz
✴ Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson
✴ Hush Harbor by Anise Vance
✴ Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
✴ Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America’s Cartels by Deborah Bonello
✴ I’d Rather Burn than Bloom by Shannon C. Rogers
✴ Sipping Dom Perignon Through a Straw: Reimagining Success as a Disabled Achiever by Eddie Ndopu
✴ The Duchess Effect by Tracey Livesay
✴ All the Black Girls are Activists by Ebony Janice
✴ Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
The King is Dead by Benjamin Dean: Heavy is the crown James has been born to wear, especially as the first Black heir to the British throne. But with his father’s recent passing, and with a new boyfriend to hide, James is woefully unprepared for the sudden shine of public scrutiny.
When his secrets come spilling forth across tabloid pages and the man he thought he loved has suddenly disappeared, James finds himself on the precipice of ruin. As every detail of his life becomes public knowledge, his sense of safety is shattered and the people he trusts the most become the likeliest suspects.
Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen: Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked.
Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business and everything they’ve built. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. Relationships are put to the test as the line between right and wrong gets blurred. Debbie and Phil must choose: do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon?
Queen of Exiles by Vanessa Riley: The Queen of Exiles is Marie-Louise Christophe, wife and then widow of Henry I, who ruled over the newly liberated Kingdom of Hayti in the wake of the brutal Haitian Revolution.
In 1810 Louise is crowned queen as her husband begins his reign over the first and only free Black nation in the Western Hemisphere. But despite their newfound freedom, Haitians still struggle under mountains of debt to France and indifference from former allies in Britain and the new United States. Louise desperately tries to steer the country’s political course as King Henry descends into a mire of mental illness.
Tropicália by Harold Rogers: In the heady days before a New Year’s Eve party on the bustling sands of Brazil’s Copacabana Beach, a family reckons with a matriarch’s long-awaited return, causing old secrets to come to light in this infectiously vibrant debut that explores the heartbreak and hope of what it means to be from two homes, two peoples, and two worlds.
My Week With Him by Joya Goffney: A best friends-to-lovers romance about a girl named Nikki who plans to run away from small-town Texas, but ultimately finds that her oldest friend, Mal, just might be the one who’s been there for her all along. Filled with heart and humour, this novel captures complex family drama, friendship, and love.
A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow: Zaira Citlali is supposed to die. After all, she’s the god Indigo reborn. Indigo, whose song created the universe and unified people across galaxies to banish Ozvios, the god of destruction. Although Zaira has never been able to harness Indigo’s powers, the Ilori Emperor wants to sacrifice her in Ozvios’s honor. Unless she escapes and finds Wesley, the boy prophesized to help her defeat Ozvios and the Ilori, once and for all.
All the Yellow Suns by Malavika Kannan: A coming-of-age story about a queer Indian American girl exploring activism and identity through art, perfect for fans of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.
Sixteen-year-old Maya Krishnan is fiercely protective of her friends, immigrant community, and single mother, but she knows better than to rock the boat in her conservative Florida suburb. Her classmate Juneau Zale is the polar opposite: she’s a wealthy white heartbreaker who won’t think twice before capsizing that boat.
What a Desi Girl Wants by Sabina Khan: Mehar hasn’t been back to India since she and her mother moved away when she was only four. Hasn’t visited her father, her grandmother, her family, or the home where she grew up. Why would she? Her father made it clear that she’s not his priority when he chose not to come to the US with them.
One Summer in Savannah by Terah Shelton Harris: A compelling debut that glows with bittersweet heart and touching emotion, deeply interrogating questions of family, redemption, and unconditional love in the sweltering summer heat of Savannah, as two people discover what it means to truly forgive.
It’s been eight years since Sara Lancaster left her home in Savannah, Georgia. Eight years since her daughter, Alana, came into this world, following a terrifying sexual assault that left deep emotional wounds Sara would do anything to forget. But when Sara’s father falls ill, she’s forced to return home and face the ghosts of her past.
Banyan Moon by Thao Thai: When Ann Tran gets the call that her fiercely beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. In the years since she’s last seen Minh, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life—a beautiful lake house, a charming professor boyfriend, and invites to elegant parties that bubble over with champagne and good taste—but it all crumbles with one positive pregnancy test. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Huơng.
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.
Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight.
When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era by Donovan X. Ramsey: The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan’s war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey’s exacting analysis traces the path from the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement to the devastating realities we live with a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality.
The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella: Shagun knows he will never be the kind of son his father demands. After the sudden deaths of his beloved twin sisters, Shagun flees his own guilt, his mother’s grief, and his father’s violent disapproval by enrolling at an all-boys boarding school. But he doesn’t find true belonging until he encounters a traveling theater troupe performing the Hindu myths of his childhood.
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera: Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.
He walked among invisible devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.
The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero-Lacruz: Reina is desperate. Stuck living on the edges of society, her only salvation lies in an invitation from a grandmother she’s never known. But the journey is dangerous, and prayer can’t always avert disaster.
Attacked by creatures that stalk the region, Reina is on the verge of death until her grandmother, a dark sorceress, intervenes. Now dependent on the Doña’s magic for her life, Reina will do anything to earn—and keep—her favor. Even the bidding of an ancient god who whispers to her at night.
Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson: The one thing that can solve Stephen’s problems is dancing. Dancing at Church, with his parents and brother, the shimmer of Black hands raised in praise; he might have lost his faith, but he does believe in rhythm. Dancing with his friends, somewhere in a basement with the drums about to drop, while the DJ spins garage cuts. Dancing with his band, making music which speaks not just to the hardships of their lives, but the joys too. Dancing with his best friend Adeline, two-stepping around the living room, crooning and grooving, so close their heads might touch. Dancing alone, at home, to his father’s records, uncovering parts of a man he has never truly known.
Hush Harbor by Anise Vance: After the murder of an unarmed Black teenager by the hands of the police, protests spread like wildfire in Bliss City, New Jersey. A full-scale resistance group takes control of an abandoned housing project and decide to call it Hush Harbor, in homage to the secret spaces their enslaved ancestors would gather to pray.
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead: It’s 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It’s strictly the straight-and-narrow for him — until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated – and deadly.
Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America’s Cartels by Deborah Bonello: You’ve heard of Pablo Escobar, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and Rafael Caro Quintero. Their names conjure ghoulish images of bloody streets, white powder, bundles of weed, and a particular flavor of machismo unique to ruthless drug lords. But what of the drug ladies, las narcas? Investigative reporter Deborah Bonello takes you behind the curtain to introduce the women at the helm of organized crime south of the US-Mexico border. These women are the powerhouses behind violent cartels, masterminds of extortion rackets, right-hand ladies to El Chapo and his cocaine flow to the US, and matriarchs of major drug trafficking families.
I’d Rather Burn than Bloom by Shannon C. Rogers: A powerful young adult novel about a Filipina-American teen who tries to figure out who she really is in the wake of her mother’s death. Some girls call their mother their best friend. Marisol Martin? She could never relate. She and her mom were forever locked in an argument with no beginning and no end. Clothes, church, boys, no matter the topic, Marisol always felt like there was an unbridgeable gap between them that they were perpetually shouting across, one that she longed to close. But when her mother dies suddenly, Marisol is left with no one to fight against, haunted by all the things that she both said and didn’t say.
Sipping Dom Perignon Through a Straw: Reimagining Success as a Disabled Achiever by Eddie Ndopu: Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare degenerative motor neuron disease affecting his mobility. He was told that he wouldn’t live beyond age five and yet, Ndopu thrived. He grew up loving pop music, lip syncing the latest hits, and watching The Bold and the Beautiful for the haute couture, and was the only wheelchair user at his school, where he flourished academically. By his late teens, he had become a sought after speaker, travelling the world to address audiences about disability justice.
The Duchess Effect by Tracey Livesay: Against all odds, sexy American rapper, Danielle “Duchess” Nelson and brilliant reclusive royal Prince Jameson have fallen in love! They’ve decided to take their relationship public and find a way to make their two worlds coexist. On their terms. Unfortunately, falling in love was the easy part. Jameson and Dani’s love story has made them the most popular royals since Prince John, but that popularity comes with a price.
All the Black Girls are Activists by Ebony Janice: Who would black women get to be if we did not have to create from a place of resistance? Hip Hop Womanist writer and theologian EbonyJanice’s book of essays center a fourth wave of Womanism, dreaming, the pursuit of softness, ancestral reverence, and radical wholeness as tools of liberation.
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo: The story of one Dominican-American family told through the voices of its women as they await a gathering that will forever change their lives. This is an indelible portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces–one family’s journey through their history, helping them better navigate all that is to come.
If you’ve read any of these books, please let me know what you thought of them. And if you have any book recommendations, I’d love to hear them in the comments below. Happy reading, everyone!
book reviewmust read books
What do you think?