Latest news with #KingofAshes
The Advertiser
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
When you realise you're being subjected to gay conversion therapy
New releases include A Memoir of Freedom by Cheng Lei and King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby, the novel that sparked a bidding war. Tim Pocock. Hachette. $34.99. Tim Pocock, opera singer and actor in movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine and TV's Dance Academy, says he always knew that being gay was out of the question. Raised in a devout Catholic family and attending a prestigious private school with links to Opus Dei, he struggled desperately to hide his sexuality. As his musical and stage talents blossomed, bullying deepened his despair. After his mother, facing her own battle with ovarian cancer, convinced her only son to come with her to therapy, he realised he was being subjected to gay conversation therapy. Olympian Ian Thorpe calls Pocock's story of heartbreak and healing a "brave and important memoir". Lynette Ramsay Silver. Sally Milner Publishing. $39.99. "Now that I have uncovered so much more about what happened on Bangka Island, I refuse to stay silent, to be a party to any further cover-up." So writes Lynette Ramsay Silver in the foreword to her compelling book about Australia's most famous wartime nurse, Vivian Bullwinkel. Bullwinkel was the sole survivor when Japanese troops machine-gunned 21 military nurses and one civilian on Bangka Island, near Sumatra, in 1942. Silver writes that accounts of the atrocity were heavily sanitised and distorted, against Bullwinkel's wishes. The author's painstaking detective work reveals the brutal and shocking truth about what the nurses endured. Cheng Lei. HarperCollins. $35.99. Australian-Chinese television journalist Cheng Lei spent more than three years imprisoned in Beijing after being arrested in 2020 by the Chinese Communist Party's feared Ministry of State Security. Facing trumped-up charges for "supplying state secrets to overseas organisations" at a time when China had Australia in a COVID-era diplomatic deep freeze, it was clear that she was being used as human leverage - a victim of hostage diplomacy. Cheng, now a presenter for Sky News in Australia, has written a gripping, intimate and no-holds-barred account of her time as prisoner 21003 and the daily battle to maintain her health and sanity. Tom Gilling. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. In July 1942, Hitler's brilliant tactician, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and his Afrika Korps, were closing in on Cairo. If the "Desert Fox" could defeat the Allies the Axis would control the Suez Canal, the oilfields of the Middle East and likely Malta and the Mediterranean. In their way, at El Alamein, was the British Eighth Army, stiffened by the 9th Australian Division and the 2nd New Zealand Division. Gilling paints a visceral picture of bloody battles fought in heat, chaos and desperation by men who refused to break. Churchill later described Rommel's defeat as "the end of the beginning". Moira Macdonald. Bloomsbury. $32.99. When you think of a love triangle, usually all parties are aware - to some extent - of what's going on. But nothing can be further from the truth with Moira Macdonald's debut novel. This charming story begins when April leaves an anonymous note in a book for Westley, the clerk at her local bookstore. But it's Laura who finds the note, thinking Westley left it for her. The two women start up correspondence with each other, while Westley is completely oblivious to everything unfolding around him. It's a heartwarming web of mistaken identities that is a love letter to books and the stores that house them. S. A. Cosby. Headline. $34.99. Shawn A. Cosby has been described as a "prince of the literary action thriller". Screen rights for King of Ashes, the Virginia-based writer's fifth Southern noir crime thriller, sparked a bidding war eventually won by Steven Spielberg, Netflix and the production company of Michelle and Barack Obama. That speaks volumes for the action, emotion and visual storytelling power of Cosby's Godfather-inspired saga of Roman Carruthers, a big-city investment banker, who returns home when a hit-and-run accident puts his father into a coma. Except, of course, it wasn't an accident and Roman's kin and their crematorium business now need his protection from ruthless local gangsters. Etgar Keret. Scribe. $29.99. The latest of Israeli writer Etgar Keret's collections of short stories - or "fictional thought-experiments" - to be translated into English contains 33 ruminations and shrewdly sketched observations of humanity and human interaction. Sometimes dark and sad and sometimes irreverent, these random vignettes range across all sorts of everyday scenarios of modern life, from yoga classes, TV game shows and AI companions, to weird flights of fancy with aliens, squirrels and time travel. The stories are concise and comic but hardly ever flippant as Keret takes only a few pages to explore with a wry but affectionate eye the ironies, anxieties and absurdities of contemporary existence. Lucy Nelson. Simon & Schuster. $32.99. Lucy Nelson's collection of short fiction stories about women who don't have children compassionately sketches a diverse array of characters who are not, and never will be, mothers - for all sorts of reasons and in all sorts of circumstances. And they feel every way it is possible to feel about it. Whether they've chosen their childlessness or not, each woman's inner voice explores the freedom, heartache, fear or humour of that child-shaped space in her life - from the ballet dancer whose body has betrayed her to the elderly spinster sisters with a found family, to the woman haunted by the ghost of a stillborn daughter. New releases include A Memoir of Freedom by Cheng Lei and King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby, the novel that sparked a bidding war. Tim Pocock. Hachette. $34.99. Tim Pocock, opera singer and actor in movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine and TV's Dance Academy, says he always knew that being gay was out of the question. Raised in a devout Catholic family and attending a prestigious private school with links to Opus Dei, he struggled desperately to hide his sexuality. As his musical and stage talents blossomed, bullying deepened his despair. After his mother, facing her own battle with ovarian cancer, convinced her only son to come with her to therapy, he realised he was being subjected to gay conversation therapy. Olympian Ian Thorpe calls Pocock's story of heartbreak and healing a "brave and important memoir". Lynette Ramsay Silver. Sally Milner Publishing. $39.99. "Now that I have uncovered so much more about what happened on Bangka Island, I refuse to stay silent, to be a party to any further cover-up." So writes Lynette Ramsay Silver in the foreword to her compelling book about Australia's most famous wartime nurse, Vivian Bullwinkel. Bullwinkel was the sole survivor when Japanese troops machine-gunned 21 military nurses and one civilian on Bangka Island, near Sumatra, in 1942. Silver writes that accounts of the atrocity were heavily sanitised and distorted, against Bullwinkel's wishes. The author's painstaking detective work reveals the brutal and shocking truth about what the nurses endured. Cheng Lei. HarperCollins. $35.99. Australian-Chinese television journalist Cheng Lei spent more than three years imprisoned in Beijing after being arrested in 2020 by the Chinese Communist Party's feared Ministry of State Security. Facing trumped-up charges for "supplying state secrets to overseas organisations" at a time when China had Australia in a COVID-era diplomatic deep freeze, it was clear that she was being used as human leverage - a victim of hostage diplomacy. Cheng, now a presenter for Sky News in Australia, has written a gripping, intimate and no-holds-barred account of her time as prisoner 21003 and the daily battle to maintain her health and sanity. Tom Gilling. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. In July 1942, Hitler's brilliant tactician, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and his Afrika Korps, were closing in on Cairo. If the "Desert Fox" could defeat the Allies the Axis would control the Suez Canal, the oilfields of the Middle East and likely Malta and the Mediterranean. In their way, at El Alamein, was the British Eighth Army, stiffened by the 9th Australian Division and the 2nd New Zealand Division. Gilling paints a visceral picture of bloody battles fought in heat, chaos and desperation by men who refused to break. Churchill later described Rommel's defeat as "the end of the beginning". Moira Macdonald. Bloomsbury. $32.99. When you think of a love triangle, usually all parties are aware - to some extent - of what's going on. But nothing can be further from the truth with Moira Macdonald's debut novel. This charming story begins when April leaves an anonymous note in a book for Westley, the clerk at her local bookstore. But it's Laura who finds the note, thinking Westley left it for her. The two women start up correspondence with each other, while Westley is completely oblivious to everything unfolding around him. It's a heartwarming web of mistaken identities that is a love letter to books and the stores that house them. S. A. Cosby. Headline. $34.99. Shawn A. Cosby has been described as a "prince of the literary action thriller". Screen rights for King of Ashes, the Virginia-based writer's fifth Southern noir crime thriller, sparked a bidding war eventually won by Steven Spielberg, Netflix and the production company of Michelle and Barack Obama. That speaks volumes for the action, emotion and visual storytelling power of Cosby's Godfather-inspired saga of Roman Carruthers, a big-city investment banker, who returns home when a hit-and-run accident puts his father into a coma. Except, of course, it wasn't an accident and Roman's kin and their crematorium business now need his protection from ruthless local gangsters. Etgar Keret. Scribe. $29.99. The latest of Israeli writer Etgar Keret's collections of short stories - or "fictional thought-experiments" - to be translated into English contains 33 ruminations and shrewdly sketched observations of humanity and human interaction. Sometimes dark and sad and sometimes irreverent, these random vignettes range across all sorts of everyday scenarios of modern life, from yoga classes, TV game shows and AI companions, to weird flights of fancy with aliens, squirrels and time travel. The stories are concise and comic but hardly ever flippant as Keret takes only a few pages to explore with a wry but affectionate eye the ironies, anxieties and absurdities of contemporary existence. Lucy Nelson. Simon & Schuster. $32.99. Lucy Nelson's collection of short fiction stories about women who don't have children compassionately sketches a diverse array of characters who are not, and never will be, mothers - for all sorts of reasons and in all sorts of circumstances. And they feel every way it is possible to feel about it. Whether they've chosen their childlessness or not, each woman's inner voice explores the freedom, heartache, fear or humour of that child-shaped space in her life - from the ballet dancer whose body has betrayed her to the elderly spinster sisters with a found family, to the woman haunted by the ghost of a stillborn daughter. New releases include A Memoir of Freedom by Cheng Lei and King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby, the novel that sparked a bidding war. Tim Pocock. Hachette. $34.99. Tim Pocock, opera singer and actor in movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine and TV's Dance Academy, says he always knew that being gay was out of the question. Raised in a devout Catholic family and attending a prestigious private school with links to Opus Dei, he struggled desperately to hide his sexuality. As his musical and stage talents blossomed, bullying deepened his despair. After his mother, facing her own battle with ovarian cancer, convinced her only son to come with her to therapy, he realised he was being subjected to gay conversation therapy. Olympian Ian Thorpe calls Pocock's story of heartbreak and healing a "brave and important memoir". Lynette Ramsay Silver. Sally Milner Publishing. $39.99. "Now that I have uncovered so much more about what happened on Bangka Island, I refuse to stay silent, to be a party to any further cover-up." So writes Lynette Ramsay Silver in the foreword to her compelling book about Australia's most famous wartime nurse, Vivian Bullwinkel. Bullwinkel was the sole survivor when Japanese troops machine-gunned 21 military nurses and one civilian on Bangka Island, near Sumatra, in 1942. Silver writes that accounts of the atrocity were heavily sanitised and distorted, against Bullwinkel's wishes. The author's painstaking detective work reveals the brutal and shocking truth about what the nurses endured. Cheng Lei. HarperCollins. $35.99. Australian-Chinese television journalist Cheng Lei spent more than three years imprisoned in Beijing after being arrested in 2020 by the Chinese Communist Party's feared Ministry of State Security. Facing trumped-up charges for "supplying state secrets to overseas organisations" at a time when China had Australia in a COVID-era diplomatic deep freeze, it was clear that she was being used as human leverage - a victim of hostage diplomacy. Cheng, now a presenter for Sky News in Australia, has written a gripping, intimate and no-holds-barred account of her time as prisoner 21003 and the daily battle to maintain her health and sanity. Tom Gilling. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. In July 1942, Hitler's brilliant tactician, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and his Afrika Korps, were closing in on Cairo. If the "Desert Fox" could defeat the Allies the Axis would control the Suez Canal, the oilfields of the Middle East and likely Malta and the Mediterranean. In their way, at El Alamein, was the British Eighth Army, stiffened by the 9th Australian Division and the 2nd New Zealand Division. Gilling paints a visceral picture of bloody battles fought in heat, chaos and desperation by men who refused to break. Churchill later described Rommel's defeat as "the end of the beginning". Moira Macdonald. Bloomsbury. $32.99. When you think of a love triangle, usually all parties are aware - to some extent - of what's going on. But nothing can be further from the truth with Moira Macdonald's debut novel. This charming story begins when April leaves an anonymous note in a book for Westley, the clerk at her local bookstore. But it's Laura who finds the note, thinking Westley left it for her. The two women start up correspondence with each other, while Westley is completely oblivious to everything unfolding around him. It's a heartwarming web of mistaken identities that is a love letter to books and the stores that house them. S. A. Cosby. Headline. $34.99. Shawn A. Cosby has been described as a "prince of the literary action thriller". Screen rights for King of Ashes, the Virginia-based writer's fifth Southern noir crime thriller, sparked a bidding war eventually won by Steven Spielberg, Netflix and the production company of Michelle and Barack Obama. That speaks volumes for the action, emotion and visual storytelling power of Cosby's Godfather-inspired saga of Roman Carruthers, a big-city investment banker, who returns home when a hit-and-run accident puts his father into a coma. Except, of course, it wasn't an accident and Roman's kin and their crematorium business now need his protection from ruthless local gangsters. Etgar Keret. Scribe. $29.99. The latest of Israeli writer Etgar Keret's collections of short stories - or "fictional thought-experiments" - to be translated into English contains 33 ruminations and shrewdly sketched observations of humanity and human interaction. Sometimes dark and sad and sometimes irreverent, these random vignettes range across all sorts of everyday scenarios of modern life, from yoga classes, TV game shows and AI companions, to weird flights of fancy with aliens, squirrels and time travel. The stories are concise and comic but hardly ever flippant as Keret takes only a few pages to explore with a wry but affectionate eye the ironies, anxieties and absurdities of contemporary existence. Lucy Nelson. Simon & Schuster. $32.99. Lucy Nelson's collection of short fiction stories about women who don't have children compassionately sketches a diverse array of characters who are not, and never will be, mothers - for all sorts of reasons and in all sorts of circumstances. And they feel every way it is possible to feel about it. Whether they've chosen their childlessness or not, each woman's inner voice explores the freedom, heartache, fear or humour of that child-shaped space in her life - from the ballet dancer whose body has betrayed her to the elderly spinster sisters with a found family, to the woman haunted by the ghost of a stillborn daughter. New releases include A Memoir of Freedom by Cheng Lei and King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby, the novel that sparked a bidding war. Tim Pocock. Hachette. $34.99. Tim Pocock, opera singer and actor in movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine and TV's Dance Academy, says he always knew that being gay was out of the question. Raised in a devout Catholic family and attending a prestigious private school with links to Opus Dei, he struggled desperately to hide his sexuality. As his musical and stage talents blossomed, bullying deepened his despair. After his mother, facing her own battle with ovarian cancer, convinced her only son to come with her to therapy, he realised he was being subjected to gay conversation therapy. Olympian Ian Thorpe calls Pocock's story of heartbreak and healing a "brave and important memoir". Lynette Ramsay Silver. Sally Milner Publishing. $39.99. "Now that I have uncovered so much more about what happened on Bangka Island, I refuse to stay silent, to be a party to any further cover-up." So writes Lynette Ramsay Silver in the foreword to her compelling book about Australia's most famous wartime nurse, Vivian Bullwinkel. Bullwinkel was the sole survivor when Japanese troops machine-gunned 21 military nurses and one civilian on Bangka Island, near Sumatra, in 1942. Silver writes that accounts of the atrocity were heavily sanitised and distorted, against Bullwinkel's wishes. The author's painstaking detective work reveals the brutal and shocking truth about what the nurses endured. Cheng Lei. HarperCollins. $35.99. Australian-Chinese television journalist Cheng Lei spent more than three years imprisoned in Beijing after being arrested in 2020 by the Chinese Communist Party's feared Ministry of State Security. Facing trumped-up charges for "supplying state secrets to overseas organisations" at a time when China had Australia in a COVID-era diplomatic deep freeze, it was clear that she was being used as human leverage - a victim of hostage diplomacy. Cheng, now a presenter for Sky News in Australia, has written a gripping, intimate and no-holds-barred account of her time as prisoner 21003 and the daily battle to maintain her health and sanity. Tom Gilling. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. In July 1942, Hitler's brilliant tactician, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and his Afrika Korps, were closing in on Cairo. If the "Desert Fox" could defeat the Allies the Axis would control the Suez Canal, the oilfields of the Middle East and likely Malta and the Mediterranean. In their way, at El Alamein, was the British Eighth Army, stiffened by the 9th Australian Division and the 2nd New Zealand Division. Gilling paints a visceral picture of bloody battles fought in heat, chaos and desperation by men who refused to break. Churchill later described Rommel's defeat as "the end of the beginning". Moira Macdonald. Bloomsbury. $32.99. When you think of a love triangle, usually all parties are aware - to some extent - of what's going on. But nothing can be further from the truth with Moira Macdonald's debut novel. This charming story begins when April leaves an anonymous note in a book for Westley, the clerk at her local bookstore. But it's Laura who finds the note, thinking Westley left it for her. The two women start up correspondence with each other, while Westley is completely oblivious to everything unfolding around him. It's a heartwarming web of mistaken identities that is a love letter to books and the stores that house them. S. A. Cosby. Headline. $34.99. Shawn A. Cosby has been described as a "prince of the literary action thriller". Screen rights for King of Ashes, the Virginia-based writer's fifth Southern noir crime thriller, sparked a bidding war eventually won by Steven Spielberg, Netflix and the production company of Michelle and Barack Obama. That speaks volumes for the action, emotion and visual storytelling power of Cosby's Godfather-inspired saga of Roman Carruthers, a big-city investment banker, who returns home when a hit-and-run accident puts his father into a coma. Except, of course, it wasn't an accident and Roman's kin and their crematorium business now need his protection from ruthless local gangsters. Etgar Keret. Scribe. $29.99. The latest of Israeli writer Etgar Keret's collections of short stories - or "fictional thought-experiments" - to be translated into English contains 33 ruminations and shrewdly sketched observations of humanity and human interaction. Sometimes dark and sad and sometimes irreverent, these random vignettes range across all sorts of everyday scenarios of modern life, from yoga classes, TV game shows and AI companions, to weird flights of fancy with aliens, squirrels and time travel. The stories are concise and comic but hardly ever flippant as Keret takes only a few pages to explore with a wry but affectionate eye the ironies, anxieties and absurdities of contemporary existence. Lucy Nelson. Simon & Schuster. $32.99. Lucy Nelson's collection of short fiction stories about women who don't have children compassionately sketches a diverse array of characters who are not, and never will be, mothers - for all sorts of reasons and in all sorts of circumstances. And they feel every way it is possible to feel about it. Whether they've chosen their childlessness or not, each woman's inner voice explores the freedom, heartache, fear or humour of that child-shaped space in her life - from the ballet dancer whose body has betrayed her to the elderly spinster sisters with a found family, to the woman haunted by the ghost of a stillborn daughter.
Buzz Feed
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
19 Must-Read New Books You Won't Want To Put Down
There's something about new novels that makes me forget about all my worries and (sadly) all of the unread books on my bookshelves. Under the Stars by Beatriz Williams Genre: Historical Fiction, ContemporarySynopsis: On glamorous Winthrop Island, acclaimed chef Audrey Fisher returns with her troubled actress mother, Meredith, seeking refuge from past scandals. Audrey, still reeling from a broken marriage, stumbles upon a hidden chest in her bartender father's bar, filled with priceless 19th-century paintings featuring a mysterious woman. Their discovery drags them into a decades-old mystery, catching the eye of their charming neighbor, Sedge Peabody. Meanwhile, in 1846, on the doomed steamship Atlantic, Providence Dare flees from Boston under a cloud of suspicion, only to face disaster and pursuit onboard. As the ship struggles toward Winthrop Island, Providence must outwit a detective who knows her darkest secrets. Across centuries, the stories of Audrey, Meredith, and Providence interweave, revealing echoes of hidden legacies, danger, and desire. Work Nights by Erica Peplin Genre: Romance, LGBTSynopsis: Jane Grabowski trudges into her 9-to-5 at a prestigious NYC newspaper, drowning under fluorescent lights and selling advertising she doesn't believe in, masking her frustration with overenthusiastic exclamation-point-filled emails. Her one bright spot? Madeline, the intern: attractive, enigmatic, and seemingly straight. Jane crafts clever lunchroom maneuvers and meticulously timed texts to inch closer to her object of affection — no small feat when Madeline tiptoes around Jane's free-spirited roommate Laurel keeps pushing her toward queer bars and Shabbat dinners, where Jane meets Addy — the impulsive, morally driven musician who's ready to commit straight away. Suddenly, Jane finds herself caught in a messy, thrilling love triangle: the safe, earnest path with Addy or the unpredictable, intoxicating pull of Madeline. As her emotions spiral, Jane's juggling act of office politics, romantic confusion, and fear of vulnerability propels her toward a dramatic turning point, complete with a plane ticket that could uproot everything. King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby Genre: Thriller, SuspenseSynopsis: Roman Carruthers, a sleek and cunning finance guru in Atlanta, is suddenly pulled back to his crumbling hometown of Jefferson Run, Virginia, when his father lands in a coma after a suspicious car crash. He discovers his brother Dante is drowning in a six-figure debt to the ruthless Black Baron Boys gang, and his sister Neveah is barely keeping their family crematorium and her own sanity afloat. Hoping to save his brother, Roman uses his financial acumen to negotiate with the gang, only to find himself sliding deeper into their violent world, his moral lines blur as he becomes entangled in criminal deals, brutal power plays, and dangerous allegiances. Meanwhile, Neveah obsessively investigates the long-unsolved mystery of their mother's disappearance two decades ago, rumored to involve their own father, which threatens to shatter whatever fragile peace remains. As Roman transforms from a smart city strategist into a ruthless kingpin with his own form of justice, the siblings must confront how far they're willing to go and what they may lose in order to protect family. Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild Genre: Contemporary, RomanceSynopsis: Honor Wharton and her daughter Chloe are enjoying a festive Christmas in Paris, but a tragic bombing shatters their lives. Moments later, both are gone in an instant. Back in London, widower Tom secretly carries on using a surrogate and egg donor to complete his family. Four years later, his life takes an unexpected turn when he receives a misaddressed letter revealing his donor's identity. He meets Grace, the warm-hearted woman who loosely resembles his late wife, and they form a tender connection, oblivious to the secret tying them together. Narrated from beyond the grave by Honor, the story navigates love, grief, and moral ambiguity as Tom and Grace's relationship deepens. But the shadow of his hidden past looms large, raising the question: can new beginnings ever outrun the ghosts of loss? One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford Genre: Sci-Fi, HorrorSynopsis: Kesta Shelley, a brilliant but emotionally withdrawn British scientist, has her world torn apart when her husband, Tim, becomes one of the last victims of a devastating zombie-style virus. While the government has quarantined or eliminated all infected individuals, Kesta hides Tim in her spare room — still alive, but unstable and increasingly violent — as she desperately works to develop a cure in her lab by day. By night, she juggles caring for him with slipping him sedatives stolen from her workplace and struggling to attend mandatory recovery meetings. Her obsession takes a toll: she begins to unravel, skipping lab ethics, self-medicating with alcohol, and distancing herself from colleagues who sense something is off. As whispers grow about 'Project Dawn,' a secret government lab racing toward a cure, Kesta clings to hope, but time is running out. Can she save Tim before he's discovered? Or will her love spark another catastrophic outbreak? Den of Liars by Jessica S. Olson Genre: Fantasy, YASynopsis: Lola St. James was rescued as a teen during a high-stakes Liar's Dice Tournament and bound by magic to the enigmatic crime boss known as the Thief. She literally shares his heart and his emotions. Now, living under the name Astra, she's determined to join his group, the Tentacles, and prove her skills. When a heist goes horribly wrong, her only escape is to enter the next Liar's Dice Tournament, now run by the Thief's mysterious brother, the Liar. Sevilla's enchanted dice don't just lie, they twist hearts, reveal secrets, and blur reality. As Lola plays the game, she's torn between her growing attraction to the Liar and her deep bond with the Thief. In a world where deceit is power, illusions are danger, and trust is a luxury, Lola must untangle her own past, the brothers' hidden history, and the lies she's been telling herself. Our Last Resort by Clémence Michallon Genre: Thriller, MysterySynopsis: Frida and her brother Gabriel arrive at the luxurious Ara Hotel in Utah, hoping their sibling bond can finally heal after escaping a controlling cult fifteen years earlier. But paradise shatters when a glamorous guest is found brutally murdered, and Gabriel becomes the prime suspect. As police lock down the resort, Frida races to clear his name, and in doing so, must confront the darkest corners of their shared past. Alternating between present-day scenes and chilling flashbacks to life under the cult's sway, the novel builds to a shocking climax: How well do we truly know the people we love? August Lane by Regina Black Genre: Contemporary, RomanceSynopsis: Former country music heartthrob Luke Randall has been scraping by, performing his one hit, 'Another Love Song,' at dingy motels every Thursday night. His big break comes when he's asked to open for his childhood idol, JoJo Lane, at her Hall of Fame induction in Arcadia, Arkansas. The catch? That hometown includes August Lane, the woman who actually wrote the song, and his secret high school love, who still loathes him for stealing both her lyrics and her heart. August, JoJo's daughter, demands a reckoning: she offers him one chance at redemption — co‑write and debut a new song together at the concert, a platform she hopes will finally lift her from her mother's shadow into her own career. Luke, desperate to conceal his past lie and reclaim his future, reluctantly agrees. As they revisit memories, rewrite lyrics, and share moments, the spark from their teenage connection reignites. But with the concert looming, August must decide if he wants to expose the betrayal that scarred her, or trust him to create something genuinely new and real. A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan Genre: Suspense, ThrillerSynopsis: Alix, 10, is looking forward to a sun‑soaked summer getaway with her family at a coastal resort in New Zealand, only to find her parents preoccupied, her teenage sister lost in crushes, and the days strangely quiet. Bored, Alix befriends Kahu, who reveals the town's eerie mystery: two years earlier, a young girl named Charlotte vanished, presumed drowned. Driven by curiosity and loneliness, Alix and Kahu become amateur sleuths, combing the shoreline and poking around the locals, but in doing so, they unravel unsettling truths about the vulnerable cracks in her family: her parents' tension, her sister's risky choices, and the ominous stranger next door. As another disappearance rocks the community, Alix realizes her idyllic summer might hold far darker secrets, and she may be uncovering more than even she can handle. The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery by Clarence A. Haynes Genre: Horror, FantasySynopsis: Gwendolyn Montgomery seems to have it all: a glamorous career as New York's top publicist, stylish looks, and a handsome new boyfriend. But after a chilling incident at the Brooklyn Museum, supernatural signals start pulsing around her, and she realizes that the past she tried to leave behind is clawing its way back into her life. Enter her estranged cousin Fonsi Harewood, a queer Latinx psychic from the South Bronx who communicates with spirits 'stuck' in El Intermedio, a ghostly limbo. Fonsi warns Gwendolyn that the veil between the living and the dead is weakening, and only she has the power to stop it. The Unraveling of Julia by Lisa Scottoline Genre: Thriller, MysterySynopsis: Julia Pritzker, a young widow already mourning her tragic past, is convinced her life is cursed when her horoscope eerily predicts her husband's violent death in Philadelphia. Then she inherits a crumbling Tuscan villa and vineyard from a stranger, Emilia Rossi — sparking a journey into Italy and the shadows of her identity. As Julia settles into the eerie estate, she uncovers unsettling parallels between herself, Rossi, and the Renaissance ruler Duchess Caterina Sforza, and becomes obsessed with astrology guiding her fate. Strange occurrences begin, she's followed, haunted by vivid nightmares, and thrust into a dangerous mystery that might cost her sanity. Tension mounts in the sun-drenched hills of Tuscany as Julia races to unravel whether this inherited legacy is a blessing…or a deadly trap. The List by Steve Berry Genre: Mystery, ThrillerSynopsis: After a decadelong, self-imposed exile, lawyer Brent Walker returns to his childhood home in Concord, Georgia, to care for his aging mother and start fresh as assistant general counsel at the Southern Republic Pulp and Paper Company. But behind the town's idyllic veneer lies a dark secret: the company's leadership has been quietly eliminating employees and retirees with costly medical conditions via a covert program nicknamed 'Priority.' When Brent discovers a mysterious list of coded entries, later revealed to be victims' Social Security numbers, he teams up with a moralizing partner to expose the conspiracy. Yet digging deeper puts him in the crosshairs of powerful executives willing to kill to keep the truth buried. The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb Genre: Literary Fiction, ContemporarySynopsis: Corby Ledbetter was once a devoted husband and father, but his world shatters after a devastating accident claims the life of his young son — and it's his fault. Sentenced to prison, Corby is forced to confront not only his guilt, but also the darker parts of himself that led to that moment. Behind bars, he meets a cast of broken yet deeply human characters who challenge him to face the truth, make amends, and search for a way forward. Through art, unlikely friendships, and the slow work of redemption, Corby begins to piece together a new identity — not as the man he was, but as someone trying to earn a second chance. The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr Genre: Sci-Fi, MysterySynopsis: In the near future, most of humanity relies on a supercomputer named LLIAM to decide everything, from careers and marriages to life-or-death choices. But when LLIAM abruptly shuts down, society collapses into chaos: stock markets tank, airports freeze, and people no longer know what to do. Then the 'Confessions' begin: identical letters land in mailboxes worldwide, each starting with the chilling words, 'We must confess.' The letters expose hidden sins, murderers, cheaters, secret wrongdoers — all laid bare and igniting global panic. Desperate to stop the unraveling, LLIAM's creator, CEO Kaitlan Goss, turns to Maud Brookes, an ex-nun who helped teach LLIAM empathy. Together, they must coax the AI back online and contain the fallout. But when Maud herself receives a confession revealing Kaitlan's darkest secret, the pair spiral into a high-stakes battle of trust, truth, and survival as the world teeters on the edge. Wanting by Claire Jia Genre: Contemporary, Literary FictionSynopsis: Ye Lian, a driven professional in Beijing, has basically everything — a great job, a long-term boyfriend, and plans to buy a luxury condo. She's content, until her childhood best friend, Luo Wenyu, sweeps back into her life fresh from California. She's a social media influencer engaged to a Silicon Valley tech millionaire, with grand visions and a mansion to match. Suddenly, Lian's steady, secure life feels small in comparison. As the two reconnect, buried resentments and envy resurface. Wenyu drops a bombshell about her past with Lian's boyfriend, rattling Lian's sense of everything she's built. Meanwhile, aging architect Song Chen, who was hired to design Wenyu's dream home, grapples with his own unmet ambitions and a collapsing marriage. Their paths collide in a tense, emotional crossroad: Will they choose the comfortable life they know, or leap into the unknown desires that push them to redefine what success, and happiness really means? We Don't Talk About Carol by Kristen L. Berry Genre: Mystery, ThrillerSynopsis: When journalist Sydney Singleton returns to her North Carolina hometown after her grandmother's death, she stumbles on a decades-old family secret: a missing aunt named Carol no one ever talks about. What begins as a quiet trip home quickly spirals into a gripping mystery as Sydney digs into the truth behind Carol's disappearance, and the five other Black girls who vanished from the area in the 1960s. As Sydney's investigation deepens, so do the emotional stakes. With her own life at a crossroads, facing infertility and a stalled career, uncovering the past might be the only way she can reclaim her future. But the deeper she goes, the more resistance she faces from her family, the town, and even herself. A Mastery of Monsters by Liselle Sambury Genre: YA Fantasy, Dark AcademiaSynopsis: When August's brother and mother vanish one after the other, she's determined to find him, even if it means stepping into a world of dark secrets and supernatural threats. After being attacked by a massive creature, August realizes that monsters are real. Desperate for answers, she joins a secret society dedicated to controlling these beings. The key? She must partner with Virgil, a powerful 'monster' himself, in a deadly competition to gain acceptance and locate her brother. As August trains to master magic and navigate complex social politics, she grapples with her grief, racism, and the cost of power. With each challenge, she must decide how far she's willing to go and what she might lose in her quest to save her family and herself. It's a blood-soaked, emotionally charged dark academia fantasy where the line between monster and hero is as blurred as it is lethal. Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell Genre: Psychological Thriller, MysterySynopsis: Widow Nina Swann is reeling after her husband, a beloved restaurateur, is mysteriously pushed in front of a train. Enter Nick Radcliffe, an old friend of her late spouse who sends a condolence note and reconnects with Nina, sweeping her into a new romance that her grown daughter, Ash, immediately finds unsettling. While Ash digs into Nick's seemingly flawless past, she uncovers red flags and a dangerously long record of deception. Enter Martha, a florist in a nearby town, whose husband's frequent 'business trips' are wearing thin. Her instinct tells her something is very wrong. These three women — Nina, Ash, and Martha — find their lives entangled in a chilling conspiracy. As Nick (and possibly Martha's husband Alistair) reveal dark secrets, danger lurks closer than they could have imagined. This Book Might Be About Zinnia by Brittney Morris Genre: YA, ContemporarySynopsis: Set in 2024 and 2006, this dual‑timeline story intertwines two lives bound by secrets and longing: 2024 – Zinnia Davis, a biracial teen adopted by a wealthy white family, is applying to Harvard, but her college essay falls flat. When she reads a novel by her favorite author featuring a princess separated from her mother and bearing Zinnia's own heart-shaped birthmark, she suspects the writer could be her birth mother. 2006 – Tuesday Walker, a Black high schooler, struggles under her mother's pressure after reluctantly giving up her newborn daughter and grappling with the mystery of her absent father. As Zinnia races to uncover the truth in the present, and Tuesday fights to reclaim a lost journal and her sense of self, their stories echo across time. When hidden connections begin to surface, both teens must face family truths that could reshape their identities and their futures. Which book(s) are you most excited to read this summer? Even if it's not on this list, tell me about it in the comments!
Elle
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
The Books You Should Actually Be Reading This Summer, According to ELLE Editors
For those of us who believe a packed bag is never complete without two (or ten) books, summer is our time. Nothing compares to the euphoria of a wide-open weekend, warm weather, a good book, a good view, and a sweating glass of something close at hand. If you're craving such synergy, perhaps the trickiest question isn't even where to go; it's what to bring with you. Still, the very definition of 'beach read' is fluid, subject to your taste. With that in mind, ELLE editors have compiled a list of new summer books that run the gamut between realism and fantasy, romance and horror, literary and breezy—with the hopes you'll find a read to fit your itinerary. Without further ado, below are our picks for the best books of summer 2025, as defined by the months of June, July, and August. Don't forget your sunscreen. With contributions from Kayla Webley Adler, Sara Austin, Moriel Mizrahi Finder, Adrienne Gaffney, and Kathleen Hou. Out now. 'In S.A. Cosby's riveting crime thriller King of Ashes, investment manager Roman Carruthers wakes from a dream of his mother—who went missing when he and his siblings were teenagers—only to discover his father has been in a terrible accident. Roman returns home to the former manufacturing epicenter known as Jefferson Run, Virginia, where his sister, Neveah, is struggling to keep the family crematorium running. But it's their brother, Dante, who's in the worst trouble of their trio. As Roman and Neveah discover that their father's accident was no accident at all, they learn Dante is in debt to a dangerous local gang, and Roman's deep pockets might not be enough to placate them. The criminals want Roman's skills, and soon he's embedded with them, fighting for his family while wrestling with the morality—or lack thereof—of his choices. Cosby drives his readers through the story at full-throttle, and yet little ends up rushed: His characters are deeply crafted, and the issues at the heart of his epic are rightfully complex. This is yet another smash hit from the author of All the Sinners Bleed.'—Lauren Puckett-Pope, culture writer ''I grew up fully aware that my father was a brilliant man whose expertise I should never ever question. Did I believe that he was a good man? That's another question entirely,' writes Janelle Brown—from the perspective of her protagonist, Jane—in What Kind of Paradise, a perfect sort of immersive, tantalizing, thought-provoking summer read. The novel centers Jane, who grew up idolizing her father and adhering to his isolationism during her off-the-grid upbringing in mid-'90s rural Montana. But when he decides to publish an anti-tech manifesto and she becomes his inadvertent accomplice-in-crime, Jane ultimately makes a run for it. She lands in the tech mecca of San Francisco, where she hopes to learn the truth about her mother's long-ago death whilst immersing herself in the very technology her father condemns. A thriller and a coming-of-age saga, What Kind of Paradise is a gripping reckoning with family, AI, and what we do in the pursuit of progress.'—LPP Out now.'Early in Susan Choi's latest book, 10-year-old Louisa and her father disappear on a beach. Only one of them will eventually be found. What begins as a standard thriller veers in an unexpected direction as Louisa's parents' histories—her mother's estrangement from her American family and her father's from his in North Korea—become an inescapable factor in this story from the National Book Award-winning author of Trust Exercise. '—Adrienne Gaffney, features editor Out now. 'I'll Tell You When I'm Home is not a straightforward story, but neither is Hala Alyan's. Told in hundreds of bite-sized segments that give her memoir the rhythm of her poetry, Alyan threads together 11 chapters, each organized by a month in the growth cycle of a fetus. (For example, 'Month Three: Your baby has fingers and toes,' and 'Month Seven: Your baby is the size of a coconut.') These passages provide entry points for Alyan to organize—and attempt to make sense of—her ancestral history; her frequent displacement throughout childhood; her relationships; her struggles with addiction, disordered eating, and sobriety; and, after multiple miscarriages, her journey to have a child via surrogate. 'I have never not been Palestinian,' she writes in one section. 'That has never not been written upon my body.' And it is in the writing about her body—its history, its travel, its desires, its pains, its othering, its future, its continuation in the tiny form of her child—that Alyan triumphs. This is a beautiful, soul-bearing book.'—LPP Out now.'A recent college graduate, David Smith is torn between two identities—that of a wealthy Stanford grad and of a Black, queer man. When he's arrested for drug possession, he realizes that the world of elite misbehavior that his friends live in is one that he cannot fully join. Author Rob Franklin beautifully illustrates the bubbly excesses of youth coming up against the sobering realities of racism, addiction, and violence.'—AG Out now. 'A quick read—the kind you can definitely finish in a couple summer afternoons—Jess Walter's latest crackles with the author's wit, even whilst immersing itself in the thick of modern American woes. So Far Gone's protagonist is Rhys Kinnick, a former environmental journalist who opts for an off-the-grid lifestyle after a seismic clash with his son-in-law, a conspiracy theorist whose repeated tirades about 'secular globalists' and the 'lame-stream media' ultimately push Kinnick over the edge. But when, years later, his grandchildren show up outside Kinnick's door, their mother inexplicably missing, Kinnick is pulled into a zany adventure (with an equally entertaining ensemble cast) as he attempts to bring his family back together.'—LPP 'In this superb speculative tale from the author of Lakewood, seven strange and inexplicable portals appear in random locations around the planet. These portals inspire fear and awe and, in some, faith. Years after the doors' appearance, twin daughters Ayanna and Olivia live separately, each with a different parent: Ayanna with their father, who grew up in a religious group devoted to one of the portals, and Olivia with their mother, a traditional Roman Catholic. When Ayanna comes of age and is called to step through the portal, Olivia decides to join her—but then Olivia goes missing. Meet Me at the Crossroads is a stirring, meditative story of spirituality, family, and the desire to love deeply in a difficult world.'—LPP ''How do we not lose ourselves in love? How do we hold on to our beliefs and our ethics in the face of great feeling?' Melissa Febos proposed these questions to me during our ELLE interview last October, during which she announced her next book: The Dry Season, a memoir about her year abstaining from sex. As Febos put it, she spent that year 'trying to let go of this lineage that I think I had belonged to, involuntarily, of these overemotional, romantic people who were thrown around by love and romance and very obsessive and out of control. I spent this time looking for people who had big, self-actualized, beautiful, art-oriented lives that didn't necessarily exclude love, but weren't ruled by it—or at least by this romantic fantasy of it.' Her resulting memoir is indeed 'self-actualized, beautiful, and art-oriented,' weaving literary, cultural, and historical touchstones with her own experience. As Febos showed us with her previous books, including Girlhood and Body Work, it is always a privilege to ponder the big questions through her distinct lens.'—LPP 'After V. E. Schwab's 2020 bestseller The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue blew up during the pandemic, fans have eagerly awaited the next stand-alone adult novel from the author known for her grounded fantasy stories. In Bury Our Bones, which Schwab calls her 'toxic lesbian vampires' book, three women navigate centuries of blood lust in this portrait of queer identity, feminine resilience, and unrelenting thirst. This is without a doubt one of my favorite fantasies of the year.'—LPP Out now.''Few things have I been surer of: the woman at the front at the top row of my double decker is my mother.' And so Yrsa Daley-Ward introduces us to the central conceit at the heart of her debut novel, in which Clara, a high-profile author, sees her long-missing mother in the middle of London—and she looks far younger than her would-be 60-odd years. Who, then, is this woman? Clara's twin sister, Dempsey, thinks she is a con artist. Clara is less convinced. But the story only grows stranger when we learn this version of their mother is childless; she never gave birth to Clara or Dempsey. On top of that, Daley-Ward incorporates a book-within-a-book approach that plants pieces of Clara's blockbuster novel, Evidence, alongside her mother's writing. The results are strange, kaleidoscopic, smart—difficult to describe but hypnotic in their pull. The Catch is a mind-bending feat.'—LPP Out now.'I'll devour just about anything written by or about Toni Morrison, whose incomparable works of literature—including Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Sula, and so many others—continue to inspire readers decades after their publication. But I, along with many others, have understood Morrison mainly in this context: as an author. So it's a gift to peek behind the curtain of Morrison's indeed 'legendary' editorship at Random House (from 1965 through 1983) in Dana A. Williams's Toni at Random. This biography, of course, is intriguing for those of us obsessed with the ins and outs of publishing, but even readers less inclined to weigh the industry's merits will find material to appreciate in Williams's account. Although the book skews occasionally academic, Toni at Random is also a balanced and fascinatingly well-researched account of Morrison's editorial vision—and how it still impacts what we read today.'—LPP 'Despite having no sisters, I love and crave stories of sisterhood. And Kakigori Summer is a tale of sisterhood as delicious and finely textured as the shaved-ice dessert its protagonists relish in, and from which the book draws its title. Bittersweet, nostalgic, and easy to envision, Emily Itami's novel introduces us to three sisters: Rei, a driven finance worker in London; Kiki, a Tokyo-based single mother and retirement home employee; and Ali, a J-pop star whose scandalous kiss with a married man draws the paparazzi a little too close. Rei and Kiki rush in to offer Ali some much-needed insulation, and the three escape to the coastal Japanese town where their grandmother still resides. Over the course of the summer, they reckon with their relationship to one another, as well as the loss of their mother years prior. The coastal setting is itself a character in this book, and perhaps one of the book's biggest selling points—Itami makes the landscape feel as real as the bond between the sisters. A lovely, tender-hearted tale.'—LPP 'In this whimsical beach read from Ashley Poston, known for her magical love stories, songwriter Joni Lark is suffering from a bout of writer's block. She heads home to North Carolina, where her parents want to close the family-owned music venue. But then Joni realizes she has a telepathic connection with a has-been musician. Can they use their link to write the perfect song—and save the summer?'—LPP 'Taylor Jenkins Reid's latest heroine is going to space. In 1980, astrophysics professor Joan's unexpected selection for NASA's Space Shuttle program puts her in line to be one of the first female astronauts. Atmosphere tells Joan's gripping, sensitive, and romantic story of finding love in a career where disaster is a constant threat.'—AG 'A gorgeous queer literary romance, Marie Rutkoski's Ordinary Love depicts the second-chance romance between former teenage girlfriends Emily and Gen. Years have passed since their relationship ended, and Emily is now married with two children, an Upper East Side townhouse, and an abusive hedge-fund-manager husband she met at Harvard. Gen, meanwhile, is a world-renowned Olympic athlete. When Emily and Gen reunite, much has changed about them both—but the chemistry between them remains. As Emily wrestles with a separation from her husband and all that it portends, she must also contend with Gen's reappearance in her life. There is still anger and hurt between them, and Emily isn't sure she can handle any more emotional damage after years of her husband's abuse. But the connection Gen and Emily share is maybe, just maybe, worth fighting to keep.'—LPP Out June 24. 'Within the first few pages of Hal Ebbott's debut novel Among Friends, I knew I needed to go scrounge up a highlighter. There are so many of Ebbott's lines that sing, each of them elegant and insightful in their clarity. (Here's one favorite: 'They were like scars, these talents, like things learned in war: even when they were of use, part of her wished not to know.') The book depicts the seemingly effortless friendship between two families—and particularly between their two patriarchs, Amos and Emerson, who first met in college. Although their backgrounds couldn't be more different, they are drawn together, their trust implicit and undeniable. Decades later, they remain close friends, as are their wives and daughters, and the families reunite for a weekend upstate—a yearly tradition amongst their group. But when one of them chooses to wield their power in a shocking act of abuse, they each are given a choice: Continue as if nothing's happened, or reckon with the rot that's always been present in their lives. Among Friends is utterly engrossing; I'm already begging my friends to read it so we can discuss the ending.'—LPP 'By now Lisa Jewell is well-beloved for the addicting quality of her thrillers, and her latest, Don't Let Him In, is no exception. From the first page, the book feels taut with danger, its characters tangled in a web they can't yet recognize. The plot is shaped like a classic domestic suspense: A man is not who he says he is. (He is, in fact, utterly awful!) But the identity of that man is not initially known to the women in his life, including a widow named Nina, her daughter, Ash, and a local florist named Martha, whose lives unexpectedly intersect when this man's charm proves a horrible facade. I can't reveal much more without spoiling Jewell's twists, but suffice to say, this is one of those gripping beach reads sure to keep you flipping the pages on your next flight.'—LPP Out June 24. 'Adela's parents are furious when she becomes pregnant at 16, and they quickly send her to live with her grandmother in Florida. But what was intended as a punishment turns into something beautiful. What she finds in her new home is an incredible community of teenage moms, girls who have been looked down on by their community but who have created a family together. Mottley shows that while young mothers face incredible challenges, their lives can still be full of extraordinary love and joy.'—AG Out June 24.'Leesa Cross-Smith—the author behind Half-Blown Rose and This Close to Okay, among others—turns her eye for intimate connection toward three Americans adrift in Seoul in As You Wish. Lydia, Jenny, and Selene have arrived as au pairs hoping to rewrite their own scripts: Lydia longs for a main-character life, Jenny is determined to put romance firmly in the rear view, and Selene believes South Korea holds the key to finding the birth mother she's never met. Their paths—and secret wishes—intertwine on a weekend trip to a mythic waterfall said to grant desires. When one of them circles back for a do-over, the ripple effect forces all three to reckon with what they truly want and what they're willing to risk for it, turning a fizzy drama into something richer: a meditation on friendship as the greatest magic of all. The result is a cozy escape that reminds us every wish carries its own shadow—and that sometimes the happiest ending is finding the people who understand yours.'—Moriel Mizrahi Finder, editorial assistant 'Pitched as Love Island meets Lord of the Flies—which, woof, that's enough of a heady concoction to draw in readers already—Aisling Rawle's debut is an intoxicating literary suspense. It takes place on the set of a reality dating competition—filmed in a desert compound sometime in a dystopian future—in which an uneven number of male and female contestants must compete to spend each night with someone of the opposite sex. Along the way, they must complete tasks and competitions for rewards. Some are relatively harmless ('Wear another girl's clothes without asking'), while others ('Banish a couple from the compound') veer darker. At the center of this game is Lily, who is young, beautiful, and content to do whatever it takes to win. A slow-burning but scathing assessment of consumerism, vanity, and our deep-rooted desires to perform.'—LPP
Business Wire
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Wire
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy Claims Top Spot on Amazon's Best Books of 2025 So Far List
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ: AMZN) today revealed the Amazon Books Editors' Best Books of the Year So Far list, with Charlotte McConaghy's taut, psychological novel Wild Dark Shore earning the coveted No. 1 position. The Amazon Books Editors describe the novel as 'leaving you breathless, wide-eyed, and in awe of the extraordinary power of fiction.' Rounding out the top five selections are King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby, No More Tear s: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris, The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, and Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. The Amazon Books Editors recommend titles from the widest selection of books available to make it convenient for customers to discover new titles. Share The Amazon Books Editors recommend titles from the widest selection of books available to make it convenient for customers to discover new titles that will delight, inspire, and educate. The Editors read thousands of books annually across genres to inform their Best Books of the Month, Best Books of the Year So Far, and Best Books of the Year selections, as well as publishing themed round-ups and author interviews on the Amazon Book Review. The Best Books of the Year So Far list showcases their top 20 picks from January through June, along with the top 20 books in popular categories including literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers, romance, history, biographies and memoirs, cookbooks, and children's books. This year, the Amazon Editors also added the top 20 books in romantasy and discovery reads (debut novels). Wild Dark Shore joins an illustrious lineup of previous Best Books of the Year So Far No. 1 selections, including James by Percival Everett, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, and Educated by Tara Westover. McConaghy's work is no stranger to the Amazon Editors. Her debut novel, Migrations, was named the Amazon Editors No. 1 Pick for the best fiction book in 2020. Upon learning that her novel was named the Best Book of the Year So Far, Charlotte McConaghy remarked, 'I'm so grateful for this honor. It moves me deeply to think of my novel making its way into the hands of readers, and for encouraging that I'd like to thank the wonderful editorial team at Amazon.' 'Selecting the Best Books of the Year So Far is a tireless—and fun—process for the Amazon Books Editors. Over thousands of hours, we read across genres from authors both new and established, searching for the very best books that make us smile, think, cry, cringe, and pique our sense of wonder,' said Sarah Gelman, editorial director, Amazon Books. 'Our top pick of the year so far, Wild Dark Shore, is a novel that masterfully evoked each of these emotions in our team, and beautifully highlights the imperfections of human nature even when we have the best intentions.' Below are the top 10 literary standouts of 2025 so far. To explore the complete Best Books of the Year So Far list, visit and check out the Amazon Book Review for in-depth reviews of the books on our list. Book enthusiasts can also join an Amazon Live conversation with Charlotte McConaghy, author of the No. 1 selection Wild Dark Shore, on Tuesday, June 10 at 4:30 p.m. ET. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy: 'Shot from a cannon in the dark, Wild Dark Shore is a novel that hooks you from the start and doesn't let you go until the last page; it will leave you breathless, wide-eyed, and in awe of the extraordinary power of fiction. McConaghy's exquisite gift is that she creates characters that you know you shouldn't trust with your whole heart, but you do anyway. The result is a gutting, magnificent story of the things people will do—or won't do—for the people and things they care about.' —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby: 'In King of Ashes, S.A. Cosby conjures up a prodigal son tale with a little of The Godfather in its DNA, but this is S.A. Cosby we're talking about, so it's both business and personal, with all the family secrets, hubris, conflicts, brotherly love, lethal betrayals, and retribution that involves. He's firing on all cylinders here and we couldn't be happier to be along for another great ride.' —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris: 'This exposé into one of America's most trusted companies is mind-blowing. Just as you'll be appalled by the villains, you'll also be inspired by the brave whistleblowers who put their careers, and possibly lives, on the line to bring truth to light. A must-read.' —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong: ''Life is good when we do good things for each other.' This Dostoyevsky quote provides a powerful refrain for Vuong's moving sophomore novel. If he wasn't already referred to as 'the patron saint of the lonely,' this story would earn him that moniker.' —Erin Kodicek, Amazon Editor Sunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel) by Suzanne Collins: ' Sunrise on the Reaping took me back to the thrill of reading The Hunger Games years ago. With the backstory of Haymitch Abernathy and the 50th Hunger Games, this action-packed popcorn read also has a dark kernel you'll chew on long after the shocking end.' —Seira Wilson, Amazon Editor The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley: 'This beautifully told novel about three teen moms in the Florida Panhandle is a banner example of what the best fiction can do: put us in other people's shoes, challenge our thinking, and expand our empathy.' —Erin Kodicek, Amazon Editor Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks: 'Emotional, pragmatic, and filled with the keen observations of a literary luminary's broken heart, Geraldine Brooks' memoir is a euphoric love story, and a meditation on grief and curiosity…Incandescent and necessary.' —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor Dead Money by Jakob Kerr: 'So much fun. Set among Silicon Valley's tech bros, this twisty closed-door mystery follows Mackenzie as she races to solve a CEO's murder. Is she in over her head, or does she know more than she lets on? This is a one-sitting read that's slick, cynical, and surprising, with an absolutely delicious last line.' —Abby Abell, Amazon Editor Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid: 'This heart-wrenching and exhilarating journey to the cosmos masterfully captures both the thrill of space exploration and the complexities of human connection. Atmosphere is a testament to resilience and how far we'll go to chase our dreams, even when those dreams seem as distant as the stars.' —Kami Tei, Amazon Editor Matriarch: A Memoir by Tina Knowles: 'Come for Beyoncé, but—trust me—you'll stay for Tina. Tina Knowles is a force of a nature, which is why we devoured this memoir in one sitting, and discovered why it was almost inevitable that this driven, creative, and savvy businesswoman would raise two girls who would reshape American music—and culture.' —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor About Amazon Books Editors The Amazon Books Editors are a group of literary experts with extensive experience spanning publishing, journalism, and communications. They read thousands of books every year across genres to help customers discover their next favorite read, and put together Best Books of the Month, Best Books of the Year So Far, and Best Books of the Year lists on Amazon. To read Editor reviews, discover recommendations of new books in popular categories, and explore author interviews, visit the Amazon Book Review. You can also follow the Amazon Books Editors' recommendations and conversations @amazonbooks on Instagram and Facebook. About Amazon Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth's Best Employer, and Earth's Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit and follow @AmazonNews.
Irish Independent
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
New crime novels and thrillers to read this June, featuring Stephen King and the final novel from Denzil Meyrick
Reviewed this month: Never Flinch by Stephen King, King of Ashes by SA Cosby, Last Orders by Denzil Meyrick and The White Crow by Michael Robotham Our thriller and crime critic Myles McWeeney on the best new novels to read this month.
