Best Books to Read This Summer
The Other Black Girl
by Zakiya Delila Harris
Two young Black women, Nella and Hazel, meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing. While working together at Wagner Books, they've only just started swapping natural hair-care tips when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to office darling, and leaves Nella in the dust.
Intimacies
by Katie Kitamura
A novel from the author of A Separation, an electrifying story about a woman caught between many truths. An interpreter has come to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. A woman of many languages and identities, she is looking for a place to finally call home.
Seven Days in June
by Tia Williams
Two writers reunite 15 years after an intense, weeklong affair changed both of their lives. Eva Mercy is the successful author of a long-running erotica series with a devoted fan base, but as the deadline for the 15th book approaches, she has to admit she's run out of ideas.
The Maidens
by Alex Michaelides
In The Maidens, Mariana finds herself the on idyllic campus of Cambridge University after her niece Zoe's closest friend, Tara, has been murdered. Zoe believes the murderer is Professor Edward Fosca, the handsome and popular Greek tragedy professor on campus.
When No One Is Watching
by Alyssa Cole
Through the story of one woman defending her home and her neighborhood, Cole dramatizes the economic displacement caused by racialized capitalism, as well as the petty skirmishes that take place between new settlers and old, between Black and white, on a daily basis in places like Fort Greene and Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn.
The Star Side of Bird Hill
by Naomi Jackson
After their mother can no longer care for them, young Phaedra and her older sister, Dionne, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados to live with their grandmother Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah.
When the father they barely know comes to Bird Hill to reclaim his daughters, and both Phaedra and Dionne must choose between the Brooklyn they once knew and loved or the Barbados of their family.
A Slow Fire Burning
by Paula Hawkins
When a young man is found gruesomely murdered in a London houseboat, it triggers questions about three women who knew him. Laura is the troubled one-night-stand last seen in the victim's home. Carla is his grief-stricken aunt, already mourning the recent death of yet another family member.
Grown
by Tiffany D. Jackson
When Enchanted Jones wakes with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night, no one—the police and Korey’s fans included—has more questions than she does. All she really knows is that this isn't how things are supposed to be. Korey was Enchanted’s ticket to stardom.
Survive the Night
by Riley Sager
College student Charlie is desperate to return home to Ohio after suffering a tragic loss: her best friend at college was brutally murdered, the victim of a serial killer known as the “Campus Killer.” Reeling from the grief and trauma of this loss, all Charlie wants to do is go home—and go home fast.
