Today's Top Stories 1 The Best Green Beauty of 2020 2 The Best Books of Summer 2020 3 Now That You're Alone, Try A Natural Deodorant 4 The Unexpected Things Keeping ELLE Editors Sane 5 12 Candles to Make You Forget You're Stuck at Home
We’re navigating new and unpredictable times—arguably stranger than fiction. But, perhaps for that reason, there’s no better moment to dive into a world other than our own, whether it's conjured by novel, memoir, non-fiction, or a hybrid. We need the insight, the connection, and the solace of the written word.
Maybe you’re unsure whether your next beach read will be at an actual beach this year. Rest assured: no matter where you’re reading, this summer promises legendary literary talent that will transport you, even if only in your mind. Beloved writers including Elena Ferrante and Jasmine Guillory return with their special brands of savory and sweet, while spectacular new voices such as Megha Majumdar and Emily Temple pave the way for where we’ll go next. After combing through dozens of upcoming releases, we’ve narrowed it down to the books we think will bring you the most joy, insight, and adventure this summer. These are the worlds we're most excited to explore.
Advertisement – Continue Reading Below 1 A Burning by Megha Majumdar amazon.com $25.95 Shop Now
Release Date: June 2
Megha Majumdar’s simmering, ambitious debut follows three seemingly separate characters whose lives intertwine after a terrorist attack on a train in India. Jivan, a Muslim girl raised in the slums, is accused of inciting the attack, and her case is only aggravated by PT Sir, a gym teacher who enmeshes himself in right-wing politics. Meanwhile, Lovely, an outcast with big dreams, realizes she can save Jivan—if she’s willing to make an enormous sacrifice.
2 The Book of Rosy: A Mother’s Story of Separation at the Border by Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schwietert Collazo amazon.com $26.99 Shop Now
Release Date: June 2
This book promises to be everything Jeanine Cummins’ controversial novel American Dirt wasn’t—and, this time, it’s all true. When Rosy Cruz decides to flee her violence-ridden home in Guatemala for the United States, she takes two of her children on an impossible journey to the Arizona border. There, instead of finding peace, they are ripped apart by border officials implementing President Trump’s new “zero tolerance” policy. As she connects with Immigrant Families Together founder Julie Collazo (who shares in the storytelling), Cruz reveals the extent of the horror at the border facilities, and offers hope in the face of desperate odds.
3 The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett amazon.com $27.00 $16.39 (39% off) Shop Now
Release Date: June 2
This is sure to be one of 2020’s best and boldest from the author of The Mothers. Identical twin sisters Stella and Desiree are born in a small Southern community in the 1960s and decide to run away from home at 16 and carve out new lives in New Orleans. But as they turn down separate paths, Desiree returns home with her daughter, while Stella conjures a life of secrecy as a black woman passing as white. A tale of family, identity, race, history, and perception, Bennett’s next masterpiece is a triumph of character-driven narrative.
4 Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan $27.99 Shop Now
Release Date: June 2
A love story packed with irony and introspection, Naoise Dolan’s story of gender, class, and relationship dynamics in Hong Kong is reminiscent of Sally Rooney’s greatest hits. After schoolteacher Ava arrives in China from Dublin, she enters into an easy, unexciting quasi-relationship with banker Julian, who likes to buy her lavish gifts that, despite her feminist guilt, she’s inclined to accept. But then she meets Edith, a dazzling lawyer whom she can’t help desiring deeply. When Julian arrives back on the scene, Ava must choose between comfort and courage.
5 The Dragons, The Giant, The Women by Wayétu Moore amazon.com $26.00 Shop Now
Release Date: June 2
As the migrant experience becomes crushingly more common around the world, stories such as The Dragons, The Giant, The Women remind us just how personal and painful these displacements are. Growing up in Liberia, Moore’s family is forced to flee an outbreak of war, and only after a rebel soldier smuggles them to Sierra Leone can they begin the journey to America. After settling in Texas, Moore reflects on the homes she’s already lost—and how to find them again.
6 You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat amazon.com $26.00 $20.28 (22% off) Shop Now
Release Date: June 9
For anyone who’s ever felt their body or identity takes up too much space, this deeply affecting story of doubt and and love is a gut-punch and a solace. Arafat’s protagonist, a young Palestinian-American woman, grows from an anxious teen who's recently come into her sexuality to an aspiring author and DJ living with her girlfriend in Brooklyn. But her intense need to connect (and her years of bottled-up desires) draw her into a series of dangerous encounters, and she soon lands at The Ledge, a treatment center for “love addiction.”
7 Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier amazon.com $12.99 Shop Now
Release Date: June 9
A riotously funny yet difficult story of two women in opposite life stages but similar mental states, Pizza Girl follows an 18-year-old pregnant pizza delivery girl floundering in suburban Los Angeles. She encounters Jenny, a middle-aged stay-at-home mom who orders pickle-covered pizzas for her son every week. Obsessed with this tiny oddity, our Pizza Girl realizes she and Jenny might collide in more ways than one.
8 The Lightness by Emily Temple amazon.com $26.99 Shop Now
Release Date: June 16
A senior editor at Literary Hub, Emily Temple took some time away from writing about books to write her own, and I've been dying to get my hands on it. In search of her missing father, Olivia follows his path to the so-called Levitation Center. There, she joins a program with several girls attempting ultimate enlightenment: the ability to levitate. But physics and faith make these fledgling bonds more complicated than they seem, and the girls are bound for danger if they continue.
9 A Short Move by Katherine Hill amazon.com $16.95 Shop Now
Release Date: June 16
In 1971, a high school football star leaves behind his pregnant girlfriend. Six years later, his son discovers his athletic talent and later earns a ticket to the NFL, where he becomes a triumphant middle linebacker for the New England Patriots. But as his body deteriorates from the intensity of pro football, his relationships start succumbing to the pressure. So what matters more? Success? Or survival?
10 Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory amazon.com $11.99 Shop Now
Release Date: June 23
Here’s your all-important beach read of the summer. No one does heart-fluttering romance with wit and insight like bestseller Jasmine Guillory. In her latest installment of The Wedding Date series, protagonist Olivia Monroe moves to LA to start her own law firm—not to meet the frustratingly attractive junior senator Max Powell. But after discovering Max is more than his hotshot job makes him out to be, Olivia realizes she’ll have to navigate life as a public figure if she wants to be with him beyond the first few dates.
11 Nine Shiny Objects by Brian Castleberry amazon.com $27.99 Shop Now
Release Date: June 30
Summer 2020 seems marked by literary ambition, and Brian Castleberry’s debut is no different: It’s about the (possible) discovery of aliens, a hitchhiking journey west, a ragtag community designed to erase divisions of race and sexuality, and the crime that erupts among them. This is a story about how our individual histories follow us, about light versus dark, but also about our clouded perception of America—and how it continues to divide us.
12 Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh amazon.com $24.26 Shop Now
Release Date: June 30
From the powerful imagination behind The Water Cure comes Blue Ticket, a Handmaid’s Tale-esque dip into the fraught choice of motherhood—and what it really looks like when that decision is made for us. In the protagonist’s world, this choice is made by lottery. Once you start your period, you draw a ticket. If it’s white, you’ll get married and have children. If it’s blue, you’ll have a career and no family. Calla, who draws a blue ticket, begins to question this choice, and after becoming pregnant, she’s forced on the run.
13 It Is Wood, It Is Stone by Gabriella Burnham amazon.com $26.00 Shop Now
Release Date: June 30
I’ll be honest: I would recommend this book based on the cover alone. Thankfully, the story inside is equally gorgeous, following three women in São Paulo: the anxious and listless Linda; her conflicted but steady maid, Marta; and Celia, an intoxicating artist with whom Linda leaves home. A lush depiction of privilege and power, sex and stability, It Is Wood, It Is Stone is an elegant arrival of a new talent.
14 Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia amazon.com $27.00 $20.02 (26% off) Shop Now
Release Date: June 30
I first read Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s nostalgic Signal To Noise in 2015, and I’ve been hunting the shelves for more ever since. She’s back with a glamorous gothic suspense set in a deliciously imagined 1950s Mexico—specifically inside the walls of the High Place, a mansion in the countryside where protagonist Noemi’s cousin is facing a dangerous fate. Sign me up immediately.
15 How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue amazon.com $28.00 Shop Now
Release Date: July 7
Imbolo Mbue’s revelatory novel of a fictional African village ruined by Big Oil is a mighty addition to the stacks. In Kusawa, pipeline spills and toxic water make everyday living impossible, and a corrupt government refuses assistance. Desperate, the people take the revolution into their own hands.
16 Want by Lynn Steger Strong amazon.com $25.99 Shop Now
Release Date: July 7
A smart, sharp novel reminiscent of the author’s tremendous essays for Catapult, Want is about a bankrupt working mother and wife who, well, wants things—like a successful career and the ability to be angry without it paralyzing her. And so she reunites with Sasha, a childhood friend, only to discover Sasha is facing the same uncertainty.
17 The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones Gallery / Saga Press amazon.com $26.99 $18.39 (32% off) Shop Now
Release Date: July 14
If a little heart-racing horror is the only thing getting you out of your own head right now, wow, is this startling novel for you. When a horrific childhood event puts their lives in danger, four Indigenous American men try to create their own futures. Instead, the cultures and traditions they grew up with follow them in unusual, terrifying ways.
18 Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman Simon & Schuster amazon.com $26.00 Shop Now
Release Date: July 14
Confession: Call Your Girlfriend podcast co-host Ann Friedman went to my alma mater, and ever since she gave a presentation to a few of us sweaty, starry-eyed juniors, I’ve been following her newsletter like a lovelorn puppy. And she always delivers. Here, Friedman and CYG co-host and longtime best friend Aminatou Sow offer a deeply funny and immensely heartfelt look into what makes a friendship last despite time, distance, trials and major life changes.
19 Well-Behaved Indian Women by Saumya Dave amazon.com $16.00 Shop Now
Release Date: July 14
A lovely story that both soothes and challenges, Well-Behaved Indian Women chronicles the lives of three generations of women. Simran, the youngest, wants to be a writer, to her mother’s chagrin. That mother, Nandini, is a doctor who’s done everything she can to give her family the American Dream, despite the pressure it places on her. And Mimi, Nandini’s mother, is trying to make up for her fractured relationship with Nandini by connecting with Simran. Set in Manhattan, this is a tender tale that never shies away from the tension at its root.
20 Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell amazon.com $30.00 $17.83 (41% off) Shop Now
Release Date: July 14
David Mitchell, the imaginative and award-winning author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks, spins a web of music and money with a psychedelic British band finding fame and fallout in the ‘60s. Treading similar ground to 2019’s Daisy Jones & The Six but incorporating Mitchell’s beloved multiverse and his signature sweeping style, this one is bound to top the charts.
21 Afterland by Lauren Beukes Mulholland Books amazon.com $28.00 $17.79 (36% off) Shop Now
Release Date: July 28
In Afterland, the world is run by women. A mysterious pandemic—agh, that word again—has destroyed the vast majority of the male population, and women are desperate to keep the human race alive. Men are valuable, and so protagonist Cole must protect her son, Miles, by disguising him as a girl. Of course, an army of dangerous people are after them, including Cole’s own sister.
22 I Hold A Wolf By The Ears: Stories by Laura Van Den Berg amazon.com $26.00 Shop Now
Release Date: July 28
Laura Van Den Berg has the uncanny ability to see what the rest of us cannot, and her newest story collection, the hauntingly titled I Hold A Wolf By The Ears, is a seductive, eerie plunge that subverts the mundane. In one story, a man feeds his wife sedative-laced seltzer to calm her nerves. In another, a young actress is paid to impersonate deceased wives for their widowers. As ever, Van Den Berg is unafraid of the fearsome, and she forces her readers to always look a little closer at the monsters within.
23 The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi amazon.com $27.00 Shop Now
Release Date: August 4
The title of this extraordinary novel poses the question, Who is Vivek Oji, and how did they die? Of course, we know how this sad, spiritual story ends, but how we get there is a testament to Emezi’s immense literary prowess.
24 Luster by Raven Leilani amazon.com $26.00 Shop Now
Release Date: August 4
Darkly funny with wicked insight, Luster is the story of Edie, a young artist living in Bushwick who starts dating Eric, a digital archivist in an open marriage. When Evie is let go from her admin job, she finds herself becoming more entwined in Eric’s family life—and the racial dynamics that come with it—than she anticipated. This keenly observed, dynamic debut is so cutting, it almost stings.
25 Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy amazon.com $26.99 Shop Now
Release Date: August 4
I’m a sucker for a complicated narrator, and Franny Stone might be the queen of them all. In this tantalizingly beautiful epic, Franny’s life has been marked by secrets and loss, and so she turns to where she cannot reach: the skies. Transfixed by birds, Franny boards a ship in Greenland to pursue the world’s last flock of Arctic terns. But the longer their journey continues, the more the crew begins to wonder about all that Franny is hiding.
26 Belabored: A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women by Lyz Lenz Bold Type Books amazon.com $26.00 $17.31 (33% off) Shop Now
Release Date: August 11
Cedar Rapids Gazette columnist and God Land author Lyz Lenz returns with this searing look into the maternal death crisis facing America, as well as the policies and prejudices that push pregnant women into corners. Tracing our current cultural ideologies back to their historical roots, she makes a startling case for changing our mindset toward childbirth—and empowering the women who endure it.
27 The New Wilderness by Diane Cook amazon.com $27.99 Shop Now
Release Date: August 11
Bea and her young daughter, Agnes, live in the City, but it's dangerous and overrun by pollution that’s slowly killing Agnes. The only alternative is the Wilderness State, the last parcel of protected land in the country. Human interference there is forbidden, until a scientific study opens up and Bea leaps to join.
28 This Is The Night Our House Will Catch Fire by Nick Flynn amazon.com $22.15 Shop Now
Release Date: August 25
“You have the ethics of a drowning man,” Nick Flynn’s therapist tells him during one of their sessions, as his marriage and family ties threaten to rip apart. When he was a child, Nick's troubled mother set fire to their family home, and her suicide haunts him years later. He enters into a tumultuous five-year affair, which he spells out in this book with intricate, soul-deep detail, plumbing the depths of his memory to lay bare all he’s done wrong—and all that he can still make right.
29 Sisters by Daisy Johnson amazon.com $26.00 Shop Now
Release Date: August 25
Daisy Johnson is the youngest writer ever to have be short-listed for the Booker prize, and with good reason. Her newest release follows sisters July and September, who start to drift apart as they enter a new life in an isolated home with their single mother. Exploring the fraught dynamics of blood and betrayal, Sisters is yet another Johnson masterpieces.
30 The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante amazon.com $26.00 $17.31 (33% off) Shop Now
Release Date: September 1
Naples again serves as a character in this Ferrante tale, which explores young Giovanna’s search for her identity in the city's starkly differing halves. There's no doubt this will be the literary event of the year.
Lauren Puckett Lauren Puckett is a writer and assistant for Hearst Magazines, where she covers culture and lifestyle. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below Pregnant on the Front Lines Joyce Carol Oates' Harrowing Vision of the Future Advertisement – Continue Reading Below Greta Thunberg Doesn't Want Your Pep Talks The Invisible Victims of the Pandemic 'The Hate U Give' Is Getting a Prequel In 2021 'My Dark Vanessa' Asks, What's Reality Anymore? 27 Books You'll See All Over Instagram in 2020 There's Nothing Effortless About Being a Woman I Refuse to Punish Myself for Cheating Jenny Offill Maps an Ambient Dread
