Books to Read: May through August
We bring you the list of best books that have come out since May through August. Enjoy!!
May:
Non-fiction
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer
by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury) The author of the bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher focuses again on a Victorian murder case. This one, dating from 1895, revolves around the suspicious actions of a 13-year-old boy. Was he the villain? The criminal trial gripped the nation.
Politics
by Nick Clegg (Bodley Head) Does the former deputy prime minister regret the coalition, given the Liberal Democrats’ brutal defeat in last year’s election? And will he tell all in this study of British politics? The publishers promise that it is a “candid account” that will “lift the lid on Westminster and Whitehall”.
Enough Said: Politics, Media and the Crisis in Public Language
by Mark Thompson (Bodley Head) The former director general of the BBC contemplates how to discuss serious issues in an age of information overload.
Fiction
Zero K
by Don DeLillo (Picador) “We are born without choosing to be. Should we have to die in the same manner?” DeLillo’s latest tackles fate and mortality head-on as a billionaire with a terminally ill wife tries to cheat death through science.
The Fireman
by Joe Hill (Gollancz) Stephen King’s son has built his own career as a horror writer extraordinaire. His new book takes us to a world in which spontaneous combustion threatens the survival of humanity.
Non-fiction
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer
by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury) The author of the bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher focuses again on a Victorian murder case. This one, dating from 1895, revolves around the suspicious actions of a 13-year-old boy. Was he the villain? The criminal trial gripped the nation.
Politics
by Nick Clegg (Bodley Head) Does the former deputy prime minister regret the coalition, given the Liberal Democrats’ brutal defeat in last year’s election? And will he tell all in this study of British politics? The publishers promise that it is a “candid account” that will “lift the lid on Westminster and Whitehall”.
Enough Said: Politics, Media and the Crisis in Public Language
by Mark Thompson (Bodley Head) The former director general of the BBC contemplates how to discuss serious issues in an age of information overload.
The Bones of Grace
by Tahmima Anam (Canongate) An epic love story from one of Granta’s best young British novelists.
June:
Fiction
Vinegar Girl
by Anne Tyler (Hogarth Shakespeare) Tyler has said that her 2015 Man Booker-shortlisted novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, would be her last – but here she offers her contribution to Shakespeare’s anniversary year: a “funny, offbeat” version of The Taming of the Shrew.
The Essex Serpent
by Sarah Perry (Serpent’s Tail) Perry’s singular debut, After Me Comes the Flood, was longlisted for the Guardian first book award. Her second book takes the reader to Victorian London and Essex, animating a time of intense religious and scientific debate through the relationship between a widow and a vicar.
A Quiet Life
by Natasha Walter (Borough) From the author of non-fiction titles The New Feminism and Living Dolls comes a novel inspired by the story of Melinda Marling, the American wife of Cambridge spy Donald Maclean. It’s described by Walter as “a story of cold war espionage, but above all the story of a woman’s survival”.
Barskins
by Annie Proulx (4th Estate) A decade in the writing, this epic about taming the wilderness from the author of Brokeback Mountain spans three centuries.
The City of Mirrors
by Justin Cronin (Orion) The blockbusting apocalyptic vampire trilogy that began with The Passage concludes.
July:
Non-fiction
You Hide That You Hate Me and I Hide That I Know
by Philip Gourevitch (Allen Lane) A return to Rwanda from the author of the groundbreaking book about the 1994 genocide We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.
Pinpoint: How GPS Is Changing Our World
by Greg Milner (Granta) Milner charts the progress of the Global Positioning System from its origins as bomb guidance technology.
Peacock and Vine
by AS Byatt (Chatto & Windus) An illustrated essay on William Morris and the Spanish fashion designer Mariano Fortuny.
Fiction
The Muse
by Jessie Burton (Picador) From the author of bestselling debut The Miniaturist comes a story set in 1930s Spain and 1960s London, featuring a mysterious painting that connects a Caribbean immigrant and a bohemian artist.
The Transmigration of Bodies
by Yuri Herrara (And Other Stories) An exuberant Mexican noir about the effects of gang violence from the author of Signs Preceding the End of the World.
The Girls
by Emma Cline (Chatto & Windus) Billed as one of the most high-profile debuts of the year – Scott Rudin has already acquired the film rights – The Girls focuses on Evie, a bored 14-year-old in the summer of 1969 who becomes drawn to a mysterious commune with similarities to the Manson Family.
August:
Non-fiction
The Prime Minister of Paradise
by John Jeremiah Sullivan (Jonathan Cape) The celebrated essay writer has spent two decades researching this tale of a utopian society in 18th-century America.
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
by Ed Yong (Bodley Head) The debut from a much talked about Atlantic journalist and science blogger – whose TED talk on parasites has had 1.3m views – tackles the subject of how microbes influence the lives of every animal, from humans to squid to wasps.
Play All: A Binge-Watcher’s Notebook
by Clive James (Yale) James made his name as a TV critic and he returns to the medium in a “joyful encounter” with box sets and on‑demand channels, arguing for the virtues of The Sopranos, House of Cards and other prestigious series: they hold the position in our culture that classic literature did in previous times.
Fiction
Autumn
by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton) Smith is on a roll at the moment – a new novel follows last year’s Baileys winner How to Be Both and the short story collection Public Library.
Augustown
by Kei Miller (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) The new novel from the winner of the 2014 Forward poetry prize, set in Jamaica’s poverty stricken underbelly, links one boy’s story to the birth of the Rastafari movement.
Dirt Road
by James Kelman (Canongate) Thanks to a publishing move, Kelman describes his new book as “the first original publication I have had in Scotland in 30 years”; but although his story begins on a Scottish island, it also journeys to the American South. A film version will appear at the same time.
