10 hot books for summer reading, from Bill Clinton/James Patterson to Ruth Ware
Summer is off to a promising start with new thrillers by Stephen King (The Outsider) and Jessica Knoll (The Favorite Sister) already in stores. But there’s more to come to keep you reading through beach season. USA TODAY offers 10 hot new titles for fiction and non-fiction lovers.
1. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware (Scout Press, fiction, on sale May 29)
What it’s about: Harriet Westaway knows something’s amiss when she learns she has inherited a large sum of money from a “Mrs. Westaway” (her own grandmother is long dead), but she plans to use her tarot-reading skills to con her way to the money.
Why it’s hot: This British writer knows how to hook crime-novel/psychological suspense fans: Her The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016) and The Lying Game (2017) were both Top 10 USA TODAY best sellers.
2. The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson (Little, Brown/Knopf, fiction, on sale June 4)
What it’s about: We’ll let Patterson describe the plot, as he does in the trailer for this thriller: “It’s about a United States president who’s involved in a terrifying world crisis and goes missing.”
Why it’s hot: It’s not every day that a former president and a mega-selling novelist team up; this is Clinton’s first work of fiction.
3. A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising by Raymond A. Villareal (Little, Brown, fiction, on sale June 5)
What it’s about: When a virus turns all sorts of people into vampires (including a populist political candidate), the “Gloamings” start demanding their civil rights in this satirical horror novel.
Why it’s hot: What’s being pitched as “World War Z for Vampires” has been snapped up for the movies by 20th Century Fox and Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps (Arrival).
4. How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson (St. Martin’s Press, fiction, on sale June 5)
What it’s about: In this sequel to I Don’t Know How She Does It, working mom Kate Reddy returns, almost 50 and juggling difficult teenagers, a husband having a midlife crisis, and an old flame who shows up.
Why it’s hot: Big Little Lies executive producer Bruna Papandrea has optioned Pearson’s new comic novel for TV.
5. My Girls: A Lifetime With Carrie and Debbie by Todd Fisher (William Morrow, non-fiction, on sale June 5)
What it’s about: The son of Debbie Reynolds and brother of Carrie Fisher writes a “love letter” to the two most “extraordinary women” he says he’s ever known.
Why it’s hot: In his introduction, Fisher writes: “I’ve started writing this memoir several times, over a lot of years, but it took on a new urgency in December of 2016, when my sister and my mother suddenly died a day apart.”
6. Lincoln’s Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency by Dan Abrams and David Fisher (Hanover Square Press, non-fiction, on sale June 5)
What it’s about: This real-life courtroom drama stars none other than Abraham Lincoln, who argued for the defense and showed off his oratorical skills in an 1859 murder trail (People v. Harrison).
Why it’s hot: “An engrossing legal thriller,” Publishers Weekly says of this title by ABC legal affairs correspondent Abrams.
7. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza (SJP for Hogarth, fiction, on sale June 12)
What it’s about: Debut novel about an Indian Muslim family living in California on the eve of the eldest daughter’s wedding; the story unravels the past to explain why her brother, Amar, has been estranged from the family.
Why it’s hot: This is the first title released by actress Sarah Jessica Parker in her new role as editorial director of the publishing imprint SJP for Hogarth.
8. Clock Dance by Anne Tyler (Knopf, fiction, on sale July 10)
What it’s about: Willa Drake, who yearns to be a grandmother, gets a call that sends her to Baltimore, where she ends up looking after a single mother (her son’s ex), her 9-year-daughter, and their dog, Airplane.
Why it’s hot: Tyler, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Breathing Lessons, has earned legions of fans with her many novels about families and the city of Baltimore.
9. The Other Woman by Daniel Silva (Harper, fiction, on sale July 17)
What it’s about: Gabriel Allon has an espionage case for summer in this new thriller in which the art restorer/assassin/spy tracks a mole the KGB planted long ago in the West, who now stands on the cusp of power.
Why it’s hot: Silva’s last two Allon titles, 2017’s House of Spies and 2016’s The Black Widow, both made their debut at No. 1 on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list.
10. Arthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond Arsenault (Simon & Schuster, non-fiction, on sale Aug. 21)
What it’s about: A new biography of the tennis star (the only black male player to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open) and civil rights activist who died at age 49 in 1993, after contracting AIDS through blood transfusions.
Why it’s hot: Arriving just before the U.S. Open (home of Arthur Ashe Stadium), this “well-informed” book will live on as a “go-to resource,” says Kirkus Reviews.