Paperback Picks
Romance books have ruled the new-in-paperback shelves at your local independent bookstore for the last couple of summers. But this year, cozy mysteries are making a comeback.
As you plan your vacation reading list, you’ll find a host of witty, new low-stakes mysteries set on cruise ships and in the Caribbean. And if murder isn’t your business, you’ve got plenty of other titles to choose from, including a biography of James Baldwin and one of the biggest bestselling novels of the last couple of years.
“Dune” by Frank Herbert (Ace, $25). This December, when “Dune: Part Three” is in theaters and audiences are flocking to watch the conclusion of the trilogy, you’ll want to be a part of the conversation. This gorgeous deluxe reissue of Tacoma author Herbert’s sci-fi epic features new graphic elements that will help draw new readers into the weirdest and most interesting space fantasy epic of our time (sorry, George Lucas).
“The Wedding People” by Alison Espach (Holt Paperbacks, $18.99). One of the bestselling novels of 2024 finally makes its long-awaited paperback debut. Find out why more than 1.5 million readers fell for Phoebe Stone, a woman whose plans to die by suicide are sidelined when she unexpectedly finds herself playing a major role in a stranger’s wedding party.
“Baldwin: A Love Story” by Nicholas Boggs (Picador, $23). The first new biography of author and public intellectual James Baldwin to be published in 30 years uses newly discovered archival material to tell the story of Baldwin’s life through the lens of some of his most intimate relationships.
“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones (S&S/Saga Press, $20). Name a literary honor, and Jones’ horror novel has probably received it, from the Bram Stoker Award all the way to placement on former President Barack Obama’s coveted summer reading list — an amazing array of testimonials for a book about a long-lived killer who seeks justice for the century-old massacre of hundreds of Blackfeet tribal members. Culture blog Vulture even went so far as to suggest that “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” could be “the closest thing we have to horror’s ‘Moby-Dick.’”
“An Oral History of Atlantis” by Ed Park (Random House Trade Paperbacks, $17). Both of Park’s excellent novels, “Personal Days” and “Same Bed Different Dreams,” were celebrated by critics, and the latter was even a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2024. His first collection of inventive, off-kilter short stories has people wondering if maybe Park has been hiding a secret all along: in addition to being one of America’s best novelists, perhaps he’s always been one of our best short story authors, too.
“The MASH Up” by Laura Marie Meyers (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $20). After a bad breakup, a cautious and inflexible woman finds herself trapped inside her favorite video game from her tween years. Can a romantic adventure in a “Sims”-like simulation teach her how to let loose in real life?
“A Fatal Crossing” by Tom Hindle (Dutton, $20). What could make for better vacation reading than a locked-room murder mystery set on a trans-Atlantic cruise? Hindle answers that question by setting the book in the Gatsby-era Roaring ’20s and casting a charismatic Scotland Yard detective in the protagonist role. In terms of escapist summer reading, that’s the full package.
“Sunburned” by Katherine Wood (Bantam, $20). The swanky Caribbean island of St. Barts is famous for its remarkably low crime rate, which of course makes it a fantastic place to set a summery mystery novel. This one is about a wealthy man who turns up dead at his palatial St. Barts estate, and everyone has a motive for the murder … including our hero, Audrey Collet, a former paramour of the deceased.
“A Terribly Nasty Business” by Julia Seales (Random House Trade Paperbacks, $19). If you think the problem with Jane Austen’s novels is that there aren’t enough corpses in them, Beatrice Steele is the detective for you. She’s a courtly young woman who leaves her rural community of Swampshire for bustling London, where she hopes to solve crimes. When a case places her in the center of a conflict between the city’s wealthiest families and the burgeoning artistic community, the fate of polite society rests in Steele’s hands.
“Die for Me” by Shirlene Obuobi (Penguin Books, $20). A Black cardiologist falls for a younger man in this spicy romance novel. The gifted doctor has seen too many of her peers — admittedly, only the white male ones — mess up their whole lives for whirlwind romances with someone too young for them, so she’s not about to make the same mistake. Or is she?
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