POLITICS AND WAR
Barack Obama: The Story
by David Maraniss (Simon & Schuster), out now
An exhaustively reported, 600-plus-page sweeping examination of the 44th president. But the best parts are of Obama’s “bad boy days” — his “Choom Gang” of pot smokers in Hawaii, his “barf couch” in college and the tidbits Maraniss gleaned from Obama’s early girlfriends, including a passage about his “sexual warmth.”
Code Name Caesar
The Secret Hunt for U-Boat 864 During World War II
by Jerome Preisler and Kenneth Sewell
(Berkley), out now
For the history buff who’s read it all, here’s a new book about the little known, one and only underwater sub-on-sub kill in history. The Germans packed a U-Boat with their most advanced technology and headed to Japan to aid the war effort. But thanks to cracking the Enigma code, the British were able to meet the U-boat head-on and an underwater battle began.
Double Cross
The True Story of the D-Day Spies
by Ben Macintyre (Crown), out July 31
The story of D-Day — when 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy — as it’s never been told before: through the perspective of what’s known as the “Double Cross” system. D-Day, author Macintyre writes, is a “masterpiece in trickery,” and this amazing story shows how double agents and spies tricked the German army and saved thousands of Allied lives.
James Patterson
Author; his new book is “I, Michael Bennett,”
(Little, Brown & Company)
“The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson,” by Robert Caro (Knopf)
Meticulously researched fourth volume on Lyndon Johnson’s career at the White House. “I’ve been waiting for Robert Caro’s latest tome, and so there went my May. The winding, often darkly humorous details in his biographies of LBJ and Robert Moses rank him as one of my all-time favorite nonfiction storytellers.”
Donald Trump
Host of “The Apprentice”
“The Amateur” by Ed Klein (Regnery Publishing)
A scathing indictment of the Commander-in-Chief.
“It’s an excellent read and very insightful.”
ALTERNATE REALITIES
Shadow Show
All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradury
by Sam Weller and Mort Castle (William Morrow), out July 10
Bradbury is gone, but he won’t be forgotten, thanks in part to this anthology of 26 new tales inspired by the sci-fi master’s canon of work. Margaret Atwood, Dave Eggers, Neil Gaiman, Audrey Niffenegger, and others contribute.
R.L. Stine
Author of adult novel “Red Rain” (Touchstone), out Oct. 9; his “Goosebumps” series celebrates its 25th anniversary this month.
“Monument 14” by Emmy Laybourne (Feiwel & Friends)
A modern day “Lord of the Flies” thriller with kids stuck in a supermarket instead of an island. “A sci-fi thriller in which kids are forced to start a new society in order to survive inside a chain superstore. A tense and well-plotted adventure for teens.”
The Age of Miracles
by Karen Thompson Walker (Random House), out now
The book, which reportedly earned Thompson a seven-figure advance, has lived up to its early hype. In “Miracles,” the Earth’s rotation is lagging — called, terrifyingly, “the slowing.” The story is told artfully through the eyes of a middle- school girl as she learns how to navigate this new treacherous world while going through the typical pitfalls of adolescence.
The Cove
by Ron Rash (Ecco), out now
The cove is a place in Appalachia where “only bad things happen.” A young woman lives in the shadow of this cove during World War I and is cast off by the locals as a witch. Her life is a lonely one until she meets a mute stranger with a dark secret. The lyrical novel, perfect for the languid days of summer, will appeal to supernatural and Southern Gothic fiction fans alike.
Karen Thompson Walker
Author of “The Age of Miracles”
(Random House)
‘The Girl Giant” by Kristen den Hartog (Simon & Schuster)
“I read this book in one day. Gorgeously written and tremendously moving, it’s a story about a young girl who is growing up to be a giant. More than a coming-of-age tale, this is the story of a whole family and the secrets that haunt each member. Every sentence sparkles.”
BOOK OF THE SUMMER
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn (Crown), out now
Part thriller, part macabre love story, it’s the tale of Nick Dunne and his wife, Amy, who suddenly goes missing. The book is told deliciously, alternating from Nick’s perspective to Amy’s diaries, which trace back to their early days of courtship. Or does it?
The twists and turns are never obvious.
BEACH READS
Where’d You Go, Bernadette
by Maria Semple (Little, Brown & Company), out Aug. 14
Semple, a veteran TV writer who wrote for “Arrested Development,” has put together a thoroughly modern interpretation of the epistolary novel. The book follows 15-year-old Bee’s attempt at finding her agoraphobic mother. Her tracking log includes report cards, e-mails and a transcript of a TED talk. At its heart, though, it’s an eccentric but feel-good mother-daughter story.
Selma Blair
Starring in FX’s “Anger Management”
“Beautiful Ruins” by Jess Walter (Harper)
A sweeping fictional narrative that spans 50 years and many countries, and features actor Richard Burton on the set of “Cleopatra.” “I don’t get much time to read right now so when I do get a moment to open a book, I need it to take my mind on the vacation my body doesn’t get to go on. It is a powerful and lush book. I want to be in Italy.”
An Uncommon Education
by Elizabeth Percer (Harper), out now
This one’s for late summer days. Naomi Feinstein, a quiet, reticent girl, sets her goals on becoming a doctor after her father suffers from a heart attack. Lonely and determined, she remains a social outcast until she joins her school’s elite Shakespeare Society (think “Dead Poets Society” or “The Secret History”), where her beliefs and sense of self and purpose are tested.
Laura Lippman
Author whose latest, “And When She Was Good” (William Morrow), is out Aug. 14
“I’ve been pulling together a lot of books for a long trip, in all formats [physical, digital and audio],” Lippman said. She’s looking forward to: “Arcadia” by Lauren Groff (Voice), a story of a utopian commune in upstate New York.
And When She Was Good
by Laura Lippman (William Morrow),
out Aug. 14
Lippman is a master at the summer read and this story — ripped from the headlines — is no different. A “normal” suburban mother has a dark secret that could spell out her downfall: She’s a madam who supplies call girls to very successful men.
Summerland
by Elin Hilderbrand (Reagan Arthur), out now
On the night of Nantucket High School’s graduation, four juniors are driving home from a party when they suddenly crash. The driver is killed and her twin brother is left in a coma. The other two students walk out unharmed. What remains are the ways that family, friends and a community are harmed by such self-destructive acts — but how in the end love can survive.
Gold
by Chris Cleave (Simon & Schuster), out now
Just in time for the summer Olympics, Cleave, author of “Little Bee,” gives us an athletic rivalry between two professional cyclists both going for the gold. The story jumps back and forth in time over 15 years as the two competitors prepare for their final Olympics.
Gillian Flynn
Author of “Gone Girl: A Novel” (Crown)
“The Gods of Gotham” by Lyndsay Faye (Amy Einhorn)
Historical fiction based in New York City in 1845 when the first police force was created. “A dark period mystery set in 1845 Manhattan — it sounds so up my alley, it’s ludicrous.”
Bringing up the Bodies
by Hilary Mantel (Henry Holt), out now
The sequel to the modern classic “Wolf Hall,” “Bringing up the Bodies” continues the story of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VII, as the king begins to lose interest in his queen Anne Boleyn and takes on a new lover, Jane Seymour. Meticulously researched and evocatively written, there’s plenty of blood and headless bodies.
Patti Smith
Musician and author of “Just Kids” (Ecco) and “Woolgathering” (New Edition)
“IQ84” by Haruki Murakami (Vintage)
A novel based in Tokyo in 1984. “I am on tour with my band. We spend a lot of time traveling on the tour bus, sitting in an airport or a festival field. Having books as steadfast companions is paramount…I know I can count on Murakami to draw me into an atmosphere that lingers even when the book is closed. He offers an alternative world that sheds strange colors over the world I am operating in.”
FOR BRAIN POWER
Horseshoe Crabs
and Velvet Worms
The Story of Animals and Plants That Time Has Left Behind
by Richard Fortey (Knopf), out now
There are few writers capable of making worms fascinating reads — but famed paleontologist Fortey is no ordinary writer. With gusto and verve, Fortey shares the stories of organisms — the horseshoe crab, velvet worms, stromatolites and others — that have gone unchanged throughout natural history and what they have to teach us about lost time.
Molly Ringwald
Actress and author of “When it Happens to You” (It Books)
“Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind” by Alex Stone (Harper)
About the underground world of magic. “I’ve always been intrigued by secret societies and artistic subcultures. Stone opens up the obsessive and hidden world of magicians with intelligence and sly humor.”
Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace
The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady
by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury), out now
This is the story of the real-life Madame Bovary. Author Summerscale mines through a diary written by a middle-aged mother in Victorian England who engaged in a passionate love affair with a local doctor. The story reads like a Jane Austen or a Brontë tale but is based in fact.
The Violinist’s Thumb
and Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius,
as Written by Our
Genetic Code
by Sam Kean (Little, Brown & Company), out July 17
Science is made fun whenever Kean, best-selling author of the “Disappearing Spoon,” is narrating. Kean tells the story of DNA and how genes influence almost every aspect of our lives — and how future humans might be manipulated with our greater understanding of these building blocks of life.
IT’S ALL ABOUT ME!
Nicole “Snooki”
Polizzi
Reality star and author of “Gorilla Beach” (Gallery)
“Fifty Shades of Grey” by EL James (Vintage) “I had to see what all the girls were talking about, like this Christian guy sounds hot in a very non-Guido way? I would take him to the shore …”
The Long Walk, A Journey of War and the Life that Follows
by Brian Castner (Doubleday), out July 10
Brian Castner was trained in bomb disposal and served two tours in Iraq dismantling roadside bombs — but his real battle begins when he comes home and has to return to the life he left behind. “The first thing you should know about me is that I’m crazy,” Castner begins his memoir. It’s a disturbing and beautifully written account of PTSD. Not an easy summer read, but an important one.
I Hate Everyone, Starting With Me
by Joan Rivers (Berkley), out now
There’s a laugh on every page in Rivers acerbic new treatise on how terrible humanity is. Open to page 53 and you have: “I love funerals! To me a funeral is just a red carpet for dead people.”
James Lipton
Host of “Inside the Actors Studio”
Stephen Sondheim’s “Finishing the Hat” and its sequel “Look I Made a Hat” (Knopf), two volumes of his collected lyrics and annotations. “When I was asked to join in the selection of Time magazine’s Most Influential People of All Time, Sondheim made my list, on the theory that a hundred years from now his works will be regarded — and performed — as some of the most important classical-musical works of our time. With these two recent books by him, I rest my case.”
Paris, I Love You But
You’re Bringing Me Down
by Rosecrans Baldwin (Farrar Straus & Giroux), out now
Like many an aspiring American novelist before him, Baldwin, a malcontent New Yorker, dreams of relocating to Paris, and so he and his wife do it. And, for a while, they are living the expat’s dream: cobblestones, croissants, gorging on the privilege of casting about each day in the world’s most beautiful city. That lasts for a while, until the more pedestrian aspects of Parisian life set in: expense, alienation, bureaucracy and the realization that wherever you go, there you are. Bonus takeaway: Nearly every Parisian Baldwin befriends all dream of living in Manhattan.
Ben Vereen
Broadway legend and star of “Steppin’ Out with Ben Vereen” at 54 Below this month
“Finding My Voice” by Nita Whitaker LaFontaine (NitWhit) out now, memoir of the singer’s struggle after her husband, voice-over king Don LaFontaine’s death. “Finding the journey of a great love of two wonderful people.”
Tiny Beautiful Things
Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
by Cheryl Strayed (Vintage), out July 10
If you’ve read Strayed’s memoir “Wild” and are hankering from more wit and wisdom from the author, her new book “Tiny Beautiful Things” should do the trick. It’s a collection of her best love-advice columns (which were done anonymously) called “Dear Sugar” for The Rumpus, an online commentary site.
Joan Rivers
Comedian and author of “I Hate Everyone, Starting with Me” (Berkley)
“Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots,” by Deborah Feldman (Simon & Schuster), out now, a memoir about a woman who grows up in an insular Hasidic community in Williamsburg. “It’s just unbelievable that this is a real story . . . And how she gets out and figures out how to live on her own, it’s just, my god, fascinating. You think: Would I have been able to do that? I’m all for the loose clothing, that I could do, but everything else? It’s one of those books you read and can’t put down.”
Cheryl Strayed
Author of “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” (Knopf)
“Amazons: A Love Story” by E.J. Levy (University of Missouri), out now. “Intelligent and intimate memoir about her experience in Brazil as a 21-year-old in search of herself is riveting, insightful and gorgeously-written.”
Eat and Run
My Unlikely Journey
to Ultramarathon
Greatness
by Scott Jurek (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), out now
Scott Jurek recently set a record of running 165.7 miles over a 24-hour period. Clearly, he’s nuts, but there’s still much one-mile-a-day runners can learn from him. In the book, he talks about how he came to ultramarathon running and how he eventually adopted veganism. In it, he even includes plant-based recipes for runners.
Andy Cohen
The man behind “Real Housewives” and the author of “Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture” (Henry Holt)
“Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV” by Warren Littlefield and T.R. Pearson
An oral history of what was so right — and then what went so wrong — with NBC’s Thursday night lineup. “Writing a book while I am still an executive presented an interesting challenge: how to give the reader what they wanted while not giving away the store, so I’m anxious to see how much dirt Littlefield spills years after his tenure at NBC.”
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
I, Michael Bennett
by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown & Company), out July 9
NYPD detective Bennett puts away an infamous Mexican crime lord — but he vows to get revenge from his cell. This is another Patterson’s arsenal of devilish cat-and-mouse games that has Bennett’s 10 kids and New York City in its clutches.
Creole Belle
by James Lee Burke (Simon and Schuster), out July 17
This is Burke’s 19th novel starring New Orleans police officer Dave Robicheaux, a Vietnam vet who suffers from a host of demons, including alcoholism. This book opens in a recovery facility where Dave is healing after barely surviving a bayou shootout. During a morphine-induced stupor, he’s visited by a guest who hurdles him headfirst into another crime investigation.
Andrew McCarthy
Actor and author of “The Longest Way Home” (Free Press), out Sept. 18
“How to Survive the Titanic or the Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay” by Frances Wilson (Harper), a look at Titanic owner Bruce Ismay who denigrated as a coward for rowing to safety on a life raft meant for women and children. “Fascinating study of a life destroyed by a moment of weakness.”
People Who Eat Darkness
by Richard Lloyd Parry (Farrah, Straus & Giroux), out now
The most absorbing true-crime book of the year thus far. A young Englishwoman named Lucie Blackman vanishes from the streets of Tokyo in summer 2000, and Parry — who covered the case for a UK paper — becomes obsessed. In this long-form narrative, he elucidates all the ways in which the investigation went wrong: botched by the interference of Blackman’s father, whose motives at times seem less than noble, to an increasingly disinterested media, to a police force that, as the product of a Hello Kitty culture, is appallingly ill-equipped to follow even the most obvious of leads — and one which, with its institutional resistance to rape and homicide, allowed a serial predator to operate for years.
Michael Connelly
Author, his next Harry Bosch novel “The Black Box” (Little, Brown & Company), out Nov. 26.
“The Kings of Cool” by Don Winslow (Simon & Schuster)
A prequel to “The Savages,” which was made into a film starring Blake Lively out this week. “Winslow used to be the best writer nobody ever heard of. No more. But this prequel is a must read for me. I can’t wait to find out where these characters came from. Surfing and California sun make for a perfect summer read.”
Bryan Cranston
Star of AMC’s “Breaking Bad”
“I’m catching up with Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly’s tumultuous character in a series of detective stories. Damn fun reading.”