No summer movie blockbusters this year. The lakefront is closed, and music festivals are canceled. Pools likely won’t open, either. Baseball? Who knows. So what’s left? Books.
No summer movie blockbusters this year. The lakefront is closed, and music festivals are canceled. Pools likely won’t open, either. Baseball? Who knows. So what’s left? Books.
Lots of people are buying them — print sales are up nearly 10% over last year at this time, according to Publishers Weekly — and a whole crop of promising new titles will keep readers busy well into fall. Here’s a roundup to help plan your reading lists.
“Last One Out Shut Off the Lights” by Stephanie Soileau (Little, Brown, $26; July 7)
Stephanie Soileau debuts with this collection of stories about her home state of Louisiana. Following a series of characters who struggle to stay rooted in an area plagued by hurricanes, pollution and poverty, it aims to capture the region, distinguished by its Cajun influence, with complexity and nuance.
“A Saint From Texas” by Edmund White (Bloomsbury, $26; Aug. 4)
At 80, Edmund White is back with a new novel that Publishers Weekly has already deemed “a mesmerizing sensual history” of the vastly different paths traveled by a pair of identical twin sisters from East Texas oil money.
