12 Summer Books We're Looking Forward To

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Book Review – Episode 12: "Summer Books We're Looking Forward To"

Release Date: May 9, 2025

In Episode 12 of The Book Review podcast, host Gilbert Cruz and fellow editor Joumana Khatib dive into an exciting exploration of the upcoming summer literary landscape. Despite their confessed disdain for the summer season, the duo passionately discusses a curated list of anticipated books slated for release in June, July, and August 2025. This detailed summary encapsulates their conversations, key insights, and notable quotes, providing listeners with a comprehensive overview of the episode.

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1. Introduction: Unearthing Summer's Literary Gems

The episode kicks off with Gilbert Cruz introducing the premise: discussing books that have generated buzz due to their intriguing topics, esteemed authors, and anticipated popularity. Joumana Khatib complements him, highlighting their shared excitement despite both editors' aversion to summer.

Notable Quote:

• Gilbert Cruz (00:32): "Summer is on the way, at least in the world of books."

2. Exploring Historical Adventures: "Beast in the Clouds" by Natalia Holt

Gilbert introduces Beast in the Clouds, a nonfiction work by Natalia Holt that delves into the Roosevelt brothers' 1920s expedition to find the mythical giant panda. The discussion underscores the historical fascination with charismatic megafauna and the cultural impact of such quests.

Notable Quotes:

• Gilbert Cruz (02:44): "It's called the Beast in the Clouds. The Roosevelt Brothers Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda."
• Joumana Khatib (04:14): "I don't want to think about dead pandas."

3. Contemporary Romance and Space: "Atmosphere" by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Transitioning to fiction, Joumana presents Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The novel follows Joan, one of NASA's first female astronauts, weaving a narrative rich with romance, professional pressure, and personal backstory.

Notable Quotes:

• Joumana Khatib (08:14): "It's an edge of your seat kind of book because we meet the main character named Joan, and when we meet her, she's in the command central while there's a mission going on."
• Gilbert Cruz (10:19): "That sounds great. I actually think I might want to read that."

4. Debunking the Wild West: "How Texas Made the West Wild" by Brian Burrell

Gilbert highlights Brian Burrell's upcoming book, which examines the myth versus reality of the Wild West gunfighter era. The conversation touches on Burrell's previous works and his impact on narrative nonfiction.

Notable Quotes:

• Gilbert Cruz (11:27): "This is about the myth of the Wild west gunfighter... I think it's a lot of debunking."
• Joumana Khatib (12:52): "The best truth is lurid."

5. Thrilling Plot Twists: "Next to Heaven" by James Fry

Joumana discusses James Fry's Next to Heaven, a novel centered around a wealthy Connecticut town where a swinger's party escalates into murder and deceit. The episode highlights Fry's transition from scandal-hit memoirist to thriller novelist.

Notable Quotes:

• Joumana Khatib (15:53): "It's like a glorified key party... and then it actually does devolve from there. Murder."
• Gilbert Cruz (16:39): "Somebody called good, trashy, fun."

6. Survival and Marriage: "A Marriage at Sea" by Sophie Elmhurst

Gilbert introduces A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhurst, a gripping true story of a married couple stranded on a raft for four months after their boat sinks. The narrative explores the strains and resilience of marriage under extreme conditions.

Notable Quotes:

• Joumana Khatib (19:20): "What else is a marriage if not being stuck on a small raft with someone and trying to survive?"
• Gilbert Cruz (19:07): "This is a great story. I can't wait to read it."

7. Dual Narratives and Cultural Exploration: "The Sisters" by Jonas Hasan Hamiri

Joumana delves into The Sisters, a novel by Jonas Hasan Hamiri that intertwines the lives of Swedish-Tunisian sisters with the author’s autobiographical reflections. The book navigates themes of alienation, racial identity, and familial bonds.

Notable Quotes:

• Joumana Khatib (19:57): "It's like two books stitched together and it actually works."
• Gilbert Cruz (21:39): "I can't wait for someone to send you a T shirt with those three."

8. Political Thrillers and Celebrity Collaborations: "The First Gentleman" by James Patterson and Bill Clinton

Gilbert discusses The First Gentleman, a political thriller co-authored by bestselling author James Patterson and former President Bill Clinton. The novel presents a fictional scenario where the president's husband faces a murder trial amidst an election campaign.

Notable Quotes:

• Gilbert Cruz (22:08): "People love James Patterson. We just had news that James Patterson signed a deal with Mr. Beast."
• Joumana Khatib (23:20): "Picador is reissuing all 75 of the inspector May."

9. Satirical Takes on Modern Life: "Bonding" by Marielle Franklin

Joumana introduces Bonding by Marielle Franklin, a satire exploring the intersections of technology, pharmaceuticals, and modern dating. The protagonist navigates the chaotic landscape of startup culture, revolutionary antidepressants, and avant-garde dating apps.

Notable Quotes:

• Joumana Khatib (26:09): "Zadie Smith really loves this. It might be something to add to your reading list."
• Gilbert Cruz (27:32): "And I think almost everybody loves James Baldwin."

10. Fantasy Realms and Academic Parodies: "Katabasis" by RF Kuang

Gilbert highlights RF Kuang's Katabasis, a fantasy novel that blends academic ambition with supernatural elements. The story follows Alice, a magic student who teams up with her rival to venture into hell to resurrect her advisor, highlighting the extremes of academic tenure pursuits.

Notable Quotes:

• Gilbert Cruz (30:07): "I will do anything to get tenure, including going to hell to bring back my beloved advisor."
• Joumana Khatib (30:35): "So that is Katavasis by RF Kuang."

11. Literary Biographies and Rediscoveries: "A Love Story" by Nicholas Boggs

Gilbert brings attention to Nicholas Boggs' A Love Story, the first major biography of James Baldwin in decades. The book focuses on Baldwin's relationships with four men, offering deep insights into the writer's personal and professional life.

Notable Quotes:

• Gilbert Cruz (30:21): "It's quite a big book. I've never read a biography of James Baldwin."
• Joumana Khatib (32:21): "Gary Streingart has a novel coming called Vera or Faith."

12. Additional Anticipated Titles and Recommendations

The editors briefly mention several other upcoming releases, spanning genres from memoirs to psychological thrillers:

• Flashlights by Susan Choi
• So Far Gone by Jess Walter
• An Oral History of Atlantis by Ed Park
• The Life and the Revolution that Changed America by a former NYT Book Review editor
• The Dry by Melissa Febos
• Loved One by Aisha Muharrar
• Vera or Faith by Gary Streingart
• El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott

13. Conclusion: Embracing Summer Reading Amidst Reluctance

As the episode winds down, both hosts reflect on their reading preferences during the sweltering summer months. Joumana expresses her love for reading by the beach, while Gilbert humorously imagines himself confined to an air-conditioned space with a good book.

Notable Quotes:

• Joumana Khatib (33:14): "I love reading. When it's 88 to 92 degrees on the beach for hours is when it's so hot all you can do is read."
• Gilbert Cruz (33:31): "We have the books, the books."

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This episode of The Book Review serves as an invaluable guide for readers eager to curate their summer reading lists. Through insightful discussions and enthusiastic endorsements, Gilbert Cruz and Joumana Khatib illuminate a diverse array of books poised to captivate audiences in the coming months.

Transcript

[Gilbert Cruz]

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[Joumana Khatib]

Foreign.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times Book Review, and this is the Book Review podcast. Summer is on the way, at least in the world of books. And joining me this week is my fellow editor and regular podcast guest Jomana Khatib to talk about some books coming out in June, July and August that we're interested in, that we're intrigued by. A particular interest that we're curious about. Yes, that we're looking forward to that.

[Joumana Khatib]

Have tapped into our innate sense of childlike wonder about the world.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Xuman, I'm glad you're here to do this with me.

[Joumana Khatib]

Me too.

[Gilbert Cruz]

So, one thing to start. This is not comprehensive. This does not indicate whether or not we're actually gonna write about these books at the Book Review. I haven't even read any of these, to be honest. But we're just talking about based on topic, based on author, based on buzz. What we two people, Gilbert and Joumanna, are most excited about Is this the.

[Joumana Khatib]

Time, Gilbert, that we should make the disclaimer to our readers that we are the two people in the Book Review who hate summer the most.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I couldn't remember if we've talked about that before on the podcast, but I am always happy to talk about my distaste, disdain, dislike.

[Joumana Khatib]

We didn't even plan that, guys, I promise.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Or the season as a whole.

[Joumana Khatib]

We both hate summer and I'm sure there's some deep seated reason from childhood.

[Gilbert Cruz]

You know what's great about summer books? Sitting inside in air conditioning, reading a book, which I remember doing when I was a preteen with my family. I think we went on vacation to some place that had a pool in northern Virginia. And the rest of my family, they were so excited to go out to the pool, it was so hot outside. I stayed inside in the dark in the cold, reading a biography of Theodore Roosevelt called the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. And that leads us into the first book that I'm excited to talk about. This is one that is very much for me.

[Joumana Khatib]

Beautiful transition, Gilbert.

[Gilbert Cruz]

It's called the Beast in the Clouds. The Roosevelt Brothers Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda by Natalia Holt. So I once went through a years long Teddy Roosevelt phase. My God, did you ever go through a president phase?

[Joumana Khatib]

No, but. No, I didn't. I've always been skeptical of elected officials.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Okay. But that's healthy in a democracy.

[Joumana Khatib]

Thank you. I know I've always had my civic duty front of mine, but. But can I just ask you something? Because I am under the perhaps erroneous belief that giant pandas are real things.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Giant pandas are real things, but at the time, this was in the late 1920s, they were still sort of a myth.

[Joumana Khatib]

We had never seen a panda.

[Gilbert Cruz]

They were in the West, I think. I think in the parts of the world where there were pandas, it was not a myth. But for many people, it's not like now where you go to the National Zoo and we have all this panda diplomacy going on. There used to be a time when people had never seen a giant panda up close. And so the reason we're talking about Teddy Roosevelt, fascinating guy, 26, President, is that his children were also interesting. So this is a book about Teddy Roosevelt Jr. And his brother Kermit, which is a non Muppet name that people used to have. They went off on a search to bring back a panda again, late 1920s, many Westerners were like, is this real?

[Joumana Khatib]

They're alive. Let's say alive.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I think they wanted.

[Joumana Khatib]

Let's just say alive.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Yes.

[Joumana Khatib]

I don't want to think about dead pandas.

[Gilbert Cruz]

The Roosevelts were hunters. Teddy Roosevelt had a lot of good parts, a lot of bad parts. He hunted a lot of things. I think you can find many of those things at the Museum of Natural History. But they wanted to bring one back to the west, to America. And so this is about that quixotic journey to go and see if they could bring one back. And I have to say I think I'm glad they did, because there are a few things that have brought people in my family at least, such joy as seeing pandas at a zoo. So I'm sure there are negative aspects to this whole thing that I'm missing, but I don't know. What do you think about pandas?

[Joumana Khatib]

Oh, pro. Extremely pro. I'm very much in favor of this whole class of animals called charismatic megafauna. So pandas, elephants, some type of whales, definitely lions. Totally clear that bar.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Can you. I've never heard this term before. Can you tell me what it means?

[Joumana Khatib]

My understanding this needs the world's biggest asterisk, by the way.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Okay.

[Joumana Khatib]

My understanding of charismatic megafauna is that it refers to the type of species that has captivated. There's an they play an outsized role in human imagination. So it's. People are very attached to. Pandas, for example, are very attached to cute things. The thing about megafauna, meaning that it has to clear a bar of being a certain size. So whales, lions, elephants. I think pandas are pretty big.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Well, the giant panda.

[Joumana Khatib]

Is the giant pandas. Famously giant.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. I'd never heard this term before.

[Joumana Khatib]

It's great. Is your. Yeah, it's a. I would like to believe that caring about animals is a. Is quite an empathy building exercise.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I recently went on vacation for my kids spring break and I read this, this incredible book that had come out last year. Did I tell you about this? Katherine Rundell, she wrote the big children's book, Impossible Creatures.

[Joumana Khatib]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Gilbert Cruz]

She also, she's an amazing writer across different topics and different genres. She wrote a book called Vanishing Treasures, A bestiary of extraordinary endangered creatures. And it's just all these chapters. Well, here's the. About the elephants and here's the golden mole and here's the hermit crab and. And you just come away with all these amazing facts. And guess who had to hear all those facts?

[Joumana Khatib]

Your loving family. My family and your friends.

[Gilbert Cruz]

And maybe the people that sit around me at the office. So did I tell you about the elephant?

[Joumana Khatib]

I don't think so.

[Gilbert Cruz]

You know elephants are afraid of bees.

[Joumana Khatib]

Because they can fly up their trunk, right?

[Gilbert Cruz]

Yes. And they can't do anything about it if the inside of their trunk is stung. So that is the beast in the clouds. The Roosevelt brothers deadly quest to find the mythical giant panda. And if this is the type of thing that you're interested in, Roosevelt's quests, there's an amazing book from, I don't know, 2004 or five called the river of Doubt by Candice Millard. It was about Kermit, Teddy Roosevelt's son. He joined his father to try to map uncharted parts of the Amazon River. This is a great story. It's a great book. I recommend it to anyone who's interested in adventure tales.

[Joumana Khatib]

Great writer. I love Candice Millard. I also, it just makes me realize, man, the way some people bond with their family. They try to chart literal, uncharted territory. Like my mom and I watch All My Children.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I think it was different back when you didn't have all these diversions.

[Joumana Khatib]

If they'd had Hulu, it's not like a hundred years ago.

[Gilbert Cruz]

If they. Yeah. They didn't have andor to watch together. They're like, let's go down the Amazon. Yeah.

[Joumana Khatib]

Okay. So on the subject of exploration and remarkable human achievement, I would like to mention Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. So the name Taylor Jenkins Reid may be ringing a bell for you. She has been on this bestseller streak for the last several years. She's made a bit of a name for herself writing about these extraordinary women. So the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was a bit of a TikTok sensation in the recent past, and that told this very glamorous story of a Hollywood actress, Liz Taylor. Vibes. It's a love story, and it's beautifully told. She wrote Daisy Jones in the six, which was a big deal.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Big deal.

[Joumana Khatib]

Big deal, too.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Big book, big show.

[Joumana Khatib]

Big show. I actually have had a lot of people tell me they still listen to the soundtrack from that show. And Carrie Soto is back about a tennis champ. So she's really eked out this exceptional women category. And so she's back with the story of a female astronaut, one of the first female astronauts accepted into NASA's Astro Corps. It really is an edge of your seat kind of book because we meet the main character named Joan, and when we meet her, she's in the command central while there's a mission going on. So she's the steady voice as her members of her cohort, her colleagues. And this is so much more than a typical colleague. They're the only ones that really know the intense pressure of what it means to become an astronaut. So she. She's the voice of reason, the voice of calm as they're attempting what should be a routine mission. There's always a little bit of risk, or quite a lot of bit of risk when you go into space and something starts to go wrong. That's not a spoiler. Cause it starts to go off the rails pretty early on and. And Taylor Jenkins Reid structures it so that the book jumps back and forth between the present crisis and Joan's backstory. And this is also a love story. She falls in love with one of her colleagues. She's a very involved aunt to her niece. It's a complicated sibling story. It's very immersive. It reads fast. I think I read it in one day. And I think if you are at all in that edge of your seat with a romance, cinematic kind of novel, I think this is a great thing for you to pick up.

[Gilbert Cruz]

That sounds great. I actually think I might want to read that.

[Joumana Khatib]

Yeah.

[Gilbert Cruz]

So when is that book out?

[Joumana Khatib]

That is coming out June 3rd.

[Gilbert Cruz]

So atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, out in June. The nonfiction book I mentioned before, the Beast in the Clouds is out in July. The next book that I want to talk about comes out in June as well. This is the How Texas Made the West Wild by Brian Burrow. Brian Burrell, I think, is a name that is very familiar to readers of narrative nonfiction. He became famous straight away in the late 80s when he wrote the book Barbarians at the Gate, or co wrote that book, which was a big nonfiction book about business at the time. In the mid-2000s, he wrote public Enemies, which was eventually made into a Michael Mann movie. But that was about the rise of the FBI as a national crime fighting organization. How it intersected with all these famous mid century criminals. John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd. Amazing names back then. I don't know why what happened, why our criminals don't have names like this anymore.

[Joumana Khatib]

Get on it, guy.

[Gilbert Cruz]

And he was. His people probably know him best because he was a longtime writer for Vanity Fair for more than two decades, I believe. And I was reminded, I don't know if he read this piece that he wrote. I was reminded of him recently because he reviewed Graydon Carter's memoir. Graydon Carter, the former longtime editor of Antifair, wrote a memoir. Let a lot of us in the journalism business reflect upon how we maybe missed the great rich moment in magazine journalism where if you were Brian Burrow, as he wrote in the piece for the Yale Review, you could write three articles a year and make $498,000.

[Joumana Khatib]

That was like 20 years ago.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Yeah, it was something like that.

[Joumana Khatib]

Yeah. So it's an obscene amount of money.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I'm happy for him, Slightly jealous. And I'm definitely happy that he has a new book out because he writes great books. And this one, he's been in Texas for a while, so this one is firmly Texas located. This is about the myth of the Wild west gunfighter. Apparently there's a period of time I did not know this, even though I've seen so many Westerns referred to as the Gunfighter Era, 1865-1901. So right after the Civil War to right when the 20th century began. And this is focused on literal gunfighters, on all these stories about people who had shootouts and town squares and stuff like that. I think it's a lot of debunking. So.

[Joumana Khatib]

Okay. But I'm sure there's going to be some lurid truth that comes out too. Can't all be stranger than fiction.

[Gilbert Cruz]

The best truth is lurid. Yeah.

[Joumana Khatib]

That's why we got into this business.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Yeah. Before we move on to your book, just curious Are you a Western person?

[Joumana Khatib]

I want to be. And I think I found the movie that's gonna make me a Western girl.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Because it's a Western gal.

[Joumana Khatib]

I'm trying not to overwhelm myself. Trying to do baby steps here, but thank you. So, Gilbert, you're gonna know the name of this movie. It's got Warren Beatty, Julie Christie McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Yes. I cannot wait to watch this. I've heard that there's a lot of fur.

[Gilbert Cruz]

It's very wintry. Warren Beatty. I think the COVID of the Criterion Blu Ray has Warren Beatty wearing one of the most amazing fur coats that has ever existed in the history of humanity. Yes. Yes, it is. And he has a bowler hat. It's a grimy movie because it takes place in the west and in winter, and Robert Altman, not interested in printing it up. It's just. There's a lot of mud, there's a lot of grit, a lot of grime. But it's pretty wonderful. And I have free copies if you want to borrow one.

[Joumana Khatib]

Good. Duly noted. I'm so excited. I've heard only good things. Okay, so this is. Is called Next to Heaven by James Fry. Yes, it's that James Fry. The One of a Million Little Pieces. Fame, infamy, whatever. I will say with the distance of time, I think that whole scandal is. It's crazy to think that could happen today.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Remind us why James Fry got into trouble.

[Joumana Khatib]

So he wrote this very lurid account of. Of addiction. And it was billed as a nonfiction account. And it turns out that a lot was exaggerated to dial up the drama of it. And this had been an Oprah. This had been a book that Oprah had celebrated. And then when the scandal came out, she brought him back to the show and really held his feet to the fire. Just the idea that we had a literary scandal that totally paralyzed the United States for at least a week, Unbelievable to me.

[Gilbert Cruz]

So he has been writing since then? He's written a bunch of stuff, right?

[Joumana Khatib]

Yeah, yeah. He had an adult novel back in 2018. I think he's been writing a lot of screenplays. And with this new book, Next to Heaven, you do have that screenplay feel. This is something I'm seeing in a lot of contemporary books where it feels like the writers are doubly writing for the screen and the page, but that's for another time. So this is the story of a very wealthy Connecticut town, fictional, called New Bethlehem. And it follows appropriately wealthy, appropriately fabulous, appropriately attractive couples in this community. And it centers on two best friends who are both bored in their marriage, outright dissatisfied. And they cook up the plan. The two wives, they cook up the plan to stage swinger's party.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Is that the right word? Do you stage a swinger's party?

[Joumana Khatib]

Well, you do stage it because they manipulated it down to the thing. And this is still not a spoiler, by the way. The two hostesses had their mark. They had the men they wanted to sleep with, and so there was going to be nothing left to chance. It reminds me of the idea of a key party. I mean, it basically is a glorified key party. And so that's something.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Okay. And that's the beginning of the book.

[Joumana Khatib]

Well, that's the premise of the book. And then it actually does devolve from there. Murder. There's intrigue, there's deceit, there's all sorts of stuff. I guess I should say lurid, propulsive. Somebody called good, trashy, fun. I don't like that descriptor, but it appeals to one's baser instincts, I could say. So that's next to heaven.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Next to heaven. When's that out?

[Joumana Khatib]

That is out in June 3rd.

[Gilbert Cruz]

We'll be right back.

[Joumana Khatib]

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[Gilbert Cruz]

Welcome back. This is the book review podcast and I'm Gilbert Cruz. I'm here with my fellow editor, Zhumana Khatib, and we are talking about a few books we are looking forward to this summer. I want to speak about a book that I know maybe you have dipped into that is about a marriage that is put under some pressure. So this book is Called A Marriage at A True Story of Love, Obsession and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhurst. And this is about a couple. This takes place in 1973. Maurice and Marilyn. They want to get out onto the high seas. I love a high seas tale. They're going to sail around the world. They're going to go from Britain. They're going to go and just see. See what happens. They get to New Zealand and a whale knocks into their boat. The boat sinks. They're left on a raft for four months to survive. So they not only have to survive, but they're a married couple and their.

[Joumana Khatib]

Marriage has to survive.

[Gilbert Cruz]

What's going to happen here?

[Joumana Khatib]

Nothing good.

[Gilbert Cruz]

What a story. This is a great story. I can't wait to read it. Not only because it's set on the ocean. I love the ocean. I love whales. But I also love marriages under duress.

[Joumana Khatib]

There's a very, very good quote that. And I love the tongue in cheekness of this. So the author actually makes a point of saying, what else is a marriage if not being stuck on a small raft with someone and trying to survive?

[Gilbert Cruz]

So wise. So that is a marriage at sea. When is that out?

[Joumana Khatib]

Do you happen to know that is out in July?

[Gilbert Cruz]

Ok. Yeah.

[Joumana Khatib]

So you can gird your loins. You can line up the couple's therapist before you dip into that.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Yes, please do that. What do you have next? Joumana?

[Joumana Khatib]

So this is also about a family in duress. This is a novel. This is a very interesting novel. It's got a lot going on. This is called the Sisters by Jonas Hasan Hamiri. He is also a playwright. He's one of Sweden's most decorated writers, in case you're wondering.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I'm glad there are people to tell us.

[Joumana Khatib]

Yeah.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Who a nation's most decorated writers are.

[Joumana Khatib]

It's me. C' est moi. Okay. This is a really interesting book because it's. In my professional opinion, this is basically two books stitched together and it actually works. So the frame of the book is this fictional story of the Mykola sisters, who are Swedish Tunisian. They're a bit outcast. Their father has died and they're left being raised by their nutty Tunisian mom who sells carpets and believes the family is cursed. Obviously, I like this because I feel that I know this woman, perhaps might be related to her myself. So the sisters are. There are three of them and they could not be more different temperamentally. And their story is told from the perspective of somebody who grew up near them. And the narrator himself is Swedish Tunisian and is Intrigued by them because obviously he feels some commonality with them because of their shared background. Even just being a little bit different in a place that is. That really prioritizes conformity. So that's the fictional track. And then the chapters are interspersed with what read like more of an autobiography from the author's perspective. It talks about his own upbringing, talks about his entry into writing, it talks about his struggles to write. He writes very movingly about mental illness. I really loved this book. I came to love the characters. Of course this is. If somebody had cooked up a book in a lab for me specifically it would probably resemble this. You got alienation, you got racially confused people in a place, you got questions of belonging.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I can't wait for someone to send you a T shirt with those three.

[Joumana Khatib]

Phrases on it instead of the Beatles T shirt where John and Paul. Yeah, so yeah, this was a nice novel to sink into. I should mention it's quite long. It's 700 pages.

[Gilbert Cruz]

You should have said that at the top.

[Joumana Khatib]

No, I shouldn't have. I said that in due time. Anyway, it reads very quickly though.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Oh that sounds wonderful. Say the title again and when's it out?

[Joumana Khatib]

This is called the Sisters and this is coming out in mid June.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I'm going to talk about a couple thrillers. They're both out in June. The first is, it's called the First Gentleman and this is by well known author James Patterson and former president of these United States Bill Clinton. So this is the third book that the two of them have written together. It's amazing to go back and look at post presidential careers. What do people do after they have held the highest land in this office? Some of them write thrillers with James Patterson and that's what Bill Clinton has done. So what is this one about? The President's husband is on trial for murder. Very poorly timed because she is up for reelection. So this is a thriller that intersects with politics. It's very funny because Hillary Clinton has also written her own thriller. If you remember from years ago, she co wrote State of Terror with Louise Penny, the great thriller writer who has her Inspector Gamache series. I don't know, I just think people love these books. A lot of people are going to read these books. People love James Patterson. We just had news that James Patterson signed a deal with Mr. Beast, the very, very famous YouTuber. They're co writing a book together. I can imagine seeing this on many a beach this summer.

[Joumana Khatib]

Oh totally. Oh yeah. This is going to be Beaches across America. Now if you prefer your thrillers and detective stories a little less off the news. I have good news. Picador is reissuing all 75 of the inspector May. This is by the great Belgian writer Georges Simenon. And these are fun. These are great. If you like Poirot, if you like the idea of a well groomed European investigating things gone awry. I think these are for you. They read very fast. My mom loves them. We have all 75 already. I can't wait to add all 75.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I've always wanted to dip into these. They exist out there. If you go to your thriller section or mystery section of your local bookstore, you'll probably find, I think they're Penguin editions. There's just a ton of them and they are pretty thin. But Picador and FSG are going to reissue them and they're starting with three this summer. So it's just another reason to pick them up and try something new. I really. I think I have one or two. I would love to start that series. Although 75 books is a. That's a years long project.

[Joumana Khatib]

One by one.

[Gilbert Cruz]

That's a years long project.

[Joumana Khatib]

One by one, bird by bird. Gilbert.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Just take it day by day. The other thriller I wanted to talk about that also comes out in June is called King of Ashes. This is by S.A. cosby. You might be familiar with S.A. cosby. He writes crime fiction that's set in the south primarily, I believe the northern part of the south, like Virginia. And this is his fifth novel. He has written My Darkest Prayer, Blacktop Wasteland, Razorblade Tears and All the Sinners Bleed, which is the only one of his I've read. Stephen King positively reviewed it for us back in 2023. And one of the most exciting things for me, or the opposite of Inspector McGray, is getting in someone's career when they're still in early days. These five books. As opposed to someone like Michael Connolly, who we profiled here at the Book Review a few months ago, who's written dozens and dozens of books. He's a great writer, but imagining dipping into his oeuvre and trying to make it all the way through is slightly intimidating. He's published dozens of books. Essay Cosby. You can get in on the ground floor.

[Joumana Khatib]

Okay. I do walk around with an approval matrix in my mind of types of books that we have. So I have something that's in the complete opposite quadrant of what you just discussed. This because I know there are people out there who like the chilly, remote, distant, dread, inflected contemporary novel. So that is what I Am going to talk about today. This is called Bonding by Marielle Franklin. This is a very. It's a very precise satire of tech, industry, pharmaceuticals, modern dating. So this follows a woman in her early 30s named Mary. She's working at some ridiculous startup, I think it's called healthify or something. And she's laid off. And so she goes to Ibiza because she doesn't know what else to do. And she gets mixed up with this guy named Tom, who's sober but is working on what he thinks is gonna be a totally revolutionary antidepressant. And while she's out there, she's hearing from this woman named Lara, who is her sort of ex. And she knows that Mary needs a job. And so then Mary, you know, she's still seeing this guy who's working on the antidepressant that's gonna change the world. And then she's working for her sort of ex who's working on this dating app that's supposed to accept any kink or any taste or any fetish. And of course it goes off the rails. Right? You could not pay me to work with any of my exes, as wonderful as they are, but certainly not on a dating app. And so I think that this is just a good. If you're looking for perspective on what's going on right now, contemporary life, this might be good for you. I don't normally mention advance praise, but this is a book that Zadie Smith really loves. It came out in the UK a little bit ago, so that might be something to add to your reading list.

[Gilbert Cruz]

And when's that out again?

[Joumana Khatib]

That is out in July.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Got it. Switching genres very briefly, I'm gonna talk about a book that comes out in early June. This is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V E Schwab. Hopefully some listeners saw the five day poetry challenge that we did at the Book Review in which we tried to help readers memorize the poem Requierdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Wonderful poem, beautiful poem. You should try it. If you haven't, we got a bunch of celebrity readers to read the poem in full to try to help people memorize it. One of those people was V. Schwab. We're very happy to have her. If you don't know, she is. She's a beloved fantasy writer. She's best known for two series. One's a trilogy, one's a duology. I don't believe in duologies. I don't like using that word. It's just two books. It's Just a book and it's sequel. But I think in the fantasy genre they do use the word duology a lot. Darker Shade of Magic is one of them and Vicious is the other. But I think her crossover hit was a book that I remember seeing all over the place many years ago. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue. I think it's still front on many bookstores, bookshelves. And this one isn't standalone. It's about lesbian vampires in three separate time periods. 1530 Spain, 1820s London, and 2019 Boston. Which of those time periods would you prefer to live in?

[Joumana Khatib]

Definitely not Boston at any point.

[Gilbert Cruz]

So that is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E Schwab. That comes out in early June.

[Joumana Khatib]

Let's stick with fantasy for a minute because I have a good recommendation. Okay, this is Katabasis by RF Kuang. This is a bit of a homecoming for her because she is known for the Poppy War trilogy. She's known for Babel. She writes these sweeping historical fantasy books that often are centered on academia. Her last book, Yellowface, was a total swerve for her. This was a racial of the publishing industry. So with this new one, Katabasis, she's coming back to familiar terrain. And it follows two rival magic students. Alice, who's our heroine, has accidentally killed her advisor. And so she and her rival student decide to go to hell to recover their advisor, bring him back, Alice, because she feels guilty that she killed him. And also cause she wants a job. And she knows if he recommends her for a job, she'll become a professor. Now, if that's not relatable, I don't know what it is.

[Gilbert Cruz]

That is the essence of academia right there. I will do anything to get tenure, including going to hell to bring back my beloved advisor, Helen Beck.

[Joumana Khatib]

She didn't even like the guy, by the way. She doesn't even like this advisor.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I just need that letter of recommendation.

[Joumana Khatib]

So that is Katavasis by RF Kuang. Okay. I realize that RF Kuang may be not to everybody's taste, but I think almost everybody loves James Baldwin.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I can imagine some bad people who don't like James Baldwin.

[Joumana Khatib]

Fair enough.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I think most good people like James Baldwin. Who really has, over the past many decades, had a rediscovery. It's possibly because we're coming out of the centennial of his birth, which was in summer 2024. But James Baldwin is all over the place. If you haven't seen a documentary that came out in 2016 called I Am not yout Negro, directed by Raoul Peck. It's fantastic. I've seen it twice. This is not that, however. This is a book called A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs. This as is being sold as the first major biography of the writer in several decades. And it's focusing on his relationship specifically with four men that he had romantic relationships or collaborative artistic relationships with over the course of his career. It's quite a big book. I've never read a biography of James Baldwin. I've read other books by him. I've seen YouTube videos of him talking. He's, I don't know, one of the great all time speakers in American recorded time, charisma incarnate. So I'm actually very excited to check this one out. A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs. And then we should just mention a bunch of titles that are, that are coming out by writers who you may know who. We don't necessarily have time to get into a ton. We have Flashlights by Susan Choi, so Far Gone by Jess Walter. Ed park has a collection of short stories coming out called An Oral History of Atlantis. The former editor of the New York Times Book Review, Person who Did My Job has a book coming out about William F. Buckley called the Life and the Revolution that Changed America. Very big biography.

[Joumana Khatib]

Melissa Febos has a memoir coming out called the Dry A Memoir of Pleasure and A Year Without Sex. Also, Aisha Muharrar has a debut novel coming out called Loved One. Gary Streingart has a novel coming called Vera or Faith. And Megan Abbott, the great twisty thriller queen, has a book coming called El Dorado Drive, which is thrilling to me because it's all about pyramid schemes and MLMs.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Why do you like pyramid schemes?

[Joumana Khatib]

Oh my God. Because I've just been waiting for somebody to blow the whistle on these.

[Gilbert Cruz]

So we've waited all this time. No one knows how bad pyramid schemes are.

[Joumana Khatib]

No people know how bad they are. I just, I'm happy that it's crossed over into the realm of fiction.

[Gilbert Cruz]

So, Joumana, let us end this episode which has been a delight. This way. Not what are you looking forward to reading, but how are you looking forward to reading this summer?

[Joumana Khatib]

Oh, great question, Gilbert. I love reading. When it's 88 to 92 degrees on the beach for hours is when it's so hot all you can do is read. That is what I'm excited about.

[Gilbert Cruz]

That sounds great.

[Joumana Khatib]

How about you, Gilbert?

[Gilbert Cruz]

Obviously sitting in an uncomfortable chair in an overly air conditioned space, naturally. Okay. Well, Joumana, as always, a pure delight to have you on. Thank you for coming on the podcast to talk about what you're looking forward to this summer.

[Joumana Khatib]

Thank you for having me. The best part about summer the books.

[Gilbert Cruz]

The books, the books. That was my conversation with Joumanna Khatib about a few of the books that we are looking forward to this summer. I am Gilbert Cruz. I'm the editor of the New York Times Book Review. I hope you have a long list of books that you're looking forward to this summer. Thank you, as always, for listening.

[Joumana Khatib]

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