Books to Look Forward to in August 2022

The month of August has come with a wide variety of intriguing settings for the discriminating summer reader, including eerie coral atolls and an Oxford University from a previous world. So let's look at the novels that are being released in the United States this month.

1. Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The gradual oppression of time. Carrie Soto is Back, the latest book from Daisy Jones & the Six author, follows the reemergence of a top tennis player six years after her retirement. A renowned athlete makes a comeback effort in this stirring book about the price of brilliance when everyone else believes she is past her prime. Expected publication will be on August 30th 2022 by Ballantine Books.

2. Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang

This thoughtful new journey from R.F. Kuang is one of the year's must-read books. Young Robin Swift, a Chinese child educated in Britain, is accepted to Oxford in 1828 and discovers there about the evil ways in which England used magic to maintain its cultural superiority. Robin joins a brand-new student movement because he won't abandon his homeland. According to the description, the novel is both a thematic and tonal reaction to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. The employment of translation as an imperial tool, student uprisings, and colonial resistance are all topics it addresses. Expected publication will be on August 23rd 2022 by Harper Voyager

3. Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

The sequel to the #1 New York Times bestseller Queen of Twists features a murderous family reunion. The unforgettably shocking turns in Daisy Darker's novel will have readers reeling, with a cruel smirk to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. For Nana's 80th birthday, Daisy Darker's entire family has gathered on a run-down island manor. Up until the tide rolls in and Nana is discovered dead, everything is OK. A gathering of individuals find themselves being eliminated one by one by a nasty killer in this new mystery from Alice Feeney (Sometimes I Lie), which is partially a parody of Agatha Christie's timeless And Then There Were None. However, it's a family affair this time. Expected publication will be on August 30th 2022 by Flatiron Books

4. The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell

This stand-alone sequel to The Family Upstairs by No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell is a complex and moving story about twisted relationships, shattered families, and lethal obsessions. The bones from a recent murder have just been linked to a 30-year-old cold case and an ancient Chelsea home, according to London detective Samuel Owusu. Lucy Lamb is also back in London and is attempting to put a strange event from 30 years ago behind her. Jewell demonstrates she is writing at the height of her abilities in this masterful standalone sequel to her heartbreaking New York Times bestseller, The Family Upstairs, with another mind-blowing, detailed, and moving book about the lengths we will go to defend the ones we love and discover the truth. Expected publication will be on August 9th 2022 by Atria.

5. The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford

This innovative journey into historical fiction/magic realism by the celebrated author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet introduces poet Dorothy Moy, who fears that her daughter may inherit her terrible depression. Dorothy is able to communicate with former members of her Chinese family, including a World War II nurse, a little child in San Francisco, and the first Chinese lady to enter America, due to an experimental treatment for hereditary trauma. This book was published last August 2nd 2022 by Atria Books.

6. Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra

From Mussolini's Italy to 1940s Los Angeles, the epic story of a bright woman who must reinvent herself to live. Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra, one of the most fascinating historical fiction books to come down the chute this year, is set in 1940s Hollywood as World War II rumbles on the horizon. European émigrés fleeing persecution in their own countries occupy positions in the hidden corners of Tinseltown. Maria Lagana, an assistant producer at Mercury Pictures and an exiled Italian, is our tour guide for this brief period in Hollywood history. Mercury Pictures Presents covers a variety of moods and tones, from the tragic to the joyful, and is written with intellect, humour, and an exhilarating sense of possibilities. It is a tour de force, a love letter to life's supporting cast, and a panoramic view of a period that throws a long shadow over our own. This book was published last August 2nd 2022 by Hogarth Press.

7. Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

A captivating story with magical realism and heart-stopping moments of unadulterated love is the latest release from Garden Spells' New York Times bestselling author. Sarah Addison Allen is a resident of the quaint North Carolina town of Asheville and is familiar with the allure of small communities. Her latest fantasy and magical realism book, Other Birds, is set a bit to the south on Mallow Island, which lies off the coast of South Carolina. When little Zoey travels to collect her inheritance, she discovers one of those cracks in the fabric of time and space and makes friends with both the living and the dead. Expected publication will be on August 30th 2022 by St. Martin's Press

8. The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

We advanced readers are frequently accused of "devouring" our literature. Until it isn't, the image is adorable. The Book Eaters, written by British novelist Sunyi Dean, is a very realistic account of a solitary tribe living in the Yorkshire Moors that subsist on books. It works out rather well, until one family member experiences a more sinister type of hunger apparently, romance novels are sweet, but spy novels are fiery. This novel was published August 2nd 2022 by Tor Books.

9. Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana

In this popular debut collection of short stories by Sidik Fofana, inhabitants of a low-income Harlem high-rise are the subjects of eight interrelated stories. We observe the community adapt and evolve as gentrification challenges the status quo, with residents looking for a better future for themselves and others they care about. The works The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor and In the Heights by Lin Manuel Miranda are compared to Stories from the Tenants Downstairs. Sidik Fofana's riveting collection of eight interrelated stories portrays the strengths, problems, and dreams of one residential community in a potent narrative experience, similar to Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place and Lin Manuel Miranda's In the Heights. Expected publication will be on August 16th 2022 by Scribner.

10. My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson

From the creator and producer of the television drama series The Chi, Narcos, and Bel-Air comes a fiery and compelling LGBT coming-of-age tale that follows the emotional and political awakening of a young homosexual Black man in 1980s New York City. Rasheed Newson's homosexual coming-of-age novel, set in 1980s New York City, follows adolescent Earl "Trey" Singleton III as he experiences emancipation and hardships in the big city. Trey struggles through a turbulent decade while advocating for LGBT rights and serving as a volunteer at a home hospice for AIDS patients after running away from his rich family. He later joins the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power as a founding member (ACT UP). Expected publication will be on August 23rd 2022 by Flatiron Books.

11. Walking Gentry Home: A Memoir of My Foremothers in Verse by Alora Young

In this breath-taking debut celebrating Black girlhood and womanhood throughout American history, a "extraordinary" young poet (Laurie Halse Anderson) traces the lives of her foremothers in West Tennessee, from those who were enslaved centuries ago to her grandmother, her mother, and finally herself. Walking Gentry Home, a book of short tales in poetry, by Alora Young, the Southern United States' 2021 Youth Poet Laureate, is an outstanding first work of familial love and meticulous study. Young relates the tales of her ancestors—her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and so on—using both her own imagination and the historical record. The tales are based on oral tradition, official interviews, documents from the past, and cutting-edge DNA testing. This novel was published last August 2nd 2022 by Hogarth Press.

12. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Jennette McCurdy, star of the television shows iCarly and Sam & Cat, shares her heartbreaking and hilarious memoir about her struggles as a former child actor, including her battles with eating disorders, addiction, and a difficult relationship with her controlling mother, as well as how she overcame them. You may recall Jennette McCurdy if you or your children were Nickelodeon fans a decade or so ago. She was a child actor and a Sam & Cat and iCarly co-star. McCurdy describes how her newfound fame and money turned into addiction, eating problems, and a poisonous relationship with her domineering mother in this frank and darkly humorous memoir. McCurdy relates her tale with honesty and compassion now that she has recovered and is no longer involved in the entertainment industry. Expected publication will be on August 9th 2022 by Simon Schuster.