Summer offers a range of reading opportunities, whether you’re lounging outside by a body of water or inside near a glass of water.
Along with good hydration, you’ll need plenty to read. We recently shared our picks of romance, horror, Hollywood and nonfiction titles, so how about a big list of what’s hitting independent bookstores this month?
From murder mysteries and randy romances to scary sci-fi and erudite essays, we have plenty to suggest for you this month.
Map: 100 Southern California independent bookstores to visit in 2026
Out this week
Katherine Arden, “The Unicorn Hunters” (Del Rey)
A young royal from Brittany sees her future being planned out for her, and she doesn’t like what she sees. France, which she holds responsible for her father’s death, aims to marry her to its king, thus annexing her land and making her its last duchess. Instead, she secretly marries in an enchanted forest and everything changes.
Eric Jay Dolin, “The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail” (Liveright)
This real-life story of a whaling ship shipwrecked in the Pacific in 1832, and the challenges facing the remaining castaways and the Indigenous people they encounter, arrives just in time for Father’s Day.
Cynthia Gómez, “Muñeca” (Putnam)
Set in Oakland during the late 1960s, this slim debut novel concerns a working-class Latina witch who aims to cure a cursed heiress in order to collect an award but soon begins to fall for her.
Rasheed Newson, “There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood” (Flatiron Books)
The second novel from the Pasadena-based author and TV writer explores old Hollywood and its secrets as a former studio fixer looks into the suspicious death of a closeted Black actor.
Maggie O’Farrell, “Land” (Knopf)
After the success of “Hamnet” and “The Marriage Portrait,” O’Farrell returns with a historical epic about a father and son who are part of an effort to map the landscape of Ireland in the 1860s, not long after the Great Hunger.
Ruth Ozeki, “The Typing Lady: And Other Fictions” (Viking)
The latest from the Booker Prize-nominated author of “The Book of Form and Emptiness” and “A Tale for the Time Being” features stories about language, leaf blowers and much more.
Ann Patchett, “Whistler” (Harper)
The beloved and hugely successful author of “Bel Canto,” “The Dutch House,” and many more books, spoke to us about her new novel, which begins as a teacher in her 50s unexpectedly reconnects with the man who’d briefly been her stepfather.
Ann Patchett reveals the love story at the heart of her novel ‘Whistler’
Allie Rowbottom, “Lovers XXX” (Soho Press)
This novel is set in the seedier sections of 1980s Los Angeles as an 18-year-old woman goes in search of her best friend, who has fallen under the spell of darker influences as she dances at a Sunset Strip club.
Lisa See, “Daughters of the Sun and Moon” (Scribner)
In the latest from See, three Chinese women with vastly different backgrounds forge a friendship in 1870s Los Angeles as anti-Chinese bigotry erupts into some of the worst racial violence in the nation’s history.
Yeganeh Torbati and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, “Stolen Revolution: Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran” (Doubleday)
The authors of this much-praised and extremely timely piece of nonfiction examine the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the ways that the events have played out across the ensuing decades.
Sarah Valentine, “Decoding the Devil: Black Women Codebreakers and the Secret War Against Stalin’s Bomb” (Harper)
Even as our nation aimed to counter the nuclear ambitions of Stalin’s totalitarian Soviet Union, the United States operated segregated units of codebreakers, showing the hardworking, college-educated team of Black women none of the respect or gratitude it did toward its White employees.
Josh Weil, “What Came West” (Doubleday)
Set in the Sierra Nevadas as the Gold Rush begins, this violent, Cormac McCarthy-esque epic features a man, possibly neurodivergent by today’s standards, who leaves his life and family behind to seek a fragile peace in the calm of nature, only to find his solitude shattered as the woods begin to fill with noisy men looking to get rich.
June 9
Ashley Bennett, “Tentacles & Triathlons” (Berkley)
If the description “sexy monster romance” piques your interest – and why wouldn’t it? – this love story, which has been revised and expanded, features a fearsome park ranger in training for a triathlon and the sweet-natured kraken who’s been enlisted to help him become a better swimmer.
Mary HK Choi, “Pool House” (Flatiron Books)
The new novel for adults by the author of “Emergency Contact” and “Permanent Record” looks at a mother and daughter, both struggling with a variety of money, emotional and career problems, who must share a pool house when it’s necessary to rent out their home to pay the bills.
20 nonfiction books about food, sports and more for your summer reading
Zinzi Clemmons, “Freedom: Essays” (Viking)
Clemmons, who was previously writer-in-residence at Occidental College and is now director of the creative writing program at the University of California, Davis, takes on a range of topics in these 9 essays, which incorporate memoir, reporting and criticism as they explore notions of freedom.
Laverne Cox, “Transcendent” (Gallery Books)
A trans icon and trailblazer, the four-time Emmy-nominated star of “Orange is the New Black” writes about her traumatic upbringing, her near-decision to give up on her dreams and ultimate success in Hollywood. (Cox will be appearing at a Live Talks LA event on June 12.)
Dave Eggers, “Contrapposto” (Knopf)
This new novel, which Eggers says he thought about for two decades, explores the lifelong relationship between a boy and girl who meet in grade school and grow up to become artists, friends and more over the decades.
Gail Godwin, “The Art of Becoming a Citizen: A Memoir” (Bloomsbury)
The 88-year-old, three-time National Book Award nominee Godwin explores what citizenship means and what it requires by reflecting on moments in her own life, from the upheaval of the 1960s to the upheaval of the 2024 election. Godwin, who spoke to us in 2024, retains her curiosity, as well as williness to share her journey with readers.
Vijay Gupta, “Restrung” (Grand Central)
The Altadena-based violinist, who joined the LA Philharmonic when he was 19, shares his story in this memoir of a life that includes a successful TED talk, a MacArthur Fellowship and the launching of the Street Symphony nonprofit, before his life begins to go awry.
Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, “The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss” (Norton)
Macfarlane, the acclaimed writer about the natural world and its waters, once again teams with the formidable Morris, an artist whose eye and hand create unforgettable images of winged creatures.
Underdog Bookstore is launching Monrovia’s first-ever Pride book festival
Deb Olin Unferth, “Earth 7” (Graywolf)
On the severe, depopulated landscape of a damaged earth, two women connect even as most others have decamped for Mars or a digital afterlife. (The author will be reading at Skylight on June 9)
De’Shawn Charles Winslow, “The Fervent Whites” (One World)
Set in 1982, just as life is beginning to return to normal following a small-town homicide, the couple convicted of the crime is released and returns to the community.
June 16
Armena Brown, “Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl: Essays” (Tiny Reparations)
An essay collection full of humor and emotion, Brown, a poet and performing artist, focuses here on stories of growing up in the South and the variety of ways a Black girl can be in the world.
Philip Norman, “Mr. Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles” (Da Capo)
While there is no shortage of books on the Beatles, the author of “Shout!” and other books about the Beatles offers his take on the band’s manager, who died young after helping launch the band to unforeseen fame.
Greg Sarris, “The Last Human Bear” (Heyday)
In his first novel in nearly 30 years, Sarris, longtime tribal leader of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, constructs a tale spanning the 20th Century as a Native Pomo woman in Northern California deals with her family’s history and a mysterious curse.
June 23
Eve Babitz, “Too L.A.” (NYRB)
Edited and annotated by Lili Anolik, the author of the nonfiction study “Didion & Babitz,” this collection of letters to intimates and friends like Steve Martin and Joseph Heller offers a chance to explore the fascinating world of Babitz, author of “Eve’s Hollywood,” “Slow Days, Fast Company” and “Sex and Rage.”
E.L. Chen, “Slasher Summer” (Crown)
This one is pretty much self-explanatory, right? In the town of Cedar Lake, where the movie “Slasher” was filmed, a group of friends reconvenes to catch up, have fun and find themselves stranded without a phone as a mysterious figure hunts them down.
Krista Diamond, “Close Relationships with Strangers” (Simon & Schuster)
A wildlife photographer moves from Las Vegas to Los Angeles to become a paparazzo, stealing shots of celebrities even as cellphone-toting civilians eat away at the business of preying on the famous. Things change when a major star becomes embroiled in a sex scandal.
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Daniel Kraus, “The Sixth Nik” (S&S/Saga Press)
Having just won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2025 novel, “Angel Fall,” and published a nonfiction book about “Night of the Living Dead,” the prolific author returns with a work that melds science fiction and horror.
June 30
Paul Tremblay, “Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep” (Morrow)
An overworked gamer scores a job with her powerful mother’s help – using a controller to transport a semi-comatose man across the country in search of answers.