August is upon us! It’s been quite a summer already, filled with heat waves, international political chaos, wildfires, and more. Still, as I always say, there’s one constant you can feel some comfort with: that there will be new books to check out each week. And today, I bring you a whopping twenty-six of them.
There’s poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to choose from, spanning an incredible range of topics and styles. We’re slowly defining how the pandemic will be remembered in art, and, in fiction, Regina Porter is back with a new novel oriented around lockdown, Brooklyn, and a missing woman. Helen Phillips’ much-buzzed-about follows the sometimes striking consequences of mothering.
Magdaléna Platzová offers up a perspective-shifting story following Kafka’s fiancee, Felice Bauer. If you’d prefer something more SFF-oriented, Tananarive Due has a new collection of stories spanning sci-fi, horror, and more. The late Elaine Kraf’s has been re-released with an introduction by Melissa Broder.
And there are many more exciting novels and stories, including work by Ismet Prcic, Sophie Brickman, and many more. In poetry, we have intriguing, anticipated new collections from Carl Phillips, Vincent Toro, and Daniel Borzutzky. And in nonfiction, you’ll find everything from a history of the American bookshop; a natural history true crime tale (!) focused around eels; an exploration of the life of John Andrew Jackson, an escaped slave who Harriet Beecher Stowe hid in her.