Aug 18

Aug 18 Books Publishing This Week

By mid-August, summer feels deeply familiar. The season has settled into you after weeks of long afternoons, warm evenings, and mornings when the sun seems to rise before you've had a chance to miss it. The trees are still lush and green, gardens are overflowing, and the cicadas begin their steady chorus before the heat of the day has fully arrived. Yet something has shifted almost imperceptibly. The light is softer now, particularly toward evening, and you find yourself noticing the sunset a little earlier than you did in July. Summer isn't ending, not yet, but its abundance suddenly feels precious enough to savor.

t makes you want to slow down, and a new book feels like the perfect excuse. Maybe you've had this one waiting on your nightstand for weeks, or perhaps you've just brought it home from the bookstore, drawn to it without knowing much more than the title and the promise on its cover. Either way, you decide that today is the day to begin. There is still plenty of summer ahead, and you like the thought of this story becoming part of it, accompanying you through the remaining warm afternoons and increasingly golden evenings.

You carry the book outside along with something cold to drink. Maybe it's iced tea with lemon, a sparkling water filled with berries, or an iced coffee that leaves a ring of condensation wherever you set it down. You add a bowl of fresh fruit—peaches, cherries, perhaps the last perfect blueberries of the season—and settle into a comfortable chair somewhere in the shade. The afternoon is warm, but a breeze moves through often enough to make it pleasant. It catches the leaves overhead, creating shifting patterns of sunlight across your legs and the unopened book resting in your lap.

Before you begin, you let yourself notice the day. The garden has that slightly wild look it gets in August, flowers spilling over their borders after months of growing freely. Bees disappear into blossoms, butterflies drift past, and the air carries the unmistakable scent of warm grass and sunbaked earth. Somewhere in the distance, you hear the splash of a swimming pool or the faint laughter of children trying to squeeze every possible adventure out of summer vacation. The cicadas hum steadily, providing a soundtrack so distinctly August that you know hearing it months from now would transport you immediately back to this afternoon.

Finally, you open the book. The spine gives gently beneath your hands, revealing pages that are still perfectly crisp. You read the first sentence slowly, appreciating the peculiar pleasure of entering a story before you know anything about it. The characters are strangers. Their world is unfamiliar. You don't yet know what will surprise you, what will break your heart, or which lines you'll want to remember. Everything is still possible.

You read the first chapter and then another, gradually losing track of the afternoon. Every so often, you look up to take a sip of your drink or reach for a slice of peach. The breeze lifts the corner of the page, and you hold it down absently while continuing to read. Soon the story begins to feel less unfamiliar. A character's voice becomes recognizable. A setting takes shape in your imagination. You find yourself wondering what will happen next, which is always the moment when you know a book has begun to claim you.

By the time you finally look up, the afternoon light has changed. Everything is warmer now, washed in the honeyed gold that makes August evenings feel almost nostalgic while you're still living them. Shadows stretch across the grass, and the cicadas seem louder as the day begins its slow descent toward dusk. You slip your bookmark between the pages and close the cover, already looking forward to returning tomorrow.

For now, you sit a little longer with the book resting in your lap. Mid-August reminds you that there is a difference between knowing something won't last forever and believing it is already over. Summer is still here. There are still warm nights, ripe peaches, flowers blooming, and books waiting to be read beneath green trees.

And perhaps that's what makes beginning a new story now feel so lovely. There is still time—time to linger, time to read slowly, and time to let both the book and the final weeks of summer unfold without rushing either one toward its ending.

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Books Publishing August 16 - 22

The Halls of the Dead by S. M. Hallow

A queer, gothic horror romance set in a necromancy-tinged London, sure to entrance fans of The Death of Jane Lawrence and Mexican Gothic.

London, December 1849

Irene Shallcross Haley has dedicated her life to necromancy, a forbidden, reviled art that is passed along through sentient grimoires bound in human skin. With her undead husband St. John—a marriage of kindred spirits and platonic convenience—she has been protecting the knowledge of generations of witches that came before her. Like any magic, it has come at a cost: her reputation, her relationship with her sister, and her soul. But when Irene’s love, Agnes, is hanged for witchcraft, Irene refuses to let Agnes be one more thing that is taken from her.

A true resurrection has not been achieved in two thousand years, but Irene is determined. With the help of St. John, Irene bangs on the doors of the Halls of the Dead, demanding the third part of their triumverate back…or did she? Because the Agnes that awakens comes with both a hunger for raw flesh and a malignant ghost tied to her soul.

Necromancy is the art of saying no—no, I won't let you go; no, I won't let you be destroyed—and Irene’s work is not yet done. She must find a way to bring Agnes back to her true self, she must navigate her feelings for her resurrected lover as well as St. John, and she must do all of this without catching the attention of Sir Silas Underhill, the man who sentenced Agnes to death.

Death is not the end of love. But Irene may realize it can actually be the beginning.

Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life by Samar Yazbek

An acclaimed Syrian journalist crafts a vital portrait of October 7, 2023, and its aftermath through the harrowing yet life-affirming accounts of 26 Palestinians.

Throughout 2024, Samar Yazbek met with hundreds of survivors from Gaza, asking each of them about their experience of October 7, 2023, and what their life has been like since that pivotal date. In Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life—a title adapted from one of the flyers dropped on the residents of Gaza minutes before a bombing—Yazbek captures the raw, chilling accounts of ordinary civilians aged 13 to 65, who have witnessed what history may remember as one of the most savage military offensives of our time.

Their stories reveal a nightmarish dystopia, where each survivor has endured unimaginable loss—homes shattered, loved ones vanished, limbs obliterated—and many have been treated in hospitals ravaged by Israeli attacks. But these survivors remain determined to share their experiences, and cling to the hope that their voices will resonate.

More than a record of horrors for posterity, this breathtaking collection testifies to the power of education and writing, which remind us of our common humanity.

Go With The Flow: The Definitive, No-Nonsense, Physician's Guide to Breastfeeding by Dr. Katrina B. Mitchell

The only breastfeeding manual new moms will ever need, from the foremost expert in the field—filled with straightforward, evidence-based information and compassionate care.

Let’s get real: a breastfeeding makeover is long overdue. From the creator of the popular lactation website Physician Guide to Breastfeeding comes a companion resource guaranteed to calm the postpartum chaos and stop lactastrophes before they start.

Forget the hacks, hashtags, and home remedies. Dr. Katrina Mitchell uses the no-nonsense approach of a surgeon and years of work as a breast and women’s health specialist to fact-check the fake news of lactation and bring breastfeeding back to the basics. Whether a mom is suffering from recurrent “plugs” and mastitis or drowning in the dark depths of triple feeding, she’ll no longer need to query Google nor question whom to trust.

With compassion, clarity, and common sense, Dr. Mitchell examines the status quo of making milk at all costs, shifting the focus from breastfeeding “success” to breastfeeding sanity. Learn why devoted patients, healthcare providers, and lactation consultants have called Dr. Mitchell the “boob whisperer,” and you’ll never click the breastfeeding search button again.

Daisy Helps with the Dress by Olugbemisola Rhuday Perkovich

When Daisy tries to help with her cousin’s wedding, her misguided assists almost ruin the big day, until she finds a way to pull the dress—and her family—together in this charming picture book by award-winning author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich.

Mutual Discord by Liana De la Rosa

A girl’s girl influencer gets a serious reality check when she discovers she’s fallen for her best friend’s boyfriend in this forbidden friends-to-lovers romance.

Sofia Mendoza has had enough. She’s done watching male co-workers steal credit for her talent, and now she’s going to do something about it. No one knows she’s the brains behind a popular video series highlighting and celebrating women in history who’ve been erased from their own inventions and discoveries. Her family and friends still think she has a successful corporate job and if they discover she is supporting herself by creating social media content, they’d be stunned.

Keeping her online persona a secret is lonely, but when she sparks a virtual friendship with an anonymous follower—A—first in her comment section with his insightful perspective, then in their private video chats, where he proves to be witty and catfish level good looking, the chemistry between them ignites.

But when her old friend, Caitlin, arrives for a visit, Sofia’s lies threaten to unravel. A is Alex Castillo, her best friend’s boyfriend. Alex doesn’t reveal that he knows her, and Sofia realizes he may be keeping secrets, too. With their friendship now in real life, can they keep their attraction in check?

Tapeworm by A.P. Thayer

From Dusk Till Dawn meets The Thing in this debut horror novel, where a group of friends must confront questions of identity, aging, and desire during a vampire infestation in an isolated Californian desert.

After the recent separation from his wife Trish, Victor hopes his friends' annual weekend retreat to the Californian desert town of Superstition will loosen him up and reforge the group's fraying bonds. But something is waiting underneath Superstition, crawling its way into their group, and feeding into their desires.

Victor knows too well what it means to repress his desires. He's always attempted to be the perfect partner, yet often found himself lacking. With Trish skipping the trip, he begins falling into the wild underbelly of Superstition in new ways. When the leader of the town's Welcoming Committee approaches him with a romantic, sexually charged offer, Victor wonders if it's too good to be true.

But the Welcoming Committee expects a price to be paid for its services. One that cannot be fulfilled by willing bodies alone. By the end of the weekend, group bonding will have developed a whole new meaning. Because something is hungry for Victor and his friends.

For fans of Stephen Graham Jones, V. Castro, and Rachel Harrison, Tapeworm is an unforgettable, body-horror vampire novel that answers how far one will go to stop repressing their desires and finally set themselves free.

Who Got Game? Football by Derrick Barnes

Welcome to the the Super Bowl of sports history books, the G.O.A.T. of the storytelling shelf, the most entertaining football book you’ll ever read, from New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor winner Derrick D. Barnes.

Football rules America. It’s the favorite child (like you), it’s the teacher’s pet, it’s the grandkid that Granny bakes all of the cakes, cookies, and pies for. But while you might know all the latest, do you know the GREATEST? The players, coaches, change agents, and all-out legends who made the National Football League what it is today? We’re talking about Tom Brady—the sixth-round quarterback, passed up by every team in the league, who ended up becoming the G.O.A.T. Joe Horn, who hid a cell phone in the goalpost and used it after he scored a touchdown—because he was that confident he could get to the end zone. Jim Thorpe, Peyton Manning, Orlando Jones, Mel Blount They’re all here for you to discover.

If you consider yourself a football fan, get ready for the names, games, stats, records, and far-out facts that you couldn’t possibly get anywhere else. Have you ever heard of Fritz Pollard or Anthony Muñoz? Did you know that one of the greatest defensive backs of all time is part of the reason the passing game expanded in the NFL? And can you believe that the biggest comeback in NFL history was led by a backup quarterback? By the time you’re finished with this book, you’ll have an advanced degree in football facts. So get ready to flip through the pages, take meticulous notes, and highlight those amazing stories and hard-to-believe facts that will make your buddies crown you a football genius … because you are. Game time, baby!

Precious Ugly by Rae Cline

Clementine is a girl in trouble. She’s homeless, living in a conversion van at a campground tucked into a little stretch of riverfront on the Potomac. She’s hungry, craving Pop-Tarts while forced to eat fried snake for supper. And she’s pregnant. Daddy says he’ll fix it. But unlike Mama and the folks who believe he can walk on water, Clem knows better than to trust Daddy.

Unprecendented Times: A Novel by Malavika Kannan

In her highly anticipated literary fiction debut (Ms. Magazine, Lit Hub, Debutiful, Goodreads), Kannan tackles questions of identity and queerness against the backdrop of a burning world. Rishi Kumar is a freshman at Stanford when the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, upending life and prompting both personal and political reckonings in the confines of quarantine and beyond. This is a refreshing coming-of-age story for the modern era, which we are finally ready to hear.

Blood, Rust, and Steel by Stuart MacBride

Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, Blood, Rust and Steel is darkly funny and gripping Scottish crime at its very best.

All good things must come to an end . . .

Acting Detective Inspector Roberta Steel has never been shy, but she’s finally retiring. After thirty years of policing Aberdeen’s underbelly, she’s all set for her twilight years to feature gardening gloves, afternoon tea, crosswords puzzles, and shouting at the telly.

So, when a body turns up in a wheelie bin, it looks like an excellent way to round off her career and go out with a bang. But the Northeast of Scotland isn’t finished with her yet:

There’s a violent protest to stop; far-right populist politicians, and sketchy government agents; a by-election; drugs, dogs, and baby-doll nighties; and a desperate ex-colleague, begging her for help.

With only her Queen Street Irregulars for backup, and the top brass desperate to get shot of her, these final few weeks might just be the death of her...

Don't Look Close by Jaima Fixsen

If you look closely, you just may catch a killer.

Rear Window meets William Kent Krueger - with a hint of Erin Brokovich - in Jaima Fixsen's latest gripping crime novel. When a disabled photographer moves to a small mining town he expects a quiet life. But soon it becomes clear that something in the local clinic is wrong - very wrong - and, armed with his camera, he's determined to suss out a serial killer: one who targets those who won't step in line.

The English Bookstore in Bologna by Boo Walker

Against the sunlit backdrop of Italy, five expats discover each other—and rediscover themselves—in a charmingly funny and poignant novel by the author of An Unfinished Story and A Spanish Sunrise.

Tucked away on a cobblestone street in enchanting Bologna, Italy, is the only English bookstore in the city. It’s owned by prickly Sandy Cooke, who keeps love, and even romantic fiction, at a distance. Her employee, timid and hopelessly optimistic Moira, dreams of transforming the struggling shop into a vibrant community hub. Against the odds, one Bolognese summer, it becomes a haven for fellow expats at their own crossroads.

Bianca is a psychotherapist escaping both a breakdown and withering reviews of her new self-help book. On her heels is her father, George, wrestling with retirement—and regrets. He’s had a few, but the light of his life has always been his daughter. Then there’s Harold, a young and awkward barista from Denver recovering from his first belly-flopping high dive into love. Maybe it’s time for reinvention.

At the only English bookstore in Bologna, paths converge for five damaged souls who discover that healing doesn’t require much—just honest connection and an open heart.

Little Monsters by Máire Roche

For the first printing only! This hardcover features stenciled sprayed edges while the special edition supply lasts.

In this modern supernatural middle grade retelling of the beloved classic Little Women, the March sisters have a monstrous secret Meg will do anything to protect—especially with another beast lurking in the woods threatening to expose them.

Meg March and her three sisters are monsters. No, really. Meg has teeth that are a little too sharp. Jo gets furry under the full moon. Beth goes night flying on wings that are impossible to hide under her sweaters. And Amy? Well, don’t let her near a body of water or she’ll start sprouting her mermaid’s tail.

Meg is sure their foster mom, Marmee, wouldn’t like any of this if she knew. And Jo’s best friend Laurie, the nice boy next door, would run screaming. To make matters worse, Meg’s small town outside of Salem is on edge. A vicious beast has been spotted in the forest, and Farmer Bhaer believes it’s responsible for his missing chickens. Meg is sure to be blamed if anyone realizes she’s a monster in disguise. And the closer it gets to Halloween, the surer the town is that something evil is hiding in the forest.

Meg doesn’t always remember what she gets up to at night, and sometimes, she wakes alone in a mossy part of the forest and has to find her way back. With John Brooke determined to find out just what Meg is hiding and locals working to uncover the monsters in their midst, Meg must find the culprit herself—or risk losing the little home she’s found with her sisters.

Dance of the Owl Woman by K.M. Huber

The stakes only get higher for Patya in this heart-stopping sequel to Call of the Owl Woman, which features a tenacious heroine and vivid villains who will mesmerize fans of the magical and keep armchair travelers at the edge of their seats.

In sixth-century Peru, Patya’s world is being torn apart by crisis, drought, and personal tragedy, yet she transforms from a shy teenager who doubts she’ll ever be loved into a mystical young leader willing to risk her life for what she believes. After facing down vicious high priest Achiq to defend her little brother, Patya herself becomes the focus of Achiq’s vengeance: He convinces the community that she is responsible for a devastating fire actually set by his followers and turns people against her.

Determined to prove her innocence, Patya sets out to find her grandmother’s allies. Drawing strength from her ancestral roots and the earth itself, she gradually discovers new strength and awakens to her own power—and begins to fulfill her grandmother’s dream of rekindling an ancient sisterhood. Despite danger, fear, and self-doubt, Patya summons the courage to step into a destiny larger than herself. Everything in her says it's the right thing to do, but can she do it without losing her new love—a love she never dreamed was possible before now?

The Crying Killer by Jess Lourey

A woman’s secret. A small town with a dark past. A serial killer bent on revenge. Lies kill in a shocking true crime–inspired thriller by the Edgar-nominated author of The Quarry Girls.

Tuesday Hendrickson has spent eight years running from memories of that night. Her sister’s screams. Blood on the walls. And Arsen Bauer, a monster known as the Crying Killer, shot down in a barrage of bullets as he fled. Case closed.

Intending to build a safe new identity out of the ashes, Tuesday changed her last name and moved away. She’s now a private investigator who guards herself and her daughter, Julia, like their lives depend on it. And maybe they do. Because unless she’s imagining things, Tuesday has seen Arsen on the streets of Saint Paul. She’d know her sister’s killer anywhere.

When bodies begin surfacing bearing the Crying Killer’s brutal and unmistakable signature, Tuesday is certain he’s coming for them. Except no one believes that but her. As her paranoia intensifies, she is left with a terrible choice: unearth the shocking secret she buried with her sister, or become the Crying Killer’s next victim.

Wrecked by Bree Mina

A Love Letter to Whiskey meets Cast Away in a unforgettable, heart wrenching novel about Ellie and Nate, soulmates driving apart by circumstance, brought back together by fate, as they must unravel their past while relying on each other to survive in the present.

Less The Horror than the Grace by Robert Owens Scott

A feminist retelling of the Medusa myth, Less the Horror than the Grace is set in the mountains of Tennessee in the summer of 1920. The story follows a young seminary graduate, Theo Hood, who is sent to investigate strange occurrences at a snake-handling church. As soon as he arrives, Theo becomes entangled in a wider struggle shaped by faith, power, and women’s suffrage.

Table Boss by Jen Agg

From the beloved restaurateur behind The Black Hoof, Grey Gardens, and General Public, as well as the bestselling author of I Hear She's a Real Bitch, comes a hilarious, heartbreaking look at love, success, and, most importantly, good lighting.

Jen Agg had a thriving restaurant group, a beautiful marriage to a handsome artist husband, and extremely good skin. If anyone could give advice on living well in your forties, it was her. Then, disaster struck. As a global pandemic threw the restaurant business into chaos, Jen’s husband, Roland, suffered a catastrophic stroke.

In her new memoir, Jen captures what it felt like to rethink everything just when she thought it was all working out as she’d planned. Table Boss makes you understand what Anthony Bourdain loved about her—her singular combination of wry humour, unflinching honesty, and real depth. Readers will love the book for its painful rendering of what it’s like to care for a loved one through a health nightmare, its witty analysis of restaurant culture, and its insights into building a business on your own terms

The Divine Gardener's Handbook by Eli Snow

The Divine Gardener’s Handbook is a sapphic dystopian fantasy of botanical sabotage, a questionable god named Saul, and a woman falling for the person most likely to ruin her life.

In a Jenga-stacked megacity where glowing blue flowers hum in the dark and palace doors open into secret worlds, getting a job in the Divine Gardens is almost impossible—like being plucked from obscurity by a carnival claw machine. But Cyprin has spent her whole life trying.

Her only chance is winning the annual flower pageant, dominated for five years by Purcell: brilliant head gardener, unbearable rival, and the one person Cyprin can’t stop thinking about. When Cyprin cheats her way to victory, she’s thrust into a world of sentient plants, ancient secrets, and a God who turns out to be just some exhausted man with a very good garden.

What begins as rivalry, heated glaring, and increasingly personal acts of warfare spirals into something much more dangerous. As rebellion spreads through the city and the truth beneath the Gardens begins to unravel, Cyprin and Purcell find themselves caught between ambition, obsession, and the terrifying possibility of understanding each other completely.

Even if they burn the whole world down in the process.

The Divine Gardener’s Handbook is perfect for readers who like their fantasy weird, heartfelt, and a little unhinged.

The Fall Affair by Vi Keeland

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Vi Keeland comes an all-new fall romance.

She's counting down the days until she leaves Tuscany. He's counting on making her stay.

Some people go to Tuscany to find themselves. Allegra Bianchi goes to escape—New York, her ex's new relationship, and a career that derailed the moment she was passed over for partner.

Her plan is simple: settle her eccentric Italian grandmother's estate, sell whatever isn't nailed down, and return to the life she's worked too hard to lose.

Instead, she walks into a mess—a crumbling antique shop, two hundred acres of leased vineyard land, and one infuriating clause in the will: live and work in the shop for three months, or inherit nothing.

Then there's the neighbor she clashes with instantly. Matteo Lucchese is the infuriatingly handsome winemaker who leases her family's land and refuses to be impressed by her credentials—or her attitude. He's rugged and stubborn, stuck living in a time that feels long past, and the word rush isn't part of his vocabulary. Basically, they're exact opposites.

But as the days stretch into weeks, Tuscany chips away at the armor Allegra doesn't realize she's wearing, and Matteo shows her the appeal of slowing down, of staying rooted, of wanting something other than climbing the corporate ladder.

She goes to Tuscany to escape.

But now that the countdown to going home is on, Allegra isn't sure she's ready to leave.

And the life she's falling for comes with a looming expiration date.

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