Book Mail: A Roundup of the Book Mail I Received Last Week

Mid-August has that lovely, fleeting quality of a summer afternoon you wish you could bottle up, and this week’s book mail feels much the same. My TBR pile has grown delightfully ambitious, thanks to a book haul filled with new book releases arriving at my doorstep like invitations to linger over one more summer story. Each package brings its own possibilities—and plenty of book recommendations I’m already eager to pass along. Somewhere in this stack, I’m certain, are a few of the best books of 2026, just waiting to be discovered before the light changes, the evenings cool, and summer quietly turns the page.

Where to Buy These Books:

Shop This Stack on Bookshop.org to Support Local Bookstores

Shop This Stack on Amazon

I want to note that I do not get paid to do these posts, I just love authors and the book industry. However, they do take time and energy to create. If you want to donate a few dollars to my coffee fund, which keeps this blog going, you can do so here: https://venmo.com/AshleyHasty or here: http://paypal.me/hastybooklist.

This Week’s Book Mail Includes:

Murder in Blackfriars by Jennifer Ashley - Victorian cook and amateur sleuth Kat Holloway dives into the dangerous secrets of her beau’s mysterious past when a man claiming to know his true identity is murdered.
In What World by Bridget Morrissey - Two former high school rivals searching for their missing teacher tumble through alternate realities where they discover some versions of themselves might feel more than hatred for each other.
How to Find a Romance in a Bookshop by Poppy Alexander - A disgraced literary agent escaping to a seaside bookshop rediscovers her love of books—and perhaps romance—with the help of a novelist hiding from the world.
She Haunts Me Still by De Elizabeth - A college actress investigating the ghostly force she believes killed her mother uncovers dark secrets, forbidden attraction, and an ancient evil lurking on campus.
The Chessboard by Jean-Philippe Toussaint - Through memories of chess, childhood, family, and writing, Jean-Philippe Toussaint offers a thoughtful meditation on creativity, aging, and the experiences that shape a life.
Ten Perfect Guests by Jonathan Santlofer - Ten people gather on a tropical island to claim their share of a famous artist’s inheritance, only to discover that someone may have invited them there for a far more sinister reason.
Morocco by Norah Labiner - Against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century Chicago, a woman looks back on her complicated relationship with a mysterious heiress in this literary exploration of memory, friendship, and storytelling.
Killer Art by Jon St. Denis - An art professor accused of murder teams up with her journalist partner to investigate a deadly mystery surrounding a controversial exhibition of AI-generated art.
Hellbound by Stephanie Binx - A debt-ridden journalist who repeatedly dies to retrieve artifacts from Hell joins forces with an alluring demon in this darkly funny, morally gray fantasy romance.
A Penance for Crows by Shannon Morgan - On a remote Irish island steeped in superstition, an eccentric artist becomes the prime suspect in a priest’s murder as sinister secrets and unsettling whispers threaten her grip on reality.
The Scallop Plot by Judy Foreman - An investigative reporter and a Cape Cod fisherwoman uncover a deadly conspiracy involving genetically poisoned scallops, offshore wind development, and a ruthless man willing to kill for his plans.
Drama Drama Drama by Gerilyn Bass Greenberg - A stay-at-home mom facing a midlife identity crisis must rediscover what truly matters as her daughter and grandmother embark on unexpected new chapters of their own.
The Crying Killer by Jess Lourey - A private investigator who thought her sister’s killer died eight years ago is forced to confront her buried past when new murders bearing his unmistakable signature begin.
How to Ruin a Wedding by Elba Luz - A professional wedding saboteur agrees to fake-date a charming client while breaking up his sister’s engagement, only to discover she may not be as cynical about love as she thought.
Crypto Island by Georgine Hodgkinson - A midlife move to Puerto Rico and an unexpected plunge into cryptocurrency lead one woman to reconsider everything she thought she knew about risk, money, home, and reinvention.
This Much is True by Katherine A. Sherbrooke - A mother must decide whether revealing a devastating secret about her daughter’s future father-in-law is worth risking her daughter’s happiness and exposing a painful past.
Wild Freedom by Dale M. Kushner - Blending fairy tale, memoir, and Jungian thought, this meditation on creativity explores imagination’s power to illuminate identity, desire, motherhood, and the hidden self.
Death on the Books by Victoria Gilbert - When a man is poisoned inside her library, Amy Muir follows a cryptic clue toward a lost Romanov treasure and a killer who may be preparing to strike again.
Death at a Scottish Halloween by Lucy Connelly - Halloween festivities in a Scottish village turn deadly when Dr. Emilia McRoy discovers a real corpse inside a haunted house and begins hunting for a killer.
This Never Happened: A Call Girl in D.C. by Kent Heckenlively - A successful 1970s Chicago call girl is sent to Washington, D.C., where she finds herself caught up in a wildly unconventional world of politics, blackmail, and organized crime.
The Sea-Glass Shore by Julie Salmon Kelleher - A selkie and the human man she loves attempt to build a lasting family while confronting the history, mythology, and powerful pull of the sea threatening to separate them.
Less The Horror Than the Grace by Robert Owens Scott - In this feminist reimagining of the Medusa myth, a young seminarian investigating a snake-handling church in 1920 Tennessee becomes entangled in questions of faith, power, and women’s suffrage.
White Raven by Stacey Marie Brown - A sheltered princess whose blood could save a dying realm is kidnapped by a ruthless enemy who discovers the prophesied White Raven may be far harder to control than expected.
These Vile Hearts by Melody Robinette - A desperate mortal woman sent to kill a fae king mistakes his cursed brother for her target, setting off a wickedly funny enemies-to-lovers romance where both are hiding dangerous agendas.
Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd - In a near future where the ultra-rich vacation in the past, a filmmaker investigates a disastrous trip to Blitz-era London and discovers someone may have dangerously rewritten history.
John Baer The Extraordinary Ordinary: A Memoir in Photographs, 1945–1954 by Andrew Baer and Megan Moynihan - A remarkable rediscovered photographic archive captures the extraordinary everyday beauty of postwar Europe and optimistic 1950s New York through thousands of images hidden away for decades.