This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Do you take part in a summer reading program or project? I have been elbow deep in my local library’s official adult summer reading program, as well as preparing for one of the things I like to do each summer: spend the long days either catching up on classics I missed and/or revisiting classics. One summer, I read (and podcasted!) about the work of YA legend Norma Klein. Another summer, it was all things Little House on the Prairie and Louise Erdrich’s Native counter narrative, Birchbark House. Yet another summer, I reread (and delighted in!) all of the Ramona Quimby books by Beverly Cleary.
This summer’s plans are not children’s or young adult literature at all. I picked up a copy of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. It feels apt and timely right now, and I can’t help but wonder where and how my perceptions of the book may have changed over time. I read this one my junior year of high school and liked it a lot. I’m many decades older with a lot more wisdom and perspective. I suspect it’s going to be an even more enriching and enlightening read today.
All of this is to say, I hope you’re finding a way to get in your reading this summer, be it through a structured plan, a personal syllabi, or simply wherever you can get in a few minutes between work and play. Maybe one of this week’s new releases will spark inspiration or get you excited to carve out that time for your reading life.
New Hardcover YA Releases This Week
The Grove by Brooks Whitney Phillips
Pip and Sissy are sisters and best friends who live on an orange grove in small town Florida. The thing they look forward to every year is the carnival which comes to town. They can escape the challenges of their lives and escape into joy and fun.
But when the carnival leaves this year, Sissy is suddenly distant from Pip and the rest of the family. Pip finds solace with her friend Silas as a result. There’s a secret Sissy is carrying, and once Pip and Silas learn what it is, they are suddenly in a desperate situation that will change their lives forever.
This is a work of historical fiction set amid a life of poverty in the 1960s.
The Tournament by Rebecca Barrow
Gardner is the boarding school for kids who can’t get into any other school. The school offers a unique survival skills curriculum, complete with a Tournament open annually only to seven elite seniors. It’s a competition that captures the attention of the entire school.
This year, three seniors are drafted who have complicated relationships and pasts with one another. Max is hoping to stay focused, even with Nora there, who confessed to feeling like they were more than friends last year (which subsequently changed their entire relationships). Nora hopes to finally put herself in the center with the Tournament, rather than sitting on the sidelines for people like Max. Teddy, the third competitor, is a transfer student on her last chance, struggling with a host of personal demons.
Who will win? Can anyone win? This is dark academia meets survival story.
The Unexpected Consequences of Bleeding On a Tuesday by Kelsey B. Toney
This is the kind of book that those who menstruate and have found themselves with period difficulties will be so excited to read. Years ago, I wrote about the need for more books like this one and I’m so glad that they’re here to make these conversations easier and more normalized.
Delia has a good family, a great GPA, and a dream of becoming the kind of doctor who she’s never had–one who takes her complaints about brutal periods seriously. She doesn’t know it yet, but Delia has endometriosis, and it makes every cycle she has miserable.
Just one semester away from graduating her prep school, Delia breaks a single rule, despite being someone who follows ’em to a T. That’s now lead her to expulsion, and the future she had so carefully planned for herself looks to be one she’ll never be able to fulfill. She must figure out what to do–and it’ll force her to take a hard look at who she is and who she believes herself to be.
This Side of Falling by Eunice Chan
Readers who love Laura Nowlin or Kathleen Glasgow will want to pick up this novel, which promises to be one that brings up all of the feelings.
Nina is a 17-year-old Chinese American girl who has witnessed something unbelievable: her almost-boyfriend Ethan took his own life in front of her eyes. But she’s taken up the mantra that none of what she saw was real. It helps her keep the distance between what happened and her own feelings about it as big as possible.
But when Nina’s older sister Carmen returns home from college–the all-star student being kicked off campus–Carmen’s strange behavior is dredging up old feelings and experiences neither her sister nor her can quite comprehend. One thing Nina does begin to figure out, though, is that there’s far more to Ethan’s story than she could ever imagine, just as there’s more to her sister’s, too.
The “not real” mantra is only making Nina’s life harder.
You’ve Awoken Her by Ann Davila Cardinal
YA cosmic horror? Yes, please!
Gabi is spending the summer with his best friend in the Hamptons. It should be a sweet summer, but everything about the rich enclave is off-putting, as is his best friend’s boyfriend, Frost Thurston. Things get worse when Gabi witnesses a woman being dragged into the water by what can only be described as a tentacle.
Nobody seems to care this happened, even as the number of people disappearing is rising. There are rumors, though, and they circle around the name “Thurston.” So, too, do they seem to point to something dangerous in the water.
Gabi is bound and determined to get to the bottom of what’s happening, including where and how the Thurston’s and this creature of the deep are connected.
New series books in hardcover:
More hardcover YA releases this week:
New Paperback YA Releases This Week
Adventures of Mary Jane by Hope Jahren
Adventures of Mary Jane follows one of the only female characters to be seen in the original Huck Finn and you need no knowledge of the original to enjoy this book.
The year is 1846. Mary Jane is 14, and she lives with her mother and grandfather in Minnesota Territory. She is a whiz with numbers, thanks to her grandfather. But when the family receives a letter from her aunt about needing help at her home because of her ailing husband, Mary Jane is tasked with traveling 400 miles down the Mississippi River to help out. She’s nervous, of course, but she’s also eager about the adventure. Although Mary Jane has no idea what to expect at her aunt and uncle’s place, she meets an incredible riverboat operator on the way down who helps remind Mary Jane that she’s a strong, independent, and intelligent girl.
Once she arrives at the farm, Mary Jane meets her two younger cousins and sees what dire straits her uncle is in. Quickly, the situation goes from bad to worse and Mary Jane is now dealing not only with the deaths of two relatives in the same day but she has to figure out how to care for her two cousins. Initially, she plans to take them back to her own home but soon learns that legally, her cousins belong to her uncle’s brother–someone Mary Jane has no relationship to or knowledge of. But her passion to ensure her cousins are well cared for forces Mary Jane to lie and say she’s their older sister, allowing her to join them as they travel further down the river. But when they arrive at Peter Wilkes’s home, Mary Jane has bad feelings nearly immediately. Those bad feelings are justified and once again, she finds herself needing to figure out how to keep herself and her two female cousins as safe as possible.
This is an adventure novel in all of the senses of that word, with a young teen at the center of it. There will be wheeling and dealing, there will be interactions with folks eager to take advantage of Mary Jane, and there will be mentors she meets along the way.
The Black Girl Survives In This One edited by Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell
This is one of those books where the title tells you what the premise is (and I love those). So often, it’s the Black girl who doesn’t survive in the horror book or film. In this collection of 14 short stories, it is the Black girl who gets out alive from the depths of the horror story she’s in. The lineup here is killer (heh): rin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L.L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maika & Maritza Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado, with a forward by Tananarive Due. Wow.
New series books in paperback:
More paperback YA releases this week:
The following comes to you from the Editorial Desk.
This week, we’re highlighting a post that asks: Are reading parties the next big thing? People—especially readers—are clearly looking for community. Are reading parties the answer? Read on for an excerpt and become an All Access member to unlock the full post.
Reading communities are everywhere online. From Storygraph to Fable to BookTube to BookTok, the growth of online reading buddies feels exponential. The problem with social media as it exists online, however, is that it’s a stand-in for the true connections we all seek over the things we love. As much as reading roundups and reading tracking can be fun, meeting up with in-person book lovers is a great book lover community event. With that in mind, reading parties could be the next big thing.
A reading party is distinct from a book club because everyone shows up to read instead of having read something to discuss. At a reading party, you can make time to discuss what you are reading, but it doesn’t all need to be the same book. It’s more of a reading vibe check than a book discussion.
Sign up to become an All Access member for only $6/month and then click here to read the full, unlocked article. Level up your reading life with All Access membership and explore a full library of exclusive bonus content, including must-reads, deep dives, and reading challenge recommendations.