Welcome to the It List Summer Guide edition, where we share our staff’s picks for the best in entertainment as the weather warms up. Catch the weekly It List here for the latest releases we can’t wait to watch, stream, listen, read and binge.
Whether you’re going on vacation or staying local this summer, it’s the perfect time to grab a few snacks, find a cozy spot to lounge, and disappear into a good book.
What should be at the top of your list? These are the new releases that deserve your attention.
📚 Fiction choices 📚
🔖 One of us knows by Alyssa Cole
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What to know: Cole’s latest is the story of a former historical preservationist whose life is derailed by a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder and subsequent collapse.
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When she is offered a job as caretaker of a historic house, she jumps at the opportunity and becomes entangled in a mess of lies and secrets.
🗓️ Publication date: April 16
💬 Genre: Thriller
✨ Read if you liked it: The only one left by Riley Sager
🔖 The Guncle abroad by Steven Rowley
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What to know: Everyone’s favorite weapon, Patrick O’Hara, is back.
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In a sequel set five years after the events of 2022 The GunkelRowley takes his famous character to Europe, where his brother is getting remarried.
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What should be a lovely outing quickly descends into chaos as O’Hara tries to keep his young niece and nephew in check, keep his sister from flirting with guests and deal with a groom with cold feet.
🗓️ Publication date: 21st of May
💬 Genre: Contemporary fiction
✨ Read if you liked it: Fewer by Andrew Sean Greer
🔖 Allow me to introduce myself by Onyi Nwabineli
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What to know: Anuri Chinasa grew up a ‘momfluencer’ and had her entire upbringing publicly broadcast online.
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In her twenties, she struggles to leave her family behind and build her life on her own terms.
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When she realizes that her stepmother is treating her young half-sister the same way she is treating her, Anuri decides it is time to intervene and change the family narrative.
🗓️ Publication date: the 28th of May
💬 Genre: Contemporary fiction
✨ Read if you liked it: My sister, the serial killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
🔖 The wonderful secrets of yesterday by Namrata Patel
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What to know: Main character Tulsi Gupta has never been interested in taking over her family’s spice shop.
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When she comes across an unsent letter from her grandmother that reveals a mysterious betrayal, she begins to change her mind.
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She soon realizes that there is more to the family business than the women in her life let on.
🗓️ Publication date: 1 June
💬 Genre: Contemporary fiction
✨ Read if you liked it: A place for us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
🔖 The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
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What to know: Five years after publishing her second novel The stationery storeKamali is back The Lion Women of Tehran.
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Set in 1950s Tehran, the novel follows the journeys of two young girls, Ellie and Homa, as life sets them on different paths before suddenly forcing them back together.
🗓️ Publication date: July 2nd
💬 Genre: Historical fiction
✨ Read if you liked it: The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
🔖 One star romance by Laura Hankin
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What to know: Hankin’s first official foray into romance spans an entire decade, as leads Natalie and Rob continue to meet every few years as their respective best friends get engaged, married, and start a family.
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An early disagreement in their 20s leaves them determined never to like each other again.
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As the two eventually discover, life can take people in many unexpected directions – and force them to make new allies.
🗓️ Publication date: June 18
💬 Genre: Romance
✨ Read if you liked it: One day by David Nicholls
🔖 It’s elementary by Elise Bryant
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What to know: Single mother Mavis Miller unexpectedly finds herself involved in PTA duties at her daughter’s elementary school.
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In her new role she discovers much more than she expected.
🗓️ Publication date: July 9
💬 Genre: Cozy mystery
✨ Read if you liked it: Finlay Donovan puts an end to it by Elle Cosimano
🔖 The seventh veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
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What to know: Moreno-Garcia’s latest work is mainly set in 1950s Hollywood and alternates the points of view and timelines of multiple characters.
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Readers meet newcomer Vera Larios, who soon lands a coveted film role and is labeled as a resourceful person in the industry.
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What she doesn’t realize is that many people are plotting behind the scenes to take her down.
🗓️ Publication date: August 6
💬 Genre: Historical fiction
✨ Read if you liked it: The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
📚 Nonfiction Choices 📚
🔖 First love by Lilly Dancyger
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What to know: After experiencing a personal tragedy in her early adulthood, Dancyger realized the importance of female friendships in her life.
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Her collection of essays charts various platonic relationships, intertwined with explorations of female friendship in society and pop culture.
🗓️ Publication date: May 7
✨ Read if you liked it: Great friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
🔖 When women ran on Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow
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What to know: In the twentieth century, department stores became a central hub of American life.
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Satow tells the history of the department store and three female visionaries – Hortense Odlum, Dorothy Shaver and Geraldine Stutz – who contributed to its rise.
🗓️ Publication date: June 4
✨ Read if you liked it: The Chiffon Trenches by André Leon Talley
🔖 Aim the sun! by Emily Nussbaum
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What to know: What is at the heart of America’s most beloved reality TV shows?
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Nussbaum, who is a New Yorker staff writer, unpacks the seedy underbelly of the genre’s history and talks to the people who built it into what it is today.
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There is much more to the genre than meets the eye – or what is seen on camera.
🗓️ Publication date: 25 June
✨ Read if you liked it: Bachelor nation by Amy Kaufman
Looking for more summer fun? View our manuals:
