New month, new books! Book Light is our Dandelion Chandelier curated list of the most-anticipated new book releases every month, and next up is June 2020. If you ask us, the perfect June read is neither too hot nor too chill – like the month’s weather, a great June book is just right. So what are the best new books to read coming out in June 2020? Our intrepid team has been exploring and here’s what we found.
what are the most-anticipated new book releases for June 2020?
Wondering what to read in June 2020? We’ve surveyed the landscape, and rounded up a list of the best new books coming this May.
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Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the impact it has had on retail book stores being closed, and airline flights being largely cancelled, several high-profile new books that were supposed to be released in June 2020 have been postponed until later this year. It’s hard to promote a book when you cannot do signings at bookstores, or travel to do press interviews.
Nevertheless, there are a lot of great new book releases coming in June 2020. Here are some of the ones we’re most excited about.
the best new books coming in June 2020
Here’s our pick of the top new book releases of June 2020 – novels, essay collections, and non-fiction – that we cannot wait to read. You can pre-order them now if you like (and if you do, full disclosure, we may earn a small commission on the sale).
What are the most-anticipated book releases in June 2020?
New books coming in the week of June 2, 2020
1.
The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett. The author of The Mothers returns with another novel about a family, this one set in the South. Two light-skinned twin sisters, born in the 1950’s in Louisiana, flee to New Orleans. Years later, one returns to their small town with a daughter who is clearly black. The other sister moves to California, where she lives as a white woman under an assumed name. A meditation on identity and connection, this is a highly-anticipated new work from a brilliant novelist – Publication Date: June 2, 2020
2.
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan. This buzzy debut novel is about an Irish expat millennial teaching English and finding romance in Hong Kong. Vogue describes it as “half Sally Rooney love triangle, half glitzy Crazy Rich Asians high living.” Say no more. We’re in! – Publication Date: June 2, 2020
3.
Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino. The author of author of 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas returns with a new novel. As her wedding day approaches, a bride has a series of unusual encounters, including one with her beloved long-dead grandmother. Who appears to her as a parakeet, and warns her not to go through with the wedding. And to go and find her estranged brother. What unfolds is a series of events that forces her to confront matters long buried – Publication Date: June 2, 2020
The most-anticipated new book releases in June 2020. Courtesy Photos.
4.
A Burning by Megha Majumdar. In this debut novel, a train attack in present-day India brings three strangers together. One is a young Muslim blamed for the attack. The second is a gym teacher who joins a far-right wing political party. And the third is a transgender woman in drama school. Each of them seeks to rise – to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies – and instead they find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe – Publication Date: June 2, 2020
5.
Ask Me Anything by P. Z. Reizin. the author of Happiness for Humans returns with a romantic comedy for the technology age: a young woman unlucky in love gets a little help from her smart home appliances. Her smart fridge, toothbrush, microwave, television, fitness tracker and laptop all want to help her smooth out her chaotic existence — and enable her mother to remain independently living at home – Publication Date: June 2, 2020
6.
The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir by by Wayétu Moore. Beginning with a harrowing journey in early childhood to escape from Liberia ahead of the country’s first civil war, this is a memoir of building a life in the United States. Moore details her years adjusting to life in Texas as a black woman and an immigrant, and her eventual return to Liberia. It’s a moving story of the search for home in the midst of upheaval – Publication Date: June 2, 2020
What to read this month: the most-anticipated new books in June 2020. Courtesy Photos.
7.
The Book of Rosy: A Mother’s Story of Separation at the Border by Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schwietert Collazo is a riveting narrative of a Guatemalan woman’s desperate search for a better life for herself and her family. When Rosayra “Rosy” Pablo Cruz made the decision to seek asylum in the United States with two of her children, she knew the journey would be arduous, dangerous, and possibly deadly. Arrived at the Arizona border as the “zero tolerance” policy was first going into effect, almost immediately they were seized and forcibly separated from each other. This is a searing look at what immigrants fleeing violence at home often find in their quest for a safe place to call home – Publication Date: June 2, 2020
8.
The Language of Butterflies: How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, and Other Obsessives Unlocked the Secrets of the World’s Favorite Insect by Wendy Williams. From the bestselling author of The Horse comes an enthralling look at one of the world’s most beautiful and resilient animals, and the role they play in our ecosystem. Williams reveals the inner lives of these “flying flowers”—creatures far more intelligent and tougher than we give them credit for – Publication Date: June 2, 2020
9.
Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen. Within forty-eight hours of the 2016 Presidential election in America, the author’s essay “Autocracy: Rules for Survival” had gone viral. In the weeks that followed, it became essential reading for a citizenry struggling to wrap their heads around the implications of the outcome. Offering a special perspective – the legacy of a Soviet childhood and two decades covering the resurgence of totalitarianism in Russia – the author (who previously won a National Book Award) offers a primer on how autocracy begins and thrives. And sage advice on how to mount a Resistance – Publication Date: June 2, 2020
What to read this month: the most-anticipated new books in June 2020. Courtesy Photos.
10.
The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America by Eric Cervini. To mark the start of Pride Month comes an account of the secret history of the fight for gay rights in America that began a generation before Stonewall. In 1957, Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the U.S. Defense Department in Hawaii, received a summons to report immediately to Washington, D.C. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a homosexual, and after a series of humiliating interviews, Kameny, like countless gay men and women before him, was promptly dismissed from his government job. Unlike many others, though, Kameny fought back – Publication Date: June 2, 2020
New books coming in the week of June 9, 2020
11.
Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier. A coming-of-age story about an 18-year old pregnant woman who has a job doing pizza deliveries in suburban LA. That is, until she becomes entangled with one of her customers. Grieving the death of her father, she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a stay-at-home mother new to the neighborhood, who comes to depend on weekly deliveries of pickled-covered pizzas for her son’s happiness. As one woman looks toward motherhood and the other toward middle age, the relationship between the two begins to blur in strange, complicated, and ultimately heartbreaking ways – Publication Date: June 9, 2020
12.
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat follows the life of a young Palestinian American woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities as she endeavors to lead an authentic life. When she admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother’s response is to instill a sense of shame: “You exist too much,” she tells her daughter. Moving from New York to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine and back again, we follow the protagonist’s progress from shy teenager to sought-after DJ and aspiring writer – Publication Date: June 9, 2020
What to read this month: the most-anticipated new books in June 2020. Courtesy Photos.
13.
Broken People by Sam Lansky. This buzzed-about debut novel is about a damaged man coming to grips with his past. When Sam overhears at a dinner party in the Hollywood hills about a globe-trotting shaman who claims to perform “open-soul surgery” on emotionally damaged people, he’s intrigued. Neurotic, depressed, trying to start over in LA after his life in New York implodes, the possibility of total transformation is irresistible. He embarks on a multiple-day ayahuasca experience intended to wipe clean his history of anxiety, depression, and romantic heartache. But are the great spirits the shaman says he’s summoning real at all? Or are the ghosts in Sam’s memory more powerful than any magic? – Publication Date: June 9, 2020
New books coming in the week of June 16, 2020
14.
The Lightness by Emily Temple. One year ago, the person Olivia adores most in the world, her father, left home for a meditation retreat in the mountains and never returned. So runs away from home and retraces his path to a place known as the Levitation Center. There, she enrolls in a program for teenage girls and befriends a trio of her fellow students. The girls decide this is the summer they will finally achieve enlightenment—and learn to levitate, to defy the weight of their bodies, to experience ultimate lightness. Over time, it becomes increasingly clear that this is an advanced and perilous practice. And there’s a chance not all of them will survive – June 16, 2020
New books coming in the week of June 23, 2020
15.
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh. While on her daily walk with her dog in a secluded woods, a woman comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground by stones. “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.” But there is no dead body. The woman is shaken, and becomes determined to learn the truth behind the ominous note. As her investigation widens, strange dissonances accrue, perhaps associated with the darkness in her own past. There is either an innocent explanation for all of this. Or a much more sinister one – Publication Date: June 23, 2020
What to read this month: the most-anticipated new book releases in June 2020. Courtesy Photos.
16.
Love by Roddy Doyle. A wide-ranging conversation between two old friends is the basis for this new work from the Booker-Prize winning author. Davy is caring for his dying father, and Joe has just left his wife for a woman known to both of them in younger days. The friends reflect on their lives as they traverse Dublin, with many stops at pubs along the way – Publication Date: June 23, 2020
17.
The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win by Maria Konnikova. This is the true story of how a New York Times bestselling author and New Yorker contributor parlayed a strong grasp of the science of human decision-making and a woeful ignorance of cards into a life-changing run as a professional poker player. Ultimately, though, she returns to her work as a writer, and shares this insight: The biggest bluff of all is that skill is enough. The truth is that bad cards will come our way, but keeping our focus on how we play them – and not on the outcome – will keep us moving through many a dark patch, until luck once again breaks our way – Publication Date: June 23, 2020
18.
Empty: A Memoir by Susan Burton. For almost thirty years, the author hid her obsession with food and the secret life of compulsive eating and starving that dominated her adolescence. This is her relentlessly honest story of living with both anorexia and binge-eating disorder. And an account of her journey – moving past her shame, and learning to tell her secret – Publication Date: June 23, 2020
What are the most-anticipated book releases in June 2020?
New books coming in the week of June 30, 2020
19.
Nine Shiny Objects by Brian Castleberry. This novel begins on the night of June 26, 1947. Headlines across America report the sighting of nine pulsating lights flying over the Cascade Mountains at speeds surpassing any aircraft. The phenomenon leads to the birth of “the Seekers”—a collective of outcasts, interlopers, and idealists devoted to creating a society where divisions of race, ethnicity, and sexuality are a thing of the past. They’re ultimately victims of a devastating crime, leading to a cataclysmic clash between the optimism of those who seek inspiration from spacious skies, and the venom of others who relish the underworld – Publication Date: June 30, 2020
20.
Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan. The author of the “Crazy Rich Asians” series returns with a homage to E.M. Forster’s “A Room with a View.” A young woman travels to a friend’s wedding on the island of Capri with her cousin. When a wealthy stranger insists on trading rooms with them in their shabby hotel, they become caught. Between cultures, and between desire versus family expectations – Publication Date: June 30, 2020
21.
Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan. Elisabeth is a new mother and best-selling author who has left Brooklyn for a small university town. When she hires a college student to babysit, the two become close. Until a secret threatens their new friendship. This is a piercing exploration of motherhood, power dynamics, and privilege in its many forms – Publication Date: June 30, 2020
What are the most-anticipated book releases in June 2020?
22.
Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh. This novel is set in a dystopian world where women have their fate decided on the day of their first menstruation: women with white tickets will be mothers, and women with blue tickets will have careers. The protagonist begins to question the very foundation of her society in this haunting look at a world without free will – Publication Date: June 30, 2020
best new book releases in June 2020
Those are our picks for the best and most-anticipated new book releases coming soon. And an overview of options to answer the pressing matter of what to read in June 2020. What’s at the top of your list?
join our community
For access to insider ideas and information on the world of luxury, sign up for our Dandelion Chandelier newsletter, here. And see luxury in a new light.
Join our community
For access to insider ideas and information on the world of luxury, sign up for our Dandelion Chandelier newsletter. And see luxury in a new light.