2021 Reading List: April-June
I started out this year planning out my reading list, and came across so many exciting books that we decided to do a quarterly round up of books are looking forward to reading! This list covers April-June and is definitely helping me imagine all of the good summer beach reads in my future.
Like the first quarter list, I’ve included a fun mix - thrillers, romances, memoirs, historical figures and some longer denser reads. I’m especially excited about all of the books from authors I already enjoy - but be warned that there are somehow a lot of mysteries and murders, even from writers who I don’t typically associate those with.
April
Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
Publishing Date: April 6
When happily married Flora Mancini makes a discovery, it has her question everything she thought she knew about herself, her marriage, and her relationship with her best friend, Margot, a famous television star. Are all of her important relationships and her life built on a lie?
You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes
Publishing Date: April 6
I got very into the You series when the Netflix show first came out, and am excited to see where the third book goes. In this one, our favorite romantic serial killer moves to an island in the Pacific Northwest, gets a job at a local library, and because he can’t help himself, falls in love yet again. Will the object of his affection return his feelings? And what will he do this time to make it happen?
Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Publishing Date: April 27
The premise of this sounds amazing and hilarious - Meddelin Chan accidentally kills her blind date, and her overinvolved mother calls in the aunties to help cover it up. Things go awry, the body ends up getting accidentally shipped to a billionaires wedding that the family is planning that can make or break their business, and the wedding weekend becomes much more complicated!
When the stars go dark by paula Mclain
Publishing Date: April 13
Paula McLain, who wrote one of my favorite books, The Paris Wife about Hadley, Hemingway’s first wife, and this time she takes on a darker story about a San Francisco detective who leaves the Bay Area for a breather in her native Mendocino, but can’t escape her dark past as she finds herself wrapped up in a missing person case that brings up memories of her difficult childhood and forces her to face harsh truths about the world.
Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton by Gail Crowther
Publishing Date: April 20
I don’t know anything about the friendship between Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, but the two literary icons led parallel lives while also maintaining a “frenemies” relationship. They apparently had weekly “martini meetings” at the Ritz, and this researched look at the two poets reveals the complexity of their conversations and relationship with each other.
May
The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson
Publishing Date: May 4
I love Casey Wilson so much - from her acting credits (Penny on Happy Endings is my spirit animal) to the Bitch Sesh podcast. Her new collection of essays promises to be very funny and touch on not only her life, but our shared love of reality TV.
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Publishing Date: May 4
This book sounds like such an adventure - starting with the story of Marian Graves, who is rescued from a sinking ocean liner and goes on to become a famous pilot that circumnavigates the globe by flying over the North and South Poles. 100 years later, actress Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica, and their two fates collide.
Leda and the swan by Ann Caritj
Publishing Date: May 4
A mystery that starts on Halloween night at an East Coast college campus when a young woman in a swan costume speaks with Leda outside a party—and then vanishes. Leda later wakes up in her crush’s room the next morning, unsure about exactly what happened between them, as rumors swirl and suspicious facts pile up.
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Publishing Date: May 11
This is the next book from the author of Beach Read! It’s about wild child Poppy and conservative Alex who become best friends during a car ride home from college, and stay best friends through the years. Then, one year, their annual vacation goes all wrong, and two years later, Poppy convinces Alex to go on one last vacation to see if they can make it right and face the truth about their relationship.
The Hunting Wives by May Cobb
Publishing Date: May 18
Sophie O'Neill leaves behind a big job and competitive life in Chicago to move to a small town in Texas with her family. She befriends Margot Banks, a socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives. Sophie gets swept into Margot’s world of late-night target practice and dangerous partying, and soon an out-of-control murder investigation.
The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives by Brian Moylan
Publishing Date: May 25
Brian Moylan’s housewives recaps for Vulture are one of my favorite things on the internet, so I have big expectations for his behind-the-scenes look at the franchise, how it started, how some of it’s most iconic moments happen, and what went on that viewers didn’t know about.
June
Malibu Rising By Taylor Jenkins Read
Publishing Date: June 1
Did you love Daisy Jones and the Six or the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo as much as I did? Author Taylor Jenkins Read has such unique ability to transport me to LA in different eras. This book takes place in Malibu during August of 1983. Nina Riva, a famous surfer and supermodel, is throwing her annual end-of-summer party alongside her brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their baby sister, Kit - the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva. The party spins out of control, and by the morning, the mansion will have gone up in flames and the secrets the family is hiding will come to the surface.
our woman in moscow by beatriz williams
Publishing Date: June 1
Beatriz Williams’ (who wrote A Hundred Summers about our town in Rhode Island) newest book takes place in post-World War Two London, where Iris Digby, her huband (an American Diplomat) and two children disappear, with the world speculating if they defected to Moscow or were victims of Soviet intelligence. Four years later, Ruth Macallister, Iris’s twin, recieves a postcard from her sister, which sparks her to pose as the wife of a counterintelligence officer to help extract the family.
The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura
Publishing Date: June 8
This book won Japan’s most prestigious literary award in 2019 and has been translated from the Japanese. It follows a nameless woman, as she sits in a park, watched by The Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. The two eventually become friends and their lives begin to mesh — but something is off, and one of the women is not what she seems. This goes beyond the typical thriller, apparently edging into slightly surrealist territory.
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Publishing Date: June 15
Did you read The Silent Patient last year? It felt like one of those books that was everywhere, and this next novel from Michaelides takes place in the halls of Cambridge University, where a smart but troubled group therapist becomes convinced that a widely-loved Greek tragedy professor is a murderer, and that the truth lies in an all-women secret society called The Maidens.
Survive the Night by Riley Sager
Publishing Date: June 29
Riley Sager writes reliably great murdery-thrillers that border on horror. In this book, Charlie is trying to escape her grief over the death of her friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. She shares a ride home from college with a stranger and starts to suspect that the driver might be a serial killer.