Ten Books I’m Looking Forward to in June

Ten of the books on my TBR coming out in June (I seem to have skipped May. This month has been weird, y’all.) that I’m especially looking forward to:

President Bill Clinton and bestselling novelist James Patterson have written a spellbinding thriller, The President is Missing.

The President Is Missing
Bill Clinton and James Patterson
(June 4)

Do I really need to know more than that? No, not really.

 

Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home begins at the grave of Katagiri Roshi, Natalie’s Zen teacher, in Japan. Twenty years after Katagiri’s death and Natalie’s return to New Mexico, she is permanently settled in Santa Fe with her partner, Yukwan. Except that, as Buddhism teaches us, nothing is permanent.

Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home: A Memoir
Natalie Goldberg
(June 5)

Natalie Goldberg is one of my favorite writers-on-writing.

 

In 1587, 115 men, women, and children arrived on Roanoke, an island off the coast of North Carolina. Chartered by Queen Elizabeth I, their colony was to establish a foothold for England in the New World. But by the time the colony’s leader, John White, returned to Roanoke from a resupply mission in England, his settlers were nowhere to be found. They had vanished into the wilderness, leaving behind only a single clue–the word “Croatoan” carved into a tree.

The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke
Andrew Lawler
(June 5)

At first glance, I thought this was going to be a novel about Roanoke. But it is not. It is a non-fiction look at what might have happened, how archaeologists are trying to figure it out, and the way the Lost Colony has entered the popular consciousness.

 

Nora Tucker is looking forward to summer vacation in Wolf Creek–two months of swimming, popsicles, and brushing up on her journalism skills for the school paper. But when two inmates break out of the town’s maximum security prison, everything changes.

Breakout
by Kate Messner
(June 5)

I’m always up for a new Kate Messner book.

 

Tea and books: the perfect pairing. There’s nothing quite like sitting down to a good book on a lovely afternoon with a steaming cup of tea beside you, as you fall down the rabbit hole into the imaginative worlds of Alice in Wonderland, The Hobbit, and Sherlock Holmes . . .

A Literary Afternoon Tea: 55 Recipes for Savory Nibbles, Bite-Sized Sweets, and Custom Teas for Book Lovers
Alison Walsh
(June 5)

I prefer the title on the cover image, so I hope that’s the one they’re going with. I’m not sure “want to read” is quite right, since it’s a cookbook. But I’m definitely looking forward to paging through this one. Books! Tea!

 

When Katie Met Cassidy is a romantic comedy that explores how, as a culture, while we may have come a long way in terms of gender equality, a woman’s capacity for an entitlement to sexual pleasure still remain entirely taboo. This novel tackles the question: Why, when it comes to female sexuality, are so few women figuring out what they want and then going out and doing it?

When Katie Met Cassidy
Camille Perri
(June 19)

That actually sounds rather serious, but I’ve seen this book characterized as “a rom-com with two women”, which I am totally here for.

 

[…]But a few days later Kate receives a call from the police–Cordelia has been found dead on the mansion property, and Kate is all-but certain that her name is high on the suspect list. She finds herself juggling the murder investigation and her growing fascination with the magnificent old house that turns out to be full of long-hidden mysteries itself. Kate knows she must clear her name and save her town–before she ends up behind bars.

Murder at the Mansion (Victorian Village Mysteries #1)
Sheila Connolly
(June 26)

New cozy mystery series! (The name Kat(i)e certainly seems to be popular in fiction these days.)

 

For all the scores of biographies of Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the most famous detective in the world, there is no recent book that tells this remarkable story–in which Conan Doyle becomes a real-life detective on an actual murder case. In Conan Doyle for the Defense, Margalit Fox takes us step by step inside Conan Doyle’s investigative process and illuminates a murder mystery that is also a morality play for our time–a story of ethnic, religious, and anti-immigrant bias.

Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World’s Most Famous Detective Writer
Margalit Fox
(June 26)

I read and liked Julian Barnes’ Arthur & George, and I’m really looking forward to a non-fiction account of a different case in which Sir Arthur took on the detective role. If I hadn’t already zipped through The Feather Thief, this probably would’ve been by Read Harder Challenge book for the True Crime Task.

 

In this exciting historical mystery debut set in Victorian England, a wealthy young widow encounters the pleasures—and scandalous pitfalls—of a London social season . . .

A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder (A Countess of Harleigh Mystery #1)
Dianne Freeman
(June 26)

Victorian-set historical mystery. Debut in a new series. Yes, please.

 

Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last—and best—hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1)
Rebecca Roanhorse
(June 26)

Post-climate-apocalypse fiction set in the southwest, featuring a Native woman who clearly is ready to kick butt and take names. Look at that cover. I’ve already placed my library hold.