Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.

Big Books of the Week

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware (Gallery; LJ starred review), leads holds this week. 

Other titles in demand include:

You Like It Darker: Stories by Stephen King (Scribner; LJ starred review)

Mind Games by Nora Roberts (St. Martin’s)

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan (Doubleday)

The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley (Putnam)

These books and others publishing the week of May 20, 2024, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Six LibraryReads and seven Indie Next picks publish this week:

Hall of Fame pick One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware (Gallery; LJ starred review) is also an Indie Next pick:

“This book is the perfect summer beach read! Ruth Ware has crafted a modern locked-room mystery. Imagine being picked for a Survivor/Love Island type of show—except instead of being sent home one by one, the cast is murdered!”—Luana Collin, Highland Books, Brevard, NC

Hall of Fame pick The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley (Putnam) is also an Indie Next pick:

“Guncle fans rejoice: this sequel brings back all the wry humor, miscommunication, grief, and joy of connection. Patrick’s brother’s impending marriage reunites the family, even as it threatens to split them apart. A reader's delight.”—Jan Blodgett, Main Street Books, Davidson, NC

Mind Games by Nora Roberts (St. Martin’s) is a Hall of Fame pick.

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan (Doubleday)

“Arabella Leung is doing everything she can to match her son Rufus to a very wealthy titled woman in this romp around the world with controlling parents, one of whom is desperately matchmaking to save the family estate. Readers who love high entertainment and the bad behavior of the haves and the have-even-mores will devour this wild ride.”—Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis Community Library, TX

Savor It by Tarah DeWitt (St. Martin’s Griffin)

“This rom-com set in the Pacific Northwest has delicious tension from the first interaction. Add in fake dating and a steamy scene in a library, and who could ask for more? Readers will appreciate how much attention and care Dewitt put into creating fully-formed characters grappling with grief, chasing dreams, and figuring out how to live in the moment.”—Ebby Bowles, Hingham Public Library, MA

The top pick is The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton (Sourcebooks Landmark; LJ starred review) *Good for Book Clubs

“After a deadly fog decimates most of humanity, the small population that’s left lives on an island. As one villager begins investigating a murder, what once seemed like a utopia begins to reveal dark secrets that no one could have predicted. Turton raises tantalizing social questions, presents an inventive world structure, and keeps readers intrigued and surprised throughout the novel.”—Sharon Layburn, South Huntington Public Library, NY

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“A fast-paced thriller set on the last place humanity occupies on planet Earth. A murder has occurred, and the villagers must follow the evidence after all their memories of that night are wiped. A must-read for futuristic mystery fans.”—Sarah Harmuth Letke, Redbery Books, Cable, WI

Four additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir by Zoë Bossiere (Abrams)

“A moving memoir that illustrates what it feels like to be othered when your way of being doesn’t align with societal norms of masculinity and femininity. Bossiere captures the hot, dusty wildness of Cactus Country, a wildness mirrored in young Zoë.”—Bryanne Hoeg, Powell's Books, Portland, OR

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue (Morrow)

“Absolutely loved this read. The characters and the situations are completely recognizable—I have worked with these people, I have been these people. They are at once funny, human, lovable, and cringe, but I rooted for them all the way through!”—Amy Shaughnessy, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX

Swiped by L.M. Chilton (Gallery)

“Twisty, smart, and kept me guessing until the very end—and the absolute skewering of dating apps is so entertaining. I felt breathless page after page as Gwen races around town to find a serial killer. Loved it!”—Carolyn Hutton, Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary & Garden Arts, Berkeley, CA

Exhibit by R.O. Kwon (Riverhead)

“There is so much in this layered 200-page gem of a novel about a pair of new artist friends—a photographer struggling through a creative block, and a successful ballerina recovering from a serious injury—and their desires. Completely absorbing.”—Kalani Kapahua, Third Place Books-Ravenna, Seattle, WA

In the Media

People’s book of the week is Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan (Doubleday). Also getting attention are I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue (Morrow) and Real Life and Other Fictions by Susan Coll (Harper Muse). A “New in Nonfiction” section highlights The Dead Don’t Need Reminding: In Search of Fugitives, Mississippi, and Black TV Nerd Shit by Julian Randall (Bold Type Books), Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham (Avid Reader/S. & S.), and Love Is a Burning Thing: A Memoir by Nina St. Pierre (Dutton). 

There is a feature on the new biography Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller (Gallery). People online also has coverage. Plus, there is a feature on Michael McDonald and his new memoir, What a Fool Believes, written with Paul Reiser (Dey Street).

Reviews

NYT reviews Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller (Gallery): “What lingers, I fear, for anyone tasked with remembering Bessette-Kennedy’s name, is her haunting end: borne down in a Piper Saratoga six-seater piloted by her husband, with her sister at her side”; Exhibit by R.O. Kwon (Riverhead): “Exhibit is a highly sensory experience, awash in petals and colors, smells and flavors, that adds to the literature on a proclivity much discussed and often misunderstood. It lingers like a mysterious, multihued bruise”; Wait by Gabriella Burnham (One World): “Burnham leaves little doubt about how much she understands the people who populate her novel—the things that matter to them, the ways in which Nantucket has shaped them, the reasons they leave or won’t leave the island”; and Mood Swings by Frankie Barnet (Astra House): “The magic here is in the prose. Though the story itself is sprawling, Barnet’s writing is restrained and intentional. Moments that could turn saccharine are made meaningful by astute, almost insulting observations.” There are also short reviews of three military history books: American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850–1873 by Alan Taylor (Norton), The Garza War in South Texas: A Military History, 1890–1893 by Thomas Ty Smith (Univ. of Oklahoma), and A Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention into the Russian Civil Warby Anna Reid (Basic).

Washington Post reviews Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan (Doubleday): “Behind every great fortune, it has been said, there is a crime, and Kwan makes a point of noting what wealth can wreak—poverty, racism, exploitation, environmental degradation—but he’s too canny a showman to let any of these critiques linger.”

Briefly Noted

Yepoka Yeebo’s Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World (Bloomsbury) wins the BIO Plutarch Award.

NYT delves into Reese Witherspoon’s literary empire and has a conversation with Witherspoon ahead of her 100th book club selection.

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week.

USA Today previews “new romance books for a steamy summer.”

WSJ highlights 16 books for the week.

Parade shares “The 60+ Best Summer Beach Reads of 2024.”

HipLatina has “16 Books by Asian Latinx Authors to Read for AAPI Heritage Month.”

Washington Post tours the personal library of author Amor Towles.

BBC previews this year’s Hay Festival and its headliners, including Geri Halliwell-Horner.

Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by (Avid Reader/S. & S.), discusses what went wrong on the Challenger space flight with NYT.

Ery Shin discusses her novel, Spring on the Peninsula (Astra House), with ElectricLit.

The Rumpus has an interview with Anna Gazmarian about her new book, Devout: A Memoir of Doubt (S. & S.).

Authors on Air

PBS Canvas takes a look at the trending popularity of Japanese animation and comic books in the U.S.

Kevin Kwan, Lies and Weddings (Doubleday), will be on GMA and Today.

Kristina Kuzmič, I Can Fix This: And Other Lies I Told Myself While Parenting My Struggling Child (Penguin Life), will also appear on GMA today.

Paul Scheer, Joyful Recollections of Trauma (HarperOne; LJ starred review), will visit with Stephen Colbert.

Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.