General Fiction on My June Reading List

June is one of the big publishing months of the year. What follows are general fiction titles that caught my attention. Some of these books are perfect for light reading on a hot day by the pool; some are heavier and will make you think.

The blurbs are taken from the publishers' summaries. I've also provided the names of the audiobook narrators.

The Angel of Rome by Jess Walter (Harper): A stunning [short story] collection about those moments when everything changes—for the better, for the worse, for the outrageous—as a diverse cast of characters . . . [question] their roles in life and [find] inspiration in the unlikeliest places. First line:

Mother was a stunner.

Audiobook: Read by Edoardo Ballerini and Julia Whelan

The Beach Trap by Ali Brady (Berkley): Two best friends torn apart by a life-altering secret. One Summer to set the record straight. First line:

There’s something unique about friendships forged between girls at summer camp.

Audiobook: Read by Brittany Pressley and Imani Jade Powers

The Catch by Alison Fairbrother (Random House): A story of the gifts we’re given over the course of a lifetime—the ones we want and the ones we don’t yet understand that we need. First line:

My father, a minor poet, celebrated holidays out of season.

Audiobook: Read by Julia Knippen

Dele Weds Destiny by Tomi Obaro (Knopf): The story of three once-inseparable college friends in Nigeria who reunite in Lagos for the first time in thirty years . . . about mothers and daughters, culture and class, sex and love, and the extraordinary resilience of female friendship. First line:

In the photo they are eating something out of frame, pounded yam, perhaps, or maybe eba.

Audiobook: Read by Tarlye Peterside

Gilt by Jamie Brenner (Putnam): A luxurious and richly compelling . . . novel . . . about a famous family jewelry dynasty and the hidden past that could topple it all. First line:

She reached for her mother's hand, excited and just a little bit afraid.

Audiobook: Read by January LaVoy

Girls They Write Songs About by Carlene Bauer (Farrar, Straus & Giroux): A thrumming, searching novel about the friendships that shape us more than any love affair. First line:

Rose and I moved to New York to be motherless.

Audiobook: Read by Cady Zuckerman

The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand (Little, Brown): An immensely satisfying page-turner . . . about a summer of scandal at a storied Nantucket hotel. First line:

Nantucket Island is known for its cobblestone streets and redbrick sidewalks, cedar-shingled cottages and rose-covered arches, long stretches of golden beach and refreshing Atlantic breezes—and it's also known for residents who adore a juicy piece of gossip (which hot landscaper has been romancing which local real estate mogul's wife—that kind of thing.

Audiobook: Read by Erin Bennett

The Measure by Nikki Erlick (William Morrow): Both heartbreaking and profoundly uplifting, [this] is a sweeping, ambitious meditation on life, family, and society that challenges us to consider the best way to live life to the fullest. First line:

It was difficult to imagine a time before them, a world in which they hadn't come.

Audiobook: Read by Julia Whelan

Nora Goes off Script by Annabel Monaghan (Putnam): Filled with warmth, wit, and wisdom, [this] is the best kind of love story—the real kind where love is complicated by work, kids, and the emotional baggage that comes with life. First line:

Hollywood is coming today.

Audiobook: Read by Hillary Huber

Out of the Clear Blue Sky by Kristan Higgins (Berkley): A funny and surprising new novel about losing it all—and getting back more than you ever expected. First line:

Six months ago, if you had asked me what I thought I’d be doing today, the answer would not have been transporting a drugged skunk to the house where my soon-to-be ex-husband lived with his much-younger fiancée.

Audiobook: Read by Xe Sands and CJ Bloom

These Impossible Things by Salma El-Wardany (Grand Central): A paean to youth and female friendship—and to all the joy and messiness love holds. First line:

"Do you think Eid sex is a thing? Like birthday sex, but just the Muslim equivalent?"

Audiobook: Read by Shazia Nicholls

Tracy Flick Can't Win by Tom Perrotta (Scribner): A pitch-perfect new satirical novel about ambition, coming-of-age in adulthood, and never really leaving high school politics behind. First line:

There was another front-page story in the paper.

Audiobook: Read by a full cast

Truth about Ben and June by Alex Kiester (Park Row): This . . . novel explores the complexity of a modern-day marriage and motherhood, when a new mother vanishes one morning, and her husband must retrace events of their recent past to bring her home. First line:

On the day everything fell apart, Ben awoke to the sound of the baby crying.

Audiobook: Read by Brittany Pressley and Pete Cross

Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore (William Morrow): A delicious summer read set in midcoast Maine, tackling family secrets, marriage, motherhood, and privilege. First line:

The Greyhound from Altoona, Pennsylvania, to Rockland, Maine, takes twelve hours and thirty-three minutes with three stops, all of them in the places where you don't necessarily want to use the bathroom but may find you have no choice.

Audiobook: Read by Stacey Glemboski

Who You Might Be by Leigh N. Gallagher (Henry Holt): A fiercely original debut that takes readers from 1990s Southern California to a UFOlogist holdout in Nevada, the graffiti playground of Detroit, and a self-important New York art scene in an unflinching examination of how life’s most unexpected turns—and the people we meet along the way—shape who we become. First line:

Two fourteen-year-old girls, one beautiful and one just okay, are running away from home on a northbound Amtrak.

Audiobook: Read by Aven Shore