11 New Paperback Books to Bring with You to the Beach

In her New York Times bestseller The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz delivers a fantastically engaging summertime read that’s packed with suspense and plot twists. The narrative centers on Jacob Finch Bonner, a washed-up author who teaches at a subpar MFA program and longs to revive his stalled-out literary career. When one of his students dies unexpectedly, Bonner steals the deceased student’s one-of-a-kind plot to write a new novel. Blockbuster success soon follows, and Bonner is back at the top of his game. That is, until he receives a menacing message from someone who knows that he’s a thief, which sends the author on a desperate race to protect his secret and unearth the true origins of the stolen plot.

If you adored Alex Michaelides’ internationally bestselling psychological thriller debut, The Silent Patient, then you’re sure to devour his follow-up novel, The Maidens. The author’s latest book is as clever as it is exhilarating, and the way that it weaves in Greek mythology is truly unique. The beguiling dark academia narrative is set at Cambridge University, where a mysterious killer prowls the campus. Group therapist and Cambridge alumna Mariana Andros is obsessed with finding the culprit. Her suspect? Edward Fosca, a charming classics professor who teaches Greek tragedy and is adored by students and faculty alike — especially by the members of an all-female secret society known as The Maidens. Andros is convinced that Fosca’s to blame, despite the professor’s alibi. But why would Fosca attack one of his students? And how far is Andros willing to go to unmask the true killer?

Summertime is all about getting together with loved ones, and we promise you’ll delight in We Are the Brennans, Tracey Lange’s bighearted and bestselling family drama about love, redemption, and unbreakable bonds. In the novel, Sunday Brennan returns home to New York after causing a drunk-driving accident in Los Angeles. Five years earlier, she had abruptly left her big Irish Catholic clan for the West Coast. Now that she’s back, she knows she has some explaining to do and plenty of frayed relationships to mend. But when someone from her past threatens the Brennan family business, Sunday and her family must unite to confront long-buried family secrets and unresolved pain if they hope to move forward together.

Put this fascinating memoir at the top of your summer reading list. In Her Honor, Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell candidly discusses her life and career as a jurist, offering an insider’s look at America’s criminal justice system. As the first African American woman to sit on the Superior Court of Northern California, Judge Cordell knows that criminal justice in the United States is flawed, from overburdened courts and entrenched racial biases to the concerning shift away from rehabilitation and toward punishment. Nevertheless, Judge Cordell believes in the inherent value of the system. She sees what works and knows what needs to be improved, and in her memoir, she applies her expertise to guide us forward to a more equitable system.

Seasoned true crime fans in search of a powerful new read need to grab a copy of Elon Green’s Last Call. Green’s Edgar Award–winning nonfiction narrative centers on the case of the Last Call Killer, a nearly forgotten serial murderer who preyed on gay men in New York City bars in the 1980s and 1990s. At the time, the killer’s crimes received shockingly little media coverage; even today, the case is far less known when compared to other notorious true crime cases. With insight and compassion, Green delves into the societal reasons why these particular murders received so little attention and offers a moving portrait of the lives that were lost.

Maggie Shipstead’s internationally acclaimed Great Circle is an engaging and innovative novel of two interlacing stories. The first is that of Marian Graves, who as an infant in 1914 is rescued from a sinking ship. Young Marian soon develops a soaring passion for aviation; she drops out of school and finds a wealthy bootlegger benefactor to sponsor her dream of taking flight around the globe. The second story flashes forward to present-day Hollywood. A performer named Hadley Baxter is set to play Marian Graves in a movie that explores the aviator’s life and her disappearance in Antarctica. As Hadley immerses herself in the role, we witness Marian’s own story unfold, making for an emotionally powerful dance across the centuries.

The Music of Bees is an uplifting story written by bestselling author Eileen Garvin, and the novel centers on three lonely people in Oregon who together find solace, hope, and healing. This includes Harry, a young man with debilitating social anxiety, Alice, a middle-aged widow who hires Harry to work on her farm, and Jake, a paraplegic teenager who takes an interest in Alice’s honeybees.

In Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising, four famous siblings throw one fiery summer soiree — literally. Their epic party soon spirals out of control. By the following morning, the family’s Malibu mansion has gone up in flames. But how did the blaze begin? Perhaps it has to do with the wild lifestyles, combustible relationships, and explosive family secrets of the siblings themselves. Plenty of sparks fly in this sizzling bestseller, and the glitz, glamor, and delectable family drama will have you racing through its pages in a single summer night.

Zakiya Dalila Harris delivers an incisive and electrifying narrative with her bestselling debut, The Other Black Girl. The novel centers on two Black women in the publishing world: Nella and Hazel. Nella is a young assistant at Wagner Books who’s thrilled when another Black woman, Hazel, is hired to work alongside her. But when Hazel becomes the office darling, Nella begins receiving menacing notes that tell her to leave the company. The narrative soon twists into something far more sinister, offering a thrilling and satirical look at race, privilege, and nightmarish workplace rivalries in corporate America.

Westerns get stale fast when they repeat the tired tropes of the past, but Tom Lin’s celebrated The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu offers an excitingly fresh take on the genre. The novel centers on Ming Tsu, a Chinese orphan who’s raised by a California crime boss and who goes on to become a trained assassin. After meeting and marrying Ada, the daughter of an influential railroad tycoon, Ming attempts to leave his criminal life behind and start afresh with his spouse. But when Ada is kidnapped and Ming is conscripted into railroad work, Ming joins forces with a blind prophet and a troupe of magicians to find his wife and exact his revenge.

A Slow Fire Burning, the latest release from Paula Hawkins — author of the mega-bestselling psychological thriller The Girl on the Train — is a dark tale of duplicity and vengeance, centered on three women connected by a young man’s horrific murder. The first, Laura, is a former lover who was last seen in the victim’s home. The second, Miriam, is a nosy neighbor who isn’t telling the police everything she knows. The third, Carla, is the victim’s aunt, who’s mourning the death of both her nephew and another family member. Together, the lives of these three women collide in a propulsive narrative full of twists and turns that you will not see coming.