10 Exciting Books to Read this Summer

 In these recommendations for summer 2024, we have fantasy, nonfiction, magical realism, romance, and everything in between—from a new blockbuster King Arthur adaptation to a poetic book by one of our generation’s best writers on the city he grew up in, basketball, and his coming of age.

Whereas BEA primarily served to provide publishers with an opportunity to make booksellers, librarians, and the media aware of their forthcoming titles, the U.S. Book Show bills itself as “a conference for publishing industry professionals” focused on professional development and continuing education. Having worked adjacent to the industry for the last 15 years, I found it to be an interesting snapshot of where publishing is, what folks are thinking about, and what the near future of books might look like.

This is the list of the books that have been marked as finished on Goodreads by the most users this week. Not every reader is on Goodreads, but it is the closest approximation that we have. It’s interesting to see just how long a tail many of these books have: the most read books have often been out for years, and that word of mouth recommendation system is still going strong!

Forty years ago, in May of 1984, two young, unknown men sat at a table at a comic book convention in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was the first-ever Portsmouth Mini-Con, a tiny, local event with about 200 attendees. The two young creators had brought along their new comic, which they had published through their own independent publishing company, Mirage Studios, with an initial print run of 3,275 copies. It was printed in black and white on cheap newsprint, and copies sold for $1.50 each.

In the spring of 2020, Jonathan Corcoran and his partner contracted COVID-19 and bunkered down to weather through this as-of-yet-unknown illness in the middle of New York City. While he was quarantining, Corcoran received the news that his mother had died. 

Middleton Public Library outside of Madison, Wisconsin, introduced a new policy that allows patrons who have damaged materials to have the fines waived if they share a photo of the culprit behind the damage. The library, does not charge fines for overdue materials, shares photos with permission on their social media.