New month, new books! Book Light is our Dandelion Chandelier curated list of the most-anticipated new book releases every month, and next up is August 2020. If you ask us, the perfect August read is So what are the best new books to read coming out in August 2020? Our intrepid team has been exploring and here’s what we found.
what are the most-anticipated new book releases for August 2020?
Wondering what to read in August 2020? We’ve surveyed the landscape, and rounded up a list of the best new books coming this August.
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Even though the month tends to be a bit sleepy, with “big” titles being held for the fall, there are a lot of great new book releases coming in August 2020.
What to read in the month of August 2020.
the best new books coming in August 2020
Here’s our pick of the top new book releases of August 2020 – novels, essay collections, and non-fiction – that we cannot wait to read. You can pre-order them now if you like (and if you do, full disclosure, we may earn a commission on the sale).
What are the best new books and book releases coming in August 2020?
New books coming in the week of August 4, 2020
1.
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy. As climate change wreaks havoc on the world and its residents, a 30-something Scottish ornithologist travels to a remote area in Greenland with one purpose: to find the world’s last flock of Arctic terns and track their final migration. Her journey is marred by night terrors and secrets – including why terns are her obsession – and her quest may endanger the lives of the sailing crew who agree to take her onboard their vessel – Publication date: August 4, 2020
2.
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi. The titular character has died on the first page, and what follows is a tale moving forward and backward in time – a coming-of-age story set in Nigeria. A young boy’s family struggles to accept who he wants to be, and throughout his life, he remains essentially a mystery to those around him. Told through many voices, including Vivek’s own, this is a piercing meditation on how a community can grieve a person they never truly understood – Publication date: August 4, 2020
3.
The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun is a debut novel set in the milieu of a travel agency called The Jungle. This isn’t a normal travel agency—the film specializes in disaster tourism, sending tourists to areas once hit by tsunamis, hurricanes and more. After being victimized at work, young employee Yona accepts the offer of a free trip to the island of Mui, where she discovers the darkest sides of the tourism industry for herself – Publication date: August 4, 2020
What are the best new books and book releases coming in August 2020? Courtesy Photos.
4.
True Story by Kate Reed Petty. In this debut novel, ghostwriter Alice Lovett makes a living helping other people tell their stories. But she is haunted by her own life story. And how 15 years ago, two high school classmates commit a brutal act that they later brag about, and that she cannot fully recall. When she finally gets the opportunity to confront the past she can’t remember—but which has nevertheless shaped her life—will she take it? – Publication date: August 4, 2020
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5.
Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud. In the years following the death of her abusive husband, Betty opens up her home to her work colleague Mr. Chetan. The two live together platonically and raise Betty’s son Solo, rebuilding a family unit that was once shattered. But when the discovery of a secret rocks their placid existence, Solo flees to New York to uncover his own answers about what it means to be a family – Publication date: August 4, 2020
6.
A House is a Body by Shruti Swami. In this debut collection, the author explores lust, loss and loneliness through 12 short stories set in the United States and India. In one story a man wrestles with grief over his wife’s death as he continues to raise their child. Another follows a woman trapped in her home as a nearby wildfire picks up speed. The common thread is humans in extremis, and how we bear the burdens we’ve been given by life – Publication date: August 4, 2020
What to read in August 2020. Courtesy Photos.
7.
Luster by Raven Leilani. In this debut novel, race, privilege, art and sex combine into a toxic stew. Edie is a 20-something black artist living in Bushwick and struggling to find her way when she enters into an open marriage with a much older white man and his wife. As she becomes more and more embroiled in the couple’s life, Edie begins to tap into her own desires and her unspoken anger. Oh, did we mention that the couple also has an adopted black daughter? When the wife invites Edie to stay in their home in suburban New Jersey, the relationship dynamics are upended in unexpected ways – Publication date: August 4, 2020
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8.
All the Right Mistakes by Laura Jamison. At 40, Elizabeth, Sara, Martha, Carmen, and Heather are wildly successful in their careers, but when Heather uses her four friends’ personal choices as the basis for an advice book on mistakes women should avoid making, they begin to question their decisions – Publication date: August 4, 2020
9.
Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment by John Giorno. Artist, activist, and poet, the author lived an incredible life in 1960’s and ’70’s New York. Openly gay at a time when many remained closeted, Giorno was close to many bold-faced names in contemporary art, including Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns. – Publication date: August 4, 2020
What to read in August 2020. Courtesy Photos.
10.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. The acclaimed author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America. And shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions based on race, class and gender. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, she explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, among them “divine will,” bloodlines, and stigmatization – Publication date: August 4, 2020
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11.
Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy by Edward Ball. In his National Book Award-winning Slaves in the Family, the author tracked down descendants of the people that his ancestors, plantation owners in South Carolina, had enslaved. Now, he sharpens his assessment of his own family history, focusing on one of his great-great-grandfathers and his association with the Ku Klux Klan – Publication date: August 4, 2020
12.
Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jerkins. The author of This Will Be My Undoing returns with a poignant exploration of her family’s participation in the Great Migration: the epic movement of black people from the rural South to the urban North and West. She recreates her ancestors’ journeys across America, following the migratory routes they took from Georgia and South Carolina to Louisiana, Oklahoma, and California. Leveraging interviews, photos, and hundreds of pages of transcription, she mines not just her own past, but also the nation’s, for insights into today’s most pressing issues – Publication date: August 4, 2020
What are the most-anticipated new books being released in August 2020? Courtesy Photo.
13.
The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack. A theoretical astrophysicist shares an engrossing timeline of the cosmos. A provides us with a guide to some of the most plausible scenarios about the end of the universe. So if you don’t know, now you know – Publication date: August 4, 2020
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New books coming in the week of August 11, 2020
14.
Before You Go by Tommy Butler. This debut novel is the story of three people drifting through life until they find each other. Elliot has never felt at home in the world, and that feeling only magnifies as he gets older. He join sa New York support group, and there he meets Sasha, who leaves codes in advertisement copy she writes. And Bannor, who tells stories of the future that might just be true. – Publication date: August 11, 2020
15.
The Boy in the Field by Margot Livesey. The author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy returns with a new novel set in the autumn of 1999. Three brothers discover a boy lying in a field, bloody and unconscious. Thanks to their intervention, the boy’s life is saved. And theirs are changed indelibly. Over the course of the autumn, as each of the siblings confronts the complications and contradictions of their approaching adulthood, they find themselves at once drawn together and driven apart – Publication date: August 11, 2020
What are the most-anticipated new books being released in August 2020? Courtesy Photo.
16.
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook. In this debut novel, a mother battles to save her daughter in a world ravaged by climate change. In a dystopian future, Bea, her 5-year old daughter Agnes, and eighteen others volunteer to live in the Wilderness State. They’ll be guinea pigs in an experiment to see if humans can exist in nature without destroying it. Initially happy at how her child is thriving, Bea ultimately realizes that the farther the pair get from civilization, the more their bond is tested– Publication date: August 11, 2020
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17.
Finna by Nate Marshall is a collection of poems written in the vernacular of black urban dwellers. Poignant, provocative, and ultimately hopeful, this a window into many facets of contemporary black lives.
New books coming in the week of August 18, 2020
18.
Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth. Jenny McLaine’s life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. The bosses at The Foof terminate her because she isn’t the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny’s mother is about to move in. Having left home at eighteen to remake herself as a self-sufficient millennial, Jenny is now in her thirties and nothing is as she thought it would be. Least of all adulthood. – Publication date: August 18, 2020
What are the most-anticipated new books being released in August 2020? Courtesy Photo.
New books coming in the week of August 25, 2020
19.
Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald. The author of the best-selling H is for Hawk is back with a collection of her best loved essays and som new pieces. We hear her accounts of observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, and seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She shares her nostalgia for a vanishing countryside and allows us to be privvy to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep.– Publication date: August 25, 2020
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20.
Sisters by Daisy Johnson. Can sisters ever be too close? It’s the question at the core of this new novel, which traces the plight of teenage sisters July and September, who start to drift apart as they enter a new life in an isolated home with their single mother. The author’s debut novel, Everything Under, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2018, making her the youngest author ever to secure the honor. Her return is generating huge buzz – Publication date: August 25, 2020
21.
Summer by Ali Smith. The lovely and urgent Seasonal Quartet draws to a close with this new novel. Set against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, this is the story of siblings Sacha and Robert. As they attempt to understand their place in the world, we reunite with characters from past books in the series, and once again confront the small-scale human impact of issues like immigration and Brexit – Publication date: August 25, 2020
What are the best new books and book releases coming in August 2020?
22.
The Sprawl by Jason Diamond. The author is a suburbanite by birth and city-dweller by choice. In this engaging history, he tracks the rise, fall, degradation, and rehabilitation of the American suburb. Perfect timing, as the coronavirus pandemic has made life outside the city newly enticing – Publication date: August 25, 2020
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23.
El Jefe: The Stalking of Chapo Guzman by Alan Feuer. A Metro reporter for the New York Times, the author covered the trial of the most famous drug trafficker in the modern era. This is a riveting account of his rise and fall – Publication date: August 25, 2020
24.
The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War by Michael Gorra. Faulkner’s most famous quote – “The past is never dead. It’s not even past” – echos throughout this volume of literary criticism. The author re-assesses Faulkner’s work in the light of current events, including Black Lives Matter. And raises urgent questions about how we should read Faulkner in the 21st century, given the depiction of black people and racism in his fiction – Publication date: August 25, 2020
What are the best new books and book releases coming in August 2020?
best new book releases in August 2020
Those are our picks for the best and most-anticipated new book releases coming in August 2020. And an overview of options to answer the pressing matter of what to read in August 2020. What’s at the top of your list?
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