The 11 Books You Should Be Reading This June

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Don’t look now, but summer is upon us. So too is summer reading — and whether your preferred method of that is on a beach chair somewhere or solidly surrounded by air conditioning, we have you covered with some recommendations for books out this June. They cover a lot of ground, from a career-spanning collection from a beloved sportswriter to a new edition of a cult novel about boxing. Read on for our suggestions.

Ann Powers, Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell (June 18)

Few writers chronicling music, art and culture today do so as well as Ann Powers. Powers’s previous book, the insightful Good Booty, is the kind of work that reveals unexpected connections between songs you’ve known forever. Her latest has a very different focus: Joni Mitchell, who recently made a return to performing live. If Powers’s previous work is any indication, this should abound with fresh perspectives on Mitchell’s life and work.

John Ganz, When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s (June 18)

What, exactly, did the 1990s do to us? That question is often posed in the context of popular culture, but with his new book When the Clock Broke, John Ganz revisits the more unsettling side of the ’90s to see what effect that decade had on the current state of the nation. Ganz is a talented writer, equally adept at chronicling political theory as he is weighing in on post-Cold War action films, and this ambitious history might make you rethink your assumptions about the 20th century’s final decade.

Questlove, Hip-Hop Is History (June 11)

Somewhere in the not-so-distant past, Questlove made the move to expand his purview from “talented drummer” to his current status as a musician, cultural historian, book publisher and Oscar-winning filmmaker. His latest book finds him exploring the inner workings of a genre close to his heart, giving readers a comprehensive and personal history of hip-hop.

Harry Crews, The Knockout Artist (June 11)

Two years ago, Penguin Classics reissued a pair of books by the cult Southern writer Harry Crews. In 2024, they’re returning to Crews’s bibliography with a new edition of his 1988 novel The Knockout Artist, about a boxer with the unique skill of being able to KO himself, and the strange and dangerous places it takes him. As an added bonus, the award-winning crime writer S. A. Cosby contributed an introduction to this new edition.

Tracy O’Neill, Woman of Interest (June 25)

Some of the most compelling mysteries can be found in our own lives. For her third book and first work of nonfiction, Tracy O’Neill recounts her search for her own birth mother — and the way that this process essentially transformed her into a detective investigating her own life. It’s a fascinating and immersive look at identity, dedication and unanswered questions.

Grant Wahl, World Class: Purpose, Passion, and the Pursuit of Greatness On and Off the Field (June 4)

Grant Wahl’s death during the 2022 World Cup was a shocking moment for countless reasons; it also represented the premature conclusion of one of the great sportswriting careers of our time. The new collection World Class provides readers with a comprehensive overview of his decades-long career — and perfectly summarizes why Wahl meant so much to readers and athletes alike.

A New Biography Explores the Paradox of Pete Rose

Keith O’Brien discusses his book “Charlie Hustle”

Anna Goldfarb, Modern Friendship: How to Nurture Our Most Valued Connections (June 4)

As you might be aware, it’s a challenging time for friendship right now. Whether it’s an issue of making new friends or the difficulties associated with maintaining existing friendships, things are rough out there. Those issues help explain why Anna Goldfarb’s new book Modern Friendship feels so essential right now; it provides a comprehensive and wide-ranging look into why these essential relationships can feel so difficult in this day and age — and how attending to them can fundamentally change our lives.

Phil Elwood, All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians (June 25)

There’s an art to publicity, and for some of its most skilled practitioners, it can be harnessed to change public perceptions of people responsible for terrible things. Unfortunately, this isn’t always for the good of humanity — and it’s in this vein Phil Elwood’s candid memoir chronicles his time working to spin the words and deeds of a number of unsavory public figures.

Annalee Newitz, Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind (June 4)

Annalee Newitz has a talent for exploring fascinating corners of history that reveal plenty about the modern world — their book Four Lost Cities is a perfect example. Stories Are Weapons heads in a slightly different direction, exploring the history of disinformation and its shifting place in our society. It’s essential reading at a time when disinformation seems to be everywhere.

Michael Waters, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports (June 4)

Reading about sports in 2024 often means encountering the ongoing — and frequently heated — debate about the role of transgender athletes. Michael Waters’s new book The Other Olympians takes readers back to the first half of the 20th century, revealing that these debates have been going on for much longer than you might expect. It’s an insightful and informative look at the places where athletics and gender converge.

Francine Prose, 1974: A Personal History (June 18)

Francine Prose’s bibliography covers a lot of ground, from acclaimed fiction to nonfiction works about the art of reading. For her latest book, she ventures back into her own history, chronicling her time in mid-1970s San Francisco and her friendship with whistleblower Anthony Russo. The result is a powerful evocation of a transformative time in both national and personal history.