As we travel headlong into 2025, few things are quite as reliable as a good book. This June has plenty to offer curious readers, from talented writers turning their own lives into powerful literary works to high-concept novels exploring themes of family and loss. Whether you’re looking for something more thought-provoking or more escapist, odds are good one of our June recommendations will have what you’re looking for.
Justin Hocking, A Field Guide to the Subterranean: Reclaiming the Deep Earth and our Deepest Selves (June 10)
Justin Hocking’s 2014 memoir The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld was a tremendous read, one that had plenty to say about surfing, art and community. With his new book, he has a very different landscape in mind than the waterfront spaces of his earlier book. This one finds its author exploring caves both literal and metaphorical; Kirkus Reviews called it “[a] dreamy mixture of memoir, natural history and environmental worries.”
Yrsa Daley-Ward, The Catch (June 3)
There’s a haunting mystery at the center of Yrsa Daley-Ward’s new novel, and I use that term very literally. When the novel begins, two sisters believe they’ve just seen their long-deceased mother alive and well in London. If that sounds like it eludes easy classification, so be it. “If somebody in a story I’m writing is doing something that isn’t feasible in this realm, I’m going to expand the realm,” Daley-Ward told Publishers Weekly.
Alan Siegel, Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How the Golden Era of the Simpsons Changed Television — And America — Forever (June 10)
There are certain questions that can spark heated debate among television watchers, and one of those is very simple: “What was the best season of The Simpsons?” The show has had a tremendous run and has managed to find new ways to be relevant; Alan Siegel’s new book explores the show’s early years in order to map out the full scope of its influence.
B.A. Shapiro, The Lost Masterpiece (June 17)
A quick glance at the titles of some of B.A. Shapiro’s novels — including The Art Forger and The Muralist — has plenty to say about the author’s penchant for thrilling tales of the art world. Her latest novel, The Lost Masterpiece, spans over a century and has Édouard Manet’s painting Party on the Seine at the heart of its narrative. If you’re looking for a thrilling look into European history, artistic rivalries and family secrets, this novel has plenty to offer.
Melissa Febos, The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex (June 3)
Few writers are as candid about their lived experience — or write about them with such power — as Melissa Febos. (Her excellent Abandon Me is a fine introduction to her work.) Febos’s new book tells the story of her decision to remain celibate for a year, and the ways she sought out pleasure during that time. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Febos described that stretch of time as “[l]etting go of my own narrative of myself in favor of a more humbling and more honest one.”
Joanna Howard, Porthole (June 17)
While it’s not quite a subgenre unto itself, there’s something especially compelling about novels focusing on fictional films and filmmakers — a category that encompasses work like Steve Erickson’s Zeroville and Paul Tremblay’s Horror Movie. Joanna Howard’s new novel tells the tale of a gifted filmmaker who might also be responsible for a death, and the personal and professional crises she must navigate.
Brian Anderson, Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection (June 17)
Some artists’ onstage setups are designed to blend unobtrusively into the background. That was not the case with the Grateful Dead’s sound system known as the Wall of Sound — a sonic setup that’s been memorialized in live recordings and scale models. Brian Anderson’s new book chronicles the development and refinement of this monumental sound.
Fathers, Sons and Watching “After Hours”
An excerpt from Ben Tanzer’s new book about the cult classic Scorsese film
David Wojnarowicz, Memories That Smell Like Gasoline (June 24)
If you’re not already familiar with the politically-charged art made by the late David Wojnarowicz, prepare for some of the most bracing work you’re likely to encounter. But art wasn’t Wojnarowicz’s only creative outlet; he also made forays into music and was a prolific writer. This new edition of his collection Memories That Smell Like Gasoline helps bring that side of his oeuvre into the spotlight.
Jayson Greene, UnWorld (June 17)
Following the devastating memoir Once More We Saw Stars, Jayson Greene has now turned to fiction for his next book. UnWorld tells a story of grief in a futuristic world, in which several characters — some human, some digital — circle one another in the aftermath of a teenager’s death. What happens when technological advances collide with primal emotions? UnWorld takes the reader there.
Geoff Dyer, Homework (June 10)
Candid, unpredictable and often chaotic, Geoff Dyer’s writings approach familiar subjects — from self-improvement to sports legends — from directions you wouldn’t expect. In Dyer’s latest book, the subject under consideration is his own childhood in postwar England, and the familial and societal situations that helped shape him into the man he is today.
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