Best Beach Reading 2017
9 new books you'll be talking about all summer
Ben Denzer
Since We Fell
Dennis Lehane
Guaranteed: This zippy thriller will entertain and shock you. Set in Boston, it tells the story of a former rising star newscaster who falls horribly apart on-air. Retreating from the world, she marries a caring man and seems comfortable until she's drawn into a conspiracy that upends her quiet life. Lehane — best-selling author of Mystic River and Shutter Island — has crafted another winner.
Ecco, May 9
Courtesy of Ecco
You Don't Look Your Age … and Other Fairy Tales
Sheila Nevins
Provocative, witty and sometimes raw, the TV producer reveals what it is really like to be an older woman in the high-powered world of media. The president of HBO Documentary Films for over 30 years, Nevins delves into her past, describing her childhood, her career and her marriages. As a successful working mother, she offers up life lessons for other women.
Flatiron Books, May 2
Courtesy of Flatiron Books
Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
In this moving memoir, the writer and famed basketball player depicts his 50-year friendship with the Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden. The story begins when the 18-year-old New Yorker arrives at UCLA and ends at Wooden's deathbed. He describes the tumultuous decades in between — the civil rights movement, his conversion to Islam and how the two grew closer as they both aged. A terrific Father's Day gift.
Grand Central, May 16
Courtesy of Grand Central
The Force
Don Winslow
The author of 2015's drug war opus The Cartel, Winslow reportedly dove deep into the world of New York crime fighting to research his new epic. It shows. Vivid with real-life detail, this corrupt-cop thriller focuses on NYPD Sgt. Denny Malone, who's done some dirty work as leader of an elite gang-fighting unit and now finds himself in the feds' crosshairs. Fox has already paid big for film rights.
William Morrow, June 20
Courtesy of William Morrow
Before We Were Yours
Lisa Winslow
Prepare to be moved by this wrenching novel with a true story at its core. It features Avery Stafford, a young South Carolina woman who stumbles upon her wealthy family's secret ties to an illicit organization that became notorious (in real life) for having stolen countless babies from poor women and sold them to families seeking to adopt from the '20s through 1950.
Ballantine Books, June 6
Courtesy of Ballantine Books
Magpie Murders
Anthony Horowitz
If you adore those classic British mysteries — paging Agatha Christie! — you will devour this enchanting mystery within a mystery. A London book editor receives the new manuscript from her top performer. It's a classic whodunit set in an English village brimming with suspects. But when the odious author turns up dead, the editor must turn sleuth. A perfect summer read from the author of Moriarty.
Harper, June 6
Courtesy of Harper Collins
Death Need Not Be Fatal
Malachy McCourt with Brian McDonald
Back before the memoir Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt was published in 1996, Malachy was the famous brother. An actor, bartender, bar owner, writer, political activist — he has led quite the adventurous life. Now 85, the author reflects on the big issues: family, love, life, death and the loneliness of being the last of the seven McCourt siblings. A lyrical memoir.
Center Street, May 16
Courtesy of Center Street
Mrs. Fletcher
Tom Perrotta
If you feel like chuckling and don't mind a little naughtiness, check out this comic novel by the author of Little Children and The Leftovers. The newly divorced Eve Fletcher is leading an all-too-placid life as head of a senior center, but after her son sets off for college, she breaks loose a bit. Let's just say her new life includes a bit of fun with a guy her son's age. Here's to you, Mrs. Fletcher.
Scribner, Aug. 1
Courtesy of Scribner
Defectors
Joseph Kanon
Ever wonder what life was like for those Western spies who defected to Moscow during the Cold War? Kanon offers a peek in this tale of a fictional American CIA traitor named Frank Weeks who fled to the U.S.S.R. in 1949. Twelve years later, Frank invites his brother, a publisher, to Moscow to edit his memoir. Then things get very, very complicated. Another winner from the author of The Good German.
Atria, June 6
Courtesy of Atria Books