5 Books to Watch Out for in August

5 Books to Watch Out for in August There are so many big releases hitting Book Land this month that it was hard to whittle this list down to five.  For your diverse reading pleasure, I tried to hit every genre I could, from fantasy to (kind of) cookbook to graphic novel to essays. Lets hit it! The Magician’s Land, Lev Grossman (Viking August 5th) The Magician’s Land, with its haunting,  foggy-yet-crisp cover, is the third and final installment of  Grossman’s much beloved Magicians trilogy. And Rebecca Schinsky says it’s the best one yet! Trust Rebecca Schinsky! I obvs cant give many details being that its the conclusion of a trilogy BUT  if you like love letters to fantasy, you should start this trilogy now. And read all of it by August 5th.  YOU CAN DO IT. Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay (Harper Perennial August 5th) I know its probably not very scholarly to do this, but I am just gonna go ahead and give this book five stars based on the title alone. FIVE STARS. In reviews for  this book, the word provocative is used approximately a million times. Which, of course, is code for:  Smart woman of color tells shit like it is; people may wring their hands a lot. From  Sweet Valley High  to  Orange is the New Black, Gay examines culture and politics in a way that tells a deeply personal story while also calling on all of us to do better. I am awfully glad she exists. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami (Knopf August 12th) Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki  is being heralded as a Murakami tale thats short and straightforward in comparison with his  more recent meandering works.  It should be said that its still 400 pages, though, which I guess you only consider short when youre comparing it to the 946 of 1Q84. Tsukuru Tazaki is a lonely man in his mid-30s who is haunted by a great loss, and his pilgrimage involves  traveling into the past to help heal his present. And, yeah, thats all you really get in terms of description. It also sold over a million copies during its first week of publication in Japan. Holy cheeseballs. My Drunk Kitchen: A Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Going With Your Gut, Hannah Hart (Dey Street Books August 12th) Personally, I miss the old school, actually drunk, tiny NYC kitchen Hannah, as opposed to the new, shiny, always-looks-like-a-movie-star-even-when-shes-trying-to-be-sloppy LA Hannah. YouTuber success problems, amIrite? But, I mean, do I still like her face? Yes. Would I still read her book? Hell yes. Would I read it more for pun-filled talk about life and alcohol than for the recipes? Well duh. Sisters, Raina Telgemeier (Graphix August 26th) Sisters  is the companion to 2010s Eisner Award-winning  Smile,  and if you dont know how big  Smile  was/is, well, then, you probably dont work with children. But trust me that it was/is BIG. Like, changing the face of graphic novels for children big. Like, I am going to write a whole separate post about Raina Telgemeier when August 26th comes closer. Seriously. BIG. Like Smile, Sisters  is autobiographical in nature, this time focusing  on the not-always-chummy bond between a young Raina and her sister Amara, a bond that begins to strengthen with the arrival of a new baby brother and the rumblings of discord between their parents. Told in flashbacks, much of the action takes place during a road trip from San Francisco to Colorado. ROAD TRIP! Sounds like a perfect way to end the summer to me. What other August releases are you looking forward to? ____________________ Expand your literary horizons with New Books!, a weekly newsletter spotlighting  3-5  exciting new releases, hand-picked by our very own  Liberty Hardy.  Sign up now! Sign up to Unusual Suspects to receive news and recommendations for mystery/thriller readers. Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.