PW Best Summer Books of 2018

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Publishers Weekly recently announced their Best Summer Books of 2018, including these 9 Macmillan titles:
Top 10 (full list)

NEW POETS OF NATIVE NATIONS, edited by Heid E. Erdrich
Rather than anthologize contemporary and emerging authors alongside classic or familiar ones, Erdrich introduces readers to 21 Native poets whose writing was first published after 2000. It’s a simple, powerful framing and all that is needed to introduce readers to a group of writers whose breadth and diversity of styles represent some of the best of contemporary poetry today. —Alex Green, New England correspondent

Fiction (full list)

BABY TEETH by Zoje Stage
Stage’s debut novel is a deviously fun domestic horror story that takes child-rearing anxiety to demented new heights. Frustrated stay-at-home mom Suzette attempts to pacify her seven-year-old daughter Hanna, who adores her father but distrusts Suzette, has dangerous tantrums, and only speaks in the voice of a 17th-century girl who was burned at the stake. As Suzette tries to connect with Hanna, Hanna plots ways to “step up her game against Mommy.”

BROTHER by David Chariandy
Set during the summer of 1991 in the Park, a housing complex in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Chariandy’s powerful and incendiary novel tracks the coming of age of two mixed-heritage brothers. Sensitive Michael fumbles through his first relationship while volatile Francis becomes obsessed with the burgeoning hip-hop scene. Chariandy imbues his resilient characters with strength and hope.

KUDOS by Rachel Cusk
Cusk’s final book in a trilogy (after OUTLINE and TRANSIT) expertly concludes the story of protagonist British author Faye. Like its predecessors, the novel eschews chronicling Faye’s life via traditional narrative, instead filling each page with conversations with and monologues by the many writers, journalists, and publicists she meets during her travels. As always, Cusk’s ear for dialogue and language is stunning. The author ends Faye’s trilogy with yet another gem.

Mystery (full list)

CAGED by Ellison Cooper
In her debut thriller, Cooper, an anthropologist who has worked as a murder investigator in Washington, D.C., channels “equal parts Kathy Reichs and Thomas Harris” (according to Lisa Gardner). In the basement of a D.C. house, a woman is found dead in a cage—left to slowly starve to death in a cold and calculating experiment with no clear motive.

SF/Fantasy/Horror (full list)

THE WARRIOR WITHIN by Angus McIntyre
This strong novella intricately captures a slice of life on a dusty backwater planet ruled by augmented-human priests whose mobile temples are moved by enormous wheeled machines. When off-world mercenaries arrive, planning to kill a local woman, a mechanic whose head is inhabited by additional implanted personalities must contend with momentous changes and unexpected realizations. This is a perfect story for those looking to be fully transported to a strange world.

Comics (full list)

THE BRIDE WAS A BOY by Chii
This boundary-breaking manga features the romantic story of Chii, a pseudonymous transgender cartoonist, and her “Husband-kun.” In a flirty pink package, with energetic artwork, the true-life tale of Chii’s gender transition, from her childhood as a boy to becoming “Bride-chan,” is as fun as it is in fact revolutionary—and helpfully stocked with “trans 101” tips for any reader who needs guidance as they cheer Chii along in reaching her dreams.

Nonfiction (full list)

CHASING NEW HORIZONS: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon
In a riveting narrative destined to become a classic of popular science, Stern (who led the NASA mission to send the first probe to Pluto) and astrobiologist Grinspoon (a contributor to the mission) reveal the many roadblocks, technological and bureaucratic, involved in sending an unmanned spacecraft over three billion miles from Earth.

Young Adult (full list)

HOW I RESIST: Activism and Hope for a New Generation, edited by Maureen Johnson
In this timely compendium, 30 contributors offer essays, reflections, illustrations, and poems from a wide range of perspectives, sharing their experiences encountering various forms of injustice.

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