Round out your summer TBR list with these 10 noteworthy titles.
In Sardinia: An Unexpected Journey in Italy by Jeff Biggers (Melville House, May 16): This is no straightforward travel guide. Biggers creates a rich narrative tapestry that brings Sardinia into clearer focus, resulting in a “fascinating journey” that is “neither holiday postcard nor dry ancient history,” our reviewer said.
Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas by Jesse Cole with Don Yaeger (Dutton, May 16): Few things feel more like summer than baseball. In this entertaining book, Cole regales us with tales from his wacky semiprofessional team, the Savannah Bananas. The author wanted “a squad that would do for baseball what the Harlem Globetrotters did for basketball,” and he made it happen.
Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa L. Sevigny (Norton, May 23): Millions of people visit the Grand Canyon every year, but few know the story of the women botanists who cataloged its flora. Sevigny enlightens us with this dual biography, which also serves as a lesson in how “women in science still face challenges, stereotypes, and barriers,” according to our review.
Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop: A Memoir by Alba Donati, trans. by Elena Pala (Scribner, May 30): What bibliophile hasn’t dreamed of opening an independent bookstore? In 2019, Donati did just that, and this book is a delightful chronicle of the many ups and downs of the business. As our critic wrote, “Readers beware: will cause the irresistible desire to open a small bookstore.”
The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage by Nick de Semlyen (Crown, June 6): Summer is the season for blockbusters, and de Semlyen offers a warm homage to action movies and the people who make them, creating what our critic calls “a joyful romp featuring larger-than-life characters, iconic movies, and plenty of behind-the-scenes info.”
American Journey: On the Road With Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs by Wes Davis (Norton, June 6): In a unique take on the classic road trip adventure tale, says our critic, “Davis…portrays the touching friendships that sprang up among automobile tycoon Henry Ford, naturalist John Burroughs, [and] inventor Thomas Edison…as they explor[ed] parts of rural America that had been largely inaccessible.”
What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds by Jennifer Ackerman (Penguin Press, June 13): Ackerman is a fine guide to all things ornithological, and in this follow-up to The Bird Way, she turns her skillful eye to the mysterious lives of owls, creating a book “to please any lover of immersive treks into the lives of birds,” our reviewer says.
100 Places To See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife by Ken Jennings (Scribner, June 13): The ultimate Jeopardy! champion is back with another fun, quirky book packed with interesting facts and stories. Our critic calls this one “an entertaining, amusing collection of a wide variety of visions of the afterlife.”
Beastly: The 40,000-Year Story of Animals and Us by Keggie Carew (Abrams, July 18): In what our critic describes as “a compelling mixture of memoir, history of human dealings with animals, and accounts of human-animal relations today,” British nature writer Carew investigates centuries of interactions between humans and other animals.
The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey (Doubleday, Aug. 1): Few areas on Earth are as unexplored as the bottoms of the oceans. Casey takes us down on a captivating journey, and I’m confident in our critic’s assessment that “readers will be thrilled by the author’s descriptions of truly bizarre sights and creatures as well as dazzling archaeological treasures.”
Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction and managing editor.
