Here are 12 more books to check out this June

After several weeks of rain and gloomy weather, we've finally had a string of sunny days. I'm spending my day off digging into a couple of books that I've had on my reading list, as well as a new one: Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age, details of which are below. I studied the Cold War for my graduate work, and I try and keep reading up on the history behind it, even when it seems like that history is heating back up.

There are lots of other books coming out in the meantime to add to your TBR: the second half of this month brings everything from weird westerns to some fantastic space operas, cozy fantasies, and more: something for everyone.

As always, you can see prior lists through the Book List tag. Here's the first book list for June:

Here are 12 that caught my eye to check out over the course of the rest of the month:

The No-End House by Jeremy Bates (June 24th)

This looks like a fun horror novel: a gothic stone mansion in Barcelona is one of those best-kept secret attractions with some deadly secrets. There are nine escape rooms each with their own dangerous puzzle to solve, and anyone who escapes gets a large prize at the end. Nobody has claimed it yet.

A guy named Joe hears about the house from some fellow travelers, but while it sounds interesting, he's dealing with the aftermath of his wife's death. When he encounters a beautiful woman named Helen, she convinces him to try it with her, and they set off to try it out, only to find that the house seems to know his own secrets and fears, and push him to do things he would never otherwise do.

Library Journal said "Not just a book about a haunted house, Bates’s tale is also likely to attract fans of horror video games such as Resident Evil."

The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear (June 17th)

I really dug Elizabeth Bear's space opera novel Ancestral Night when I read it back in 2019, and I'm looking forward to a new installment of the series (there's one that I missed, Machine, which I need to get to), The Folding Sky.

In this adventure, Dr. Sunya Song heads out on a journey across the Milkyway to reach an AI known as Baomind, which could hold the key to humanity's survival in a hostile universe. The intelligence is orbiting a dying red star, and it's up to her and her team to try and retrieve data from it before it's too late. As they head out, the research station and its ships are attacked by pirates who believe that the Baomind needs to be destroyed. This has everything I love: ancient technologies, pirates, space adventures, and historians saving the day.

Library Journal gave the book a starred review, saying "Well-developed characters highlight not only the big ideas of artificial intelligence, xenophobia, and data preservation but family dynamics and scientific rivalries."

Ten Sleep by Nicholas Belardes (June 24th)

This is a western-horror set in the modern day, following Greta Molina as she's hired to help drive some cattle across Wyoming. It seems like an ideal way to take a break, but as they embark on their journey, they discover that the land has some deeply-held secrets: a ghost train and wild animals, a mysterious creature in the skies above them, something that should be extinct. It'll take all of their wits to survive.

Publishers Weekly says "Belardes adroitly keeps readers guessing about whether his protagonists will survive their harrowing journey, while demonstrating a mastery of daylight terror."

Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age by Frank Close (June 10th)

As I noted above, I studied the Cold War in grad school, and I've remained fascinated by the history and evolution of the atomic bomb and nuclear technology. This new book by physician Frank Close looks like a good entry into that particular canon: it's an overarching look at the history of nuclear research, going back to the first realizations that uranium had some special properties, and follows the trail as physicists began to examine – and grapple – with the awesome power that it presented to humanity.

I'm reading it now and am finding it informative. Kirkus Reviews says that it's "a deeply researched and finely told history of the revolution with which we have yet to make peace."

Awakened by Laura Elliott (June 10th)

The world as we know it has ended: as scientists and technology companies worked to make people more productive, we've lost the ability to sleep, which had the entirely-foreseen consequence of turning the sleepless people into monsters. A group of scientists who were involved in the project are now racked with guilt over their role in this, and trapped in the Tower of London, they're searching for a cure.

In The Guardian, Lisa Tuttle says it's a "gripping gothic tale with echoes of Frankenstein and The Yellow Wallpaper

UnWorld: A Novel by Jayson Greene (June 17th)

Jayson Greene's latest novel sounds a bit like an episode of Black Mirror: a woman named Anna is devastated after her son Alex is killed and she's trying to figure out if it was an accident or a suicide. She's not the only one troubled by Alex's death: his friend Samantha witnessed his demise, and keeps returning to the cliff where he died, while Aviva is an emancipated digital entity made from a person's memories and who harbors a devastating secret. She ends up in the body of a destructive woman named Cathy who's now an AI professor and upload-rights activist.

All of these stories come together as each processes their own form of grief and the memories that come with it. Kirkus Reviews says that it's "a mesmerizing novel in which boundaries between human and digital are as blurred as those between reality and imagination."

All-Star Superman adapted by Meghan Fitzmartin (June 24th)

DC has adapted one of its best-known Superman stories as an audio drama: All-Star Superman, based on the comic by Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely. Originally published in 2005, it reimagined the character without being burdened by his longer canon backstory, and it's become a classic in the genre.

This audio drama features a full cast of some pretty well-known voice actors, including Marc Thompson, January LaVoy, and a whole bunch of others.

If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw (June 17th)

A woman named Alex Delmore is desperate: she hates her suburban home and wants to escape to NYU, but her parents are broke. When a genie arrives in town and begins hiring for a job at the Wellspring Mall, setting up a wishing kiosk. Alex jumps at the chance. But the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad doesn't know anything about 21st-century America, and is too stubborn to give up on his new business, even as they run into problems with Alex's troubled brother and their troublesome, neighboring tenants at the mall.

Library Journal says that the book "begins as a bit of a fantasy farce and turns into something heartwarming and cozy."

The Dragon Republic Deluxe Collector's Edition by R. F. Kuang (June 24th)

Last November, Harper Collins republished R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War as a special edition: it got some new endpapers and a brilliant new cover. Now, they're giving the second book in the series a makeover, once again bringing back JungShan Chang for some black-and-white interior art, full-wrap illustrated jacket, an embossed case, designed endpapers, and stenciled edges.

Star Wars The High Republic: Trials of the Jedi by Charles Soule (June 17th)

The final novel in the High Republic series is finally here. Launched in 2021 with Light of the Jedi and continuing with eight additional novels (as well as a ton of MG/YA novels, comics, audio originals, and an animated and live action TV series), the series was set a millennia prior to the events of the main Skywalker saga as the Jedi faced down a major threat from the Nihil, a group of marauders who threatened the stability of the Republic.

This is the book where everything comes to a head: Marchion Ro has risen to power and has left untold damages across the galaxy, stopped at various turns by the Jedi Order. They've faced a new threat that they now must solve is the release of the Nameless, creatures that feed on the Force. Nine Jedi, led by Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann are dispatched to the Nameless home world, where they hope to figure out the creatures and their connection to the Force, all leading up to a final confrontation with Ro.

The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed (June 3rd)

Humanity is doomed, and to try and save us, a group of scientists use technology from the Centauri Project to send microbiologist Nicholas Hindman ten millennia into the future. When he arrives, he finds himself marooned in an uninhabited wilderness, and begins searching for any remains of humanity, hoping for some sign that we've managed to save ourselves.

In the year 2068, a pandemic has stopped all efforts at interstellar travel, and the surviving members of the Centauri Project set out on the sea to search for a second test subject north of Sicily, a rare woman who can get pregnant, hoping to find a way to find a way to keep humanity going.

The novel was a finalist for the Prism Prize for Climate Literature, and my local paper, Seven Days says "for this author, the antidote to despair is not wishful thinking about undoing original sin and returning to a Rousseauean state of nature. On the contrary, the novel's central characters — Nick, Alejandra, Natalie — find their strength in a quantum vision of time, in which the past is never past and every effort matters, no matter how seemingly futile."

Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell (June 17th)

John Wiswell just took home the Nebula Award for his novel Someone You Can Build a Nest In, so it's a good time to check out his next novel, Wearing the Lion. He follows the Greek hero Heracles, who's dedicated his legendary feats to the goddess Hera, not realizing that his existence is an insult to her. When she snaps and accidentally kills his children, Heracles sets off to figure out who was responsible, and feeling guilty, Hera sends him off on a series of quests. He's too traumatized for violence, and ends up bonding and protecting the creatures he was supposed to destroy.

Publishers Weekly says "Wiswell alternates between Hera’s and Heracles’s perspectives, painting distinctly modern portraits of both. The result is a Greek mythology retelling that stands out from the crowd through its sheer sense of fun."

As always, thanks for reading: let me know what you're reading and what catches your eye on this list!