![a photo of a person browsing a bookstore](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/bookstore.png)
The Best New Books Out in August, According to Indie Booksellers
Every month, the American Booksellers Association put together a list of the top 25 new book releases of the upcoming month as their Indie Next List Preview. These are books that were nominated by booksellers at independent bookstores across the country, and they cover all genres and categories. Each book has a quote from a bookseller about why they recommend this book, and these recommendations can be printed out as “shelf-talkers” to display in store.
What better way to get book recommendations than from independent booksellers? These are passionate readers who have their finger on the pulse of the buzziest books of the moment — the ones they’re eager to get into readers’ hands. So, here are ten of the best books out in August, according to indie booksellers. Many of these we also recommend on Book Riot, so I’ve quoted our relevant recs when available. Be sure to click through to the ABA website for the full list, including six Indie Next Picks that are now out in paperback.
(Some of these actually came out in July, likely because the publication dates shifted after they were nominated.)
![The Wedding People cover](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/The-Wedding-People.jpg.optimal.jpg)
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
This was the #1 pick of the Indie Next List! Here’s their recommendation:
“The Wedding People hits the absolute sweet spot of compulsively fun to read while asking serious questions about life, love, and a lavish destination wedding. Alison Espach’s mix of light and dark makes for deeply authentic characters.”
—Nina Barrett, Bookends & Beginnings, Evanston, IL
![the cover of The Pairing](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The-Pairing.jpg.optimal.jpg)
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
This one is a personal favorite, and you’ll hear my rave about it on the August 6th episode of All the Books. It’s a very queer bi4bi romance with a friends to lovers/second chance romance that has so much yearning! It’s also sexy and decadent, with mouthwatering descriptions of food and wine. It definitely holds up against McQuiston’s previous romances, Red, White & Royal Blue and One Last Stop. Here’s the bookseller recommendation:
“The Pairing is Casey McQuiston’s masterwork. This was sensual, lush, and decadent in all the best ways. I fell in love with Theo and Kit, and I can’t wait to reread it and experience the magic all over again.”
—Amanda Olmstead, The Book Burrow, Pflugerville, TX
![hum book cover](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/hum.png)
Hum by Helen Phillips
Because I have access to a very specific time machine, I know Emily Martin will be recommending this in an upcoming article about the best horror books out in August. She says, “Hum is a sci-fi/dystopian horror novel set in a city completely transformed by AI, climate change, and intelligent robots called hums. May has just lost her job to AI. Desperate for money and hoping to help resolve her family’s debt, she agrees to undergo an experiment that would change her appearance, making her unrecognizable to surveillance. May then decides to take her family on what should be a relaxing trip to a beautiful Botanical Garden. But her family doesn’t share her desire to unplug from the outside world, and the Botanical Garden doesn’t end up being the calming place May anticipated.”
![cover of A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher; black with gold illustrations of trees and stars](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/A-Sorceress-Comes-to-Call-by-T.-Kingfisher-e1721138337535.jpg.optimal.jpg)
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Likewise, Liberty Hardy will be recommending this as one of the best new SFF out in August: “The prolific T. Kingfisher is a Book Riot fave! This fantastic new novel is her take on the ‘Goose Girl’ fairy tale. Cordelia lives an unusual, unhappy, and sometimes punishing existence as the daughter of an evil sorcerer. She’s never challenged her mother before, only lived her days subservient and silent. But when her mother brings home a kindly man and his sister, Cordelia grows fond of them, and she realizes she must act if she wants to save them from her mother’s nefarious plans.”
![cover of The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark; photo of a young Black woman with cat's ears, a lace mask, and daggers](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/The-Dead-Cat-Tail-Assassins-by-P.-Djeli-Clark-e1721136403397.jpg.optimal.jpg)
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark
And there’s another Liberty recommendation! “This is a rip-roaring story about a guild of assassins who swear to three unbreakable vows: The contract must be just, only the target may be killed, and you must complete a job once you agree to do it. At the start, we meet Eveen the Eviscerator, one of the highly talented assassins, who has agreed to a new contract. But when the job turns out to be way more complicated, she refuses to complete it. Now she herself is in danger from the very people she worked with, running for her life while she searches for answers. P.S.: Don’t worry, there are not any dead cats.”
![a graphic of the cover of The Bright Sword](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/201750794.jpg.optimal.jpg)
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
This one is a recent favorite of Kendra Winchester: “Like a lot of fantasy lovers, I’ve read my fair share of King Arthur-related novels. So many of them take themselves very seriously, portraying these majestic and austere knights as the fierce protectors of the land. But Grossman’s version of Camelot is different. It’s funny, delightfully ridiculous in so many ways. Like his take on magical schools in the magicians, The Bright Sword pokes fun at stories of Arthurian legend as much as it also celebrates it. But we, the readers, are in on the joke, understanding that this story is in conversation with the many previous tales of King Arthur and his knights.
If you’re looking for a humorous yet simultaneously heartfelt, funny story from the world of Camelot, The Bright Sword may be the pick for you.”
![cover of The Truth According to Ember](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/The-Truth-According-to-Ember.jpeg.optimal.jpeg)
The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava
Jessica Pryde recommends this as one of the best new romance novels out in August: “This is the first traditionally published romance novel by a Native author with a Native couple (as far as I can tell), and I can’t believe that’s a thing we’re saying in the Year of Beyoncé 2024. Either way, this workplace romance promises shenanigans! Ember and her Native coworker Danuwoa are immediately interested in pursuing something more, but their company has a strict no-dating policy. What happens when a different coworker finds out they’ve been ignoring it?”
![Five-Star Stranger cover](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Five-Star-Stranger.jpg.optimal.jpg)
Five-Star Stranger by Kat Tang
Here’s another book you’ll hear me recommend on All the Books in about a week! It’s a thought-provoking, melancholic exploration of a “rental person” who pretends to be a child’s father one day a week for years at a time. Here’s the bookseller recommendation:
“A completely modern look at the way we live, regarding hurt, protection, and connection. As the protagonist tries to make himself into a blank slate so he can rent himself to strangers, the faded outline of his real self keeps threatening to peek through.”
—James Crossley, Leviathan Bookstore, St. Louis, MO
![cover of Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio; green with an eye surrounded by a gold starburst](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Catalina-by-Karla-Cornejo-Villavicencio-e1721655030759.jpg.optimal.jpg)
Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Erica Ezeifedi included this as one of the best new book releases of the week: “Here, Cornejo Villavicencio, author of The Undocumented Americans, shares another tale illuminating the life of undocumented people living in the United States, this time in fiction form. The eponymous Catalina—she herself undocumented—goes to live with her undocumented grandparents following a tragedy. As she prepares to graduate from Harvard—after having gotten into certain bougie subcultures there—she’s faced with helping her grandparents, and the uncertainty of finding work after graduation as an undocumented person.”
![cover of I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones](https://s32875.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/I-Was-a-Teenage-Slasher-Stephen-Graham-Jones.jpg.optimal.jpg)
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
Finally, Emily Martin recommends this as one of the new horror books that will have you shaking in your sandals: “Stephen Graham Jones is one of the most exciting horror authors writing today. This most recent novel, I Was A Teenage Slasher, is a slasher story set in the 1980s in Lamesa, Texas. But this isn’t your average slasher novel. This book is told from the perspective of Tolly Driver, a teen who lived a fairly normal life until he was cursed to kill for revenge. This is Tolly’s autobiography, his story as he wants it to be told.”
Read the full list of 25 books plus six paperback releases at the ABA website.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
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