BREEZY READS

Summertime and the reading is easy. If there ever was a year to escape outdoors with a good book, it's this one. We have plenty of options for your beach bag, camper, backyard — you get the idea.

ALL THAT SHE CARRIED: THE JOURNEY OF ASHLEY’S SACK, A BLACK FAMILY KEEPSAKE BY TIYA MILES, RANDOM HOUSE

Non-fiction: Knowing her daughter was about to be sold, Rose, enslaved in 1850s South Carolina, handed her nine-yearold a bag of keepsakes. That heirloom, passed between generations, led Miles, a Macarthur fellow and historian, to recreate the trajectory of Rose's descendants. A mosaic tale of Black women's lives during and after slavery.

BLACK BUCK BY MATEO ASKARIPOUR, HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

Fiction: Askaripour's novel concerns Darren, a Black man who trades a job at Starbucks for success at a tech startup. This corporate satire also delves into the thorny issue of race in the workplace with Darren, the sole Black employee, among colleagues determined to prove how post-racial they are.

CRYING IN H MART BY MICHELLE ZAUNER, KNOPF

Non-fiction: This moving memoir, by a writer who moonlights as the musical artist Japanese Breakfast, explores how H Mart, the supermarket chain specializing in Asian food, came to serve as a bridge to her Korean heritage after her mother's death.

EARLY MORNING RISE R BY KATHERINE HEINY, KNOPF

Fiction: Heiny is a master at delivering poignant heartbreak and big laughs. Her novel teems with eccentric characters who swirl around mid-20s Jane after she moves to Michigan, to teach Grade 2 teacher. She falls in love and finds the community's a keeper.

FINDING THE MOTHER TREE: DISCOVERING THE WISDOM OF THE FOREST BY SUZANNE SIMARD, KNOPF

Non-fiction: Forest ecology expert Simard, whose TED Talks have been viewed by millions. offers her first book that blends memoir — as a descendant of loggers — with fascinating research.

GOLD DIGGERS BY SANJENA SATHIAN, PENGUIN PRESS

Fiction: This remarkable debut — already optioned by Mindy Kaling for a TV series — is inspired by striving immigrant tales, Old West mythology and madcap thrillers. Neil can't live up to his parents' expectations. Add a magical potion and the plot thickens.

GREAT CIRCLE BY MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD, KNOPF

Fiction: Shipstead combines a soaring work of historical fiction about a “lady pilot” in the mid20th century with the tale of a famous modern-day actress trying to save her career after some debauchery. The novel explores parallel tales of powerful women,

HOUR OF THE WITCH BY CHRIS BOHJALIAN, DOUBLEDAY

Fiction: The Flight Attendant author's historical thriller is packed with details about the realities of 1662 Boston, where Mary, a young Puritan woman, winds up marrying an abusive widower twice her age. When the violence escalates, she decides divorce is the only way to save her life. She winds up as endangered as ever.

INFINITE COUNTRY BY PATRICIA ENGEL, AVID READER PRESS/SIMON & SCHUSTER

Fiction: When Elena and Mauro leave Colombia for Texas looking for financial security, they have no idea that the land of plenty they're seeking is just as violent as the country they left — and their future is as precarious. Engel is a gifted storyteller whose writing shines in the darkest corners.

A LONELY MAN BY CHRIS POWER, FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX

Fiction: Power's debut, like the best noir fiction, manages to be both suspenseful and cosmically destabilizing. Nothing is what it appears to be. The plot bears more than a passing resemblance to the film The Third Man, diving into the story of a novelist struggling with writers's block.

MALIBU RISING BY TAYLOR JENKINS REID, BALLANTINE

Fiction: To the world, Mick Riva is perfection — a heartthrob with a voice like an angel. To his children, he's a deadbeat dad whose absence destroyed their mother. Years after their abandonment, the kids have traded poverty for wealth. But riches can't mask the devastating effects of the past.

THE PLOT BY JEAN HANFF KORELITZ, CELADON

Fiction: The author of 2014's You Should Have Known, which inspired HBO'S The Undoing, delivers a witty nightmare of a thriller. A once-celebrated author winds up teaching, until one of his promising pupils dies, inspiring the novelist to claim the student's book idea as his own.

THE SECRET TO SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH BY ALISON BECHDEL, HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

Non-fiction: The Macarthur “Genius” cartoonist who burst on the scene with the 2006 graphic memoir Fun Home — inspiring a Tony-winning musical — set out to write a light book about her lifelong commitment to exercise. As usual, her story and art are about so much more.