Summer Reads 2022
2 A.M. in Little America by Ken Kalfus
In the latest from the National Book Award finalist, America is no longer safe, and its citizens must flee to unnamed cities and countries that don’t want them. But when these new pockets of safety begin to collapse for the American migrants, where do they turn next? $25, Milkweed Editions
Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez
Nadia Cakes founder—and romance novelist—Abby Jimenez’s fourth novel is a classic city-doctor-meets-small-town carpenter will-they-won’t-they tale. Sorry! No spoilers. $16, Forever/Hachette Book Group
The Barrens by Kurt Johnson and Ellie Johnson
The Twin Cities–based father-daughter writing partners’ debut novel is about two young women who take a romantic canoeing trip in subarctic Canada—until Holly falls to her death, leaving newbie paddler Lee to finish the trip alone with her partner’s body in tow. $27, Arcade Publishing
His Name Is George Floyd by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa
In this knock-the-wind-out-of-you biography/investigative tome from two Washington Post reporters, readers get to know the very real man whose death made him larger than life. $30, Viking/ Penguin Random House
Mother Country by Jacinda Townsend
When Shannon, an American woman traveling to Morocco, sees a young girl who looks eerily similar to her, she has a strange longing to adopt the child, who already has a mother. Within, an unforgettable story of generational trauma and the true meaning of family unfolds. $17, Graywolf Press
Till The Wheels Fall Off by Brad Zellar
In a time-jumping novel centered in music, nostalgia, and the ever-complicated task of connecting the dots of childhood through the lens of adulthood, this new novel takes readers across decades of life in rural Minnesota—through the soundtrack always playing in the background. $18, Coffee House Press
Rafferty’s Last Case by Larry Millett
In the last mystery in the Shadwell Rafferty series, Rafferty himself becomes the case. When Sherlock Holmes (yep) learns of his sleuthing friend’s murder, he takes on the speakeasys, mansions, and secrets of 1920s high-society Twin Cities to search for the killer. Spooky! $26, University of Minnesota Press
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
Twin Cities–based middle-grade author Kelly Barnhill ventures into the adult-lit world for her latest novel. In her version of America in the 1950s, thousands and thousands of women have become dragons—and no one knows why, or why only certain women transformed, or, then, what will happen when they realize their own power. $28, Doubleday/Penguin Random House
Sirens and Muses by Antonia Angress
Minneapolis author Antonia Angress’s debut novel is one to keep an eye on. During the recession and class uprising of 2011, four young artists’ lives intersect at the Wrynn College of Art—but one of them makes a choice that will throw them all into the real-life art world, exposing them to realities of class, society, and relationships they never saw coming. $28, Penguin Random House
