Schools are out, days are warmer, cold drinks taste better, and good books fly by like honey bees headed to a botanical garden. The best new books of June 2022 include: a summer camp mystery, a wedding-season comedy-thriller, a powerful queer retelling of a Greek myth, and a harrowing nonfiction account of institutional violence in a so-called reform school. There’s something to fit in every beach bag, errand-running tote, and e-reader. These are the best new books of June 2022: Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley (June 7) A new Sloane Crosley is always a good opportunity to plant yourself on the nearest upholstered object with a book and not get up for several hours. Cult Classic is the second novel from the celebrated humorist, whose essay collections are required reading for smart people who also identify as fun. Our protagonist Lola is funny, and bored, and, it seems, cursed—she keeps running into her exes. Not just a once-every-few-years “oh! hi” at the grocery store, but a constant stream, as if an evil algorithm is serving up her memories in human form. Surprise!!! It’s a cult. Lola is a writer, which makes her a good conduit for Crosley’s arch, wise voice. She reflects, “Like ghosts, each of us would sacrifice anything—money, sanity, security—for a chance to go back in time, to make sense of our choices, of the mess that is ourselves.”

- Test07