By Kavita Mistry 
Still need more fiction for your summer TBR? This issue will fix that. We cover Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere, bringing to life the early days of NASA’s Space Shuttle program, and Susan Choi’s Flashlight, which mixes contemporary and historical timelines between the United States, Japan, and Korea. Dennard Dayle’s How to Dodge a Cannonball, another ambitious novel that takes on aspects of American history, is a soberingly hilarious satire featuring a scrappy, opportunistic Civil War flag bearer.
The Compound by Aisling Rawle dissects escapism and consumerism through a reality show whose participants live in a desert compound, having willingly left the world behind. Benedict Nguyễn’s Hot Girls with Balls builds a universe in which pro volleyball is big, two Asian American trans women athletes play it, and internet fame is an additional ever-present game. UnWorld by Jayson Greene, set in a future where mind uploading is possible, explores questions about what makes us who we are.
For those seeking a pleasant intellectual diversion, Nell Stevens’ The Original tells the tale of an aspiring art forger in turn-of-the-20th-century England. Our accompanying article studies a real-life painting that serves as the original to one of her fictional forgeries, Van Eyck’s mysterious and alluring Arnolfini portrait. And lovers of thrillers won’t want to miss The House on Buzzards Bay by Dwyer Murphy, about five friends sharing a house on the New England coast and the slow-burning strangeness that ensues.
Read other reviews and articles, get ahead of the rest of the year with our Most Anticipated Books for July through December 2025, see what’s publishing later this month in handpicked previews, peruse recommendations for book clubs, and more. Plus, this issue is packed with reading guides for featured books, including some we’ve created ourselves (watch out for more of these to come).
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— The BookBrowse Team