Here are some new books likely to end up in your beach bags.
Available now
You won’t be able to escape hearing about “The Passage,” a post-apocalypse horror story by Justin Cronin. A virus from a secret military experiment creates a race of vampiric monsters. But this isn’t paranormal romance. Rather Cronin’s lengthy novel (which has been picked up by film director Ridley Scott) is being compared with Stephen King’s “The Stand.”
Another paranormal story, “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner” by Stephenie Meyer, has a built-in audience. Meyer is using a character from “Eclipse” in this novella for “Twilight” fans.
“Declaration” by William Hogeland: An account of the nine weeks in 1776 when Samuel and John Adams led a band of patriots willing to break with England.
“The Burning Wire” by Jeffrey Deaver: Terrorism is feared when a killer uses a shocking weapon — an electrical substation — in the new thriller by the popular Deaver.
“The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake” by Aimee Bender: A 9-year-old girl bites into her mother’s homemade cake and discovers she has a magical gift: She can taste her mother’s emotions (and they are not the good cheer she seems to convey).
“My Name Is Memory” by Ann Brashares: Young lovers discover their love was thwarted in an earlier life. A book about time-traveling for adults by the author of “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”
“The Summer We Read Gatsby” by Danielle Ganek: Half-sisters Cassie and Peck are summoned to the Hamptons to figure out what to do with a rundown house left by a beloved aunt and contend with former beaus.
“Pearl Buck in China” by Hilary Spurling: Biographer shows how young Pearl witnessed incredible poverty in China as the daughter of a single-minded missionary in this gripping account of the Nobel Prize-winning author of “The Good Earth.”
“Freedom Summer” by Bruce Watson: A look at the summer of 1964, the season that “made Mississippi burn” during the violent days of the civil rights movement.
Coming this summer
“The Blind Contessa’s New Machine” by Carey Wallace (July 8): A 19th-century Italian bride goes blind, and her husband tries to keep her safe by locking the doors. A childhood friend and inventor gives her a way to escape the husband and find furtive love.
“Star Island” by Carl Hiaasen (July 27): An anonymous stunt double for a pop star is mistakenly kidnapped in Miami and must be rescued (while keeping her existence a secret).
“Super Sad True Love Story” by Gary Shteyngart (July 27): The author of “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook” satirizes a future illiterate, debt-ridden America where there still might be something worth living for: love.
“My Hollywood” by Mona Simpson (Aug. 3): A composer and new mother hires a nanny from the Philippines to care for her son and help stabilize her rocky household. By the author of “Anywhere but Here.”
“Fragile” by Lisa Unger (Aug. 3): A charming small community is in turmoil when a teen boy’s girlfriend disappears.
“The Cross of Redemption” by James Baldwin (Aug. 3): Essays, reviews and interviews by the author of “Notes of a Native Son” are gathered for the first time in book form.
“True Prep” by Lisa Birnbach, with Chip Kidd (Aug. 11): The author of the 1980 best-seller “The Official Preppy Handbook” looks at how former preps have adapted to cell phones and reality TV.
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