This month, there’s a relatable Millennial saga, The New Me, a proper laugh out loud with Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicomb and a mystical odyssey in The Old Drift.
All that and more, here are the books to binge this month.
The New Me
By Halle Butler
Millennial burnout: it’s that thing, you know, that thing our whole generation is experiencing – and that includes thirty-year-old Millie. Oh Millie, she just can’t seem to get it together. While she’s mastered the art of falling asleep in front of the TV, all the classes and projects and jobs and apartments she’s “meant” to have by this age are eluding her. However, when the opportunity to turn her temp job full-time comes around, so does the chance for a whole new life… but is it a better life? Almost painfully relatable, The New Me is out now.
Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicomb
By Evan James
Frank Widdicomb is depressed. Well, so says his wife – which is why they’re at their new island home – to cheer him up a bit. And so begins a rollicking comedy of errors spread out over one summer full of social faux pas, outlandish misunderstandings, scandalous secrets, and not a small amount of passion. A witty and hilarious ensemble piece worthy of the master himself (Shakespeare, Wilde, Coward - whichever you like) and the belly laugh we all need, Cheer up, Mr. Widdicomb is out now.
Daisy Jones & The Six
By Taylor Jenkins Reid
Daisy Jones & The Six were one of the most influential bands in the 70s, until they suddenly split. No one knew why. But that’s about to change. Daisy Jones & The Six tells the story of the band’s early days – the music, the love, the loss, the rivalries - and everyone remembers it differently. Only one thing can be agreed upon, their lives changed when Daisy Jones took the stage. Barefoot, of course. Actually fiction, but you’d never believe it, Daisy Jones & The Six is out now.
The Old Drift
By Namwali Serpell
Let’s take a trip through two hundred years, and three generations, of three Zambian families. One black, one brown, and one white, their stories intertwine as they are dogged by a curse, passed down parent to child. Split into three “books” – The Grandmothers, The Mothers, The Children – The Old Drift gives you more than just one story in just one style to get lost in. Already being compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, it is nothing short of an epic. Get into Africa, The Old Drift is out now.
Sissy: A Coming of Gender Story
By Jacob Tobia
The moment Jacob was labelled “male” on his birth certificate he was burdened with all the expectations of a man, and stereotypical masculinity. More sensitive and creative than what fit in that box, Jacob was given another label: sissy. Now “sissy” sits alongside “gay”, “trans”, “non-binary” and “proud”. In Sissy: A Coming of Gender Story, Jacob Tobia challenges us to think differently about gender and the limitations it puts on us. A brave new world for the taking, Sissy: A Coming of Gender Story is out now.
Not really a 'book person'? Check out the new shows and documentaries worth bingeing this month.
Image credit: Jacob Tobia.