Let’s cut to the chase; it’s hot out, and you want a book. On this we can agree. For my part, I look for all the good summer flavors–books bright, spicy, and refreshing–so here’s a rec list I hope hits all the right notes for you:

The most fun a girl can have reading comics. GIRL JUICE is an all-round delight: as cute as it is funny, and as all-too-real as it is extreme. It is peak “send a panel to your friend with the caption ‘this is u’,” and as a result, “I’m the Lord’s hottest lil slut” is now an essential part of my vocabulary. Get your little drinkies ready, because it’s gonna be a Hot Girl Juice Summer.

A meteor shower, a magical quest, a mistaken identity… And in the middle of it all? One grumpy wizard frog. Alba BG and David Orellana’s work is bursting with charm and personality–a guaranteed fun time when this comic drops in July.

Master of graphic horror Emily Carroll lands with this Daphne du Maurier-esque comic in August. After marrying a widowed dentist, Abby starts to fear that the death of her husband’s first wife is not all it seems… Obsession, fascination, and desperation meld on the page in stark contrast and surreal color.

PROKARYOTE SEASON is a sickly sweet fable of adoration and ennui. When the strange Starman grants Laurelie’s wish to requite their unrequited love, it’s with all the cosmic caveats of a book dropping lines like: “Do you think single-celled organisms in the primordial soup could like. Kiss and shit.” Fox’s work is hypnotic and expressive; a droopy delight to the senses that I can’t wait to get my hands on.

With Y/N (an online shorthand for your/name), Esther Yi takes the fandom concept of self-insert fiction to curious and delirious ends. Suddenly enamored with a K-Pop dancer named Moon, the protagonist scours Berlin, then Seoul, as she falls deeper into an uncanny, disconnected world. Strange and so deliciously written, with prose that both satisfies and unsettles.

Forget Love Is Blind or The Ultimatum–my over-the-top drama for the season will be THE ART THIEF, the true story of the world’s most prolific cat burglar. With his girlfriend on lookout, Stéphane Breitwieser spent ten years stealing from museums and cathedrals across Europe, until his obsession and hubris brought it all crashing down. Michael Finkel paints the portrait of a disciplined yet compulsive hoarder with journalistic compassion: unglamorized, and unglazed.

Lucas’ debut promises to be the literary beach read you’ve been looking for. A complex story about desire and longing, THIRST FOR SALT follows an unnamed protagonist’s love affair with a man twenty years her senior, through the push-pull waves of a coastal Australian town. Rich, subtle and sensual–everything you need when it’s just too hot to move.

Living alongside her very pregnant mother and her ailing and exuberant grandmother, nine-year-old Swivchen is the riotous narrator of FIGHT NIGHT, with an unforgettable voice. FIGHT NIGHT is both funny and torturous, as the three generations of women toil and learn with humor and hope. Toews writes with brilliant, heartfelt insight into the human condition: the nature of tragedy, the need for love, and the imperative to find, make, and experience joy.

This debut collection Montreal-based writer Michelle Syba weaves through the messiness of evangelical culture, faith, and human nature with gentle grace. For the “devout and dissenting,” the burned out, lonely, and longing–for anyone who’s ever sought out something more–it’s a gracious account of love and meaning in a difficult time.

As we trace Em’s journey out of her isolated village to find the author of a curious notebook, THE ADHERENT calls us to linger: on the value of places, and things, and the importance of connection… especially when things fall apart. A soft and contemplative read, great for fans of Zuo Ma’s NIGHT BUS (I am a huge fan of Zuo Ma’s NIGHT BUS).

If your beach read could use more radicalism, look no further. Rosa posits intimacy as a site of liberation against oppressive socio-political hierarchies which view relationships as capital. RADICAL INTIMACY’s feminist, decolonial and queer philosophy takes on myriad topics, from the mental health crisis to institutionalized violence, and aims to help us reframe our conception of desire, wellness, family, aging, and even death. A compassionate text suitable for feminists new and old.

In classic Le Guin fashion, the post-apocalyptic people of Kesh have rejected gender and governance to better embrace a unified, collaborative community. ALWAYS COMING HOME is an ethnography of their lives, told through a series of “translations” which focus on different community members, and complete with fables, poetry, artwork, songs, recipes, and more. Called one of Le Guin’s most expansive and detailed literary projects, this collection brings to life a lyric and luminous world, overflowing with wisdom and passion.