10 Of The Most Anticipated Book Releases Of August 2020

Including Stephenie Meyer’s new book "Midnight Sun," a companion novel to "Twilight."
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Make space on your bookshelf for the most hyped new books coming out this August.
HuffPost Finds
Make space on your bookshelf for the most hyped new books coming out this August.

The year’s propensity for horror and thriller books might finally be slowing down now that a quarantine summer filled with escapist reads is winding down.

We’ve been teaming up with the literary experts at Goodreads to bring you each month’s most anticipated books of the year. Last month, adrenaline-boosting reads like “The Only Good Indians” by Stephen Graham Jones and “The Shadows” by Alex North topped our July 2020 new books guide.

While there are still plenty of mysteries in this month’s mix, you’ll also find a good collection of new novels coming out about about exploring identity and relationship dynamics.

For nonfiction stories in this vein, you might want to check out “Wandering in Strange Lands” by Morgan Jerkins and “The Fixed Stars” by Molly Wizenberg. If fiction with timely themes is more your style, “Luster” by Raven Leilani, “The Death of Vivek Oji” by Akwaeke Emezi, and “The Comeback” by Ella Berman are good picks.

This month also includes the release of “Midnight Sun”― the companion novel to Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” hit. The book retells the events of “Twilight” through the perspective of Edward Cullen rather than Bella Swan.

Find our guide to the most anticipated books of August below. And, as always, be sure to check out how you can support your local independent bookstores.

Take a look:

1

“The Comeback” by Ella Berman

Amazon
On the eve of what should be a golden moment in her acting career, teen star Grace Turner disappears into a self-imposed exile. One year later Grace returns, sober and numb. “But when Grace is asked to present a lifetime achievement award to director Able Yorke—the man who controlled her every move for eight years — she realizes that she can’t run from the secret behind her spectacular crash and burn for much longer.” Read more about it on Goodreads, and grab a copy on Amazon.

Expected release date: August 3
2

“Luster” by Raven Leilani

Amazon
Edie is a Black woman in her early twenties in New York City, trying to figure out life as an artist. When she finds herself unemployed, Edie cautiously moves in with Eric — a married man in a newly open relationship with his wife — and his family. Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux describes Raven Leilani’s debut novel as “razor sharp, darkly comic, sexually charged, socially disruptive.” Read more about it on Goodreads, and grab a copy on Amazon.

Expected release date: August 4
3

“Midnight Sun” by Stephenie Meyer

Amazon
Team Edward members, unite! Stephenie Meyer is back with her much-anticipated companion novel to “Twilight.” Told from Edward’s point of view, “Midnight Sun” gives reader’s new details on Edward’s past, thoughts, and inner vampire struggle as he begins to fall in love with the mysterious, intriguing and beautiful Bella. Read more about it on Goodreads, and grab a copy on Amazon.

Expected release date: August 4
4

“Migrations” by Charlotte McConaghy

Amazon
Franny Stone arrives in Greenland with only one goal: Find the world’s last flock of Arctic terns and follow their migratory route. Franny convinces a captain and his crew to take her aboard with the promise that the terns will lead to fish. However, when dark secrets about Franny’s past begin to emerge, the crew starts to wonder if Franny is really the scientist she claims, or if there’s something else she’s running from -- or toward. Read more about it on Goodreads, and grab a copy on Amazon.

Expected release date: August 4
5

“The Death of Vivek Oji” by Akwaeke Emezi

Amazon
In a small town in southeastern Nigeria, a woman opens her door to find her son’s body. “The Death of Vivek Oji” follows Vivek’s family as they struggle to understand a gentle but mysterious child they perhaps didn’t know as well as they thought. Riverhead Books calls this a story about “family and friendship that challenges expectations — a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every reader.” Read more about it on Goodreads, and grab a copy on Amazon.

Expected release date: August 4
6

“The Eighth Detective” by Alex Pavesi

Amazon
Thirty years ago, mathematics professor Grant McAllister identified seven different sequences of events that make up the perfect murder mystery. He quietly published a book with seven such stories and then retired to a small Mediterranean island. Decades later, a young editor named Julia Hart tracks McAllister down to republish his book. However, when Julia starts to notice inconsistencies in the stories, she winds up trying to solve a bigger mystery than she anticipated. Read more about it on Goodreads, and grab a copy on Amazon.

Expected release date: August 4
7

“The Fixed Stars” by Molly Wizenberg

Amazon
In her latest memoir, “The Fixed Stars,” Molly Wizenberg dissects how her life transforms after finding herself attracted to a female attorney while serving jury duty. Wizenberg tries returning to life with her husband of 10 years and toddler, but finds herself irredeemably changed. Abrams Press calls Wizenberg’s latest “a taut, electrifying memoir exploring timely and timeless questions about desire, identity, and the limits and possibilities of family.” Read more about it on Goodreads, and grab a copy on Amazon.

Expected release date: August 4
8

“Wandering in Strange Lands” by Morgan Jerkins

Amazon
During the Great Migration, more than six million black Americans left their rural homes in the South for the North, Midwest, and West -- an event that Morgan Jerkins argues connected them to economic opportunity but disconnected them from their roots, land, and sense of identity. In “Wandering in Strange Lands,” Jerkins recreates and follows her ancestors’ journeys across America to understand her own history and that of “an entire group of people who have been displaced, disenfranchised, and disrespected throughout our history.” Read more about it on Goodreads, and grab a copy on Amazon.

Expected release date: August 4
9

“The Exiles” by Christina Baker Kline

Amazon
After committing crimes befitting nineteenth-century London, Evangeline, a naive and pregnant governess, and Hazel, a young midwife and herbalist, are sentenced to Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. There, the native Aboriginal people are slowly being displaced, including Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe. Christina Baker Kline’s latest novel on female friendship tells the story of Australia through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. Read more about it on Goodreads, and grab a copy on Amazon.

Expected release date: August 25
10

“The Mother Code” by Carole Stivers

Amazon
In 2049, a deadly non-viral agent intended for biowarfare spreads out of control. To preserve the human race, scientists put genetically engineered children in large-scale robot cocoons, to be birthed and then raised by robots programmed with the Mother Code. Kai is one of these children. But when government survivors decide Mothers should be destroyed, Kai must decide if he’ll fight for his mother bot, Rho-Z, or break the only parental bond he has ever known. Read more about it on Goodreads, and grab a copy on Amazon.

Expected release date: August 25
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