THE FISHERMEN AND THE DRAGON by Kirk Wallace Johnson

Kirk Wallace Johnson stole our bookish hearts with The Feather Thief at the Nantucket Book Festival in 2019, and he is back this year with a brand-new story, The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast. Every page in this twisting narrative is ablaze with hatred, xenophobia and ecological disaster—“a story that weaves together corporate malfeasance, a battle over shrinking natural resources, a turning point in the modern white supremacist movement, and one woman’s relentless battle for environmental justice.”

TAKE MY HAND by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Winner of the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Fiction, Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a story inspired by true events. Civil Townsend, a Black nurse in postsegregation Alabama, blows the whistle on a terrible injustice done to her patients, setting off a chain of events that echo through the years. I turned the pages with compassion for each character and in awe at the beauty of the writing and timeliness of the story.

MAD HONEY by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Jodi Picoult always says that ideas for her novels start with the issues that are keeping her up at night, and I know I’ve lost some shuteye over several of her books. This time around she has teamed up with an equally gifted writer, Jennifer Finney Boylan, to tell the story of Lily Campanello and Olivia McAfee. It tackles enough subjects for a library of books, from transgender rights to beekeeping, from domestic abuse to gender identity. With suspenseful courtroom scenes that put you on the edge of your jury seat and characters that keep your eyes stuck like honey to the pages, this moving novel is seamless storytelling about authenticity, identity and belonging. It has the power to change opinions, create empathy and connect us, all aspects found in the transformative power of literature we strive to amplify at the Nantucket Book Festival each June. I will be in conversation with Jodi and Jenny about Mad Honey on Saturday, June 17, at 12 p.m. at the Methodist Church. Don’t bee late!

THIS TIME TOMORROW by Emma Straub

I consider myself a “Straub-erry”! (That is what I am calling Emma Straub fans.) Whatever you want to call them, consider me head of the fan club. Her writing is zippy, humorous and insightful, and I have loved every single one of her novels. This Time Tomorrow, her latest, tops the stack for me. It’s a time travel story, one of my favorite literary tropes. Alice, whose father is sick with cancer, wakes up on her fortieth birthday to find herself back in 1996. Her sixteen-year-old self is now armed with a new perspective on her life and her father’s, and some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could? Emma is the daughter of the late writer Peter Straub, so this book and the message are especially personal and poignant. I adored the setup and the many nostalgic ’90s throwbacks to my own childhood. Calling all Straub-erries! I will be in conversation with Emma Straub on Friday, June 16, at 9 a.m. at the Methodist Church.

TRUST by Hernan Diaz

For those that are finding fiction on the shelves to be too formulaic, here is a novel that is truly unique in its form and telling. It’s a layered story described as an “onion of a novel” where each turn of the page peels back another layer to discover something new and exciting. Divided into four parts, Trust is four books for the price of one. You get a novel, an unfinished manuscript, a memoir and a diary, and through these sections, you experience a world of wealth, privilege and truth. It’s a literary gem, trust me!

THE PUZZLE MASTER by Danielle Trussoni

release date June 13

This new novel by Danielle Trussoni is being marketed as The Da Vinci Code meets Stephen King, but it’s truly something all its own, offering a unique and intriguing puzzle of a book to kick off your summer reading. I enjoy playing detective as a reader, and this addictive tome has enough puzzles in it to rival a series of sudoku books. Mike Brink, a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor, has a rare medical condition, acquired savant syndrome, which leaves him with a mental superpower to decode puzzles. His expertise will be tested like never before in this thinking person’s thriller on good and evil, religion and the origin of humankind.

MASTER SLAVE HUSBAND WIFE by Ilyon Woo

Ilyon Woo’s Master Slave Husband Wife is the remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy disabled white man and William posing as “his” slave. The premise of this book intrigued all of us on the Nantucket Book Festival literary committee so we knew we had to get the author here for the Festival weekend. Ilyon draws such a detailed sketch of the time, place and people and shows the resilience and courage of Ellen and William throughout their epic journey. It’s unlike any story you have heard before.

THE WITCHES by Stacy Schiff

I am entranced by all books on the Salem witch trials, and Stacy Schiff’s The Witches may just be the best one written. With the quick and suspenseful pace and prose of your favorite novel, The Witches expertly unpacks the suspicion, betrayal and hysteria of Salem in 1692. There is much we don’t know about this time and what exactly occurred, but Stacy’s exhaustive research and vivid descriptions put us directly in the village of Salem during the infamous persecution. During the Festival weekend, Stacy will also discuss her most recent historical exposé, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, with our very own Nantucket historian Nathaniel Philbrick.