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Five books we can't wait to read in June

Chris Hewitt, The Minnesota Star Tribune on

Published in Books News

MINNEAPOLIS -- It’s not quite beach time in Minnesota but it’s never too early to break out the beach reads.

Whether you’re heading to the cabin, a hammock or a lake with unusually warm water, we have some suggestions for you, including a literary superstar who became an Oscar nominee earlier this year and a couple of guys who have Taylor Swift’s ear:

‘The Hardest, Longest Race,’ Eric Moskowitz

Moskowitz, who won a Pulitzer Prize for being part of the Boston Globe team that reported about the Boston Marathon bombing, turns to history for this nonfiction account of the first coast-to-coast automobile race in the United States. It took place in 1909. It’s not a spoiler to disclose that a Ford Model T was declared the winner in Seattle (the race began in New York City) but it would spoil things to reveal the controversy that followed. Moskowitz traces the 23-day, 4,106-mile journey, promising insight into the drivers, the rugged terrain and the impulse behind the “Ocean to Ocean” race, which was organized to help the then-new horseless carriage gain a foothold with consumers. That seems to have worked, btw. June 2

‘The Housewives Underground,’ Kaitlyn Tiffany

There’s a lot to unpack in the National Enquirer-esque subtitle of this one: “The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the JFK Assassination Our Most Enduring Mystery.” Tiffany’s nonfiction account focuses on three ordinary women who were friends and who, bothered by inconsistencies in the Warren Commission’s official investigation of the assassination, decided to dig deeper, watching and rewatching the Abraham Zapruder film while begging FBI honcho J. Edgar Hoover to do something. The book’s description promises both hijinks (one of the women hauled her kids along to Dallas’ Texas School Book Depository to search for clues) and a serious examination of the ‘60s-’70s era when faith in our government began to evaporate. June 23

‘Land,’ Maggie O’Farrell

 

“Hamnet” made the Irish writer a superstar and the film version, for which she co-wrote the screenplay, earned her an Oscar nomination this year, so it’s a sure bet that she has lots of new fans. O’Farrell’s latest is also a history-inspired novel, taking place in Ireland in the 1860s, shortly after the Irish potato famine. It’s another story of a parent and child: Tomas and his 10-year-old son Liam are participating in the mapping of Ireland when an encounter with a ghostly creature incapacitates Tomas and forces young Liam to take over. It’s an epic novel that illuminates how the events of the 1860s shaped one family for generations to come. June 2

‘No Dumb Questions,’ Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce

Swifties will be poring over this one for references to Travis’ fiancee/podcast guest/world’s richest female musician. The Kelce brothers’ book, subtitled “And All of Our Dumbest Answers,” is an offshoot of their “New Heights” podcast, specifically the “No Dumb Questions” segments in which they answer listeners’ off-the-cuff queries on any topic. The Kelces have been pre-selling the book on their Instagram account for months and have promised that “Dumb Questions” covers not just football but also politics, relationships, food and the proper way to eat cereal. June 2

‘Slasher Summer,’ E.L. Chen

Six friends, whose descriptions roughly correspond to the characters in ‘80s movie “The Breakfast Club” (plus an additional preppy guy), were obsessed with a movie called “Slasher” when they were in high school in the 1980s. They even participated in blood-soaked, “Rocky Horror Picture Show”-style live re-enactments of it. But things turn from “live” to “dead” when, as middle-aged adults, they attend a reunion in the same cabin where “Slasher” was filmed. Why not just say “Bloody Mary” in the mirror three times and get it over with, huh? It’s the perfect situation for a maniacal killer to become an uninvited guest and, sure enough, one does. Will the “final girl” manage to survive? Will anyone? June 23


©2026 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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