A Biography of a Tennis Trailblazer is One of the Best Books to Read This Month

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This month, pack in your beach bag Ann Patchett's tender new novel about family and love, a biography of groundbreaking tennis champion Althea Gibson, or the enthralling true story of how one man scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of investors. Here, Town & Country's picks for the 13 best books to read this August. (More summer reading recommendations here.)

The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever

In the 1950s and 60s, Coentis Slip on the lower tip of Manhattan was an all-but deserted street lined with dilapidated warehouses. A group of artists—among them Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, and Agnes Martin—moved in and soon created a haven for experimental work. Peiffer, who is the managing editor of the creative team at MoMA, has written an insightful and wonderful account of how this disparate group supported and inspired each other and how their work at the Slip altered the course of American art.

The Bee Sting

Paul Murray's ability to tell a sad story with a smirk is on display once again in this brainy, compelling, and exceedingly enjoyable novel about a family experiencing more than their fair share of bad luck. This book is more than just a witty tale of woe, however, but instead a contemplation of how fortune doles out its favors that makes a reader wonder, how fast does one need to be to outrun fate?

Quiet Street: On American Privilege

The protagonists of Nick McDonnell’s first book, the 2003 novel Twelve, were private-school kids living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He has returned to the subject in his latest work, Quiet Street, but this time with a non-fiction, first-person account of what it was like to grow up among, and reap the same benefits as, this advantaged group. It is a short, beautifully written book that unmasks the many ways class and wealth are used to perpetuate social and economic inequality.

Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson

Finally, tennis trailblazer Althea Gibson gets her due in this riveting biography from Sally H. Jacobs. Gibson, one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line, was the first Black player to win a Grand Slam title. Her success would pave the way for players like Arthur Ashe and Serena and Venus Williams. For tennis fans, it's a must-read.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

James McBride, author of Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird, returns with another powerful novel. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is set in Chicken Hill, a neighborhood of Jews and African Americans in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The heart of the story is Chona, who runs the novel's eponymous grocery store, and who helps Nate, a Black usher at her husband's theater, protect a young orphan. It's a story McBride, as a Black Jewish man, is uniquely suited to tell, and makes you want to revisit all his past works.

Tom Lake: A Novel

Ann Patchett's newest novel is a moving and tender story of family and love. It's set in spring 2020, when Lara's three daughters return to their Northern Michigan home during the pandemic. As they deal with the cherry harvest, they beg Lara to tell her the story of her relationship with Peter Duke, a famous actor whom she dated briefly at a summer theater company called Tom Lake. It's magnificent.

Mobility

It's 1988, and Bunny Glenn is a lonely American teenager in Azerbaijan with her family. A coming-of-age tale set against the backdrop of the oil industry and geopolitics, Mobility grapples with the personal, the political, and late stage capitalism. "This sly bildungsroman has subterranean intent," Geraldine Brooks wrote. "A masterpiece of misdirection and a cautionary tale for our times."

Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World

Anansi's Gold, Yepoka Yeebo writes, "is a story of how lies change history." After Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, he was falsely accused of hiding the nation's gold overseas. John Ackah Blay-Miezah, born in Ghana, pretended he was the custodian of this fictional trust fund, and scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of investors who wanted to "rescue" that fund. In this absorbing true crime narrative, Yeebo details the fascinating story of this audacious con artist.

Flirting with Danger: The Mysterious Life of Marguerite Harrison, Socialite Spy

Marguerite Harrison might have been born into Gilded Age glamour, but she wasn't interested in living a life of quiet comfort. Instead, she bucked convention to marry for love and work as a newspaper writer—until she found her true calling as a spy. This true story follows Harrison from the U.S. to Germany and Russia, where she was imprisoned and drafted to become a double agent. It's a thrilling, smart, and surprising tale of privilege, power, and patriotism that might make you think twice about what you reveal the next time you're at a cocktail party.

Disruptions: Stories

Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Millhauser—who wrote T&C fave Martin Dressler—is back with 18 compelling short stories in this collection of new pieces that delves below the surface of the everyday to find the extraordinary.

The Invisible Hour

The latest from the author of the Practical Magic series tells the tale of a woman who grew up in a cloistered, rule-bound community—a place that's strangely close to the one depicted in The Scarlet Letter, a novel that's been incredibly important to her. As she navigates life outside those confines, the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne continues to be eerily prescient, and her own story comes sharply into focus.

Learned by Heart

Based in part on the diaries of Anne Lister—which also inspired the series Gentleman Jack—Emma Donoghue's new novel follows an exiled heiress who lands at a 19th-century British boarding school and finds an unexpected relationship with another teenage girl. This is a moving, surprising, and beautifully written story of young love in a bygone age.

Terrace Story: A Novel

Hilary Leichter's sophomore novel is a mesmerizing, surrealist tale of love and family. When Annie and Edward find a hidden terrace in their closet—an oasis in the crowded city—it changes their lives. The catch? It only appears when their friend, Stephanie visits. What results is a moving story of love, extinction, and finding space in a world that is shrinking.

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