Recent discourse has begged the question: Why aren’t men reading fiction? Are they reading anything at all? In this monthly series, we’re talking to men in literary spaces about the books they think other guys should check out right now. Whether it’s revisiting a classic, getting engrossed in a memoir or devouring something fast-paced and action-packed, there’s bound to be something here for any reader to enjoy.
If you have yet to pick up a book this summer, you are truly missing out on months’ worth of stellar new releases and debuts. Luckily, we have another superb collection of books to read this month — titles that are both old and new — from literary men with curated taste. Feast your eyes on one of these before the end of July.
If you’re looking for some more recommendations, I thought I’d share what books I currently have on hold at my local library. There’s Yesteryear, the Caro Claire Burke debut about a modern-day “tradwife” influencer who goes back in time to the 19th century; The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, an epistolary novel that follows the life of a retired lawyer through sent letters and Theo of Golden by Allen Levi, a bestseller that feels reminiscent of Tuesdays with Morrie.
Distant Star by Roberto Bolaño
When Distant Star begins, it seems like yet another story where a writer is writing about writers. We meet the college-aged Arturo, whose poetry workshops are thrown off-kilter when a mysterious newcomer joins, whom the women all adore. Soon enough, Chilean author Roberto Bolaño plunges the narrative into darkness: The precipitating event is the military coup and the establishment of Augusto Pinochet’s harrowing dictatorial rule, but Bolaño’s focus is on Carlos Wieder, the magnetic stranger who ends up taking his own brand of ominous poetry to the skies through smoke trails from an airplane he supposedly pilots. By embodying the military’s violence in this figure, Bolaño is able to grapple with big ideas under the guise of a horror or detective novel. I just joined a new book club and this was the first pick. I’m so glad I did, because I doubt I ever would have picked it up otherwise. Now I’m dying to seek out the rest of Bolaño’s work. — Alex Lauer, InsideHook Features Editor
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
Joe Hill may have had nepo baby roots — his parents are horror writers Stephen and Tabitha King — but he’s developed a horror style that complements and pays homage to his lineage while carving his own path. There’s a scene early in King Sorrow, ostensibly about a few bored teenagers summoning a dragon and then dealing with its lifelong consequences, that elicited a surprised yelp from me (sorry, subway goers). An actual jump scare in a book! But the novel, an epic tome that recalls his dad’s early works (IT, Firestarter, The Dead Zone and The Stand) and occasionally references them in a shared-universe way, also delves into American neoconservatism, racism and drug addiction while playing out simultaneously as a coming-of-age story, a Reign of Fire-style action thriller and, oh yeah, a straight-up horror novel about a demonic and seemingly invincible dragon. — Kirk Miller, InsideHook Senior Editor
Colton Gentry’s Third Act by Jeff Zentner
Over the years, I inhaled every single Young Adult novel by Jeff Zentner. Whether he was digging into complicated relationships with religion (The Serpent King) or the challenges we face in the wake of tragedy (Goodbye Days), he has such a wild gift of tackling heavy topics with heart, lyricism, and hope. And when he announced his adult debut, and that it would be a romance, I was seated. I was ready.
And the novel has become one of my go-to recommendations.
Readers meet Colton Gentry, a musician who seems to finally be catching a break. He’s got a new hit song! He’s on a great tour! But reeling from the loss of his best friend, who was killed in a shooting at a music festival, he’s in real pain. And one night, he snaps. And he lets his audience know how he feels about guns.
And just like that, it’s all over.
Back in his small hometown, he lands a job in a restaurant, where the one who got away, Luann, is working. His first great love. And thus begins a story of finding your way back, and answering the big question I feel we all ask ourselves… can you ever go home again? Zentner takes what makes all of his YA novels so wildly powerful and brings it to adult readers. Because even later in life, we can still be figuring things out.
It was released in paperback last year, and he’s got a new novel hitting soon, Love, Like Apples, this November. — Eric Smith, founder of Neighborhood Literary
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
I’m on a Patrick Radden Keefe kick. The latest from the New Yorker staff writer and author of Say Nothing is a 300-page plunge into the underbelly of 21st-century London. I’m hesitant to share too many details here — you either read his 2024 feature that precipitated the book, or, like me, you’re going in blind — but trust that this book covers more than its central mystery (the deadly fall of a British teenager from a luxury residence along the Thames). In Keefe’s classic “write around reporting” style, he probes modern London’s fraught reliance on Russian wealth, the porous borders between nightclub culture and organized crime, and the immigrant stories that have reshaped both the city’s skyline and sense of self. The best narrative non-fiction won’t let you travel two sentences without learning something new — yet always manages to keep the story’s engine on a low, steady hum. You’re in masterly hands with Keefe. — Tanner Garitty, Wellness Editor
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Take refuge from the heat with Small Things Like These, a slim, snowy novel (144 neat, little pages) by the Irish writer Claire Keegan. It tells the story of Bill Furlong, who stumbles upon signs of abuse while delivering coal to a Magdalene Laundry, a church-run “reform” workhouse that infamously subjected thousands of young women and girls to grueling, unpaid labor. While the premise sounds like a bummer, at the heart of the story is the choice that Furlong must make: The church is embedded in all aspects of life, with the nuns controlling schooling and employment. Furlong has five daughters and hence has a compelling motivation to look the other way. And that’s what makes this story something more than an addition to the well-known accounts of hypocrisy and abuse. Many of us tell ourselves just how noble, how fearless we’d be, had we lived in this or that historical era…though surely our present day has its own tests for us. Furlong’s did as well, and what unfolds is a tale of quiet heroism. Moral predicaments aside, you can savor this book for the prose alone, which, like a glass of whiskey held to the light, is pristine and potent. — Ryan Effgen, author of Make Nice
Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima
Walk into the fire and don’t be scared. Yukio Mishima is an enigma for the modern man. In our flattened and optimized wasteland, where a politically incorrect opinion can ruin your life, and exposure to gluten can ruin your perfect routine for weeks, encountering a man like Mishima can rearrange your life. Mishima was not only one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, but his fascism, bisexuality, misogyny, schizophrenia, love of martial arts and willingness to kill himself for an aesthetic and political statement make modern influencers look empty. When reading and studying Mishima, the goal isn’t to believe all the character gimmicks and the insane statements he made, because he was a master of hiding who he really was, but rather to watch how a modern man can harmonize their art and action into something that can rock the world.
Mishima’s best writing is in the Sea of Fertility tetralogy, which he composed as his final statement before his Seppuku. Expanding on Proust’s style, Mishima explores what happens to men’s idealism in a world that kills anything authentic. Remember when you were 20 and had dreams of doing something with your life? Of changing the world? Before you sold out? Well, Mishima shows what it would look like if you remained pure to that vision and took it all the way. — Ian Cattanach, author of Write Conscious
Brothers by Alex Van Halen
I came across this book when I was looking for something to gift my brother for the holidays. While the title is a bit literal, I went into reading it only knowing the last name and, therefore, the band. Through reading this, it was very hard to ignore the tightness of Alex and his late brother Eddie. It takes you on the journey of their early life together, then to their rise to stardom and all in between. Learning about the formation of any band is so interesting to me, so this one kept me entranced. Alex shares intimate, emotional accounts of his life and dedicates this book to his beloved brother. This book really made me reflect internally about my personal relationships. —Maxwell Stafford, InsideHook Editorial Commerce Fellow
More Like This
This article appeared in an InsideHook newsletter. Sign up for free to get more on travel, wellness, style, drinking, and culture..