It’s finally summer! Time for graduation parties, long summer vacations, and the (hopeful) return of free time from the drudge of winter. And whether you’re spending the day on the beach or just in your backyard, the best sidekick is always a great book– and have we got the list for you! We’ve got book recommendations that cover the span of LGBTQ+ YA, mystery, sci-fi, and even some non-fiction if that’s your style.

These books from Three Rooms Press are all available for order NOW. Click the links for places to buy as well as reviews and more info.

LGBTQ+ YA:

NO STOPPING US NOW by Lucy Jane Bledsoe: When Louisa asks her principal to start a girls team, she’s soon viciously targeted by male coaches at her school, lied to by the school board, and dismissed as “out of line” as she fights for a fair chance to be an athlete.

TINK AND WENDY by Kelly Ann Jacobson: What happens when Tinker Bell is in love with both Peter Pan and Wendy? In this sparkling re-imagining of Peter Pan, Peter and Wendy’s granddaughter Hope Darling finds the reclusive Tinker Bell squatting at the Darling mansion in order to care for the graves of her two lost friends after a love triangle gone awry. [Gold Medal Winner of Foreword Reviews 2021 Indie Award for Young Adult Fiction]

NEEDLEWORK by Julia Watts: In rural Kentucky, a sixteen-year-old boy with a love of quilting, cooking and Dolly Parton helps his grandma care for his opioid-addicted mother, until the discovery of a family secret upends everything he has ever believed. [Honorable Mention of Foreword Reviews 2021 Indie Award for Young Adult Fiction]

NIRVANA IS HERE by Aaron Hamburger: For Ari Silverman, the past has never really passed. After 20 years, the trauma from a childhood assault resurfaces as he grapples with the fate of his ex-husband, a colleague accused of sexually harassing a student.

QUIVER by Julia Watts: Libby is the oldest child of six, going on seven, in a family that adheres to the “quiverfull” lifestyle: strict evangelical Christians who believe that they should have as many children as God allows because children are like arrows in the quiver of “God’s righteous warriors.”

WEIRD GIRL AND WHAT’S HIS NAME by Meagan Brothers: In the tiny podunk town of Hawthorne, North Carolina, seventeen-year-old geeks Lula and Rory share everything—sci-fi and fantasy fandom, Friday night binge-watching of old X-Files episodes, and that feeling that they don’t quite fit in.

EVERYTHING GROWS by Aimee Herman: Fifteen-year-old Eleanor Fromme just chopped off all of her hair. How else should she cope after hearing that her bully, James, has taken his own life? When Eleanor’s English teacher suggests students write letters they’ll never send, Eleanor writers to James. With each letter she writes, Eleanor discovers more about herself, even while trying to make sense of his death.

MYSTERY:

SCAVENGER by Christopher Chambers: In the lively, but desperate world of D.C.’s underbelly, a Black homeless man must quickly learn the ropes of being a detective after a wealthy ex-government official sets him up to take the fall for a brutal crime he didn’t commit. (sequel STANDALONE coming out October 18, 2022)

EVERYTHING IS JAKE by Jethro K. Lieberman: A federal plea deal in Manhattan goes off the rails when a mob boss inexplicably recants his testimony days after voluntarily confessing to a lifetime of crime, and immediately, an FBI agent involved with the case goes missing.

DARK CITY LIGHTS edited by Lawrence Block: Famed detective and mystery writer Lawrence Block (A Walk Among the Tombstones, 8 Million Ways to Die) takes the helm as guest editor for DARK CITY LIGHTS, the fourth edition of the Have a NYC series. Twenty-three thrilling, hilarious and poignant short stories—all based in New York City—written by new and acclaimed fiction masters, including Robert Silverberg (Hugo and Nebula Award multiple winner; grand master of SFWA); Ed Park (author, Personal Days; senior editor, Amazon’s literary imprint, Little A); Jim Fusilli (rock and pop music critic, The Wall Street Journal; author, Closing Time and A Well-Known Secret); Parnell Hall (author, Last Puzzle & Testament); S. J. Rozan (Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero and Macavity award-wining author); Brian Koppelman (co-writer, Ocean’s 13 and Rounders); and Elaine Kagan (author, No Good-Byes; actress, GoodFellas).

SCI-FI:

ALIEN ARCHIVES by Robert Silverberg: Aliens in all shapes and sizes—some fearsome, some outlandish, and some just plain fun—fill the pages of these hand-picked classic stories by sci-fi grand master Robert Silverberg, each featuring a new introduction by the acclaimed author.

THIS WAY TO THE END TIMES edited by Robert Silverberg: A gripping collection of twenty-one stories about the not-too-distant demise of the earth as we know it. Editor ROBERT SILVERBERG–one of science-fiction’s most beloved writers–handpicked each piece in the collection and includes an introduction to each story, detailing reasons for its selection and offering insight into its position in the history of apocalyptic literature.

VOYAGERS by Robert Silverberg: Every science-fiction story is a voyage of some kind―to a world of a far-off galaxy, to our own world of the distant future or the remote past, to some interior corner of the human soul. In VOYAGERS: Twelve Journeys through Space and Time, Science Fiction Grand Master Robert Silverberg collects twelve of his finest short stories and novellas, all of which carry readers to the next level of imagination and into a new universe of the mind.

TIME AND TIME AGAIN by Robert Silverberg: Beloved sci-fi Grand Master Robert Silverberg collects all his best time travel fiction in one place, with new introductions detailing the back story behind each tale.

NON-FICTION

JAPANTHEM by Jillian Marshall: Following a decade of back-and-forth across the Pacific while researching her doctoral thesis in ethnomusicology, JAPANTHEM author Jillian Marshall reveals contemporary Japan through a prism of magic, serendipity, frustration, unique underground culture, learning life lessons the hard way, and an insatiable curiosity for the human spirit.

YIPPIE GIRL by Judy Gumbo: In 1968, a 24-year-old woman moved to Berkeley, California and immediately became enmeshed in the Youth International Party, aka The Yippies, a recently-formed satirical protest group. In the next few years, Judy Gumbo (a nickname given her by Eldridge Cleaver), was soon at the center of counter-cultural activity—from protests in People’s Park, to meetings at Black Panther headquarters, to running a pig for President at the raucous Democratic National Convention in Chicago, a protest that devolved into violent attacks by the police and arrests that led to the notorious Chicago Conspiracy Trial.

FAR AWAY FROM CLOSE TO HOME by Vanessa Baden Kelly: Through a series of extraordinary, incisive, often-humorous and always profound essays, Vanessa Baden Kelly examines what “home” means to a Black millennial woman. What are the consequences of gentrification on the life of a young Black woman, and on her ability to raise a family? What does it mean to be part of a lineage, whether it be passed down by name or through the voices of generations of writers and thinkers? Baden’s essays evolve from personal stories to fully-realized communiques of a generation of Black women who are finding a new sense of both belonging and ostracism in private, work, and public life.

DISASTERAMA! Adventures in the Queer Underground 1977–1997 by Alvin Orloff: The true story of Alvin Orloff who, as a shy kid from the suburbs of San Francisco, stumbled into the wild, eclectic crowd of Crazy Club Kids, Punk Rock Nutters, Goofy Goofballs, Fashion Victims, Disco Dollies, Happy Hustlers, and Dizzy Twinks of post-Stonewall American queer culture of the late 1970s, only to see the “subterranean lavender twilit shadow world of the gay ghetto” ravaged by AIDS.

PUNK AVENUE: Inside the New York City Underground 1972-1982 by Phil Marcade: PUNK AVENUE: An intimate account of Paris-born author Phil Marcade’s first ten years in the United States, where—after drifting from Boston to the West Coast and back—he wound up in New York City and became deeply immersed in the start of the punk rock scene. With brilliant, often hilarious prose, Marcade relays first-hand tales of his experiences, such as having the Ramones play their very first gig at his party, working with Blondie’s Debbie Harry on French lyrics for her songs, enjoying Thanksgiving with Johnny Thunders’ mother, and starting the beloved NYC punk-blues band The Senders.

Happy reading!