The Book Report: Ron Charles on new summer reads (May 25)
By Washington Post book critic Ron Charles
Here are five hot new books to check out this summer:
If you're trying to figure out what's happening with artificial intelligence, pick up "Empire of AI." Journalist Karen Hao investigates the rise of OpenAI and its visionary co-founder, Sam Altman.
With alarming detail, she shows how this once idealistic company became everything it said it would not be, even as it remakes and gobbles up the world.
READ AN EXCERPT: "Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI" by Karen Hao
"Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI" by Karen Hao (Penguin Press), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Everybody knows about Amelia Earhart's mysterious final flight. But what about the years before she disappeared?
In "The Aviator and the Showman" (to be published July 15 by Viking), Laurie Gwen Shapiro draws on newly-uncovered sources to explore the famed pilot's life and her marriage to wealthy publisher George Putnam. Theirs was a relationship that lifted love, publicity and especially risk to mythic heights.
READ AN EXCERPT: "The Aviator and the Showman" by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
"The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon" by Laurie Gwen Shapiro (Viking), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available July 15 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Take a chance on a new writer, and you may be delighted: Rob Franklin's debut novel, "Great Black Hope," follows a young African American man whose family launched him for success – but after an arrest for drug possession and the death of a close friend, his once-bright future feels anything but guaranteed.
READ AN EXCERPT: "Great Black Hope" by Rob Franklin
"Great Black Hope" by Rob Franklin (Simon & Schuster/Summit Books), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available June 10 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
What better escape this July than a novel called "A Summer for the Books"? Michelle Lindo-Rice tells the story of Jewel, a bestselling writer, and Shelby, a bookstore owner – two old friends who went their separate ways years ago ... but! When Shelby loses her memory after a bike accident and reaches out to Jewel for help, how can she refuse?
READ AN EXCERPT: "A Summer for the Books" by Michelle Lindo-Rice
"A Summer for the Books" by Michelle Lindo-Rice (MIRA/HarperCollins), in Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available July 15 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Jess Walter, the bestselling author of "Beautiful Ruins," is back with a new novel called "So Far Gone." It's about Rhys Kinnick, a journalist who's been living off the grid. But when his grandchildren are kidnapped by a right-wing militia, Rhys is forced back into the world – and he charges off on a wild adventure to save them.
READ AN EXCERPT: "So Far Gone" by Jess Walter
"So Far Gone" by Jess Walter (HarperCollins), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available June 10 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
That's it for the Book Report. For these and other suggestions about what to read this summer, talk with your local bookseller or librarian.
I'm Ron Charles. Until next time, read on!
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Produced by Cameron Jimenez. Editor: Carol Ross.
For more reading recommendations, check out these previous Book Report features from Ron Charles:
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