PEOPLE's Best Books of August 2024: Moon Unit Zappa Reflects on Father Frank and More New Reads

Mar. 15, 2025

PEOPLE’s picks for the best books of August 2024.

From nightclub-dwelling vampires to deadly online dating — here are PEOPLE’s picks for the best books of August 2024.

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Moon Unit Zappa’s father, the late musician Frank Zappa, was known for his legendary rock songs, but to his daughter, he was often absent throughout her childhood. It wasn’t until Frank was diagnosed with prostate cancer that the two began to reconcile their differences. In this touching memoir, Moon looks back on her unconventional childhood, her family’s complicated relationships and how she and her father finally began to connect.

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Shakespeare never provided much backstory about his infamous villain. But this sharply drawn, hauntingly atmospheric redrawing turns Roscille into a witchy strategist thrust into a world of brutish men and worse circumstances. It’s a departure from the original, but a fun one.

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After Phoebe goes missing while Instagramming her solo van trip up Australia’s western coast, sister Katy retraces her path, increasingly fearful that Phoebe’s postings may have led to her death. Katy’s journey, fraught with secrets and terror, unleashes an unstoppable torrent of creepy suspense. —Robin Micheli

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“I don’t know if I believe in reincarnation,” says the author. “But I feel like this is the story that I was meant to tell.”

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TheStone Cold Foxauthor returns with more gleeful scheming, this time in London, ca. 1979. British disco queen Nicola meets American party girl Amber and makes her a forever friend — in the way that only a bloodthirsty vampire can do. Decades later the twosome are opening their own club, but since Amber is now secretly planning her escape, outrageous betrayal is on the playlist. Delightfully undead fun. —Marion Winik

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Swipe-right culture goes wrong when Karen Simmons is found dead in a small British town after a night looking for love. In this tense and topical thriller, a detective and a journalist vie to find her killer among anonymous predators online — and risk becoming prey themselves. —Robin Micheli

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“I’m committed to uncovering the culture of my people,” writes the author as he embarks upon a stirring exploration of his Indigenous ancestry that gets more complicated the deeper he digs. It’s a vital, revelatory story of self-discovery, the history of a people and survival.

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This sweeping multigenerational saga follows a young rebel in a doomed romance, a single mother and her injured son, all seeking redemption amid upheaval.

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Long-lost sisters are reunited under cruel circumstances until genocide forces them to flee in this lush, imaginative debut with hints of magic.

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Mango farmers, puppets, pop stars and cyborgs: This electrifying short story collection about migration and reinvention is not to be missed.

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If you can’t pass a bookstore without stopping, pick this one up on your next trip. It’s a fascinating history of American booksellers and their uniquely important place in society, from Benjamin Franklin’s bookstore in Philadelphia to institutions like New York City’s the Strand to modern favorites like Ann Patchett’s Parnassus Books. A heartfelt, essential love letter to the literary sanctuary of bookstores and the people who run them.

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Dara’s grandmother wrote a bestseller about what makes a great marriage, and her parents’ is fairy-tale. But when Dara’s soulmate Austin reveals a shocking betrayal on the cusp of their wedding, Dara flees, and both struggle to reinvent their lives. A moving immersion in love and loss. —Caroline Leavitt

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An airline pilot has a heart attack midflight, sending the plane crashing into a nuclear power plant and setting off a global crisis. A heartpounder and one of the year’s best thrillers.

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Two men emerge from a remote hunting trip to burned buildings, bombed cars and rampant political violence. Their journey back home reads like a stark, riveting warning.

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Milholland inherited a group house in Portland, Ore., from her hippie parents, keeping their traditions alive with a shifting cast of housemates. An inspiring account of how and why to live a principled life, spiced with Pan-Asian recipes. —Marion Winik

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Four years after childhood friends and former lovers Kit and Theo explosively break up, they find themselves on the same European food tour. To prove they’re really over each other, they embark on a hookup competition. Grab a snack first—this one’s spicy, sexy and absolutely delicious.

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This smart, fun memoir about nannying for the rich offers a peek into rarefied circles, with incisive commentary on class, race and privilege. There’s lots of gasp-inducing tidbits about the lifestyles of rich and famous tots, to boot.

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Advice columnist Annie loves to judge the other cutthroat parents vying for kindergarten spots— but is she really any better? Funny, relatable fiction for anyone who thinks they’re above the fray but still want to read all about it.

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In this heartfelt novel, one man has a long-term gig as a “Rent-a-Stranger” pretending to be a child’s absent father, raising questions on boundaries and commodification. A family love story for the ever-encroaching digital age.

source: people.com