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Summer arrives just over a month from now, and along with your last-minute scramble for a house share or a part-time job scooping ice cream, you’re probably also wondering what to read. On this week’s episode, Gilbert Cruz talks with his colleague Joumana Khatib about some of the season’s most anticipated books, from a James Baldwin biography to the true-life story of a young couple shipwrecked in the Pacific and a political thriller co-written by James Patterson and Bill Clinton.

Here are the books discussed in this week’s episode:

• “The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers’ Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda,” by Nathalia Holt

• “Atmosphere: A Love Story,” by Taylor Jenkins Reid

• “The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild,” by Bryan Burrough

• “Next to Heaven,” by James Frey

• “A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck,” by Sophie Elmhirst

• “The Sisters,” by Jonas Hassen Khemiri

• “The First Gentleman,” by Bill Clinton and James Patterson

• “King of Ashes,” by S.A. Cosby

• “Bonding,” by Mariel Franklin

• “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil,” by V.E. Schwab

• “Katabasis,” by R.F. Kuang

• “Baldwin: A Love Story,” by Nicholas Boggs

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.