JUNE

The Dry Season

by Melissa Febos

After the breakup of a disastrous relationship, Febos takes a vow of celibacy — not to get closer to God, but to get closer to herself. She relishes in the sensuality of solitude and the pursuit of her art, a practice she situates in a long lineage of women who have made similar trade-offs: the Benedictine abbess Hildegard von Bingen and the authors Virginia Woolf and Octavia Butler, to name a few.

Knopf, June 3

Buckley

by Sam Tanenhaus

Tanenhaus, a former editor of the Times Book Review, exposes the roots of the modern conservative movement through this authoritative biography of William F. Buckley Jr., the firebrand writer and commentator who shaped it. As Buckley’s only authorized biographer, Tanenhaus draws from troves of his private papers and extensive interviews with the man himself.

Random House, June 3