A UW student with a 2-book deal and more from this week in Seattle Times books coverage

Folks: It is hot.

This heat wave would be a good time to have a friend with a boat, a pool, an air-conditioned apartment or some combination thereof. If you’re lacking in nautical vehicles, A/C units, fans or friends, though, you can at least count on your pals at The Seattle Times to suggest a good book.

Here’s what we wrote about in the world of literature this week.

• Moira Macdonald spoke to University of Washington undergraduate Zoe Hana Mikuta, author of “Gearbreakers,” a science fiction epic due next week from Macmillan imprint Feiwel & Friends. The book, the first from a two-book deal, has already been optioned for a movie. Read the full story here.
• Just months ago, the windows at Arundel Books in Pioneer Square were boarded-up and covered with a mural. Recently reopened in a new location on First Avenue — in a historical building from the early 1900s — Arundel is back, settled in, and once again in the business of selling dreams. Find out what that means in Paul Constant’s latest Neighborhood Reads column here.
• Celebrate the summer solstice, folks-es. (I disliked that as much as you did; it’s late.) We have a fresh batch of paperbacks to fill out your summer reading list now that the season is officially here, from the lauded 2020 debut “A Burning” to “A Star Is Bored,” a novel inspired by the author’s real-life stint as Carrie Fisher’s personal assistant. Read the full story here.
• Booker Prize finalist Brandon Taylor, author of “Real Life,” is back with “Filthy Animals,” a book of short stories that reviewer Jordan Snowden called “rife with so much tension and discomfort it leaps from the page,” a web of human connection that shows “the animalistic qualities we all share.” Read the full review here.