Although the summer is traditionally a slow season in the publishing world, it doesn't mean that there aren't any interesting books being published. Here are a few titles published this month that may appeal to you.

The League of Regrettable Superheroes by Jon Morris
Batman. Spiderman. Thor. Even the Silver Surfer. Successful and beloved superheroes that most people—and certainly all comics fans—have heard about. But what about the "unsuccessful" superheroes? The ones who died on the drawing board, or didn't last more than an issue or two? What about them? Luckily for us, Jon Morris has collected and revived 100 of them for your delectation. Who knows? Maybe you'll become a fan of Bee Man, the League of Super Pets, Rainboy Boy or even Dr. Hormone.

The Nakeds by Lisa Glatt
A young girl is hit by a drunk driver and spends the next decade in a cast because her leg will not heal properly. The drunk driver is paralyzed by guilt and the girl's parents (since this all occurs in California in the 1970s) divorce and dabble in nudism, surfing, and Evangelical Christianity. A busy plot, but Glatt has a light comic touch and a painfully honest gaze that will keep the reader engaged until the very end.

Intimacy Idiot by Isaac Oliver
A meaty collection of personal essays, diary entries, sketches and lists from writer and performer Oliver who just wants to live and love to the fullest, or at least just hook-up with hot men that he meets on the streets of New York. Ranging from meeting an Australian flight attendant who has a thing for "frolicking" wearing a dolphin suit, to getting despairing calls from a hockey player recently diagnosed with Huntington's disease, Oliver's encounters thread the needle between being sharply humorous and surprisingly moving.

A Brief History of Portable Literature by Enrique Vila-Matas
In Spanish author Vila-Matas's novella, a secret society is revealed: The Shandies (named after Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy) form their group in 1924 and promoted the idea of "portable literature" as the literary ideal. All well and good, but the trouble starts when it comes to defining the term. Artistic heavyweights Marcel Duchamp, Georgia O'Keeffe, Federico Garcia Llorca and Man Ray are just a few of the all-star cast of characters who battle each other and eventually drive the group into dissolution after only three years. A smartly surreal comic fiction from a prolific author.

The Pinch: A History by Steve Stern
Lenny Sklarew is the last tenant in "Pinch," a once-thriving Jewish neighborhood in Memphis. It's 1968 and Lenny finds a book by Muni Pinsker about his neighborhood in a secondhand book store. What surprises him is the fact that he himself is a character in the book. Stern skillfully weaves Lenny's story, Pinsker's story, and the history of the Pinch into a hilarious and suspenseful meditation on truth and fiction.