After more than a year of Zoom happy hours and virtual movie nights, the vaccine’s speedy rollout portends a summer of in-person reunions. But which piece of new entertainment from a Colorado creative should you and your friends gather around? We help you decide.

If you crave a dramatic novel…
Try: Virtue
In Boulder writer Hermione Hoby’s second novel, the allure and cruelty of New York City elites and up-and-comers play out to dramatic effect as a magazine intern becomes infatuated with an artist and her filmmaker husband. July 20; penguinrandomhouse.com

5280 June 2021
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If you geek out over a fantastical, sci-fi reads…
Try: Questland
If the TV show Westworld and the game Dungeons & Dragons had a baby, it would be this romp from Longmont’s Carrie Vaughn, which follows a burned-out professor recruited by a mega-rich tycoon to save his magical, unicorn-filled theme park. You know, just a regular day as an adjunct academic. June 22; hmhbooks.com

If you want to unpack a cerebral, nonfiction book…
Try: There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness
Is blindness a gift or a curse? A pitiable disability or the key to inner wisdom? In an ambitious memoir written while she lived in Denver, M. Leona Godin rejects these reductive binaries as she interweaves her own experience of losing sight with those of the likes of Homer, Helen Keller, and Jorge Luis Borges. June 1; penguinrandomhouse.com

If you want to listen to moody hip-hop…
Try: Sour
Dafna, a 20-year-old singer-songwriter living in Boulder, weaves emotionally intricate lyrics (à la Lorde and Arlo Parks) into her new EP, translating shame and guilt into swirly, spellbinding electro-pop, perfect for wallowing, dancing, or both at the same time. Released May 21; dafna.rocks

If you delight in warm, folksy tunes…
Try: Gold
There’s a soulful timelessness to Kathleen Hooper and Aubrey Mable’s harmonies and soothing guitar. The Colorado duo, who perform under the name LVDY, wrote Gold’s title track for a struggling friend, so it’s no surprise that the band’s first full-length album sounds like a warm, folk-infused hug. Released April 16; lvdymusic.com

If you need a good laugh…
Try: Being Disabled Has Its Perks
Living with cerebral palsy is pretty funny, to hear Denver comedian Josh Blue tell it. Using warmth and bite, his 25-minute comedy special satirizes ableist pity and accommodations for the disabled. We love Blue’s pacing and endearing habit of chuckling at his own jokes, and the audience’s laughter is so contagious, you and your friends will feel like you’ve scored front-row seats. Released November 2020, youtube.com

If you’re not afraid to cry in front of your friends…
Try: Los Hermanos/The Brothers
Co-produced by Coloradan Marcia Jarmel, this documentary follows two brothers—one a pianist in Havana, one a violinist in New York City—as they make music both apart and together as U.S.–Cuba relations freeze and thaw and freeze again. Released May 14; firstrunfeatures.com