July 2018 Book List
Every month new books arrive in our lives and in our bookstores and libraries and so it is difficult to keep up with what is out there. I made these book lists for myself but then I decided to share them. All of this information is available elsewhere online, but not in one place. I added a * symbol next to books that piqued my interest the most. Happy reading!
Amazon
Literature and Fiction
What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan
Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce *
A Terrible Country: A Novel by Keith Gessen
The Mere Wife: A Novel by Maria Dahvana Headley
Clock Dance: A Novel by Anne Tyler *
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottesa Moshfegh *
America for Beginners by Leah Franqui
All We Ever Wanted: A Novel by Jordy Rosenberg
Mysteries and Thrillers
Baby’s First Felony by John Straley
Safe Houses: A Novel by Dan Fesperman
The Ruin: A Novel by Dervla McTiernan
Hangman: A Novel by Daniel Cole
Baby Teeth: A Novel by Zoje Stage
Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott
The Other Woman by Daniel Silva
Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery by Andrew Shaffer
The Last Time I Lied: A Novel by Riley Sager
Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe
Believe Me: A Novel by J P Delaney
Biographies and Memoirs
A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety by Donald Hall
Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America’s Forgotten Border by Porter Fox
Rad Girls Can: Stories of Bold, Brave, and Brilliant Young Women (Rad Women) by Kate Schatz, Miriam Klein Stahl
Risk: True Stories People Never Thought They’d Dare to Share by Kevin Allison
My Twenty-Five Years in Provence: Reflections on Then and Now by Peter Mayle *
Cancerland: A Medical Memoir by David Scadden, Michael D’Antonio
Happily Ever Esther: Two Men, A Wonder Pig, and Their Life-changing Mission to Give Animals a Home by Steve Jenkins
You’re On An Airplane: A Self Mythologizing Memoir by Parker Posey
City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai by Paul French *
From the Corner of the Oval: A Memoir by Becky Dorey-Stein
Nonfiction
Don’t Make Me Pull Over: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip by Richard Ratay
Tropic of Football: The Long and Perilous Journey of Samoans to the NFL by Rob Reich
Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth’s Most Awesome Creatures by Nick Pyenson
Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, The Quest for Justice, and The World’s Most Famous Detective Writer by Margalit Fox
Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America’s Forgotten Border by Porter Fox *
The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell’s Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West by John F. Ross
The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban Tragedy by Anna Clark *
Risk: True Stories People Never Thought They’d Dare to Share by Kevin Allison (Ed.)
The Billionaire Raj: A Journey through India’s New Gilded Age by James Crabtree *
Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U S Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man by Lynn Vincent
Just a Shot Away: Peace, Love, and Tragedy with the Rolling Stones at Altamont by Saul Austerlitz
New York Times Book Review
June 3rd
Fiction
The Outsider by Stephen King
First Person by Richard Flanagan
The Judge Hunter by Christopher Buckley
A Place for Us by Fatima Mirza
Do This For Me by Raney Moore
The Dead House by Billy O’Callaghan
The Glitch by Elisabeth Cohen
Sophia of Silicon Valley by Anna Yen
Circe by Madeline Miller
Love and Ruin by Paula McLain *
How Hard Can It Be by Allison Pearson
What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw by Leah Stewart
He by John Connolly
Madness is Better Than Defeat by Ned Beauman
The Life List of Adrian Mandrich by Chris White
Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Nonfiction
Pops by Michael Chabon (essays) *
Inseparable by Yunte Huang
Robin by Dave Itzkoff
Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money and Other Burning Questions From a Nation Obsessed by Jessica Weisberg *
Sabrina by Nick Drnaso
All the Answers by Michael Kupperman
Flash by Christopher Bonanos
To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine
Chefs, Drugs and Rock and Roll by Andrew Friedman
Renaissance Woman by Ramie Targoff
Daughters of the Winter Queen by Nancy Goldstone
Patriot Number One by Lauren Hilgers
Sex Money Murder: A Story of Crack, Blood, and Betrayal by Jonathan Green
Adventures of a Young Naturalist by David Allen Attenborough
Bernice Abbott: A Life in Photography by Julia Van Haaften
The Wondrous Life of the Library by Stuart Kells
The Rise and Fall of the Dinaosaurs by Steve Brusatte
The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson
The Mirage Factory by Gary Krist
A Short History of Drunkenness by Mark Forsyth
June 10th
Crime Fiction
The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly
Exit Strategy by Charlton Pettus
Don’t Believe It by Charlie Donlea
The Fens (An Abby Endicott Mystery) by Pamela Wechsler
Fiction
Companions by Christina Hesselholdt (Danish)
Woman of the Ashes by Mia Couto (Mozambique)
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje *
Disoriental by Nigar Djavadi (“I’m not an immigrant, I’m an exile.”
Nonfiction
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by John Meacham
The Efficiency Paradox by Edward Tenner
Jimmy Carter: The White House Years by Stuart Eizenstat
Edge of Chaos by Dambisa Moyo
There Are No Grown-Ups by Pamela Druckerman
The Darkening Age by Catherine Nixey
Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Thomas Ramge
The China Mission by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan
Struggles of Motherhood
The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
Mother of Invention by Caeli Wolfson Widger
Amateur Hour : Motherhood in Essays and Swear Words by Kimberly Harrington
June 17th
Fiction
The Pisces by Melissa Broder
Kudos by Rachel Cusk
Nonfiction
And Then We Danced by Henry Alford
Celestial Bodies by Laura Jacobs
Frenemies by Ken Auletta
Reporter by Samuel M Hersh
The Girl from Kathmandu by Cam Simpson
Natural Causes by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Prodigal Tongue: The Love Hate by Lynne Murphy
She Has Her Mother’s Laugh by Carl Zimmer
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Our Towns by James and Deborah Fallows *
The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester
The Death of Democracy by Benjamin Carter Hett
The Great Revolt by Salena Zito and Brad Todd (Allows Trump backers to speak in their own voices)
Brave New Arctic: The Untold Story of the Melting North by Mark C Serreze
To the Edges of the Earth: 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration by Edward J Larson
The Ends of the Earth: The Truth Behind the Glory of Polar Exploration by John V H Dippel
June 24th
Fiction
Crime
Bearskin by James A McLaughlin
The Dante Chamber by Matthew Pearl
A Taste for Vengeance by Martin Walker
There There by Tommy Orange
84K by Claire North (Sci Fi)
So Lucky by Nicola Griffith
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
Bandwidth by Eliot Peper
The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin
The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
A View of the Empire at Sunset by Caryl Phillips
Nonfiction
Why “To Kill a Mockingbird” Matters by Tom Santopietro
Energy: A Human History by Richard Rhodes
The Moralist by Patricia O’Toole
Atticus Finch: The Biography by Joseph Crespino
Asperger’s Children by Edith Sheffer
Queer City by Peter Ackroyd
The Fair Chase by Philip Dray
July 1st
Fiction
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau
Upstate by James Wood
The Honey Farm by Harriet Alida Lye
Nonfiction
The Perfect Weapon by David E Sanger
Bull…. Jobs by David Graeber
The League of Kindness by Christie Walson
Damnation Island by Stacy Horn
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier
This Little Art by Kate Briggs
The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are by Alan Jasanoff
Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change by Leonard Mlodinow
Publisher’s Weekly Tip Sheet
June 4th
Lagos Noir by Chris Abani (anthology)
Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain by Karen Auvinen (memoir)
Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton (F)
The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson (F)
Of Marriage by Nicole Cooley (anthology)
Kudos by Rachel Cusk (F)
Rough Animals: A Novel by Rae Del Bianco (F)
Reporter: A Memoir by Seymour M Hersh (Memoir)
The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (Memoir)
The Good Son by You-Jeong trans. from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim (F)
There There by Tommy Orange (F)
How Hard Can It Be by Allison Pearson (F)
Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly (Biography)
Sweet and Low by Nick White (Short Stories)
June 15th
Rendezvous With Oblivion: Essays by Thomas Frank (Reports from a Sinking Society) (NF)*
The Grey Bastards: A Novel by Jonathan French (Fantasy)
Call Me American: A Memoir by Abdi Nor Iftír (Memoir)
A Stitch in Time by Daphne Kalmar (YA)
Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Pi (F)
The Great Believers: A Novel by Rebecca Makkai (F)
The Robots of Gotham by Todd McAulty (F)
Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over by Neil Painter (Memoir)
Confessions of the Fox: A Novel by Jordy Rosenberg (F)
The Anomaly by Michael Rutger (F)
Not the Girls You’re Looking For by Aminah Mae Safi (YA)
Rainy Day Friends by Jill Shalvis (F)
The Shepherd’s Hut: A Novel by Time Winton (F)
June 22nd
For Profit Democracy: Why the Government is Losing the Trust of Rural America by Loka Ashwood (NF)
Old Gods, New Enigmas: Marx’s Lost Theory by Mike Davis (NF-Essays)
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin Diangelo with a Forward by Michael Eric Dyson (NF) *
The Inward Empire: Mapping the Wilds of Mortality and Fatherhood by Christian Donlan (Memoir)
The Darkest Time of Night: A Novel by Jeremy Finley (F)
Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, The Quest for Justice, and the World’s Greatest Writer by Margalit Fox (NF)
All We Ever Wanted: A Novel by Emily Giffen (F)
My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand (YA)
Liar, Liar by Lisa Jackson (F)
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (Fantasy)
The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel by Paul Tremblay
July 2nd
The Moment Before Drowning by James Brydon (F)
The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness: A Memoir by Graham Caveney (Memoir)
The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age by James Crabtree (NF)
Zen and Gone by Emily France (YA)
City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai by Paul French (NF)
Idiophone: An Essay by Amy Fusselman (Essay)
Retribution by Steffen Jacobsen (Thriller)
Rip the Angels from Heaven by David Krugler (Thriller)
Dear Mrs. Bird by A J Pearce (F)
Queen’s Progress: A Tudor Mystery (A Kit Marlowe Mystery) by M J Trow (F)
So Many Books, Choose Wisely 