The 22 Best New Book Releases This Month: July 2024

Ah, July. Fireworks and hot dogs and picnics and road trips and movies and days at the beach and lemonade and books and the time to read them. Books from the library and books discovered in a dusty bookshop tucked away around the corner from Main Street and books fresh and new. Books like the ones we’re especially excited to read and share coming out this month. So let’s get reading. At the head of the Parade are…

The 22 Best New Book Releases This Month: May 2024

1. Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
2. Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
3. Pearl by Siân Hughes

Three works of fiction that offer comfort, hard truths and great storytelling.

Rainbow Rowell delivers her first work for adults in a decade and fans will wonder why she waited so long. Sure, it includes two people who were best friends in high school (and too dumb to realize they loved each other). But this is a mature work in every sense, with people who’ve put on some mileage, made some mistakes and are ready to work on their relationships…especially one that might just be a second chance at first love.

She had me at “Taffy.” But fans of Brodesser-Akner, okay let’s just be on a first-name basis and call her Taffy have high expectations from the author of the fiercely funny Fleishman in Trouble. The early buzz says she delivers with Long Island Compromise, a family saga that begins in 1980 when a wealthy businessman is kidnapped. It picks things up decades later when everyone in his family–and I do mean everyone–is still reeling from the impact of that event and the money that’s proven a shield and burden ever since. Oh, but the money is dwindling folks. Comfort reading for those who haven’t won the lottery (or the lottery of life) and the sort of social satire Tom Wolfe wanted to write.

Do you watch movies if they are nominated for a Best Picture Oscar or listen to the albums that win a Grammy in your favorite category? That’s what awards are for! I always pay attention to the Booker Prize, the most prestigious annual award around because Brits just sound more sophisticated and smart, so why not listen when they celebrate a book? Pearl was long-listed for the Booker and that’s enough for me. Like Long Island Compromise, Siân Hughes tells a story revolving around another disappearance. Our hero Marianne was eight when her mother vanished and she’s never really recovered. Unlike Taffy’s novel, this work is thoughtful and quiet rather than raucous and funny, but hey, everyone deals with grief in their own way.

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell ($28; William Morrow) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner ($30; Random House) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

Pearl by Siân Hughes ($25; Knopf) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

Related: Love at First Lick: Romance Author Kristy Woodson Harvey Falls Hard…for a Puppy

4. The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum by Margalit Fox
5. Alexander at the End of the World by Rachel Kousser

The latest from acclaimed nonfiction writer Margalit Fox uncovers another fascinating tale from the past. This time it’s the story of the most notorious fence of stolen goods in US history, a person who operated in broad daylight (bribing the police certainly helped) and famous enough to make headlines when it all came crashing down. That figure? The talented Mrs. Mandelbaum. Fox tells her story and captures an era. We learn everything about Mandelbaum’s operation, from secret passages to safe houses to how she helped plan major heists and protected the men and women under her employ. We also learn why fencing stolen goods became big business just as she rose to power (mass production made individual items harder to trace–they all looked the same!) and how Mandelbaum became one of the most powerful figures in crime despite being a woman. A decade or two later, crime would again be dominated by men but in the late 1800s, she was it. It’s a compelling narrative, to say the least, with a fascinating denouement.

Mrs. Mandelbaum conquered the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the criminal world of the late 1800s. Alexander the Great conquered everything else. Rachel Kousser is the chair of Classics at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Wait, come back! She hasn’t written a book for scholars. She’s used her deep knowledge of other scholarly works and the latest archeological evidence to deliver a thrilling narrative about the last years of Alexander the Great. Seeing him devastate enemies, slaughter some but in over others, build a sprawling multicultural army while figuring out how to defeat elephants in battle or tackle a new fortification and learning as he goes is fascinating stuff. We know he will die from home (spoiler alert!) and never quite reach the edge of the world (for a very good reason, though I’m no geography buff), but how and why he goes as far as he does is a great tale. When to execute a subordinate, when to look the other way when his men contravene an order, why to bed this woman but keep his age-mate and likely lover Hephaiston even closer? Kousser puts flesh and bone on the world-beating figure who has long been ossified into a boring lesson in hubris. Oh he has hubris by the buckets, but Alexander has so much more and Kousser plumbs his contradictions and likely motivations with skill and verve.

The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum by Margalit Fox ($32; Random House) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

Alexander at the End of the World by Rachel Kousser ($35; Mariner Books) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

6. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
7. The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham
8. Sugar on the Bones by Joe R. Lansdale

The God of the Woods is already one of the most acclaimed books of the year. It’s 1975 and a 13 year old girl goes missing from a summer camp. Tragic, until you discover her brother disappeared from the same place some 14 years earlier. And they’re both children of the family that owns the camp and rules the blue collar townsfolk with an iron fist. So tragic and…suspicious? Author Liz Moore’s biggest book yet and one being compared to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, which is about the highest praise a book like this can receive.

After Moore’s work, you might need some comic relief. How about two severed hands, a hitman obsessed with the British crime show Midsomer Murders and a detective who can really dance? Welcome to Mark Billingham’s second mystery starring Detective Declan Miller, a man haunted by his dead wife (literally!) with a flair for ballroom dancing. Your welcome.

There’s humor and then there’s gallows humor. The Hap & Leonard books of Joe R. Lansdale embrace the latter with a martini-dry wit (not that anyone in these rough and tumble books is asking for a martini, shaken or not). This is the exceptionally talented Lansdale’s first novel featuring the duo in five years, a period that covers the cancellation of the fine TV series based on them and the devastating death of actor Michael K. Williams, who played Leonard so wonderfully well. Like knight errants, Hap & Leonard take on a case after the woman who wanted their protection is murdered. (Well, to be fair, she did reject them, not enjoying that humor we spoke about.) Things get complicated, fast and what a treat to welcome them back.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore ($30; Riverhead Books) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham ($27; Atlantic Monthly Press) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

Sugar on the Bones by Joe R. Lansdale ($29; Mulholland Books) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

9. The Movement by Clara Bingham
10. The Future Was Now by Chris Nashawaty

Two very different books tackle pivotal moments in our recent political and cultural history.

The Movement is a fascinating oral history of the women’s movement from 1963 to 1973, a decade when so much progress was made and so much more seemed just beyond the horizon. From The Feminine Mystique to Billie Jean King’s Battle of the Sexes tennis match to Title IX, author Clara Bingham captures the headlines, but also draws in the foot soldiers, the women (and men) who did the hard work behind the scenes. She weaves in the famous and unknown, the rich and poor, the women of every race, all of them striving for a world in which women were given the same opportunities, the same rights, as men. Have we come far? When the book begins, women couldn’t easily open a bank account or get a credit card without having her daddy or husband vouch for her. Do we have farther to go? Women still make less than men when doing the same work.

The Future Was Now is exciting for movie buffs. It begins with a simple fact. In the summer of 1982, eight key sci-fi/fantasy/horror films were released within six weeks of each other. They were Blade Runner, Conan The Barbarian, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Poltergeist, The Road Warrior (now known as Mad Max: The Road Warrior), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Thing and Tron. Six made money, two were flops, but they all left an impact on pop culture that reverberates today. Journalist Chris Nashawaty tells the stories of how and why they were made, the creative and business decisions that influenced everything from the movies themselves to how they were marketed and why arguably the biggest flop proved the most influential of all.

The Movement by Clara Bingham ($32.50; Atria/One Signal Publishers) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

The Future Was Now by Chris Nashawaty ($29.99; Flatiron Books) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

11. Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
12. The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
13. In The Belly of the Whale by Michael Flynn

Three works of fantasy and science fiction to savor.

Navola will inevitably be compared to Game of Thrones aka A Song of Ice and Fire. (Take your time, George! We’ll wait.) But this fantasy novel by Paolo Bacigalupi shouldn’t be sold as a rip-roaring tale with dragons. It’s mostly a coming of age tale set in an Italian-ish country where backstabbing and shifting alliances and Medici-like power is always balanced on the edge of a knife. Bacigalupi may shift into high gear in the later volumes (there will assuredly be more). BUt here he admirably takes his time, painting a full portrait of Davico di Regulai, the heir apparent of a family dynasty but a young man who seems ill-suited to the treacherous and subtle world of his father. Davico is just…too honest, too open. It’s a quietly compelling novel as we wonder if Davico will simply be consumed by the world he’s meant to help lead…or is he actually more ruthless than we think? Absolutely no one can be taken at surface level and that dragon’s eye (an ancient artifact) will at some point open, but the entire feel of this novel is more Wolf Hall than Game of Thrones. Know that and you will enjoy it without tapping your toes wondering when the fireworks will start. It’s the revelation of character that casts a spell here, not wizards and magic.

Lev Grossman shot to fame with his three novels invariably described as Harry Potter, but filled with cursing and sex. Now he tackles the tales of King Arthur. Anyone expecting a caustic, modern spin on Camelot won’t be disappointed. You’ll find Python-esque humor, transgender knights, queer knights (in the closet or whatever constitutes a closet in those days), a tiresomely perfect Lancelot and at least a hero of the expected sort: an 18 year old kid mostly abandoned, seen as useless but determined to be a knight and, who knows, perhaps of more kingly bearing than he imagines. Frankly, I was not easily won over. But Grossman isn’t here to tear down Arthurian myths or reveal them as far too lacking when it comes to gender and sexual politics. Oh he perhaps does that too. But Grossman isn’t tweaking the story of King Arthur. He’s telling it again in his own way. Each character is given a back story that deepens and impresses on our mind, from the new lesser knights we begin with to Arthur and Lancelot and the whole gang. Ultimately, it becomes quite moving. These tales will be told again and again as long as stories are told. But they won’t always be told well. Here, they are.

The late Michael Flynn was a master of science fiction, as eight nominations for the acclaimed Hugo Award make clear. His final novel looks to be a fitting capper to a renowned career. Here Flynn brings to life the people living on an asteroid that’s been hollowed out and sent on its way to colonize a planet it will take hundreds of years to reach. Just generations into the voyage, the society of some 40,000 people is collapsing. An increasing number of its inhabitants have never known anything except life on The Whale, as it’s called. It’s a microcosm of life on Earth, of course, but Flynn brings it to life with his usual clear-eyed talent for marrying hard science with rich characters.

Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi ($30; Knopf) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman ($35; Viking) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

In The Belly of the Whale by Michael Flynn ($19.99; CAEZIK SF & Fantasy) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

14. Tiger, Tiger by James Patterson
15. The Color of Everything by Cory Richards
16. All in the Family by Fred C. Trump III

James Patterson on the life of Tiger Woods. What more do you need to know? (Other than the fact that the title is a play on the poem “The Tyger” by William Blake. And boy has Tiger Woods been burning bright.)

The Color of Everything needs more explanation. It’s a memoir by the National Geographic photographer and climber Cory Richards. The thrills here are not the very real challenges he faces when scaling some of the major mountains of the world, complete with devastating avalanches and hair-raising escapes. It’s his lifelong challenge of maintaining mental health amidst a diagnosis of bipolar disorder that truly holds the reader’s attention. From panic attacks on Mt. Everest to childhood trauma, Richards embraces and shares it all.

Fred C. Trump III is the grandson of the real estate mogul Fred Trump and the nephew of former President Donald Trump, two very…challenging legacies. Like his sister Mary Trump before him, Fred has now chosen to tell his story, while admirably using the spotlight to champion support for those who are intellectually or developmentally disabled. Will he prove as fascinating a glimpse into the Trump world as Mary? We’re certainly going to find out.

Tiger, Tiger by James Patterson ($32.99; Little, Brown and Company) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

The Color of Everything by Cory Richards ($30; Random House) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

All in the Family by Fred C. Trump III ($30; Gallery Books) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

17. T he Briar Club by Kate Quinn
18. Nicked by M.T. Anderson
19. The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

From the 11th century to the 1890s to the 1950s, three century spanning works of fiction that promise to entertain, amuse and move.

Kate Quinn is the acclaimed, best-selling author of a string of hits and she knows something about time travel. She ventured back to the Ancient World for her Empress of Rome Series then jumped forward some 1400 years to capture the Borgias. But she really hit paydirt with WW I and the fascinating spy ring Quinn immortalized with her novel The Alice Network. The two world wars proved ripe pickings for Quinn’s storytelling. Now she’s setting up shop in the 1950s and the McCarthy era. The Briar Club focuses on the women at a seen-better-days boarding house in Washington DC. The widow Grace March is the newest member of this unofficial network of women making their way through the post-war years where their roles and options in life are suddenly being narrowed or removed entirely, just as if the war and their accomplishments and heroism never happened. Toss in an act of violence and the Red Scare and these women will either come together–thorns and all–or be ripped apart for good.

M.T. Anderson is simply one of the best writers working today in any genre. His books are often marketed for the Young Adult market, but anyone reading his historical novel The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing or the science fiction of Feed or the biographical work about Shostakovich titled Symphony for the City of the Dead will be disabused of any ideas about young adult novels being “lesser” works, and frankly a little jealous of their kids getting to read him first. Now Anderson delivers his first book pitched directly to adults. Nicked is another genre-blurring novel, this time set in a 12th century Italian city during a plague. A monk has a vision, his superiors aren’t interested, but before you know it Brother Nicephorus is off on a quest to steal the bones of St. Nicholas, bring back a healing potion they miraculously produce, end the plague and maybe fall in love (as monks will do, on occasion). I can’t wait to read it.

Kevin Barry is coming to America! The Irish writer of dazzling short stories and novels positively drenched in Irish and British lore, mythology, culture, what have you set his new novel in America. Sure it’s 1891 Montana and the main character is an Irish immigrant, but still, it’s exciting to have Barry close to home. Our hero is a poet (and thus, one presumes, poor) who falls madly in love with the wife of a mine superintendent. The two lovers flee on a stolen horse but a la Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid the posse chasing after them is relentless. Barry can’t help but be entertaining yet you know the stakes in his stories are always real. After all, the heart in winter is not the cheeriest of images.

T he Briar Club by Kate Quinn ($28.99; William Morrow) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

Nicked by M.T. Anderson ($28; Pantheon) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry ($28; Doubleday) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

Related: Which Author Is Outshining Stephen King, John Grisham and even Colleen Hoover?

20. Ready or Not by Andi Porretta
21. Sunrise Nights by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro

Andi Porretta delivers a graphic novel about high school seniors poised to go their separate ways. Cassie seems to have the least going on and so it’s no surprise she’s the most reluctant to let her best friends go. Sure, Nico is heading to London to study music and Aaron is reading law at Harvard and Marcy is going to San Francisco to create art while Cassie is waitressing in NYC. But maybe they’re not as confident as they seem? Cassie’s proposal to play a kid’s game of daring each other to take risks proves the perfect way to bond once more, reveal tensions and fears and show friends can remain friends even as life takes them all far away. It’s a great read for seniors and the warm palette and imagery of Porretta provides its own quiet comfort.

Okay, no one is pretending Sunrise Nights is anything other than the movie Before Sunrise reimagined with high school students who get together at summer arts camp–and only summer arts camp one night a year. I mean, they call it Sunrise Nights so surely they’re giving a knowing nod to Before Sunrise? Here Jude is an aspiring photographer and Florence is a dancer who discovers her career is probably over before it ever began thanks to a degenerative eye disease. Is a relationship that only takes place one night a year too rarefied to survive the other 364 days of the year and will Jude and Florence be brave enough to find out? It’s written in relay fashion by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro and we assume the Netflix deal is already in place.

Ready or Not by Andi Porretta ($14.99; Atheneum Books for Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

Sunrise Nights by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro ($19.99; Quill Tree Books) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

22. I Am La Chiva! by Karol Hernández; illustrated by Lorena Alvarez Gómez

The bus–the chiva–is navigating the Andes mountains, picking up passengers and and pigs and plants and fruit and vegetables along the way. Colorful, beautifully calibrated in text that invites read-aloud fun and hummable words you might even try to sing-aloud, this is a very promising debut for author Karol Hernández.

I Am La Chiva! By Karol Hernández; illustrated by Lorena Alvarez Gómez ($18.99; Dial Books) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org

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