Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for July
Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads. We also feature a number of other prominent selections, including the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, Oprah’s Book Club, the PBS Books Readers Club, the "Read with Jenna" Book Club, Reese's Book Club, and the Target Book Club.
SPECTACULAR THINGS by Beck Dorey-Stein is Reese's Book Club pick for July. In it, two sisters examine what they owe each other and what they are willing to sacrifice to make their dreams come true.
» Click here for July's Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks.
Bookreporter.com's Word of Mouth Contest: Tell Us What You've Read --- and You Can Win Two Books!
Let us know by Friday, July 25th at noon ET what books you’ve read, and you’ll have a chance to win CULPABILITY by Bruce Holsinger and THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA by Lisa Scottoline in our Word of Mouth contest.
Set at a summer rental on the Chesapeake Bay, CULPABILITY --- this month's Oprah's Book Club pick --- is a riveting family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence. THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA is a hauntingly atmospheric gothic thriller set in Tuscany, with all the twists and emotional depth that Lisa Scottoline's readers love.
» Click here to enter the contest.
An Interview with Gregory Galloway, Author of ALL WE TRUST
ALL WE TRUST by Gregory Galloway is a twisty tale about two small-town crooks who get in over their heads. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, Galloway talks about his writing process, the research he did for the book, the 20th-century crime novelists he feels have been overlooked the most and deserve to be rediscovered, and the most significant changes that have taken place in the publishing industry since his debut novel, AS SIMPLE AS SNOW, released 20 years ago.
» Click here to read the interview.
Bookreporter.com's 21st Annual Summer Reading Contests and Feature
Summer is here! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Contests and Feature.
We are hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days through mid-August, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also are sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.
Our next contest will be up on Tuesday, July 15th at noon ET. The prize book will be THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA by Lisa Scottoline, a psychological thriller in which a young widow inherits a Tuscan estate from a mysterious benefactor and finds herself thrust into the crosshairs of a dangerous conspiracy.
» Click here to read all the contest details and learn more about our featured titles.
As part of our mission to expand The Book Report Network, we have been shooting video interviews with authors and posting them on our YouTube channel. We also have been making them available as podcasts. Carol loves interviewing authors, so this feels like a natural.
EL DORADO DRIVE is the first book that Megan Abbott has written about suburban Detroit, which is where she lived for her early years. The story is set during the time when the automobile market crashed, jobs were suddenly lost, and the lifestyle to which people were accustomed disappeared. Megan talks about those days when the rug was pulled out from under people after years of not worrying about money. She also explains what it was like to write about sisters, even though she only has a brother. And she shares the exciting screenwriting news of what is next for her. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
Jeanine Cummins' latest novel, SPEAK TO ME OF HOME, is a deeply felt multigenerational family story and a Bets On selection. Jeanine talks about her inspiration for the book and the significance of home. What does it mean to different people and to different generations? She and Carol point out that we go through life either as passengers or as those who “control the wheel of the bus.” There is a family tree in the front of the book, which is helpful in following the story --- and Jeanine shows its beautiful design. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
Carol enjoyed talking to Kaira Rouda about her latest thriller, JILL IS NOT HAPPY. Please note: Kaira IS very happily married to her husband, Harley, which is something you need to know as you read this book. Kaira did get the idea for the novel when she and Harley went to Utah during the pandemic. She saw that the landscape there could lend itself to a number of terrifying moments as her characters, Jill and Jack, head off on a weekend road trip together. Jill wants time with her husband. Jack does not want to go but does so begrudgingly. Once they return home, he will leave Jill; to him, their marriage is a charade. Kaira addresses how she ramped up the tension in this cat-and-mouse game. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
» Click here for a complete list of our "Bookreporter Talks To" videos and podcasts, along with upcoming interviews.
Chief of Police Kate Burkholder arrives on scene to find the dismembered body of 21-year-old Samuel Eicher, a local Amish man who owned a successful landscaping business. The investigation has barely begun when, miles away, a second body is found. The deceased is 21-year-old Aaron Shetler, Samuel’s best friend. What could these two young Amish men have been involved in that led to such violent ends? Kate learns quickly that, for reasons she doesn’t understand, no one is willing to talk about what happened to the men. Just as she begins to fear the case may be hopeless, a mystery woman comes forward and reveals that fun-loving Aaron and Samuel had recently befriended some very unsavory characters --- individuals who may have ties to a larger, more sinister, black market.
Andy Carpenter has spent three years working as a prosecutor in Paterson. But having seen how the system never looks out for the little guy, he leaves to start his own practice as a defense attorney. Andy goes to the shelter to adopt a dog, where he meets his beloved golden retriever, Tara, and feels an immediate connection. The shelter is crowded, and Tara has been sharing space with a dog named Sunny. Andy hates to break them up, so he asks to take Sunny, too. But since there's a pending criminal case involving the owner, he'll need to get written permission for temporary possession. Andy discovers that Sunny's owner, Ryan Tierney, has been arrested for the murder of his ex-boss. But he takes an immediate liking to Ryan and ends up with his first case, along with the two dogs.
Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He’s a loner, awkward and obsessive; she’s charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream of running away from it all. What if they quit their jobs, sold their house, bought a boat and sailed away? So in June 1972, Maurice and Maralyn set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank beneath the waves. What ensues is a jaw-dropping fight to survive in the wild ocean, with little hope of rescue. Alone together for months in a tiny rubber raft, starving and exhausted, Maurice and Maralyn have to find not only ways to stay alive but ways to get along, as their inner demons emerge and their marriage is put to the greatest of tests.
Adela Woods is 16 years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck. The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they're frozen --- or so their inside joke goes. Nobody knows that her team has a secret: they can travel back in time to look for evidence. The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London to clear the name of Cain Templeton, an eccentric patron of the arts. Rumor has it that Cain is part of a sinister group called The Collectors. Ali arrives in the Victorian era to another dead woman at her feet and far too many unanswered questions. As the clock counts down, Ali becomes more entangled in the mystery, yet danger lurks around every corner. She soon finds herself trapped, unable to make her way back to her beloved son, Finn, who is battling his own accusations in the present day. Could the two cases be connected?
The targeted murder of four officers is only the first in a series of attacks that leaves police scared, angry and, most disturbingly of all, vengeful. As Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner dig into the reasons for the violence, a deeper darkness begins to emerge: the possibility that these murders are payback. The price paid for an unspeakable betrayal. To uncover the truth, Thorne will be forced to question everything he stands for. He can trust nobody, and the shocking secrets revealed by one terrible night will fracture his entire world.
Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low, and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived. Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.
In 1919, in Newfoundland, four teams of aviators came from Britain to compete in “the Big Hop”: an audacious race to be the first to fly, nonstop, across the Atlantic Ocean. One pair of competitors was forced to abandon the journey halfway, and two pairs never made it into the air. Only one team, after a death-defying 16-hour flight, made it to Ireland. Celebrated on both continents, the transatlantic contest offered a surge of inspiration --- and a welcome distraction --- to a public reeling from the Great War and the influenza pandemic. But the seven airmen who made the attempt were quickly forgotten, their achievement overshadowed by the solo Atlantic flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart years later. In THE BIG HOP, David Rooney grants the pioneering aviators of 1919 the spotlight they deserve.
After 10 years on the force, LAPD cop Sonny Rush relocates with her elderly mother to peaceful Haven, California, to join her godfather’s burgeoning PI business. Sonny’s first case: find Figgy, a missing goldendoodle last seen sporting a Versace collar. At least scouting out a dognapper gives Sonny a chance to get to know her new neighbors. Forty-eight hours in town and Figgy’s disappearance entangles Sonny in an unwelcome reunion with her ex, one of Haven’s wealthiest citizens. And when the body of a teenage boy is found along a popular hiking trail, Sonny is drawn into a web of strange beyond anything she ever saw in LA. Then comes a local’s warning: question everything. Haven hides secrets that could destroy its idyllic facade. Or destroy Sonny first.
Jennifer Jones and her best friends spend every summer at Big Cypress Swamp, and this summer, Jennifer finally will turn 11. She hopes to gain the “second sight” foretold by family legend and fulfill her destiny. Instead, the swamp serves up dangers greater than the gators lurking on Halfway Creek. Little Francie Farrow vanishes --- and Jennifer’s father goes to prison. Twenty years later, Jennifer has almost shed the label of Paul Jones’ daughter when her past comes barreling back. “Inspired by True Events,” a TV series that solves the unsolvable, is recreating that fateful summer. As the series plays out, Jennifer wonders: Did the show finally find Francie Farrow? And is Jennifer’s father truly guilty? Someone else wants answers even more than Jennifer does, and they won’t let her forget it.