💬 Friday Thread: What Are Your Anticipated July Reads?
And what have you been reading lately?
Hello and Happy Friday!
If you’re in the US and celebrating, Happy 4th of July🎆. I’ll be enjoying fireworks at the lake, a family cookout, and most likely some competitive games of corn hole. In terms of reading, I have plans to sample a few July new releases, including Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams, as well as backlist possibilities like Summer by Edith Barton and My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. I’ll probably end up adding even more to my sample fest—as you can relate, the reading options we all have are endless:)
I’ll share a few more of my July anticipated reads below. I have a combination new release and backlist that I’m anticipating reading in July, so feel free to mix it up with your anticipated reads too. Plus, don’t forget to share what you’ve been reading lately!
More of My July Anticipated Reads
Night Watcher by Daphne Woolsoncroft - I’ve had great luck with new to me authors and I’m always on the hunt for a good serial killer thriller
Nola Strate, a late night call-in radio host in Portland, Oregon, listens to stories of hauntings and cryptic sightings for a living. But one foggy, wet evening, when a caller describes an eerie scene that triggers memories of Nola’s escape from a serial killer years before, she becomes fearfully aware that he’s back to finish what he started
What the Deep Water Knows : Poems by Miranda Cowley Heller - I loved The Paper Palace and I’m curious to read her writing in poem form
A debut poetry collection that paints a moving portrait of a rich life from childhood to love to marriage to motherhood to divorce and beyond.
Mister Tender’s Girl by Carter Wilson - This backlist is on my list because I’ll be seeing the author next week at the Columbus Book Festival and I’ve been meaning to read this. He’ll be in conversation with two of my favorite thriller authors, Gregg Hurwitz and Joseph Finder!
At fourteen, Alice Hill was viciously attacked by two of her classmates and left to die. The teens claim she was a sacrifice for a man called Mister Tender, but that could never be true: Mister Tender doesn't exist. His sinister character is pop-culture fiction, created by Alice's own father in a series of popular graphic novels.
Over a decade later, Alice has changed her name and is trying to heal. But someone is watching her
The Greatest Possible Good by Ben Brooks (July 15) - I love a story that spans years and the vibes of this are wealthy people who aren’t behaving badly—until they do—which I love
An irresistibly funny and incisive novel about a wealthy family that is confident in its good intentions—until the discovery that their patriarch has secretly given all their money to charity ruins their lives.
Spanish Beauty by Esther GarcÃa Llovet (author), Richard Village (translator) - This was an impulse buy from Blackwell’s. It caught my eye because I love the cover, I love to read translated international fiction in the summer, and the premise has many of my buzzwords. Plus, it’s a literary thriller
Meet Michela, English gangster father, flamenco dancer mother, a hard, uncompromising police officer, operating on the shadier side of the law. In the company of this unorthodox, magnetically compelling character, readers are taken on a breath-taking, high-speed, anarchic romp through the underbelly of the pearl of the Costa Blanca. Beyond the sunburn and all-day fry-ups, in casinos, bars that are fronts for money laundering and flashy high society parties, we meet an unforgettable cast of characters English gangsters and Russian mafiosi, chancers, no-hopers, and low-life of all complexions in this unconventional yet literary thriller
Question Time
The questions I ask in weekly threads are meant to be fun and help us connect, so please know you don’t have to answer each question, if you only have the time/desire to answer one, great! Please put book titles IN ALL CAPS for easy reading:)
What are your anticipated July reads?
What have you been reading lately?
If you’re reading this in email, click itsbooktalk.substack.com to comment and join the conversation!