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6 books you should read this July, according to local booksellers
Add these fiction and nonfiction titles to your monthly reading list.
Looking to add to your to-be-read pile? If you’ve got time for another read this month, Boston.com has you covered with six great suggestions.
This month we’ve got recommendations from booksellers at Brookline Booksmith, Harvard Book Store, Trident Booksellers & Cafe, Porter Square Books, and The Silver Unicorn.
They shared stories of Greek goddesses, 1930s spies, murder in Northern Ireland, and more for you to add to your list.
Fiction
“The Magician’s Daughter” by H.G. Parry
You’re never too old for a fairytale. In this coming-of-age adult fantasy, a young woman living off the coast of Ireland ventures off her island home for the first time when he guardian disappears and she must head out to find him.
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“A fun callback to classic fairytales, and reminiscent of ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘The Tempest’,” said Porter Square Books bookseller Engel Williams. “This book is full of all the familiar magic of childhood and much more.”
“Foul Lady Fortune” by Chloe Gong
This novel is a spin-off of the popular “These Violent Delights” books but stands alone as a great read. In the book, a pair of spies pose as a married couple to investigate murders in 1930s Shanghai.
“It’s exciting, a little bit devastating, and made me want to throw it across the room when I finished it. Everyone should read it. You don’t need to read ‘These Violent Delights’ and ‘Our Violent Ends’ first but you should read those too anyway,” said Amy Amy Brabenec, a bookseller from Brookline Booksmith.
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Nonfiction
“Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe
This is the true story of Jean McConville, who was believed to be killed by the IRA because of suspicion that she was conspiring with loyalist spies, during the height of the Troubles in Belfast.
“Keefe expertly exhumes and crafts this mystery and its players, discovering that McConville’s fate was buried in secret tapes across the Atlantic — here in Boston, to be precise,” said Geoff Raywood of Trident Booksellers.
“Architecture of Normal: The Colonization of the American Landscape” by Daniel Kaven
If you’re a visual learner and a lover of history and design, this book is for you. Bookseller Brad Lennon said Harvard Book Store shelves the book in the architecture section, but it’s one of his favorite history books.
“Through images, narrative, and a detailed timeline Kaven shows how the American southwest went from a pristine landscape populated by people who were one with the land to a giant homogenized strip mall,” he said.
Children and Young Adult
“Ghosts, Toast, and Other Hazards” by Susan Tan
This book is great for middle school readers but with themes of family struggles and mental health, it’s a worthwhile addition for older readers too.
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“In this delightful and heart-wrenching chapter book, our hero Mo sets out to lay the ghost of an elephant to rest while battling her family’s expectations, her community’s racism, and her own worst impulses,” said Brookline Booksmith’s Piera Varela. “Susan Tan is a genius!”
“Spin” by Rebecca Caprara
This new book from a local author is a feminist, sapphic, YA retelling of the myth of Arachne.
“Rebecca has spun (pun intended) an amazing tale of courage, perseverance, and heroism, and snagged it in a feminist web (pun intended again). You need not know the long-told tales of Arachne as a villainess to enjoy this story, but you will likely be even more satisfied with the effort if you do,” said Paul Swydan, owner of The Silver Unicorn Bookstore. “This is a novel in verse worthy of the gods and goddesses!”
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