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Readers' Most Anticipated Books of July
At the beginning of each calendar month, Goodreads’ crack editorial squad assembles a list of the hottest and most popular new books hitting shelves, actual and virtual. The list is generated by readers’ early reviews and by tracking which titles are being added to Want to Read shelves by Goodreads regulars.
New in July: Kelly Rimmer unearths a World War II story via 1970s Liverpool in The Paris Agent. Silvia Moreno-Garcia tells of a devilishly dangerous film in Silver Nitrate. And ridiculously versatile author Colson Whitehead returns to New York City with the elevated crime fiction of Crook Manifesto. Also on tap this month: Silicon Valley days, Savannah nights, and one extremely haunted house.
Add the books that catch your eye to your Want to Read shelf, and let us know what you're reading and recommending in the comments section.
The Best Books of July:
Eight years after a traumatic sexual assault, young mother Sara Lancaster returns to her hometown to run her father’s bookstore and build a new life with her genius-level daughter. Over the course of one sweltering Savannah summer, Sara’s life takes some surprising turns. Author Terah Shelton Harris is earning affectionate praise from critics and early readers with this debut novel, which earnestly explores themes of forgiveness, compassion, and unconditional love. The stuff that matters.
Beloved Australian author Kelly Rimmer (The Things We Cannot Say) is back with this intriguing mystery story set in 1970s Liverpool, England. Aging hero Noah Ainsworth remembers that he was a British operative in France during World War II. But a traumatic head injury has left troubling gaps in his memory. When his daughter Charlotte attempts to unravel history, she finds that a double agent may still be in the field—and dangerously close to home.
Set in the treacherous world of Silicon Valley startups, Ripe follows the grim downward spiral of one millennial worker who realizes, gradually, that she’s in the wrong place. For hopeful and hardworking Cassie, the cutthroat corporate world is a land of cognitive dissonance. Ultrawealthy executives walk past dying homeless people to climb into their Teslas. Most disturbing, Cassie’s growing despair is manifesting as a small but quite literal black hole in space-time. And it’s growing…
Laugh-and-cry specialist Katherine Center (The Bodyguard) returns with the strange love story of talented artist Sadie Montogmery, who has just made the finals of the North American Portrait Society competition. So that’s good! The tricky part: A recent surgery has left Sadie with the “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. That’s not so good. Also, she’s falling for two guys at the same time. Fate, it seems, enjoys practical jokes. Luckily, there are other ways to tell guys apart. Even with your eyes closed.
Here’s one for the cynics who say there are no new premises in horror and mystery-thrillers. From the always inventive Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic, the historical horror of Silver Nitrate invites readers into the busy film industry of 1990s Mexico City. A curious rumor is making the rounds: Did a Nazi occultist really imbue sorcery into reels of volatile silver nitrate film stock? Didn’t see that story setup coming.
Read our interview with Moreno-Garcia here.
Read our interview with Moreno-Garcia here.
A kind of deep-space mystery with impossibly high stakes, this debut novel from Brooklyn author Yume Kitasei is winning great early reviews. The action takes place aboard the starship known as The Phoenix, which carries the last and only colony of humans to escape Earth’s environmental collapse. When sabotage threatens the colony—the future of humanity, really—one young woman must find out who sabotaged the ship before the bomber strikes again.
Read our interview with Kitasei here.
Read our interview with Kitasei here.
Court intrigue. Lethal combat games. Psychic possession. Weird uncles. Such are the elements in play as acclaimed YA author Chloe Gong (These Violent Delights) makes her adult fantasy debut. Inspired by Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra, the new book centers on a brutal combat tournament as three unlikely companions travel to the magnificent twin cities of San-Er. Friendships fail, alliances shift, and love (as usual) complicates everything.
Darrow is a Red, the lowest caste, born in the dust of Mars. He is also the Reaper, leader of the revolution and savior of worlds. Book number six in the popular Red Rising Saga series, Light Bringer continues author Pierce Brown’s epic vision of an interstellar, color-coded future society. Bonus trivia: The Red Rising series has some ancient DNA. The series was inspired in part by the Greek legend of Antigone and writings that date back to the fifth century BCE.
Irish crime fiction specialist Liz Nugent (Lying in Wait) returns with this particularly dark mystery thriller about a reclusive woman and her tragic past. Sally Diamond is starting to hear voices—one voice in particular—from a childhood she can’t quite remember. When she starts pulling at the strings of her memories, she finds unwanted attention from a neighbor, the police, and someone else entirely, peering in from the other side of the world.
The summer tradition of the block party gets a sinister rethinking in this debut thriller from New England author Jamie Day. At the end of their annual Memorial Day block party, the affluent residents of the Alton Road cul-de-sac make an unpleasant discovery. Murder! Who’s the killer? Actually, who’s the victim? Advance readers suggest that there are multiple levels of mystery in this particular whodunit, which speculates darkly on what really goes on behind your neighbors’ closed doors.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead is as close to a sure thing as you can get in the book world, no matter what he’s writing about. Zombies, for instance. Whitehead’s latest (and part of an unfolding trilogy), Crook Manifesto invites readers to the seedy environs of 1970s New York City, where crime is at an all-time high and ex-fence Ray Carney is trying to stay on the straight and narrow. Hard-boiled crime fiction and instructive historical fiction collide in a city having a nervous breakdown.
The ideal neighborhood of Stanhope isn’t quite what it seems. Ostensible family man William Wooler, for instance, has just returned from a motel rendezvous as part of a messy extramarital affair. When his nine-year-old daughter goes missing, William’s collapsing lies cause a kind of cascade effect in the neighborhood. In Stanhope, it seems, everyone has something to hide. Veteran author Shari Lapena (The Couple Next Door) returns with another twisty domestic thriller.
Francine Thwaite has lived all her 55 years at Thwaite Manor, a decidedly haunted house in England’s Lake District. Francine has no problem with that. In fact, she gets along with the ghosts just fine. But when an old family secret is revealed, the mood changes fast. Author Shannon Morgan brings spooky Gothic atmosphere and pleasantly creepy vibes to her story of a middle-aged woman, a mischievous little ghost girl, and an unfortunate turn of events.
Bears are the best. Everyone knows this. Award-winning journalist Gloria Dickie celebrates the legacy of this noble animal with Eight Bears, an ambitious mix of science, nature, and travel writing. Dickie reports from the front lines of conservation efforts to protect Earth’s eight (!) remaining bear species. Along the way, she travels around the world (China, the Arctic, the Rockies) and reflects on bearish elements in our human culture—from Ancient Greece to Indigenous folklore to childhood memories.
One of the season’s most intriguing memoirs, author Beth Nguyen’s book is a heartbreaking story. At the end of the Vietnam war, eight-year-old Nguyen fled with her extended family from Saigon to America. With her mother left behind, Nguyen lived out a different kind of refugee experience as a lonely little girl tucked into a typical Midwestern childhood. Her vivid coming-of-age story looks back on a lifetime of loneliness and absence, connection and belonging.
Which new releases are you looking forward to reading? Let's talk books in the comments!
Check out more July book coverage here:
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Jun 28, 2023 01:30PM
my most anticipated is ‘when life gives you lemons’ it’s a romance that has pakistani representation. the reason it’s my most anticipated is because of the diversity, i have never read a book with a mmc and fmc that share a background with me.
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Most of these books look absolutely terrible lmfao
I'm most looking forward to Kate Mosse's new novel "The Ghost Ship"
Ripe and Her Little Flowers look good to me.
All of these look good!
The Sun and the Void and A Soul of Ash and Blood and Girl, Goddess, Queen!
I don’t think this is the list I’m looking for…
Cosimo wrote: "If I'd make my personal most anticipated books list, none of these would make it on it. But then my list would include a lot of non-English authors and a lot of male authors, two categories which s..."Let me guess. Your list consists entirely of Jordan Peterson books?
Looking forward to reading Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur and Kristin Hannah's The Women.
Also, The Majority by Elizabeth Silver, looks like it will be an intriguing fictional take-off on the life and issues of RBG.
I would agree with Ash and Erina here. Not too enthused here.
Not really a whole lot comin' out this month tbh.
I can't wait to read Liz Nugent's book. It's been on my want to read. I've read all of her others and absolutely love them. If you're skipping her because of the 'Irish author' don't. The books are very relatable no matter where you are from.
MEH. Not excited about anything here.
I guess I'll be skipping July books.
Surprised to see so many negative reactions to books. I'm excited about a few TBH..we all like what we like 🤣
Ripe & Owner of A Lonely Heart appeal to me.
July doesn’t seem like it’s my cup of tea
Ash wrote: "Most of these books look absolutely terrible lmfao"agree !
Jack Carr has my whole heart right now! Look him up. Just saying.
Added Owner Of A Lonely Heart and Silver Nitrate to my to be read list 👍🏻
Looking forward to the third Colton Whitehead book.
Maybe the next list will grab my attention...(hopefully).....
most of these js don't give that august vibe... like they're too dark for summer imo
The 7th book in the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells is coming out soon. I’m super excited for that. ♥️
I am so excited to read Her Dying Kiss by Jennifer Chase. I adore her Katie Scott series. I am also looking forward to reading Her Silent Friend by Allison Stockholm & She Says She’s My Daughter by Lauren North.
Not too thrilled, but Summer in Savannah and Strange Sally Diamond are in my want to reads.
Not a big fan of romance or mystery. Not my kind of list.
I cant wait to read a lot of these!!
Really looking forward to the Block Party. I’m not really a mystery/thriller reader, but I’ve been intrigued by this one since the beginning of this year.
