Bergstein, Rachelle. The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us. Atria/One Signal. Jul. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9781668010907. $27.99. BIOG

Bergstein (Brilliance and Fire) digs into the life and work of Judy Blume, exploring why her novels have staying power and are repeatedly banned. Bergstein attributes these reactions to Blume’s writing honest stories about real issues during the women’s liberation movement in the mid-20th century; she argues that the books changed how readers understood adolescence.

Chowdhary, Zara. The Lucky Ones: A Memoir. Crown. Jul. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9780593727430. $30. MEMOIR

University of Wisconsin professor Chowdhary debuts with a poetic memoir about her experiences in India when Narendra Modi instigated an anti-Muslim pogrom. Blending past and present and detailing stories of sisters, mothers, daughters, and herself, Chowdhary explores the history of her Muslim family and writes about how easily freedom is taken away.

Cloepfil, Georgia. The Striker and the Clock: On Being in the Game. Riverhead. Jul. 2024. 208p. ISBN 9780593714881. $27. MEMOIR

Cloepfil, a finalist for the Graywolf Prize, played professional soccer for six years, across six different countries. This artful memoir is divided into 90 short passages, one for each minute of a regulation soccer match. It is not only about her experiences but also about women’s soccer more broadly and professional sports played out beyond the fanfare.

Dougher, Patrick. If By Some Impossible Miracle: Coming of Age in Underground New York. Little, Brown. Jul. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780316571029. $32. MEMOIR

Multidisciplinary artist Dougher, who was featured in Humans of New York and has done everything from performing and recoding with Sade to designing the cover for a reissue of Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, writes about his life, family, artistic process, and self-discovery.

Graham, Jasmin. Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist. Pantheon. Jul. 2024. 224p. ISBN 9780593685259. $28. MEMOIR

Graham is a marine biologist specializing in smalltooth sawfish and hammerhead sharks and is the co-founder of Minorities in Shark Sciences. She details her journey as a Black scientist who found traditional academic study fruitless and instead became an independent researcher. As much about social justice as science and timed to coincide with Shark Week.

Hoffman, Steve. A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France. Crown. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780593240281. $30. MEMOIR

An IACP and James Beard award winner for the 2018 essay “What Is Northern Food,” Hoffman writes about moving his family from Minnesota to a small provincial village in the south of France—learning, anew about food, cooking, winemaking, and himself.

Patterson, James & Peter de Jonge. Tiger, Tiger: The Untold Story of the G.O.A.T. Little, Brown. Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780316438605. $32.99. BIOG

Joining forces again, after Miracle on the 17th Green and Miracle at Augusta, Patterson and de Jonge write about Tiger Woods, detailing his life, his game, and his impact on golf. Highlighting transformative moments—even specific putts and drives—the book is being marketed as the first major biography of Woods since 2018. With a 200K-copy first printing.

Richards, Cory. The Color of Everything: A Journey To Quiet the Chaos Within. Random. Jul. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780593596791. $30. MEMOIR

A past National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, Richards is a Nat Geo photographer, filmmaker/director, writer, and climber. He writes about epic climbs, dangerous adventures, and his difficult childhood. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Richards also delves into his adulthood and the costs of choices, fame, and addiction.

Song, Hyeseung. Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl. S. & S. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781668003664. $27.99. MEMOIR

Song, the daughter of Korean immigrants, pens a coming-of-age memoir that explores her family’s ambition and her quest for self-worth. After years of striving to meet exacting maternal demands and finding her own self-erasure mentally harmful, Song enters a psychiatric hospital and finally begins to heal.

Sullivan, John J. Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia’s War Against the West. Little, Brown. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780316571098. $32. MEMOIR

The most recent U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Sullivan was in office when Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. He writes about the deteriorating U.S.-Russia relationship, Putin’s regime, and, as Sullivan also served under Trump, the dysfunction of the Trump administration and its stance on Putin.