All the July 2024 Prepub Alerts in one place, plus a downloadable spreadsheet of all titles from every post.

Fiction

Pop Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brenner, Jamie. A Novel Summer. Park Row: Harlequin. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780778310846. pap. $18.99. F

In Brenner’s (Gilt) bookish, summery read, Shelby Albert finds that her best seller drew from real life too much when she gets the cold shoulder from her betrayed friends and neighbors on Cape Cod. Slowly earning back their trust while working at the local bookshop, she faces a dilemma as her next publishing deadline looms. With a 125K-copy first printing.

Brodesser-Akner, Taffy. Long Island Compromise. Random House. Jul. 2024. 416p. ISBN 9780593133491. $29. F

Brodesser-Akner, the best-selling author of the NBA-longlisted Fleishman Is in Trouble, returns with a story about the lasting impact of trauma on a family as wealthy businessman Carl is kidnapped and held for ransom. He’s returned to his family, but 40 years later, it’s clear no one is over the incident.

Colgan, Jenny. Close Knit. Avon. Jul. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9780063260566. pap. $18.99. F

Best-selling Colgan (The Summer Skies) returns to the islands of northern Scotland with a romantic summer novel. Gertie spends her time knitting and dreaming of leaving the island and gets the chance when she takes a job working for the local airline, expanding her world with new friendships and a chance at romance. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Elias, Asha. Pink Glass Houses. Morrow. Jul. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780063312791. $28. F

Debuter Elias knows the Miami Beach scene well and offers up a social satire about the wealthy moms at an elite elementary school. Alpha mom Charlotte begins to unravel when challenged for the PTA presidency; there’s also an investigation into white-collar crime that might just bring the whole institution down. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Espach, Alison. The Wedding People. Holt. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9781250899576. $28.99. F

In the newest from Espach (author of the multi-best-booked Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance), Phoebe arrives at a grand hotel in Newport, RI, to fulfill a dream trip and finds the inn taken over for a wedding. The bride has meticulously planned the weekend but didn’t factor in Phoebe, who turns out to be a good confidante. With a 150K-copy first printing.

Giffin, Emily. The Summer Pact. Ballantine. Jul. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780593600290. $30. F

Best-selling Giffin (Meant To Be) offers a novel of friendship and self-discovery, timed for summer. Four college freshmen forge a close friendship, and when a tragedy devastates them, they make a pact to always be there for each other. Ten years later, Hannah calls on the pact and her friends, launching them on a life-changing adventure.

Green, Lauren Aliza. The World After Alice. Viking. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780593654132. $30. F

Twelve years after 16-year-old Alice died, her best friend and brother surprise their families with an invitation to their wedding in Maine. Alice’s death fractured these families, and as they reunite for the wedding, unearthed secrets threaten to derail the weekend. One of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in Media, Green makes her debut.

Joella, Ethan. The Same Bright Stars. Scribner. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781668024607. $28. F

Jack has devoted his life to running his family’s Delaware beachfront restaurant since his father’s death. When a restaurant group offers to buy the restaurant, he has to decide if he should hold on to this legacy or consider a new life. Joella’s A Little Hope was a Read with Jenna Bonus Pick.

Lindo-Rice, Michelle. The Bookshop Sisterhood. Mira: Harlequin. Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780778334385. pap. $18.99. F

Four best friends are finally about to open the Black-owned bookstore of their dreams, but their worlds are upended with devastating news, a struggling marriage, a shocking secret, and a lotto ticket. As the grand opening approaches, they’ll have to lean on each other as they navigate these unexpected plot twists and find new beginnings.

Mathieu, Jennifer. The Faculty Lounge. Dutton. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9780593475393. $28. F

YA author and high school teacher Mathieu, who wrote the Netflix-adapted Moxie, makes her adult debut with an ode to educators and a glimpse at the issues schools face as the death of an elderly substitute teacher in the faculty lounge of a high school sets off an unexpected chain of events.

Neff, Amy. The Days I Loved You Most. Park Row: Harlequin. Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780778310471. $28.99. F

Acquired with a six-figure preempt as a lead title for the season, Neff’s debut receives a 200K-copy first printing. Childhood sweethearts spent many summers at neighboring New England beach homes. Sixty years later, they tell their grown children that they’ll be ending their lives in a year due to a tragic diagnosis.

Segal, Francesca. Welcome to Glorious Tuga. Ecco: HarperCollins. Jul. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780063360457. $28.99. F

Author of the multi-award-winning The Innocents, Segal sets her latest on a fictional remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean, where London veterinarian Charlotte is studying endangered tortoises. The islanders—and an attractive doctor—campaign for her to be the vet to all of the island’s animals. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Senna, Danzy. Colored Television. Riverhead. Jul. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9780593544372. $29. F

Senna (author of the multi-best-booked New People) returns with a Hollywood story featuring writer Jane, who finds a luxury house-sitting gig for her and her family while she finishes her novel. When that goes wrong, Jane turns to Hollywood and lands a deal to create a biracial comedy for TV, which also doesn’t go as planned.

Shepherd, Peng. All This and More. Morrow. Jul. 2024. 480p. ISBN 9780063278974. $30. F

Best-selling Shepherd (The Cartographers) receives a 125K-copy first printing for her unique new novel that can be read straight through or in choose-your-own-adventure style. Marsh isn’t happy with her life, so she accepts an offer to star on a TV show that uses quantum technology, allowing contestants to rewrite their lives. But it might be too good to be true.

Sullivan, J. Courtney. The Cliffs. Knopf. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780593319154. $29. F

Sullivan’s Friends and Strangers was a best seller and a Read with Jenna pick. Her newest centers on a seaside Maine house that Jane loved exploring as a child. When the new owner becomes convinced that the house is haunted, she hires Jane to look into its history, uncovering more than expected.

Literary Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barry, Kevin. The Heart in Winter. Doubleday. Jul. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780385550598. $28. F

Barry’s debut novel won the Dublin Literary Prize and his third, Night Boat to Tangier, is being adapted for film. His latest is set in the 1890s in a Montana mining town, where immigrant Irish worker Tom falls for the wrong woman; the young lovers run away together with a posse of gunmen in hot pursuit.

Gatwood, Olivia. Whoever You Are, Honey. Dial. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780593230442. $27. F

Following her poetry collection Life of the Party, Gatwood makes her fiction debut with a story that explores women’s identities and AI. On the outskirts of Silicon Valley, Mitty occupies a dilapidated bungalow in a town taken over by the tech elite. Her growing friendship with Lena, the new neighbor, will change everything as they confront their pasts.

Hur, Anton. Toward Eternity. HarperVia. Jul. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780063344488. $26.99. F

Hur, an acclaimed translator, debuts with a thought-provoking speculative novel set in a near-future world in which robot nanites replace cancerous body cells and a living, thinking AI, with an understanding of poetry, gains freedom in an android body. Hur considers the definition of humanity and personhood and the consequences of technological progress.

Kang, Minsoo. The Melancholy of Untold History. Morrow. Jul. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9780063337503. $28. F

Historian Kang offers a debut novel inspired by East Asian mythology. Spanning thousands of years and interweaving multiple stories—a history professor mourning his wife, his protégé, four mountain gods, and a storyteller—the book deals with love, loss, and the idea of storytelling.

Kó.láwo.lé, Samuel. The Road to the Salt Sea. Amistad: HarperCollins. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780063050853. $28.99. F

Writing professor Kó.láwo.lé’s debut reflects upon the global migration crisis. Able God works at an upscale hotel in Nigeria, but an incident sends him running into the desert with a group of migrants. They dream of starting a new life in Europe but fall prey to human traffickers and must fight for their lives and freedom.

Manguso, Sarah. Liars. Hogarth: Crown. Jul. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780593241257. $28. F

Manguso’s previous novel was the multi-best-booked Very Cold People. Her latest examines what it means to be a creative person in domestic life, as aspiring writer Jane marries filmmaker John and becomes a wife and mother. Their marriage falters as Jane’s career flourishes. Then John leaves, and Jane has to overcome the aftermath.

McKenna, Oisín. Evenings and Weekends. Mariner. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780063319974. $30. F

McKenna was named one of Ireland’s best spoken-word artists by the Irish Times and makes his grant-funded debut, set during a heatwave in 2019 London, where a whale is stuck in the Thames River and four acquaintances cross paths at a life-changing party.

Mengestu, Dinaw. Someone Like Us. Knopf. Jul. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780385350006. $28. F

Award-winning Mengestu, whose three previous novels were all NYT Notable Books, here writes about the son of Ethiopian immigrants, Mamush, whose father’s unexpected death sends him on a journey for answers about his family’s past—which also affects his relationship with his wife and two-year-old son.

Sennaar, Mai. They Dream in Gold. SJP Lit: Zando. Jul. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9781638931102. $28. F

Sennaar’s debut explores the African diaspora through a multigenerational story set in the Swiss countryside in 1969. Mama Eva prepares for the opening of her Senegalese restaurant, while her pregnant daughter-in-law anxiously waits for her overdue musician husband, Mansour, to return from tour. As the women share stories, their pasts, and the truth of Mansour’s disappearance, are revealed. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Thanki, Asha. A Thousand Times Before. Viking. Jul. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780593654644. $29. F

Won in a heated auction, Thanki’s debut spans Partition-era India to modern-day Brooklyn as it follows generations of women who inherit a mysterious tapestry that allows them to experience the memories of those who came before. As Ayukta considers having a child with her wife, she must share the secret and consider if she should pass on her complicated inheritance.

Thompson, August. Anyone’s Ghost. Penguin Pr. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780593656563. $28. F

Thompson debuts with a coming-of-age story of love and tragic loss framed by a series of car crashes. Theron was there for the first two crashes—one during the summer he met Jake as a teenager in rural New Hampshire, and the second six years later in NYC—but he’s not there for the crash that kills Jake.

Todd, Ruby. Bright Objects. S. & S. Jul. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781668053218. $28.99. F

In a debut that blends mystery, astronomy, and romance, young widow Sylvia searches for her husband’s killer as a rare comet becomes visible. A mystic claims that the comet is a divine message, and her town descends into a fervor over the comet in this literary thriller that considers the lengths people go to in pursuit of an obsession.

Vlautin, Willy. The Horse. Harper. Jul. 2024. 208p. ISBN 9780063346574. $25.99. F

Al Ward lives on an isolated mining claim in Nevada while insomnia and anxiety consume him. When a horse appears, Al considers whether it is real, and thinks back over his life as a musician as he considers how he ended up in this state. Vlautin’s The Night Always Comes was an Indie Next and a LibraryReads pick.

Yagisawa, Satoshi. More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop. Harper Perennial. Jul. 2024. 176p. tr. from Japanese by Eric Ozawa. ISBN 9780063278714. pap. $17.99. F

Readers clamored for Yagisawa’s charming and internationally best-selling Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, a poignant and thoughtful portrayal of book lovers and bookstores. Here he returns to the same bookshop in Tokyo’s famous used-bookstore district, revisiting store owner Takako and his niece Satoru as they decide whether or not to close the shop.

Zaher, Yasmin. The Coin. Catapult. Jul. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9781646222100. $27. F

In Zaher’s debut, a stylish young Palestinian woman strives to create her ideal self in the U.S. She’s teaching at a New York City middle school but is also involved in a scheme reselling Birkin bags. Attempting to feel more in control of her life, she becomes preoccupied with purity and cleanliness until ultimately, she spectacularly unravels.

Historical Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anderson, M.T. Nicked. Pantheon. Jul. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9780593701607. $28. F

NBA winner and multiple-time finalist Anderson (best known for the YA novel Feed) makes his adult debut with a genre-blending story about stealing Saint Nicholas’s bones to ward off a pox sweeping through an Italian city in 1087. Featuring a cloistered monk, it is BISACed as literary, fantasy/historical, and LGBTQ+ and described as both a rompy caper and an adventure romance.

Dillsworth, Lianne. House of Shades. Harper. Jul. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780358627920. $30. F

Dillsworth (Theatre of Marvels) returns to Victorian London in her sophomore novel, in which Hester Reeves, a Black woman doctor, is offered a life-changing payment if she can cure the ailing Gervaise Cherville. Healing Cherville requires Hester not only to leave her husband and home but also to move into a house of secrets.

Dunlay, Emily. Teddy. Harper. Jul. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9780063354890. $30. F

Dunlay’s debut gets a 50K-copy first printing and is set in Rome in 1969. Teddy Huntley Carlyle is newly arrived from Texas, on the arm of her diplomat husband stationed in the American embassy. She vows to be perfect and good; then, at a Fourth of July party, everything explodes.

Kamali, Marjan. The Lion Women of Tehran. Gallery. Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781668036587. $28.99. F

Best seller Kamali (The Stationery Shop) offers a story of friendship and redemption set against three decades in Tehran, beginning in the 1950s when seven-year-old Ellie meets Homa. The girls bond over their shared interests and their desire to grow up to be “lion women.” Class and opportunity divide them, but fate brings them together repeatedly, testing and forging—and breaking—bonds.

Lecoat, Jenny. Beyond Summerland. Graydon House. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781525831546. pap. $18.99. F

The second novel from Lecoat, after her best-selling debut The Girl from The Channel Islands, is set in post-WWII Jersey, one of the Channel Islands that was occupied by the Nazis during the war. Demands to punish wartime Nazi collaborators grow and accusations are on the wind as two women collide and then bond in a small-world setting full of secrets and repercussions. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. The Seventh Veil of Salome. Del Rey: Ballantine. Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780593600269. $28.99. F

The award-winning Moreno-Garcia (whose Mexican Gothic is being developed by Hulu) spins a multiple-timeline historical saga. In 1950s Hollywood, the production of the film Salome is the big story; also buzzing is newcomer Vera Larios, who has landed the lead role. In ancient Judea, the flesh-and-blood princess Salome is living her own legendary life, torn between desire and duty.

Quinn, Kate. The Briar Club. Morrow. Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780063244740. $30. F

Best seller Quinn (The Diamond Eye) sets her newest during the McCarthy era. The Briarwood House shelters the enigmatic widow Grace March, who moves into the attic and soon gathers a salon around her of fellow boarders. But all of the women have hurts, and none will escape the violence that enters the house—or the paranoia cloaking the country.

Saint, Jennifer. Hera. Flatiron. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781250855602. $28.99. F

After writing Atalanta, Elektra, and Ariadne, Saint once again pens a feminist reclaiming of the mythological pantheon. Hera, sister to Zeus, helped overthrow their father so Zeus could take the crown. But Hera begins to wonder about his motivations too, and, as she was born to be a queen, has plans of her own to remake the world. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Velton, Sonia. The Nightingale’s Castle: A Novel of Erzsébet Báthory, the Blood Countess. Harper Perennial. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780063351462. pap. $18.99. F

With a film optioned for her debut, Blackberry and Wild Rose, Velton now reimagines—even reclaims—the life of Erzsébet Báthory, the 16th-century Hungarian aristocrat who inspired Dracula, a powerful woman who was called the “Blood Countess” because she was said to have bathed in the blood of the hundreds she murdered. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Mystery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Billingham, Mark. The Wrong Hands. Atlantic Monthly. (Detective Miller, Bk. 2). Jul. 2024. NAp. ISBN 9780802163097. $27. M

The second in the “Detective Miller” caper series sees the detective talking to the ghost of his dead wife, trying to solve her murder, and dealing with a man who shows up at his door with a pair of severed hands. The multi-award-winning and best-selling Billingham adds a lot more, including Cadbury Crème Eggs.

Borgos, Bruce. Shades of Mercy. Minotaur. (Porter Beck, Bk. 2). Jul. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781250848093. $28. M

The second in the “Porter Beck” series sees the sheriff faced with troubles on two fronts—a flood of illegal opioids and a hacker. The hacker problem might be solved if teenage computer whiz Mercy Vaughn would help, but she has disappeared. Beck now faces an even wider set of dangers.

Driscoll, Sara. Echoes of Memory. Kensington. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781496748706. $28. M

A florist dealing with post-traumatic amnesia witnesses a murder and records every detail in her trusty memory-aid notebook. When the police arrive, everything has already been cleaned up, and the only remaining evidence of the murder is the diary of a woman who cannot remember anything at all. A stand-alone from Driscoll, rather than her usual series runs.

Grames, Juliet. The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia. Knopf. Jul. 2024. 416p. ISBN 9780593536179. $29. M

The best-selling author of The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna offers her second novel, about an American woman who becomes a PI in a small Italian village in the 1960s. Francesca arrives in the wake of a devastating flood—which reveals a human skeleton—putting her in the thick of a village rife with secrets.

Pitts, Delia. Trouble in Queenstown. Minotaur. (Vandy Myrick, Bk. 1). Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250904218. $28. M

The author of the “Ross Agency” mysteries starts a new series featuring a Black woman named Vandy who once worked as a cop but is now working as a PI. Her main beat is divorces, including that of the mayor’s nephew—who lands her in the middle of a high-stakes case.

Siegel, Katie. Charlotte Illes Is Not a Teacher. Kensington. (Not a Detective Mysteries, Bk. 2). Jul. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781496741004. pap. $17.95. M

Charlotte Illes returns in the second “Not a Detective” mystery, based on the beloved TikTok series. The zany fun continues as Lottie returns to the scene of her mystery-solving heights, as a substitute teacher at her old middle school—complete with a cached detective kit she left in the band room.

Forthcoming Series Titles

Afia, Nekesa. A Lethal Lady. Berkley. (Harlem Renaissance Mystery, Bk. 3). Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9780593548806. pap. $18. M

Barrett, Lorna. A Controversial Cover. Berkley. (Booktown Mystery, Bk. 18). Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780593549445. $29. M

Black, Juneau. Summers End. Vintage. (Shady Hollow Mystery, Bk. 5). Jul. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9780593470534. pap. $17. M

Castillo, Linda. The Burning. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Kate Burkholder, Bk. 16). Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250781116. $28. M

Davis, Lindsey. Death on the Tiber. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Flavia Albia, Bk. 12). Jul. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781250906717. $29. M

Johnson, Jill. The Woman in the Garden. Poisoned Pen. (Professor Eustacia Rose, Bk. 3). Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781728297750. pap. $16.99. M

Lansdale, Joe R. Sugar on the Bones. Mulholland. (Hap and Leonard, Bk. 13). Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780316513296. $29. M

Leon, Donna. A Refiner’s Fire. Atlantic Monthly. (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery, Bk. 33). Jul. 2024. NAp. ISBN 9780802162540. $28. M

McCall Smith, Alexander. The Conditions of Unconditional Love. Pantheon. (Isabel Dalhousie, Bk. 15). Jul. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9780593701720. $28. M

Montclair, Allison. Murder at the White Palace. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery, Bk. 6). Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250854216. $28. M

Rosenfelt, David. Dog Day Afternoon. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Andy Carpenter, Bk. 29). Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781250324474. $28. M

Thrillers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brazier, Eliza Jane. It Had To Be You. Berkley. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780593438923. $29. THRILLER

Eva and Jonathan, two assassins with a hit job on each other, crisscross Western Europe, hooking up on a sleeper train leaving Florence for Paris and bumping into each other at Versailles. It is all so inconvenient, and lust-filled, and flirty, and fun. But their mutual hit jobs are not the only high stakes in this reimagining of the romantic suspense genre.

Cobb, May. The Hollywood Assistant. Berkley. Jul. 2024. 416p. ISBN 9780593546826. $29. SUSPENSE

The author of A Likeable Woman, with a Starz series adaptation greenlit for The Hunting Wives, returns with a psychological suspense novel inspired by films such as Body Double and Fatal Attraction. Cassidy thinks she has landed her dream job as personal assistant to a high-powered Hollywood couple. But she just might have been hired to be the ideal murder suspect.

Copeland, Johanna. Our Kind of Game. Harper. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9780063329683. $30. THRILLER

Garnering a 100K-copy first printing for her debut, Copeland offers a twisty domestic thriller. In 2019, Stella Parker is happily raising her kids in the posh suburbs. Then her neighbor Gwen shows up, claiming to know things from Stella’s past. Back in 1987, Julie Waits wants out, away from the dangerous men her mother attracts. How Stella and Julie are connected will shock readers.

Cranor, Eli. Broiler. Soho Crime. Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781641295901. $27.95. THRILLER

Edgar Award winner Cranor offers a tense noir thriller that traces the fate and choices of an undocumented Mexican American couple and the white manager of a poultry-packing plant. Fired to make a point, Edwin Saucedo vows revenge, only to trigger a chain of unexpected events that reveal the rusted edges of the American Dream, privilege, and power.

Day, Jamie. One Big Happy Family. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9781250283207. $29. SUSPENSE

The follow-up to Day’s buzzy debut, The Block Party, gets a 150K-copy first printing. Family dynamics, a woman on the run, and a chambermaid who needs to keep her job—no matter what—are on the guest register of the Precipice Hotel, set on the rocky coast of Maine. There is a hurricane approaching, which is probably the least of the dangers.

Easter Collins, Sarah. Things Don’t Break on Their Own. Crown. Jul. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780593798331. $28. SUSPENSE

Easter Collins’s debut unfolds at a dinner party. Four couples, and heavy secrets, gather to dine. The guests include ex-lovers, strangers, and old friends. Told through alternating perspectives, there is a backstory on the menu, about a girl who disappeared decades ago, the sister who was left broken-hearted, and the truth that could now break them all.

Goodman, Carol. Return to Wyldcliffe Heights. Morrow. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780063265288. pap. $18.99. THRILLER

Mary Higgins Clark Award winner Goodman offers a modern gothic where book editor Agnes Corey is hired by the reclusive Veronica St. Clair to transcribe the sequel to her hit novel. But all is not as it seems—on the crumbling estate or in the story itself. Agnes gets pulled deeply into the dangerous chasm between fact and fiction, present and past. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Lapena, Shari. What Have You Done? Pamela Dorman. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780593489963. $30. THRILLER

Best seller Lapena (Everyone Here Is Lying) offers another of her addictive domestic suspense novels. This one is set tiny Fairhill, VT, where nothing much happens, and everyone knows everyone. Until one morning when the body of Diana Brewer is found in a field. Now she is a ghost who haunts the town, as everyone becomes a suspect.

McCreight, Kimberly. Like Mother, Like Daughter. Knopf. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780593536421. $28. SUSPENSE

The Edgar- and Anthony-nominated McCreight (Reconstructing Amelia) spins out a mother-daughter suspense thriller. Cleo, somewhat estranged from her seemingly on-top-of-it-all mom Kat, comes to dinner to find burning food in the oven and one bloody shoe. It turns out that Kat’s facade is paper thin. She knows, far better than Cleo, that danger is engulfing their world.

Newman, T.J. Extinction. Little, Brown. Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780316576796. $30. SUSPENSE

Newman’s debut, Falling, was a phenom, and is being adapted by Universal Pictures. Her third novel (after the best-selling Drowning) is being positioned as a change of pace from her earlier work. It focuses on an apocalyptic event—an airplane crash into a nuclear reactor—and one woman’s resilience. With a 150K-copy first printing.

Parker, T. Jefferson. Desperation Reef. Forge. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250907882. $28.99. THRILLER

Multi-Edgar Award–winning and best-selling Parker sets his newest thriller in the world of big-wave surfing. Jen Stonebreaker has not competed since her husband died trying to win the Monsters of the Mavericks. Now she and her adult twin sons will face those same waves, but rushing towards them are even more dangerous waters, in the form of the enemies that her sons attract. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Patterson, James & Mike Lupica. Jane Effing Smith. Little, Brown. (Jane Smith, Bk. 2). Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780316569910. $32. THRILLER

The second in the “Jane Smith” series sees attorney Smith facing double foes—a terminal diagnosis and assassins. Pulling her deeper and deeper into the mire is her client Rob Jacobson, who has been accused of killing yet another family. Jane investigates, with the expected speedy twists that Patterson and Lupica deliver. With a 300K-copy first printing.

Silva, Daniel. Untitled Silva Novel 2024. Harper. Jul. 2024. 480p. ISBN 9780063384200. $32. THRILLER

Best-selling Silva returns with a new book for beach-read season. The publisher is keeping everything—title, plot, whether it’s another of Silva’s beloved Gabriel Allon titles—under wraps. Just expect a 500K-copy first printing and Silva’s usual blend of great plotting, thoughtful and appealing lead characters, and a well-developed frame detail.

Steadman, Catherine. Look In the Mirror. Ballantine. Jul. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780593725764. pap. $18. SUSPENSE

The author of the blockbuster debut Something in the Water offers her fifth novel, a suspense thriller about two women. Nina inherits a vacation home in the British Virgin Islands from her beloved father. Maria, a nanny for the super-rich, is waiting for the kids to show up. The only house rule? Don’t go into the basement.

Youers, Rio. The Bang-Bang Sisters. Morrow. Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780063311800. $32. THRILLER

Oft garnering award attention, Youers delivers a blend of music-inflected action thriller and crime novel featuring Brea, Jessie, and Flo who rock more than a stage—they also assassinate criminals who have gotten away with their crimes. The tables are turned, however, when a criminal pits them against each other in a deadly game that only one can survive.

Forthcoming Series Titles

Cameron, Marc. Bad River. Kensington. (Arliss Cutter, Bk. 6). Jul. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9781496737632. $28. THRILLER

Coulter, Catherine. Flashpoint. Morrow. (FBI Thrillers, Bk. 27). Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780063283091. $30. THRILLER

Freeman, Brian. Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Shadow. Putnam. (Jason Bourne, Bk. 19). Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780593716458. $30. THRILLER

Kirsanow, Peter. W.E.B. Griffin Zero Option. Putnam. (Men at War, Bk. 9). Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780399171222. $30. THRILLER

Pearse, Sarah. The Wilds. Pamela Dorman: Viking. (Detective Elin Warner, Bk. 3). Jul. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780593654040. $30. SUSPENSE

Robotham, Michael. Storm Child. Scribner. (Cyrus Haven, Bk. 4). Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781668030998. $28. THRILLER

Romance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bailey, Tessa. The Au Pair Affair. Avon. (Big Shots, Bk. 2). Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780063308435. pap. $18.99. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Best-selling Bailey (Fangirl Down) offers another sports rom-com. Burgess, hockey veteran and newly single dad, needs help with his tween daughter. Tallulah, broke and studying to be a marine biologist, jumps at the chance to be a live-in nanny in a high-end neighborhood. Skates at the ready, let play begin. With a 200K-copy first printing.

de la Cruz, Melissa. The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos. Union Square. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781454947677. pap. $18.99. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Popular MG and YA author Melissa de la Cruz writes an adult romance with this story of two travel writers. Dalisay expects her suitors to follows the Filipino five stages of traditional courtship. Evan is not sure what that means, but if he wants to win Dalisay—and he does—he will have to learn to court and flirt in a whole new way.

Devore, Laurie. The Villain Edit. Avon. Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780063337602. $28. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Devore moves from YA to adult with this dramedy about Jacqueline, a romance novelist who goes on a dating reality show, only to find out that the producers has cast her as the villain. Even worse, Jacqueline and the producer recently had a one-night stand, and they both seem to want to extend that evening.

Ferguson, Lana. The Game Changer. Berkley. Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780593816837. pap. $18. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

This ice-melting rom-com from best-selling Ferguson (The Nanny; The Fake Mate) features slow-burn, friends-to-lovers, and brother’s-best-friend tropes. Hockey player Ian Chase needs to burnish his image. His best friend’s sister Delilah might be just the ticket. When the two team up on Delilah’s local TV baking show, they find that their PR stunt ignites.

Gamez, Gabriella. The Next Best Fling. Forever: Grand Central. (Librarians in Love, Bk. 1). Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9781538726631. pap. $17.99. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Debuter Gamez, who works in a library, launches her “Librarians in Love” series. Marcela’s best friend is getting married. Too bad she has loved him forever. Also not great: Theo, the groom’s brother, is in love with the bride. After their families mistakenly assume that Theo and Marcela are in love with each other, they decide to keep up the farce.

Heron, Farah. Just Playing House. Forever: Grand Central. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9781538725474. pap. $17.99. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Heron (Jana Goes Wild) writes a rom-com about celebrities and forced proximity. Stylist Marley Kamal finally gets a big break when hired to be the private shopper for star actor Nikhil Shamdasani. But there are snags. Marley has to have surgery, and Nik—who previously ghosted her after they slept together—is offering to take care of her as she heals.

Holton, India. The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love. Berkley. (Love’s Academic, Bk. 1). Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780593547281. pap. $19. HISTORICAL ROMANCE

Best seller Holton (author of LJ Best Book The Secret Service of Tea and Treason) sets two rival ornithologists against each other on a quest through Victorian England to become Birder of the Year—complete with magical birds, helicopter parasols, and derring-do. This novel launches a new series that combines STEM, adventure, and historical fantasy.

James, Eloisa. Viscount in Love. Avon. (Accidental Brides, Bk. 1). Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780063347410. pap. $9.99. HISTORICAL ROMANCE

Best-selling James launches her new “Accidental Brides” series with a 300K-copy first printing. Viscount Dominic Kelbourne needs help with the two orphans he has unexpectedly become guardian to. When his fiancée elopes, he decides to ask for her sister’s hand. It might have started as a rational bargain, but as the new couple figure things out—and argue heatedly—they find that love has its own agenda.

Kate, Lauren. What’s in a Kiss? Putnam. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780593545171. pap. $19. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Best seller Kate (By Any Other Name) offers a topsy-turvy story that explores what might have been if only a nonexistent prom kiss had taken place. Liv’s life has gone awry since that prom night, when her date Jake humiliated her. They meet again at a wedding, and when the bride says “I do,” Jake and Liv are instantly transformed into an alternate-reality couple.

Lee, Jayci. That Prince Is Mine. St. Martin’s Griffin. Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9781250907769. pap. $18. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Lee (Booked on a Feeling) offers a foodie rom-com. Emma Yoon teaches the cuisine of the Korean royal court to women hoping to marry into the one percent, while Prince Michel Aubert hopes he might find a woman who loves him more than his title. When Emma is forced to find a husband through a series of arranged first dates, Michel shows up.

Mejia, Tehlor Kay. Cash Delgado Is Living the Dream. Dell. Jul. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780593598795. pap. $18. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Mejia (Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review) returns to Ridley Falls, where Cash Delgado manages a bar, is mom to a four-year-old, and is best friends with Iris O’Connor—who has been in love with Cash for ages. Then music executive Chase shows up, and suddenly Cash has conflicting feelings—and a love triangle blossoms.

Obuobi, Shirlene. Between Friends & Lovers. Avon. Jul. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780063307315. pap. $18.99. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Dr. Jojo’s luxe influencer life might look great, but all is not as it seems. On another front, Malcolm Waters just broke big with his debut novel, but the press is overwhelming. When Jojo and Malcolm find each other, it might lead to an HEA. Obuobi’s second novel, following her buzzy debut On Rotation, nets a 100K-copy first printing.

Rowell, Rainbow. Slow Dance. Morrow. Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780063380196. $28. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Best-selling Rowell (Landline) traces the long-running love story of best friends Shiloh and Cary, who found each other as teens, lost each other as adults, and might reconnect at the wedding of a mutual friend—and finally figure out what they are to each other. With a 150K-copy first printing.

Soto, Julie. Not Another Love Song. Forever: Grand Central. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9781538740910. pap. $17.99. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Following her debut Forget Me Not, Soto gets a 75K-copy first printing for this contemporary. Violinist Gwen Jackson is intensely focused, while cellist Xander Thorne is rock-star brash. They might play together in the Manhattan Pops, but they don’t resonate—until work brings them closer, and their chemistry (on stage and off) projects beyond the balcony seats.

Forthcoming Series Title

Singh, Nalini. Primal Mirror. Berkley. (Psi-Changeling Trinity, Bk. 8). Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780593440735. $30. PARANORMAL ROMANCE

Science Fiction & Fantasy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Askaripour, Mateo. This Great Hemisphere. Dutton. Jul. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9780593472347. $29. SF

Askaripour’s debut, Black Buck, was a best seller and a Read with Jenna pick. Here, he writes a speculative, future-set novel in which some are born invisible, relegated to second-class citizenship. When Candace, an invisible woman, finds out that her missing brother is alive—and a murder suspect—she sets out to find him before it’s too late.

Bacigalupi, Paolo. Navola. Knopf. Jul. 2024. 576p. ISBN 9780593535059. $30. FANTASY

Best-selling and multi-award-winning Bacigalupi (The Water Knife) pens an epic fantasy. The de Regulai family are merchant bankers with wealth and influence over a vast empire. Davico is expected to take over the family business, but a fossilized dragon eye that his family possesses may change his fate.

Durst, Sarah Beth. The Spellshop. Bramble. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9781250333971. $29.99. FANTASY

Popular MG and YA author Durst (The Lake House) writes her first adult romantasy, featuring librarian Kiela and her assistant, a sentient spider plant named Caz. When the library goes up in flames, they flee to Kiela’s homeland, where she realizes that the empire’s magic spellbooks have been draining the island’s power, and she hopes to fix it by opening a spell shop.

Gordon, Marianne. The Gilded Crown. Harper Voyager. (The Raven’s Trade, Bk. 1). Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780063248779. pap. $18.99. FANTASY

Gordon debuts with the start to a fantasy duology. Hellevir has the ability to bring people back from the dead—for a price. When the queen’s granddaughter is assassinated, Hellevir resurrects and protects her. However, Hellevir must trade more and more of herself to keep the princess—whom she’s falling in love with—alive. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Grossman, Lev. The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur. Viking. Jul. 2024. 688p. ISBN 9780735224049. $35. FANTASY

The best-selling author of the “Magicians” trilogy reimagines the legend of King Arthur. Collum travels to Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table but arrives after Arthur has been killed in battle, leaving no heir. With only a few peripheral oddball knights and Merlin’s apprentice, Nimue, remaining, they set out to rebuild Camelot, but Morgan le Fay might stand in their way.

Landers, Melissa. The Half King (Standard Edition). Entangled: Red Tower. Jul. 2024. 512p. ISBN 9781649377135. $29.99. FANTASY

YA author Landers (Make Me a Liar) turns to adult fiction with a romantasy about a world in which birth order determines one’s fate. Second-born Cerise is supposed to be an oracle, but she’s unable to foretell. When she’s offered the opportunity to serve the Half King instead, she discovers unexpected gifts. With a 500K-copy first printing.

Lee, Miye. The Dallergut Dream Department Store. Hanover Square: Harlequin. Jul. 2024. 300p. tr. from Korean by Sandy Joosun Lee. ISBN 9781335081179. $21.99. FANTASY

Lee’s debut, already a best seller in Korea, depicts a world in which there is a department store that sells dreams. Readers learn about this magical place through the eyes of new employee Penny as she meets the quirky employees and helps dreaming customers to heal and grow. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Lyons, Jenn. The Sky on Fire. Tor. Jul. 2024. 448p. ISBN 9781250342003. $29.99. FANTASY

Lyons (author of the LJ Best Book The Ruin of Kings) pens a fantasy heist adventure with dragons. A group of misfits, including their dragonrider ringleader, rescue Anahrod from capture, hoping to enlist her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard in the sky cities. With a 125K-copy first printing.

Pechacek, Jared. The West Passage. Tor.com. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9781250884831. $28.99. FANTASY

Artist Pechacek debuts with an illustrated medieval fantasy. In a palace the size of a city, the Guardian of the West Passage dies without a successor. Now it snows in summer and crops fail, so two of the palace residents set out on a quest to fix the situation. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Sagas, L.M. Gravity Lost. Tor. (Ambit’s Run, Bk. 2). Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9781250871282. pap. $18.99. SF

Sagas’s sci-fi sequel to Cascade Failure gets a 100K-copy first printing. After their previous adventure, the Ambit crew thought they were done with Isaiah Drestyn, but they’ll have to break him out of jail and expose some of his secrets in order to protect one of their own—and learn some ugly truths along the way.

Song, K.X. The Night Ends with Fire. Ace: Berkley. Jul. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9780593815724. $30. FANTASY

Song’s (An Echo in the City) romantasy, inspired by the legend of Mulan, was won in a heated auction. Meilin disguises herself as a boy and enlists in the army to escape her father and intended husband. As her training partner, an enemy prince, and a sea dragon spirit pull her in different directions, she’ll have to decide whom to trust. Expect a specially designed first edition.

Srivatsa, Prashanth. The Spice Gate. Harper Voyager. Jul. 2024. 464p. ISBN 9780063266834. $30. FANTASY

In Srivatsa’s debut, the Spice Gates connect eight kingdoms. The gates can only be accessed by those born with a special mark, relegating them to a life of servitude as Spice Carriers. One of the carriers, Amir, dreams of escaping this fate and finds himself drawn into a conspiracy that could change everything.

Vee, Julia & Ken Bebelle. Blood Jade. Tor. (The Phoenix Hoard, Bk. 2). Jul. 2024. 448p. ISBN 9781250837929. $28.99. FANTASY

The second “Phoenix Hoard” book, after Ebony Gate, finds Emiko Soong as the new Sentinel of the sentient San Francisco. She’s investigating a murder that will reveal family secrets while also fighting the hidden armies of the General’s army. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Forthcoming Series Titles

Dawson, Juno. Queen B: The Story of Anne Boleyn, Witch Queen. Penguin Bks. (The HMRC Trilogy, Bk. 3). Jul. 2024. 224p. ISBN 9780143138341. pap. $18. FANTASY

Harkness, Deborah. The Black Bird Oracle. Ballantine. (All Souls, Bk. 5). Jul. 2024. 496p. ISBN 9780593724774. $32. FANTASY

Lemberg, R.B. Yoke of Stars. Tachyon. (Birdverse, Bk. 4). Jul. 2024. 208p. ISBN 9781616964184. pap. $15.95. FANTASY

Zahn, Timothy. The Icarus Changeling. Baen. (The Icarus Saga, Bk. 4). Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781982193485. $28. SF

Horror

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Belardes, Nicholas. The Deading. Erewhon. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781645661290. $27. HORROR

Belardes debuts with a dystopian zombie tale of ecological horror. In a small fishing town, sea snails infect wildlife and eventually people, who start dying and then rising again—but changed. With the town quarantined by the government, the residents will have to figure out how to survive the infection and the Risers.

Jones, Stephen Graham. I Was a Teenage Slasher. Saga. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9781668022245. $27.99. HORROR

In 1989, in a small town in Texas, teenager Tolly Driver is a good kid. However, he is about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Best-selling and award-winning Jones (The Angel of Indian Lake) writes a slasher story with a twist—from the perspective of the slasher, Tolly.

Patterson, James & J.D. Barker. Confessions of the Dead: Who Can Solve the Mystery of Cemetery Lake? Grand Central. Jul. 2024. 464p. ISBN 9781538758922. pap. $19.99. HORROR

In a picturesque New Hampshire town with a nonexistent crime rate, a mysterious stranger shows up, and then officers are called to multiple crime scenes, which lead them to a lake that doesn’t appear on any map. Best-selling Patterson and collaborator Barker team up again after Death of a Black Widow. With a 250K-copy first printing.

Query, Matt & Harrison Query. Wilderness Reform. Atria/Emily Bestler. Jul. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781668024133. $27.99. HORROR

The Query brothers (Old Country) return with a survival horror story. Teenager Ben is sent to a wilderness camp reform school in Montana, where the counselors are too friendly—and slightly menacing. Ben and his cabinmates pool their skills to unearth the truth and try to make it out alive.

Tingle, Chuck. Bury Your Gays. Tor Nightfire. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781250874658. $26.99. HORROR

Tingle follows his LJ Best Book Camp Damascus with a Hollywood-set horror. TV producer Misha is finally getting award attention, but the studio execs want him to kill off the gay characters in his streaming series for the season finale. He refuses and now has a target on his back—and the monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him. With a 150K-copy first printing.

Trías, Fernanda. Pink Slime. Scribner. Jul. 2024. 240p. tr. from Spanish by Heather Cleary. ISBN 9781668049778. $24. HORROR

Award-winning Uruguayan author Trías makes her U.S. English-language debut with a novel that was one of NYT’s best books in Spanish in 2020. A city is ravaged by a mysterious plague, an algae bloom poisons the air, and the only food is a revolting pink paste. Amid this, a woman tries to survive and care for those who depend on her.

Winning, Josh. Heads Will Roll. Putnam. Jul. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780593544693. $29. HORROR

In the latest from Winning (Burn the Negative), TV star Willow damages her reputation and is sent to regroup at Camp Castaway, a summer camp for adults. Things seem fine until one of the campers disappears, and Willow finds a mutilated doll in her room with a threatening message. Then campers begin to lose their heads—literally.

Nonfiction

Biography & Memoir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

History

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brettschneider, Corey. The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought To Defend It. Norton. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9781324006275. $32.50. HIST

Constitutional law and political science professor Brettschneider (The Oath and the Office) considers the assaults on democracy led by five different U.S. presidents (John Adams, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Richard Nixon) and the people who stopped them, including Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and Daniel Ellsberg.

Cooper, Paul. Fall of Civilizations: Stories of Greatness and Decline. Hanover Square: Harlequin. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781335013415. $35. HIST

Based on his popular podcast Fall of Civilizations, Cooper’s book details how ancient kingdoms grew to power and then fell to ruin. He considers empires ranging across the Mediterranean, Asia, West Africa, and Central America, exploring the great centers of power of the Aztecs, Romans, and more. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Dunn, Daisy. The Missing Thread: A Women’s History of the Ancient World. Viking. Jul. 2024. 512p. ISBN 9780593299661. $35. HIST

The author of The Shadow of Vesuvius pens an accessible work on the women of antiquity, focusing on Sappho, Cleopatra, Agrippina, and others who shaped and changed their worlds. The book spans 3,000 years and crosses Asia Minor, the Persian Empire, and the Mediterranean.

Gibson, Susannah. The Bluestockings: A History of the First Women’s Movement. Norton. Jul. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780393881387. $29.99. HIST

Historian Gibson (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?) offers a trade history of the 18th-century Bluestockings movement, a group of women who created intellectual lives for themselves and advocated for a broader role for all women. The Bluestockings pushed for women to be educated and were part of the long fight to unravel the patriarchy.

Sheppard, Kathleen. Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250284358. $30. HIST

The famous story of finding King Tut’s tomb and the wonders of ancient Egypt is driven by the discoveries of men. Sheppard upends that storyline and introduces the redoubtable women who were there long before Howard Carter and his cohort—women explorers, travelers, and Egyptologists who worked during the Gilded Age and created a circle of expertise that built the field.

Taylor, Michael. Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion. Liveright: Norton. Jul. 2024. 416p. ISBN 9781324093923. $32.99. HIST

Taylor’s debut, The Interest, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. He returns with a dinosaur book, this one illuminating the ways their discovery and resulting bestiary shifted religious authority, introducing questions that many raced to solved and others sought to quash. The book follows Charles Darwin, Mary Anning, and others as they changed the world.

Winegard, Timothy C. The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity. Dutton. Jul. 2024. 544p. ISBN 9780593186084. $35. HIST

The best-selling author of The Mosquito offers a history of human development as seen through the domestication of the horse, whose power and speed changed the course of global human history. Winegard explores this relationship across agriculture, trade networks, military actions, colonialism, and more.

Current Events

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cook, Jesselyn. The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family. Crown. Jul. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780593443255. $30. SOC SCI

Cook, an investigative reporter at NBC News, won the Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for this exploration of the harm the far-right conspiracy theory movement QAnon has caused in U.S. society, especially how it has created deep divides within families. Cook also looks at the psychology of why people believe in conspiracies and how some profit from disinformation.

Freeman, Andrea. Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch. Metropolitan. Jul. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9781250871046. $27.99. POL SCI

Law professor Freeman (Skimmed), one of the pioneers of the field of food politics, examines the historic and current ways food has been used as a weapon of conquest and control in the U.S., from George Washington ordering his troops to destroy Indigenous people’s crops to the targeted marketing of unhealthy goods to communities of color.

Harvey, Jennifer. Antiracism as Daily Practice: Refuse Shame, Change White Communities, and Help Create a Just World. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9781250286703. $29. SOC SCI

Writer and educator Harvey wrote the best-selling book Raising White Kids and here offers a step-by-step guide for white Americans to combat racism in their communities, emphasizing how vital it is to choose behaviors that foster racial justice, engage with others, and make antiracism a daily commitment.

Hendrickson, Debra. The Air They Breathe: A Pediatrician on the Frontlines of Climate Change. S. & S. Jul. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9781501197130. $27.99. SCI

Explicating how vulnerable the youngest are to the changing environment, Hendrickson, a pediatrician in Reno, NV, the fastest-warming city in the U.S., looks at the impact climate change is having on children and shares examples of patients harmed by smoke, smog, and pollen, and others affected by record-setting heat, hurricanes, and the Zika virus.

Kahn, Jeremy. Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future. S. & S. Jul. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9781668053324. $29.99. TECH

Journalist Khan covers AI and other emerging technologies for Fortune magazine. Drawing on this expertise and industry contacts, he offers predictions about AI’s dramatic impacts over the next decade—both the exciting and promising possibilities and the disruptive and potentially devastating effects—and argues that AI should be carefully designed and vigilantly regulated.

Olson, Parmy. Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9781250337740. $30. TECH

Olson (We Are Anonymous), a tech writer at Bloomberg, details the battle between the world’s two leading AI firms and cautions readers about the threat of AI that’s being ignored by its top creators—the profit-driven spread of flawed and biased technology into industries, education, media, and more. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Scales, Helen. What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean. Atlantic Monthly. Jul. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780802162991. $28. SCI

Marine biologist Scales (The Brilliant Abyss) shares the history of ocean ecology and examines the future threats to oceans as waters warm and chemicals and plastics harm sea creatures. However, Scales also offers some optimism as she offers innovative ideas for protecting coastlines and cleaning the toxic seas.

True Crime

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fox, Margalit. The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum: The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss. Random. Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780593243855. $32. CRIME

A former NYT reporter known for her front-page obituary sendoffs, Fox’s (Edgar Award finalist The Confidence Men) latest examines the life of Fredericka Mandelbaum, an impoverished 19th-century mother turned organized-crime baroness in Gilded Age New York City, as she became a successful fence and criminal mastermind.

Gerard, Sarah. Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable. Zando. Jul. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9781638930464. $28. CRIME

Gerard (True Love) pursues answers regarding the devastating murder of her friend Carolyn Bush by her roommate, Render Stetson-Shanahan. After spending countless hours interviewing friends and family and researching court documents, Gerard ultimately emerges with a portrait of Carolyn’s life and a shocking “whydunit.” With a 75K-copy first printing.

Jobb, Dean. A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue. Algonquin. Jun. 2024. 448p. ISBN 9781643752839. $32.50. CRIME

Jobb’s The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream was longlisted for the ALA Carnegie Medal. His latest is a true-crime caper about Jazz Age jewel thief Arthur Barry, who charmed the rich and famous but also managed to steal millions of dollars in jewels from the Rockefellers and royalty.

Mager, Kim. A Hunger To Kill: A Serial Killer, a Determined Detective, and the Quest for a Confession That Changed a Small Town Forever. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250274885. $30. CRIME

Retired police detective Mager, along with the best-selling Lisa Pulitzer (Hunting the Unabomber), recount Mager’s experience with serial killer Shawn Grate, who after his arrest would only speak with Mager. Conducting life-threatening interviews with Grate, Mager managed to extract his confessions of murder, kidnapping, and assault, which led to his successful conviction.

Slater, Dan. The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld. Little, Brown. Jul. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9780316427715. $32.50. CRIME

Slater’s last book, Wolf Boys, was a Chicago Public Library best book. Here he depicts early 20th-century New York City, rife with vice and corruption, and explores the role of Jewish New Yorkers in the burgeoning organized-crime world, along with those who tried to stop it, including a secret unofficial vice squad, known as the Incorruptibles.