Yahoo Lifestyle The 20 Best New Book Releases This Week: July 23-29, 2024
Here are the 20 best new book releases out the week of July 23-29, 2024. Whether you love bird-watching or falling in love (or falling in love while birdwatching), I’ve got a book for you. You’ll find monks scheming to steal a holy relic, a novel perfect for fans of Abbott Elementary and a work of popular history about the port of Los Angeles that might just be the first by a writer ready to assume the mantle of David MCullough. Oh and yes, Keanu Reeves teams up with the acclaimed China Miéville to deliver a novel about a lethal figure (not named John Wick) who cannot die. It’s exactly what you’d hope it would be and not just for fans of Keanu’s comic book series BRZRKR. So let’s get reading! At the head of the Parade are…
The 20 Best New Book Releases This Week: July 23-29, 2024
Courtesy of Berkley, Griffin, Sourcebooks Casablanca
1. The Ornithologist’s Field Guide To Love by India Holton
2. Ne’er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti
3. A Perfect Story by Elísabet Benavent
Three wildly different settings for romance.
The delightfully titled novel The Ornithologist’s Field Guide To Love is an historical fantasy with birders racing one another to track down a mythical bird. It’s pitched as Indiana Jones, but with dashes of fantasy, more tea and more romance. Author India Holton is enjoying the best reviews of her career.
The more traditional Ne’er Duke Well is a Regency romance in which awfully handsome and wealthy Duke of Stanhope must be in needs of a wife. He agrees (because **sigh** he needs to reform in order to be guardian to his half-siblings) and maybe Lady Selina will find him the right match? Said Selina will of course realize the right match is her, assuming she can convince both herself and him.
And are you a fan of the Netflix Spanish Un Cuento Perfecto, the story of a woman who ditches her own wedding, drowns her sorrows and agrees to fake date a handsome bartender to make his ex jealous. (Admit it; we’ve all been there.) Here’s the novel it’s based on!
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide To Love by India Holton ($19; Berkley) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Ne’er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti ($18; Griffin) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
A Perfect Story by Elísabet Benavent ($16.99; Sourcebooks Casablanca) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
4. The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
Keanu Reeves is a man of many parts. Action hero. Romantic figure. Comic book writer. His BRZRKR series focuses on an immortal warrior, a job which is as much of a drag as you might imagine, once you think about it. An anime TV series is (sort of?) in the works, they’ve spun off other comics from it and now Reeves partners with sci-fi/fantasy writer China Miéville, one of the most acclaimed writers in the genre in the past 20 years. Together they’ve delivered a novel about this brooding, angst-ridden figure that is exactly what you’d expect, once you think about it. It’s pensive, hyper-violent, philosophical and just plain strange. Success!
The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville ($30; Del Rey) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Related: The 32 Best Romance Books of 2024...So Far
Courtesy of Knopf, Atlantic Monthly Press, Atria Books
5. The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia by Juliet Grames
6. The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham
7. No Road Home by John Fram
Three mystery/thrillers of every variety. The Lost Boys of Santa Chionia is a work of literary fiction that centers around a mystery. It’s 1960 and a 27 year old American named Francesca arrives in an isolated village in Calabria just after a skeleton is revealed after a recent flood. Why isn’t anyone looking into this? And what will she be risking if Francesca does as a woman begs and starts asking questions?
After that heavy storyline, you might need some comic relief. How about two severed hands, a hitman obsessed with the British crime show Midsomer Murders and a detective who can really dance? Welcome to Mark Billingham’s second mystery starring Detective Declan Miller, a man haunted by his dead wife (literally!) with a flair for ballroom dancing. You’re welcome.
No Road Home is a thriller with a touch of the supernatural. In this gothic story, a father loves his gay son but marries into the family of a fire and brimstone televangelist anyway. Not a good idea. Then they’re in Texas at an isolated ranch, the televangelist is murdered, everyone points the finger at the father and his son and a not so good idea proves a really bad one. Now dad will need a good idea (or two) to save their skins from the family and an unnatural menace that might be looming over them all.
The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia by Juliet Grames ($29; Knopf) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham ($27; Atlantic Monthly Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
No Road Home by John Fram ($29.99; Atria Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
8. Seeing Through by Ricky Ian Gordon
Oh, opera! It has such outlandish plots involving death and obsession and highs and lows and plagues and curses and remarkable, phoenix-like rebirths. Life is never like that. Unless you’re composer Ricky Ian Gordon, the talent behind works like Intimate Apparel and the wildly successful opera The Grapes of Wrath. Now he’s written his memoir and it’s filled with…death (of loved ones) and obsession (with opera) and highs and lows (both involving addictio) and plagues and curses (AIDS) and remarkable, phoenix-like rebirths (because Gordon is still here, still creating).
Seeing Through by Ricky Ian Gordon ($32; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Hogarth, Pantheon, Dutton
9. Liars by Sarah Manguso
10. Nicked by M.T. Anderson
11. The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu
Three works of fiction for every taste.
Liars is a lacerating, no-holds-barred look at the breakdown of a marriage. It can still sting, even if you weren’t the one who ended it. This is one of the best-reviewed books of the year.
M.T. Anderson is simply one of the best writers working today in any genre. His books are often marketed for the Young Adult market, but anyone reading his historical novel The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing or the science fiction of Feed or the biographical work about Shostakovich titled Symphony for the City of the Dead will be disabused of any ideas about young adult novels being “lesser” works, and frankly a little jealous of their kids getting to read him first. Now Anderson delivers his first book pitched directly to adults. Nicked is another genre-blurring novel, this time set in a 12th century Italian city during a plague. A monk has a vision, his superiors aren’t interested, but before you know it Brother Nicephorus is off on a quest to steal the bones of St. Nicholas, bring back a healing potion they miraculously produce, end the plague and maybe fall in love (as monks will do, on occasion). Despite its outlandish plot and varied twists and turns, Anderson insists it’s essentially true, which makes this caper with a hero who is all too honest all the more delightful.
Hey, Abbott Elementary is a big, delightful hit show so naturally I’m going to compare w a funny novel about teachers to the series. You like that? You might like this! That’s bookselling 101. Here author Jennifer Mathieu begins with the death of a teacher, follows that with definitely unauthorized spreading of that teacher’s ashes on campus and then things get wacky for the rest of the school year. The principal? A one-time punk rocker fighting with the school board to keep his job. Other staff members include an English teacher who sends a pointed email to the wrong person (oops!), a school nurse who has no patience for people trying to tell her how to do her job and at least two folk making out in a supply closet during lockdown. See, now you want to read it.
Liars by Sarah Manguso ($28; Hogarth) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Nicked by M.T. Anderson ($28; Pantheon) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu ($28; Dutton) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Counterpoint,St. Martin’s Press, Atria/One Signal Publishers
12. Reap The Whirlwind by Peter Houlahan
13. A Hunger To Kill by Kim Mager with Lisa Pulitzer
14. Guilty Creatures by Mikita Brottman
Three works of true crime worth your time.
Reap The Whirlwind is by Peter Houlahan, the acclaimed author of Narco 80, one of the best works of historical true crime in years. Now he focuses on San Diego in the mid-1980s and the gripping story of Sagon Penn, a young man stopped by police in a random stop that turned violent. No one disputed the basic facts of what happened, but why they happened is at the heart of the two year courtroom battle and this engrossing work of reportage.
A Hunger To Kill is by Detective Kim Mager (with Lisa Pulitzer) and tells of her confrontation with a serial killer and how she cajoled him into confessing to his crimes. Think The Silence of the Lambs, but real. I’m creeped out just reading about it, so you’ll have to tell me how good it is. Booklist (a top trade journal) says it belongs in the true crime canon.
Guilty Creatures has the best cover of the three and subtitle that tells you it all: Sex, God and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida. Oh, Florida (the state I grew up in). When did you become so wacky?
Reap The Whirlwind by Peter Houlahan ($30; Counterpoint) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
A Hunger To Kill by Kim Mager with Lisa Pulitzer ($30; St. Martin’s Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Guilty Creatures by Mikita Brottman ($28.99; Atria/One Signal Publishers) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Berkley, Avon
15. Cross The Line by Simone Soltani
16. Viscount In Love by Eloisa James
Two more romances, one from a newcomer and one from a veteran who is among the best.
Simone Saltani is the debut author. She gives her first novel the timely backdrop of F1 Formula racing, a sport with a higher profile than ever in the U.S. More importantly, according to reviewers she gives her book characters with depth and charm, even as she mines the “I’ve got the hots for my brother’s best friend” trope for all its worth.
Eloisa James is the Renaissance scholar married to a real Italian knight and apparently even she hankers at times for the escape of Romance. With a cover to make Falstaff blush, Viscount in Love launches her new series Accidental Brides. Fans are neveer disappointed.
Cross The Line by Simone Soltani ($19; Berkley) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Viscount In Love by Eloisa James ($9.99; Avon) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Related: The 23 Best Shark Books of All Time
17. The Bluestockings by Susannah Gibson
18. A Machine To Move Ocean and Earth by James Tejani
19. Fall of Civilizations by Paul Cooper
Three works of history so we don’t repeat ourselves, but merely rhyme.
The Bluestockings is a revelation to me. I always thought a “bluestocking” meant someone prim and proper. Far from it. It was a pejorative term for women who dared to use their minds or shared an opinion on matters of the day or god forbid, published. This would be England of the 1970s (or many places today). Susannah Gibson tells a group history about these fascinating women, people who launched intellectual salons, founded communes, ran their husband’s business better than he could and so on, all while facing the opprobrium of society.
James Tejani makes his debut with a work of popular history right up David McCullough’s alley. The major project Tejani illuminates in this case is the building of the Port of Los Angeles, a remarkable feat in itself. But Tejani uses this event to capture the natural and political history of both California and the country as a whole as it took center stage in a globalized world. It’s highly acclaimed narrative nonfiction and given the reviews, makes Tejani an heir apparent to McCullough.
Paul Cooper took a different path to becoming a popular historian: a podcast. His show–also titled Fall of Civilizations– has more than 1 million subscribers and more than 100 million downloads. Now he delivers it in book form, with brief, vivid stories about varied empires and what led to their rise and precipitated their fall. Given the vast range of cultures he covers, even armchair historians will learn much here in what the Times of London calls “a treasure trove of myths and terror.”
The Bluestockings by Susannah Gibson ($29.99; W.W. Norton and Company) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
A Machine To Move Ocean and Earth by James Tejani ($35; W.W. Norton and Company) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Fall of Civilizations by Paul Cooper ($35; Hanover Square Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
20. So Witches We Became by Jill Baguchinsky
Several books in this roundup alone echo Stephen King. The Keanu Reeves/China Miéville novel echoes The Dark Tower, the thriller No Road Home was praised by one writer as akin to early Stephen King and now this Young Adult horror novel is pitched as a feminist spin on The Mist. King looms large! Jill Baguchinsky’s bio says she grew up reading too much Stephen King (is that possible?), so she embraces the comparison. In So Witches We Became, female high school seniors plan an awesome spring break at a vacation home on a private island off the coast of Florida. Perfect, that is, until a curse and some confessions reveal all of them have buried secrets and toxic pasts they need to tap into to empower their future…if they can survive.
So Witches We Became by Jill Baguchinsky ($18.99; Little Brown Books for Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
