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Traditionally the summer months were slow times for new books, but in today's always-on world seasonal differences are less pronounced and it was a struggle to decide which ten books to feature as particularly notable from our list of July's best books (see best books coming soon). Interestingly, and entirely inadvertently, three of them have aviation as a theme - from the very early days of flight, to the space program of the late '40s through '60s, and into the distant future.
Enjoy!
Davina, BookBrowse editor
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Among the Ten Thousand Things: A Novel
by Julia Pierpont Jul 7, 2015. 336 Pages. Random House Writing with precision, humor, and beauty, debut novelist Julia Pierpont has crafted a tale about the bonds of American family life--their brittleness, and their resilience. This debut is recommended for fans of Lorrie Moore, Jonathan Franzen and Jennifer Egan. More about this book |
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The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
by Natasha Pulley Jul 14, 2015. 336 Pages. Bloomsbury USA Blending historical events with dazzling flights of fancy The Watchmaker of Filigree Street transports us to 1880s London to meet a petite clairvoyant Japanese watchmaker, a Whitehall telegraph clerk with synesthesia, and a clockwork octopus. Pick this one up if you enjoy character driven novels and lyrical writing. It's destined to be a breakout book this summer that some will love and others just won't get. More about this book |
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Go Set a Watchman: A Novel
by Harper Lee Jul 14, 2015. 288 Pages. Harper The literary event of the summer, Go Set a Watchman will publish on July 14 to a veritable frenzy of anticipation which, almost inevitably, will be difficult to live up to. It follows Scout Finch on a trip from New York to Alabama to visit her father, Atticus, 20 years after the events of the events of To Kill a Mockingbird. The title comes from Isaiah 21:6: "For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth." Harper Lee wrote the book first but set it aside on the advice of her editor to write the back-story that became To Kill a Mockingbird. Why it was not published decades ago remains something of a mystery. "I thought it a pretty decent effort." said Lee in a statement a few months ago. "I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years." More about this book |
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Brush Back: A V.I. Warshawski Novel
by Sara Paretsky Jul 28, 2015. 480 Pages. Putnam Fans will want to snap up #17 in this perennially popular series starring Chicago private investigator V.I. Warshawski. With its combination of family and city history, Brush Back is also a good starting point for those new to the series. More about this book |
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The Last Pilot
by Benjamin Johncock Jul 7, 2015. 320 Pages. Published by Picador Jim Harrison is a test pilot in the United States Air Force. When he learns that, against the odds, his wife is pregnant with the child they both desperately want, he gives up his chance to be an astronaut to focus on his new family. Then tragedy strikes and with his marriage under strain Jim struggles with the choices made. Set against the backdrop of the late 1940s to 1960s, this debut novel provides plentiful background on the space program, while exploring the challenges of finding courage after loss. Note to grammar purists - like a number of writers these days, the author chooses not to use quotation marks for dialogue. More about this book |
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Circling the Sun: A Novel by Paula McLain |
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Aurora
by Kim Stanley Robinson Jul 7, 2015. 480 Pages. Orbit Classic sci-fans rejoice, Kim Stanley Robinson's latest tells the story of humanity's first voyage beyond our solar system - a 2,000-person generation ship on its way to Tau Ceti. Stuffed full of scientific concepts, Aurora digs deep into both the practical and ethical problems of space travel, terraforming and colonization. More about this book |
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Another Kind of Hurricane by Tamara Ellis Smith Jul 14, 2015. 336 Pages. Schwartz & Wade (Random House) A black boy who loses his home in Hurricane Katrina and a white boy in Vermont who loses his best friend in a tragic accident come together to find healing in a story that is rich with imagery and crackling with hope. We at BookBrowse are immensely excited by this debut book for younger readers because it's written by one of our own, BookBrowse editor Tamara Ellis Smith. We're not the only ones abuzz about it - Another Kind of Hurricane has been covered extensively by the publishing press as one of the breakout novels of the summer and was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times's summer reading list. More about this book |
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Palimpsest: A History of the Written Word
by Matthew Battles Jul 27, 2015. 256 Pages. W.W. Norton & Company Why does writing exist? What does it mean to those who write? Matthew Battles explores the written word from mythology to the modern day. In case you're wondering, a palimpsest is a piece of writing material which has been erased in order to be used for new writing, but traces of the original remain. More about this book |
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The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey
by Rinker Buck Jun 30, 2015. 464 Pages. Simon & Schuster What Bill Bryson did for the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods, Buck now does for The Oregon Trail. An estimated 400,000 pioneers used this 2,000 mile route in the 15 years leading up to the Civil War - one of the largest migrations in U.S. history. Accompanied by three cantankerous mules, and a terrier named Olive Oyl, Buck and his brother travel from Missouri to Oregon in a tale that is part travelogue and part engaging history. More about this book |
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