What to Read in July

Each month we ask a panel of our bloggers to suggest a book based on what they’re reading right now. Here’s what we think you should read this month!

Dahlia: Illusive, by Emily Lloyd-Jones
This YA sci-fi debut is pitched as X-Men meets Ocean’s Eleven, and it fully delivers on that promise. Full of fast-paced action, witty banter, and clever world building, this is a seriously fun summer read you’ll fly through in no time.

Sara: Looking for Trouble, by Victoria Dahl
Victoria Dahl is my catnip—she writes sexy books with characters you want to be friends with, and her small-town settings don’t feel claustrophobic or Mayberry-ish. Start July off with the novella Fanning the Flames while you wait for Looking for Trouble to come out on July 29; both feature librarian heroines and Dahl’s trademark great big sexy heroes.

Amy: The Old Man And The Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
I am neither an old man nor anywhere near the sea—I am, in fact, in Iowa for these blissful summer months—but that’s not to say I can’t enjoy the complicated simplicity of Hemingway’s prose and this story of struggle and strife. For added seasonal kicks, I often swap out all instances of “Old Man” with the name of my dog, who also shares a love of the water and fishing, and I’d advise you to do the same.

Joel: The Girl With All the Gifts, by M.R. Carey
The recent wave of zombie literature is anathema to me, which just goes to show you what an achievement this novel is: beautifully written and expertly paced, with an endearing, troubling heroine who will break your heart. Many of the genre tropes are there, but even if this one doesn’t break the mold, it transcends it.

Melissa: The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, by Genevieve Valentine
I picked up this Jazz Age update on “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” because I’ve always loved that fairy tale, and read the first few pages on a bench outside the bookstore. Right away I could tell it was a bigger, better book than I anticipated—more serious, more engrossing, more invested in its characters’ fates. The alluring cover only tells half the story: this feminist retelling is less frosting, more cake.

Nicole: The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World, by Brian Allen Carr
Let’s just reiterate: summer reading doesn’t have to be fluff and stuff. From the same mind that brought you the delightfully subversive Motherf*%&ing Sharks comes this cataclysmic novella, which explores how a ragtag group in Scrape, Texas, deals with unnatural and supernatural phenomena, drawing on elements of Mexican folklore, the insularity of small-town life, and the machinations of bodiless hands.

Molly: In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic, by Valerian Albanov
Feeling the heat this July? Why not dive into the utterly gripping, totally chilling narrative of a doomed expedition of arctic adventurers in 1912? When their ship became locked in the ice for over a year and a half, Albanov and a small crew left it in makeshift kayaks, embarking on a desperate search for land and enduring unbelievably harsh conditions along the way. This book is Albanov’s incredible journal of those adventures, and it is impossible to put down or forget.

Rebecca: Vampire Loves, by Joann Sfar
Let’s get our graphic novel on—with Sfar’s touching, dark, and mystical tale of Ferdinand the vampire, who bites with only one tooth so as to pass for a mosquito. This book is like if Milan Kundera wrote Twilight fan-fiction, and spoiler alert: that is a good thing. Be sure to have a playlist of nothing but Cure tracks ready for listening as you inhale this great story and the fascinating drawings that help tell it!

Dell: This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, by Ann Patchett
Like everything else in Patchett’s body of work, this is impossible to put down. However, instead of being a spellbinding work of magical realism, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage is an intimate collection of Patchett’s favorite essays accrued over the nearly 40-year span of her writing career. From The Atlantic to Vogue to Gourmet—and from freelance journalist to award-winning novelist—reading this is a spectacular journey in which the portrait of this beloved writer becomes significantly clearer with each twist and every turn. It’s sublime entertainment for any reader.

Lauren: Landline, by Rainbow Rowell
Having an unread Rainbow Rowell book ahead of you is very exciting, and if you haven’t read Landline yet, I envy you and what you have in store. Per the usual, Rowell’s dialogue is jokey, all of the characters are memorable, and the setting (the 90s) is cool and one I feel is a bit underrepresented in fiction. When I read Landline, I didn’t know that it involved time travel (but I’m not giving away anything, I’m stupid and oblivious—it’s written on the book), and was so pleasantly surprised when she starts talking to her husband from the past on the phone. I thought, “Is Rainbow Rowell doing this? Is this happening?” And she did, and it was, and I liked it.

Paul: The Children of Old Leech, edited by Ross E. Lockhart and Justin Steele
A nightmare-inducing tribute to Laird Barron and his Carnivorous Cosmos, this stellar anthology features 17 original stories from some of weird fiction’s brightest stars—John Langan, Gemma Files, Jeffrey Thomas, Michael Cisco, and Paul Tremblay, to name just a few. You will look under the bed after finishing this creepy collection.

What are you excited to read in July?