what are the best new books coming in july 2019?

New month, new books! This month’s Book Light is our Dandelion Chandelier curated list of the most-anticipated new releases for July 2019. July reads are almost always hot. So what are the best books coming in July 2019? Our intrepid team has been exploring and here’s what we found. 

what are the best books coming in july 2019?

What’s on the list of the most-anticipated new releases in July 2019? The list of best new books in July 2019 includes lots of “beach reads” – love stories, spy stories, and a surprising number of tales set in the worlds of publishing and bookstores. There are also several psychological thrillers about the trials of parenting. And the true story of the first summer road trip – plus the first thriller of the #MeToo era. Of course, there are also some smart sexy literary novels – because after all, it’s the heat of summer that we’re dealing with here.

On a far more serious note, some of the most-anticipated new releases of July 2019 address dark chapters in history, via fiction and non-fiction. For example, Colson Whitehead returns with a searing novel about the Jim Crow South. Legendary fashion icon Dapper Dan shares his memoirs. Lisa Taddeo breaks new ground with a series of sharp profiles in Three Women. Isha Sesay tells the story of the Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram. And Sam Keen tells the previously untold story of a renegade group of scientists and spies determined to keep Adolf Hitler from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

In short, there’s a book for every taste and mood coming in July 2019. Have a look at the most-anticipated new releases of July 2019.

new books coming out in july 2019

Here’s our pick of the top new books – novels, essay collections, and non-fiction – that we cannot wait to read. You can pre-order them now if you like.

best new book releases july 2, 2019

1.

Growing Things and Other Stories by Paul Tremblay is a new collection of psychological suspense and literary horror from the award-winning and bestseller author. An anthology featuring nineteen pieces of short fiction, this is a window into a very fertile imagination. – Publication date: July 2, 2019

2.

The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger. Described as “Big Little Lies with standardized testing,” this novel explores the culture of striving parents and anxious children; privilege, competition and the elusiveness of happiness. A new gifted magnet school for grades six through 12 will soon open in town, and families go to extreme lengths to gain admission for their kids. Written before the college admissions scandal, it brings that scandal to rich emotional life. – Publication date: July 2, 2019

3.

Whisper Network by Chandler Baker. This of-the-moment thriller is a debut novel set in corporate America. Four women all have secrets about their new male boss – this is being billed as “the first great thriller of the #MeToo era.” – Publication date: July 2, 2019

4.

Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky. In this comedy of manners, a famous Pakistani writer and professor becomes stuck in the middle of a mother-daughter relationship. Did we mention that the daughter is his student, and that she has a crush on him, while he’s lusting after her mother? This could definitely get messy. – Publication date: July 2, 2019

best new book releases july 9, 2019

5.

The Need by Helen Phillips. Home alone with her two young children, Molly is startled when she thinks she hears an intruder. But she is left guessing: is there a real person in her house or is it just a symptom of her worn out, anxiety-ridden mind? – Publication date: July 9, 2019

6.

A Prayer for Travelers by Ruchika Tomar. In a dusty town near the California-Nevada border, two teenage girls become inseparable friends. Then a terrifying act of violence shatters their world. When one vanishes without a trace, the other sets off on a dangerous quest across the desert to find her friend, and to discover herself. – Publication date: July 9, 2019

7.

Supper Club by Lara Williams. In this debut novel, the author explores the origin of a secret society of hungry young women. The group meets after dark over feasts where they reclaim their appetites–and their physical spaces. If you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into? – Publication date: July 9, 2019

8.

The Last Book Party by Karen Durkess. The perfect beach book for bibliophiles, this novel provides a peek into the lives of the publishing industry’s literary elite, circa 1980.  – Publication date: July 9, 2019

9.

The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams. The author of The Summer Wives returns with a novel set in 1941, when a beautiful young “society reporter” from New York is sent to Nassau, Bahamas. She arrives to find a haven of spies, traitors, and intrigue in the court of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. – Publication date: July 9, 2019

10.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman. Nina Hill works in a bookstore, loves trivia nights, and likes to keep to herself. Then she discovers that she has a set of siblings she never knew about. – Publication date: July 9, 2019

11.

How to Make a Plant Love You: Cultivate Green Space in Your Home and Heart by Summer Rayne Oakes. There are proven psychological benefits to taking care of plants. They can reduce our stress level, lower our blood pressure, and improve our overall outlook. When the author, an environmental scientist, moved to Brooklyn from the Pennsylvania countryside, she knew that bringing plants into her apartment was her only chance to stay sane. Now a mother to over 1,000 houseplants, she’s sharing her tips on how even urban dwellers can experience the joys and benefits of nurturing plants. – Publication date: July 9, 2019

12.

Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem by Daniel R. Day. With his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the 1980’s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs. Now a global partner with luxury powerhouse Gucci, in this memoir, he tells his full story for the first time. – Publication date: July 9, 2019

13.

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo is one of the most-anticipated and buzzed-about new releases of July 2019. In this work of narrative nonfiction, a New York Magazine contributor profiles three everyday women. The focus is on their hidden desires, and how they are often thwarted in pursuing them. – Publication date: July 9, 2019

14.

The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s Ten-Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn. The author shares the true story of two American business titans who hit the road together several times just for the fun of it. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison took annual summer sojourns that introduced the concept of a road trip to American culture. And made the automobile an essential part of modern life. – Publication date: July 9, 2019

15.

The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb by Sam Kean. The best-selling author returns with this untold story of a renegade group of scientists and spies determined to keep Adolf Hitler from obtaining a nuclear bomb. When the leaders of the Manhattan Project learned that Nazi Germany was far outpacing the Allies in nuclear weapons research, they assembled a rough and motley crew of geniuses – dubbed the Alsos Mission – and sent them into Axis territory to spy on, sabotage, and even assassinate members of Nazi Germany’s feared Uranium Club.– Publication date: July 9, 2019

16.

Four Friends: Promising Lives Cut Short by William D. Cohan. The Vanity Fair contributor and bestselling author shares a memoir/biography about four of his classmates from the prestigious New England prep school Andover, each of whom died an early, violent death. One of them is John F. Kennedy, Jr. – Publication date: July 9, 2019

17.

Beneath the Tamarind Tree: A Story of Courage, Family, and the Lost Schoolgirls of Boko Haram by Isha Sesay. In the early morning of April 14, 2014, the militant Islamic group Boko Haram violently burst into the small town of Chibok, Nigeria, and abducted 276 girls from their school dorm rooms. The simple act of pursuing an education had made them targets, resulting in one of the most high-profile abductions in modern history. The author, a CNN correspondent originally from Sierra Leone, follows three of the girls who escaped and returned home and tells their stories of sisterhood and survival. – Publication date: July 9, 2019

best new book releases july 16, 2019

18.

Talking to Robots: Tales from Our Human-Robot Futures by David Ewing Duncan. In this provocative work, an award-winning journalist considers 24 visions of possible human-robot futures. Will robots and AI usher in a fantastic new future? Or destroy us?– Publication date: July 16, 2019

19.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. The author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning bestseller The Underground Railroad returns with a novel that illuminates another strand of American history. This time, it’s through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. Elwood Curtis unexpectedly finds himself at the Nickel Academy, an abusive reform school. Inspired by the true story of a school in Florida – Publication date: July 16, 2019

20.

The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory sees Maddie and Theo jointly tasked with the bridal party duties for their best friend Alexa’s wedding (you’ll remember her from Guillory’s The Wedding Date). The problem is, the two hate each other. After a spontaneous hookup, they make a pact to end it all after the wedding. Hmmm . . . wonder how this one ends? – Publication date: July 16, 2019

21.

The Expectations by Alexander Tilney. This novel follows the wealthy “legacy” student Ben Weeks and his roommate, scholarship student Ahmed, as they navigate the bubble of white privilege at their elite East Coast boarding school. – Publication date: July 16, 2019

22.

Costalegre by Courtney Maum. Drawing inspiration from the real-life relationship between Peggy Guggenheim and her daughter Pegeen, this is the story of the power a mother holds over her daughter. – Publication date: July 16, 2019

best new book releases july 23, 2019

23.

The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem. In this romantic comedy, Leila Abid is torn between her traditional parents trying to arrange her marriage and her own desire for agency. A marriage of arrangement would dash her lifelong dream of a Bollywood romance. So she decides it’s time to stop dreaming and start dating. – Publication date: July 23, 2019

24.

Gravity Is the Thing by Jaclyn Moriarty. Twenty years ago, Abigail Sorenson’s brother went missing just before her sixteenth birthday, never to be seen again. That same year, she began receiving scattered chapters in the mail from a self-help manual, “the Guidebook.” Now, two decades after receiving those first pages, Abi is invited to an all-expenses paid weekend retreat to learn “the truth” about the Guidebook. What follows is completely the opposite of what she expected. – Publication date: July 23, 2019

25.

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal. The bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest returns with a novel about three generations of women in a Midwestern family trying to reconcile while producing an award-winning IPA at their family brewery. – Publication date: July 23, 2019

best new book releases july 30, 2019

26.

The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis. In her latest novel, Davis portrays the 20-year friendship of playwright Hazel Riley and actress Maxine Mead. The pair live in the Chelsea Hotel, a Manhattan oasis for the artists, writers, actors and other creative types. Set in the McCarthy era, we follow their stories from the 1940’s to the ’60’s as they live out the tension inherent in the tangle of friendship, politics and ambition. – Publication date: July 30, 2019

27.

Chances Are . . . by Richard Russo. Three college friends, now in their 60’s, convene in sunny Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., to reunite and reminisce about their youth. But what initially seems to be a happy occasion is tempered by an ominous cloud. A 40-year old mystery tests the bonds of friendship between the men. – Publication date: July 30, 2019

28.

The Vexations by Caitlin Horrocks. In this debut novel about love, family, genius, and the madness of art, the author traces the life story of eccentric composer Erik Satie and his milieu in La Belle Époque Paris. – Publication date: July 30, 2019

29.

Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon. When Autumn Spencer’s twin sister Summer disappears on a winter’s evening in Harlem, Autumn sees no other choice but to take matters into her own hands. Frustrated by the indifference of authorities to another missing black woman, Autumn is determined to get to the bottom of what happened. In the process, she becomes embroiled in other suspect cases.  – Publication date: July 30, 2019

30.

Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark by Cecelia Watson. The semicolon. Stephen King, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Orwell detest it. Herman Melville, Henry James, and Rebecca Solnit love it. But why? When is it effective? Have we been misusing it? Should we even care? The author tackles all of these pressing issues and more. – Publication date: July 30, 2019

That’s it – our summary of the most-anticipated new releases of July 2019. What’s at the top of your list? Happy reading!

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