Greetings, happy July! I hope everyone has a wonderful Independence Day. We had a nice Canada Day here on Monday, and now the real summer starts, right? Due to the heat and long days, July’s become my second favorite month recently … behind beautiful September.
My husband and I arrived home from our bike trip in southwest Montana at the end of June, which went well. We were in a group of 22 cyclists and had a set destination each night. The rides, which included a couple mountain passes, were challenging but also scenic and inspiring. It turned into quite a bucket list trip, and I think we’ll be returning to Montana in the future. The badger at left, which my husband caught on camera, was just one of the animals that greeted us along the way.
Meanwhile, I didn’t get a lot of reading done then but now July is here and back deck reading is sure to be in full swing. I’ve checked what’s releasing this month and it appears to be a lot. Such notable authors as Richard Russo, Karl Marlantes, Peter Orner, and spy master Daniel Silva have new novels due out.
And for those who loved J. Ryan Stradal’s debut novel “Kitchens of the Great Midwest,” you probably won’t want to miss his new one “The Lager Queen of Minnesota” about two sisters who lose track of of one another over decades but then have a chance to reunite over their ties to the brewery business. It sounds good to me and perhaps thirst-quenching too. I wouldn’t mind trying a Blotz Beer, which is featured in the story.
I’m also looking at Colson Whitehead’s new novel “The Nickel Boys,” about the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. It’s apparently based on a real school in segregated Florida that operated 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children.
Yikes, it sounds horrific what happened there, and I’m a bit scared to read the novel … but for Colson Whitehead whose powers of narrative I’m sure will make it all worthwhile. The protagonist Elwood awakens to the ’60s Civil Rights movement all the while his freedom is being stripped away. In time, the boys’ fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy. Despite its grimness, count me in.
Then I’ll likely need some true summer fare such as Laura Lippman’s new crime novel “Lady in the Lake” about a “middle-aged housewife turned aspiring reporter who pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman” in 1960s Baltimore. For all her ambitions and drive, the protagonist Maddie apparently has flaws that will lead to turmoil for all sorts of people she’s in contact with.
But hopefully she’s not as wicked as Polly from Lippman’s last superb novel “Sunburn.” Since “Sunburn” was dark fun for me last summer, I’ll continue with “Lady in the Lake,” especially as it is said to be a “newspaper novel” and a look at urban life in the ’60s. Plus, not many can capture Baltimore residents as well as Laura Lippman and Anne Tyler can with their fiction.
Next up, I’m curious about Helen Phillips’s speculative thriller “The Need” about a young mother and paleobotanist whose life is upended by a home intruder, “prompting her to recalibrate her relationships with her family, her work, and, most importantly, herself” so says Kirkus Reviews.
The story sounds intense, scary, and surreal … with Publishers Weekly calling it “an unforgettable tour de force” and author Emily St. John Mandel saying it’s a “profound meditation on the nature of reality” that captures — according to Laura Van Den Berg — “the fierce delirium of motherhood.” Whoa. It could be the read of the summer; is it? I’m on the wait list for it at the library, meanwhile I’d like to go back and read the author’s 2015 novel “The Beautiful Bureaucrat,” which somehow I missed.
Lastly, I’m torn between Ruchika Tomar’s debut novel “A Prayer for Travelers” — about a teenage girl in a small desert town who goes on a desperate quest to find her missing friend — and Karen Dukess’s debut novel “The Last Book Party” — about a young aspiring female writer who jumps at a chance to be a summer assistant to a well-known author who she gets involved with and later discovers some truths that make her reassess the literary world she so wanted to be a part of. Uh-oh I hate when that happens.
Both of these novels appear to be coming-of-age tales and I’m always a sucker for those. The first one though pits two friends trying to escape their dead-end desert town and desperate circumstances, while the second is set in Cape Cod and features humorous digs at the publishing scene of the 1980s. Hmm. Between the two — what more do you want?
In movies for July, I’m not sure there’s one I’d visit the theater for but maybe. There’s another “Spider-Man” movie and another “Lion King” remake, which I’ll likely pass on … but besides that, I’ll pick Quentin Tarantino’s new movie “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as a faded TV star and his stunt double who strive to achieve success in the film industry during the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
It looks weird, brash and provocative, and I’m sure it will be … with its large cast and multiple Tarantino storylines, set in 1969. Margot Robbie plays Sharon Tate and it brings up the whole Charlie Manson story, which seems dicey to do in a movie that appears to be a pretty spoofy comedy-drama. Tarantino wrote and directed it so what do you expect. The movie is said to be Tarantino’s love letter to 1960s Los Angeles, with the counterculture and all that biz. So we will see.
As for albums in July, there’s not many releasing this month, while musicians are out on the road. Thom Yorke (of Radiohead fame) has a solo album out called “Anima,” and the band Of Monsters and Men has a new one called “Fever Dream,” which could be enticing, but I’ll pick Australian singer-songwriter Angie McMahon’s full-length debut album “Salt” as my choice this month. Her single “Missing Me” is getting some airplay and apparently she’ll be touring the States this fall with Hozier, so maybe check out a listen.
That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases are you most looking forward to this month?
I’m sad that the longest day of the year has passed. I do love summer but July and August can be brutal here.
I’m looking forward to The Lager Queen of Minnesota and am not sure about The Nickel Boys.
Hi Kathy, I thought you’d like The Lager Queen, being in the brew business yourself right? We don’t get the intense humidity or heat you do there. But so far we are getting a lot of thunderstorms & rain still, argh.
Happy July. This is my favorite month.
It sounds like you had an awesome time biking.
All these books sound good. I am really into beer so The Lager Queen of Minnesota sounds particularly intriguing.
July must be nice on Long Island, enjoy the summer Brian. I, too, like beer but maybe I’m not a Lager Queen just yet. 🙂
Thanks for this post! I added a few books to my TBR. Namely, Colson Whitehead’s and Helen Phillip’s.
Both A Prayer for Travelers and The Last Book Party sound good to me.
July through September months are brutal here in Arkansas so I will be curled up on the couch in the AC with a book.
That badger next to the flowers is such a great shot! Very cute! My exciting wildlife spotting this week were two raccoons waddling through the yard.
Hi Jinjer, thanks for stopping by. Arkansas sounds like a very warm place indeed. I’ve only been there once for a wedding and it was hot that Labor Day weekend in 1997, I recall b/c I heard sadly about Princess Di while there. I can imagine you have quite a few raccoons there ….
I hope you enjoy a few of these novels; I’m on the list for them too.
Kudos to your hubbby for catching that shot of a badger in the wild. I’ve never seen one except in a zoo. We were in Canada for Canada Day in Whistler attending a free concert put on my the Tenors. It was the best free concert I’ve ever attended.
Hi Anne: Wow sounds like you had an excellent time in Whistler. Fantastic. Canada Day is usually quite festive & fun. The badger photo is quite incredible b/c they pop into their hole pretty quickly. I have not seen one in the wild before either, so it really surprised me. Apparently the ranchers don’t like them in Montana b/c their holes hurt the legs of cattle etc. But they seem pretty beautiful and cool to me.
Yes, for sure on the first three books you mentioned. I loved Kitchens of the Great Midwest and I loved Sunburn. Colson Whitehead can do no wrong in my opinion (I was going to say book, but too corny.) I also do want to check out Helen Phillips and like you will likely read her previous novel first.
Your Montana trip sounds so great. I love Montana for visiting anyway. I don’t think I could do the biking you did but I can still hike.
Wishing you lots of great reading on the deck!
Thanks Judy. Prime summer now, love it! Hope you’re juggling the earthquakes all right there. One of my brother lives in Pasadena / works in L.A. so he has told us that they’ve been big. Hold on tight. Poor Ridgecrest. The books this month look good but I have a lot of stacks everywhere so who knows what’s next. Montana was awesome; and I guess I was surprised by how it exceeded my expectations. Beautiful country where we were. We are not too far from the border so we will go again another time.
I love Laura Lippman’s books, so I’m off to check out Lady of the Lake.
Enjoy your week, and thanks for visiting my blog.
Thanks Laurel, yeah Lippman’s books are pretty entertaining. I’m sure this one will be as well. Enjoy.
So many shiny new books here, but the two I’m most excited about are The Lager Queen of Minnesota and Lady in the Lake. Sounds like your trip was a huge success!
Thanks JoAnn, Montana was great. Many shiny new books indeed! I hope Lager Queen and Lady in the Lake will be enjoyable reads. Have a wonderful July!
I have mixed feelings about Colson Whitehead. I think he’s a pretty good writer but he’s kind of a jerk. I’ve read things on Twitter but one LA Time’s Festival of Books he was really rude to so many. I am not a fan of that at all.
Ohh I didn’t know that, interesting. I still have yet to read one of his books. I think I started his last novel but then got sidetracked. I think if he’s a jerk — it probably does make a difference — about whether people will like to read his works or continue to do so.
Your bike tour sounds fun! My husband used to work for a bike touring company out of Hubbards NS, called FreeWheeling Adventures. I think it’s still going. They take groups of people on tours all over the world now. When my husband worked for them years ago they were just starting to scope out locations outside of Atlantic Canada. He loved it.
Hi Naomi: I think I missed your comment back in July but I wanted to respond. I think I know of FreeWheeling Adventures — as I’ve seen their advertisements in bike magazines. I would love to go on one of their bike tours there in NS. I will check into them. thanks for the info. I’m sure your husband loved that life, fun.