Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For July, we’re looking at magical realistic literary fiction set in the Dominican Republic, YA and adult chick lit and romance reads, comic mysteries that take on corporate America and the cozy genre, a how-to guide for making your own sushi, and a range of both fiction and nonfiction audiobooks.
If you love magical realism:
Julia Alvarez’s The Cemetery of Untold Stories (2024)*
When celebrated novelist Alma retires, she returns to some land she inherited in her native Dominican Republic. She resolves to stop writing as part of her retirement and even tries to make it official by burying her unwritten manuscripts on her new property. She feels like this symbolic act will give her closure for the characters and storylines that she couldn’t finish. But the characters have minds of their own and live on in the cemetery, clapping back at their creator, interacting with each other, and rewriting their own stories. Needless to say, this is not the retirement Alva envisioned, but she, nonetheless, finds an odd sense of closure in her characters’ refusal to go gently into that good night.
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Sandra Cisneros and George Saunders.
*Audiobook and ebook also available on Libby in both English and Spanish.
If you enjoy romance and chick lit:
Melody Carlson’s Just for the Summer (2024)**
Ginny and Jacqueline are hotel owners with very different lives. Ginny runs a glamorous hotel in Seattle, while Jacqueline manages her family’s rural Idaho fishing lodge. Still, the two women are united by a common sense of incredible boredom and frustration with how stagnant their personal and professional lives have become. They decide to swap jobs for the summer as a means of introducing some adventure into their lives, but they both find they may have bitten off more than they could chew, but maybe, just maybe, they’ll find true love in their temporary new settings anyway.
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Robin Jones Gunn.
**Audiobook and ebook also available on Libby.
Ann Liang’s I Hope This Doesn’t Find You (2024)***
Sadie is, on the surface, the perfect student and the perfect teenager. She’s always friendly and kind and excels at both academics and extracurriculars. Underneath her perfect exterior, though, Sadie channels her real feelings, often of the very angry kind, into email drafts. She never intends to send them. They’re just a healthy way for her to vent about all the stuff that bothers her that she never shows. That is, until they accidentally get sent out. Sadie’s life at school is quickly turned upside down now that everyone knows what’s really going on in her head. However, the person who seems the most empathetic to her miserable new existence is Julius, her smug infuriating school co-captain and the recipient of her most vehement email draft thoughts. Complications ensue.
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Jenny Han.
***Audiobook and ebook also available on Libby and audiobook also available on Hoopla.
If you prefer comic mysteries:
Emma Rosenblum’s Very Bad Company (2024)****
In this darkly funny and gossipy mystery, a tech startup company hosts its annual corporate retreat in Miami. Caitlin is a new employee, and on paper, the job is excellent, with a high salary and great benefits. Everything seems to be going perfectly until one of the executives goes missing, which is one of the surest way to put a damper on a corporate retreat. Caitlin and her coworkers race to solve what happened while also pretending to go through business as usual. Amid the networking events and team-building exercises, can they figure out what happened?
Recommended for those who enjoy Ruth Ware.
****Audiobook and ebook also available on Libby.
Catherine Mack’s Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies (2024)*****
In this first book of the Vacation Mystery series, bestselling author Eleanor Dash is having much less fun on her Italian book tour than she should be having. At this point, she’s tired of her popular series and can’t wait to kill off her main character, Connor Smith, in the next installation. Unfortunately for her, Connor is based on Connor Smith, her charming con artist ex who still finds ways to insert himself in her life and even on her tour, and any hopes she has of killing his fictional counterpart quickly get derailed when someone makes an attempt on the real Connor’s life. Hopefully your summer is going better than Eleanor’s. 🙂
Recommended for those who enjoy funny cozies.
*****Audiobook and ebook also available on Libby.
If you like nonfiction:
Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani’s A Visual Guide to Sushi-Making at Home (2014)******
If you love sushi and want to try your hand at making your own, this is an indispensable reference guide. In addition to covering dozens of recipes, complete with pictures and step-by-step directions, it also covers key ingredients and techniques. Also included are sashimi and sushi bowl recipes.
Recommended for anyone interested in making sushi at home.
******Ebook also available on Libby and Hoopla.
If you want audiobooks:
Mary Kay Andrews’ Summers at the Saint (2024)*******
The St. Cecelia is a storied hotel in coastal Georgia. For the “Saints,” long-time vacationers with the money to afford an annual visit to the hotel, it’s a place of fond summer memories and traditions. For the “Aint’s” who live in the area and can only hope to work at the institution, it has a decidedly more mixed reputation. Current owner Traci is stuck in the middle, an Ain’t who acquired the hotel after she married the boss’s son. Now a widow, she’s struggling to keep the hotel afloat when the legacy of a long-ago drowning comes back to haunt the present. Can Traci get to the bottom of what happened and ensure the hotel stays open in this summery mystery romance?
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Janet Evanovich, Marian Keyes, and Elin Hilderbrand.
*******Audiobook and ebook also available on Libby and physical copy in the system.
Kevin Fedarko’s A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon (2024)********
Kevin Fedarko had been working as a Colorado River guide for a few years when his friend Pete McBride, a photographer for National Geographic, suggested they hike the length of the Grand Canyon. This is widely considered one of the most difficult hikes in the world, due to both the rugged terrain and the lack of a trail. Still, Fedarko was game, and this book is the story of their trip, which took over a year. Fedarko chronicles the good, the bad, and the ugly as they experience some of the most stunning landscapes in the United States and visit corners of the Grand Canyon rarely seen by people, while also rationing their water by the teaspoon, negotiating thousand-foot cliffs, and traversing country where one wrong step can be fatal.
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Will Grant, Bill Bryson, and Jon Krakauer.
********Physical copy also available at the library.
Tommy Tomlinson’s Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show (2024)*********
If you like your nonfiction audiobooks to be less dramatic than hiking the Grand Canyon, you might really enjoy this charming, humorous inside look at the fiercely competitive Westminster Dog Show. This book is the result of 3 years of research and immersion in the dog show world, and author Tommy Tomlinson introduces readers to the breeders, owners, trainers, and, yes, dogs who put their all into the dog show circuit, particularly the team surrounding champion Samoyed Striker.
Recommended for anyone who enjoys nonfiction about quirky subcultures.
*********Audiobook and ebook also available on Libby.
What’s your favorite new-ish books? What books are you buzzing about this summer? Have you read any of these books? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of these items or to place them on hold.
Berryville Book Buzz 