July recommended lists you don’t want to miss
July brings fireworks, sizzling grills, poolside reading days, and an explosion of great new releases your patrons will want to get their hands on! July is also Disability Pride Month, so get ready to stock up on the best fiction and nonfiction for your patrons to enjoy this month and all year long. With the Fourth of July around the corner, American history books will be especially in demand, and with the Olympics on the horizon, readers will want to grab some sports books to get excited and inspired. Below are lists you can shop in OverDrive Marketplace to make sure you have everything you need to keep your patrons’ TBR lists full all summer long.
American History
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To celebrate the Fourth of July, this large list has all the nonfiction titles you need to celebrate the holiday and learn more about our country’s vast and storied history.
Featured title
The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions by Amanda Bellows
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From the publisher: The archetype of the American explorer, a rugged white man, has dominated our popular culture since the late eighteenth century, when Daniel Boone’s autobiography captivated readers with tales of treacherous journeys. But our commonly held ideas about American exploration do not tell the whole story—far from it.
The Explorers rediscovers a diverse group of Americans who went to the western frontier and beyond, traversing the farthest reaches of the globe and even penetrating outer space in their endeavor to find the unknown. Many escaped from lives circumscribed by racism, sexism, poverty, and discrimination as they took on great risk in unfamiliar territory. Born into slavery, James Beckwourth found freedom as a mountain man and became one of the great entrepreneurs of Gold Rush California. Matthew Henson, the son of African American sharecroppers, left rural Maryland behind to seek the North Pole. Women like Harriet Chalmers Adams ascended Peruvian mountains to gain geographic knowledge while Amelia Earhart and Sally Ride shattered glass ceilings by pushing the limits of flight.
In The Explorers, readers will travel across the vast Great Plains and into the heights of the Sierra Nevada mountains; they will traverse the frozen Arctic Ocean and descend into the jungles of South America; they will journey by canoe and horseback, train and dogsled, airplane and space shuttle. Readers will experience the exhilarating history of American exploration alongside the men and women who shared a deep drive to discover the unknown.
Across two centuries and many thousands of miles of terrain, Amanda Bellows offers an ode to our country’s most intrepid adventurers—and reveals the history of America in the process.
Disability Visibility
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This list, which spotlights disability and neurodivergence, has something for readers of all ages, from fiction of every genre to memoirs and essays.
Featured title
Rules for Camouflage by Kirstin Cronn-Mills
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From the publisher: Evvie Chambers is doing her best to skate through the last month of high school to graduation. The only thing standing in her way is a biology report on foxes—and her teacher, Mrs. Audrey Dearborn. The same Mrs. Dearborn who’s been a thorn in Evvie’s side for years, refusing to acknowledge or accommodate her neurodiversity. Evvie would much rather be doing her report on Aretha, the octopus she cares for when she volunteers at the Minnesota Zoo but deviating from the exact assignment isn’t allowed—and Mrs. Dearborn isn’t going to make following the rules easy.
Evvie’s only escape from high school hell is the Lair: a safe haven for kids whose brains need some time away. But when Mrs. Dearborn refuses Evvie’s pleas to finesse the final report assignment to her strengths, and persistent bully Vandal McDaniel directs his harassment toward Lair members, Evvie finds herself more desperate than ever for stability and support.
When a shocking act of violence pushes the whole mess over the edge, Evvie, with the help of her friends and the others who love her, will have to figure out how to find her place in the wide world, while remaining true to herself.
Go for the Gold: Olympics Reading
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Let the Games begin! Whether your readers are athletes themselves or ready to cheer for their favorite event, this list has all the titles to educate and inspire your readers, from biographies and memoirs to fictional teams and sports romance.
Top Titles of July
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Featured title
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
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From your OverDrive DCL: Get ready for classic summer camp nostalgia with a twist. In 1975, a teenage camper named Barbara Van Laar disappears from her Adirondack summer camp. Barbara isn’t just any camper though – she’s the daughter of the family that owns the camp and employs most of the residents in the local area. To make matters more mysterious, her older brother also vanished fourteen years earlier and was never found. As the search begins, readers will uncover the secrets of the Van Laar family and the community.
With multiple character perspectives, this book is intricately plotted and richly detailed with decades worth of family drama and deceptions. This book has earned starred reviews from Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus, and it’s perfect for fans of Tana French or Kate Morton looking for a thought-provoking literary fiction/mystery crossover.
Coming Blockbusters of Month
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Featured title
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
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From your OverDrive DCL: The king of slashers is back! His latest pays homage to classic slasher films with a twist. In a small west Texas town in 1989, Tolly Driver is seventeen years old and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Written from the perspective of our young killer writing his own autobiography, Stephen Graham Jones offers an insider’s look at a good kid stuck on the outside, and you may find yourself unexpectedly rooting for a killer in this gory yet thoughtful thriller. This book has earned a starred review from Booklist and is sure to get readers rewatching all their favorite slasher films this summer.
Top Romance of July
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Featured title
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
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From the publisher: Back in high school, everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together . . . everybody but Shiloh and Cary.
They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha—Shiloh would go to go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.
Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed. Now Shiloh’s thirty-three, and it’s been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.
When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there—and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything? The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.
Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.
It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.
Top Mystery/Thrillers of July
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Featured Title
It’s Elementary by Elise Bryant
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From the publisher: Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. She has enough on her plate with her feisty seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, an exhausting job at a nonprofit, and the complexities of a multigenerational household. So no one is more surprised than Mavis when she caves to Trisha Holbrook, the long-reigning, slightly terrifying PTA president, and finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee.
As one of the few Black parents at this California elementary school, Mavis tries to convince herself this is an opportunity for real change. But things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal’s plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies Trisha in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan, it’s only natural that her mind jumps to somewhere it surely wouldn’t in the light of day.
Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning, and has been MIA since the meeting. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Mavis, along with the school psychologist with the great forearms (look, it’s worth noting), launches an investigation that will challenge her views on parenting, friendship, and elementary school politics.
Brilliantly written, It’s Elementary is a quick-witted, escapist romp that perfectly captures just how far parents will go to give their kids the very best, all wrapped in a mystery that will leave you guessing to the very end.
Top Fantasy of July
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Featured Title
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
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From your OverDrive DCL: Cozy fantasy is hot right now, and this romantasy debut is the perfect cottagecore addition to the trend. Librarian Kiela and her assistant, Caz the sentient spider plant, have spent over a decade working at the Great Library of Alyssium, surrounded by spellbooks and preserving their magic for those who can afford it. But when a revolution leads to an attack on the library, Kiela and Caz save as many books as they can and run away to a far-off island that Kiela once called home. Kiela had hoped they would be able to hide out in her parents’ old cottage, but instead finds herself with a nosy – yet handsome – neighbor and a town in disrepair. Despite the empire’s magic, the town has been left to fend for itself without magical assistance to keep healthy crops and livestock. In fact, that magic is instead creating destructive storms that have raged against the island.
After working with the magic of library for the city’s elite, Kiela can’t help but feel a sense of responsibility for this mismanagement of magic, so she becomes set on finding a way to set things right by opening the island’s very own secret spellshop. Of course this is a risky business, but as Kiela finds herself settling in amongst the townspeople, she realizes that she’ll have to take a chance and let others in. With a warm and fantastical atmosphere and a celebration of magic both big and small, this book is like a gentle balm for the soul.
More Recommended July Lists You Don’t Want to Miss
Top historical fiction of July. Shop the list here.
Top nonfiction of July. Shop the list here.
Top sci-fi of July. Shop the list here.
Top self-published of July. Shop the list here.
If you ever need help shopping, you can always email your Digital Content Librarian! Find your DCL in the SUPPORT tab of Marketplace.
About the author: Claire Weibel has worked in publicity for the arts, public libraries, and archives. At OverDrive she helps public libraries manage their collections and creates lists of the hottest titles to help her partners shop and promote their collections to their patrons. When she isn’t reading she loves to run, try new recipes (while listening to an audiobook), plan her next road trip, or hang out with her two dogs and cat. Claire is always excited to talk about a good mystery or spooky books!
