Best books of July 2024, as chosen by the Amazon Editors
![Liz Moore's "The God of the Woods," Paolo Bacigalup's "Navola," Kerryn Mayne's "Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder," and more.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/d1ysvut1l4lkly.cloudfront.net/B0D3HSF6JG/4/image-0-0.jpg)
Summer reading season is in full swing, and July heralds the publication of highly anticipated releases from the likes of Liz Moore and Paolo Bacigalupi. But, in addition to the bevy of great books on offer this month, you can also fill your beach bags with picks from our list of the Best Books of 2024 So Far.
Like her best-selling Long Bright River, Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods is both a missing person story and a genre-transcending family saga. Set in the woods of rural Pennsylvania, the Van Laar estate is a system of opposites: blue collar versus blue blood, the natural order versus the synthetic rules of man, dynastic privilege versus the handicap of class. When 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar goes missing from the sleep camp on the grounds—her older brother also disappeared from the estate years before—the door to the Van Laar family’s gilded cage is forced open. One of the marvels of this novel is Moore’s sure-footed control of her complex plot and her fully-realized character portraits. Like a Swiss watch, The God of the Woods is both a triumph of engineering and a thing of beauty, and will surely rank among the best of the year. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor
Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder is simply one of the strongest debuts we’ve read in a long, long time. Don’t let the “cozy” packaging fool you: this novel deals with some heavy themes, mainly domestic violence, repressed trauma, and even workplace bullying. But it does so in service of an utterly endearing main character, and with a sure, sensitive hand when it comes to empathy, humor, and hope. Lenny Marks is a teacher who lives alone, cycles everywhere, and has 36 copies of The Hobbit but few close friends. When a letter from the parole board—which Lenny stubbornly ignores—threatens to bring her painful past into her present, the walls she’s built up begin to crack little by little. As Mayne cleverly lets Lenny reveal a breadcrumb trail of clues that build to an understanding of just what she’s been through, readers will find themselves loving this quirky introvert and feeling very protective of her choices. Fans of The Maid or The Good Sister should not miss this exceptional novel. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor
Navola is the kind of book that draws you in from page one and promises an explosive finale—and it does not disappoint. Paolo Bacigalupi sets up a vast political fantasy in the sprawling city-state of Navola (reminiscent of fifteenth-century Florence), which follows Davico, the young heir to a mercantile banking empire who is more interested in medicinal plants than the political machinations of the royal families. The author takes his time while leading the reader to the city-state's true conflict; be prepared to dive into the worldbuilding before uncovering what is truly going on behind the scenes. Light on fantasy elements, fans of both historical fiction and epic fantasy can easily find themselves lost in this expansive narrative, which at times can feel simultaneously like reading a familiar classic and living in a brand-new world. Told from the first-person perspective of Davico, you will find the narrative reading like it could be the reminisce of either an emperor or a beggar, and you'll have to read to the end to find out which it is. —Ben Grange, Amazon Editor
The author of the best-selling Amazon Editors’ Pick Black Buck is back with a story set in the 2500s, where there is a class struggle between the Invisibles—a group of second-class citizens who are literally invisible, and the DPs—dominant population citizens who have elevated rights. Sweetmint is a young, budding Invisible scientist whose missing brother becomes the prime suspect of a high-profile murder, leading to a hemisphere-wide search. Sweetmint is determined to find her brother before anyone else can. This Great Hemisphere is unique, and steeped in history. The multiple narrative points of view bring an intensity to each character’s goals and intentions, which kept me buzzing with anticipation, and continuously changing what I thought was going to happen next. This cinematic and suspenseful read bends genres, providing a mix of literary fiction, sci-fi, dystopian, adventure, and mystery. No plans have been shared for additional books set in this futuristic world, but we here at the Amazon Book Review hope this is not the last we see of Mateo Askaripour, or this Hemisphere. —Kami Tei, Amazon Editor
The day Edwin was fired by his boss, Mr. Jackson, from the Arkansas chicken processing plant where he worked for seven years, he was wearing “the same salty diaper” his wife had worn on her shift at the plant the day before. Bathroom breaks are not permitted by manager Luke Jackson in his zeal to have the plant make punishing quotas at rates “not allowed in most states.” In Eli Cranor’s Broiler, Edwin’s dismissal—precipitated by crushing personal disappointments and years of dehumanizing treatment for pittance pay—sees him snap and commit an unspeakable act of revenge. The rest of the novel is like watching someone slip through one rotten ladder rung after another on the slide into disaster, dragging his wife and the Jacksons down with him. A jagged, blistering take on the American dream, Broiler reads like Daniel Woodrell and S.A. Cosby got together to reconstruct Raising Arizona as Southern noir. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor
This book is an ode to those of us who will always believe that magic is real and just within our reach. Two high school boys, Jeremy and Rafe, disappear into the woods of West Virginia and mysteriously reappear six months later, healthier than when they vanished. Rafe has no memory of where they were, and Jeremy refuses to tell him. The story picks up 15 years later, when Emilie approaches Jeremy to help her find her sister, who vanished in those same West Virginia woods. But Jeremy can only find her with Rafe’s help. And so begins a heroes’ journey, as Rafe, Jeremy, and Emilie venture into a magical realm, revealing secrets long buried, dangers at every turn, but most importantly, hope that what was lost can be found again. This enchanting and buoyant novel is a love letter to magic in all its glorious forms, which left me feeling lighter, and excited by all the possibilities this mysterious world has to offer. —Abby Abell, Amazon Editor
This boisterous history of reality TV is best binged like your favorite Real Housewives franchise. Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Emily Nussbaum does a masterful job painting a line between the sagas, stars, and stories that changed television forever and launched a thousand D-listers, from reality TV pioneers in the 1940s, An American Family, America's Funniest Home Videos and Cops (one directly led to the existence of the other), to The Real World, Survivor, and The Apprentice. Cue the Sun! is packed with incredible anecdotes (including the staggering number of people who tried to thwart one of the most popular shows of all time), nostalgia (poor Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey), and a lot of respect for its subjects, who, in bravely airing their innermost thoughts and desires for all to see, changed the country’s opinions and acceptance of race, sexuality, gender roles, and class. RuPaul walked so the Queer Eye cast could run. To write this review, I had to shake the sand out of my copy—bring your own to the beach. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
My love for historical fiction stems from my ability to learn something new while being taken on a journey through story—and this beautifully told tale checks those boxes for me. Set in Tehran like Marjan Kamali’s last novel, Amazon Editors’ Pick The Stationery Shop, The Lion Women of Tehran follows the friendship and coming-of-age story of Ellie and Homa. Despite being of different classes, at seven years old, the two become the best of friends. Ellie is led by her mother’s desires for social climbing, while Homa is a free spirit who is driven to make political change. Over the next 30 years, despite jealousy, hardships, and distance, they always seem to find their way back to each another. Their story is set during a tumultuous time in Iranian history—as Westernization during the White Revolution transitioned to the Islamic Revolution, changing Iran from a democratic society to a religious stronghold. The many lessons about friendship and the power of time make this an emotional and compelling read. —Kami Tei, Amazon Editor
If you enjoy narrative nonfiction, true crime, glamour, and New York history, you’re going to love A Gentleman and a Thief. Arthur Barry hobnobbed with the crème de la crème of New York society as if he were one of their own, clocking the magnificent jewels adorning women with lauded last names such as Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and Pulitzer. He was a “second story” man—a cat burglar—but one with finesse, style, impeccable manners, and an uncanny ability to elude police. This is the story not only of his crimes, but also a devoted love story, a story of double crosses and prison breaks, and of a figure so likable that even his victims found him charming. A Gentleman and a Thief is absolutely captivating, full of marquee names in finance and industry (as well as Harry Houdini and the Prince of Wales), the decadence of the Jazz Age, daring heists, and the rise and fall of a “smooth-talking rogue with an eye for diamonds and a heart of gold.” —Seira Wilson, Amazon Editor
A rollicking read, The Heart in Winter is a Western comedy of lovers on the lam fueled by drink and a bawdy sense of cupid’s deliverance. Giddy in its humor and irreverent in its comedy, Kevin Barry has spun a tale as old as time that flourishes with its own sense of outlaw magic. When the novel opens, our hero, Tom Rourke, is on a bit of a bender, wandering the streets looking for love and dope in Butte, Montana. It’s not until he returns to work as a photographer’s assistant (with a side gig writing letters to secure cowboys out-of-town brides) that he meets Polly Gillespie, the latest to board a train for marriage. The two, who both know about trouble—"the capital T kind"—fall for each other, and quickly thereafter hatch a plan to steal some cash, a Palomino, and flee their town for the good life in San Francisco. A combination of bliss, hilarity, and danger inevitably ensues—and it’s all a madcap maverick chase from here. Barry (Night Boat to Tangier, Beatlebone) carries this love story adventure off with aplomb, delivering a rough-and-tumble, booze-filled novel that is an absolute charmer. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
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