It’s a heat wave here in Chicago leading into the Fourth of July!
Whether you’re looking for some great outdoor reading or want to beat the heat with a good book, the new releases in July are sure to satisfy. This list features exciting Chicago authors like Kathleen Rooney and Rowan Beaird, remarkable debut novelists, and the final installment of an iconic trilogy.
Let the summer reading commence!
Man Overboard!
By Kathleen Rooney
Gallery Books
Look no further for your summer read: Kathleen Rooney’s latest, Man Overboard!, is a hilarious, heartfelt, and absolute thrilling literary romp. Patrick “Kick” Kilpatrick hates the ocean, but when he finds himself drifting in the sea after falling (or jumping) from a Thanksgiving cruise, he must desperately struggle to survive. Chicago’s very own Kathleen Rooney is one of the best at gut-busting humor with a heart, and with Man Overboard!, she may have just delivered her most unforgettable novel yet.
Cool Machine
By Colson Whitehead
Doubleday
I’ve been closely following Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy (in fact, in 2023 I argued that this may become his magnum opus), so I’m thrilled to see this incredible series come to a close with Cool Machine. Here, we return to the life of Ray Carney, a master fence living in New York who finds himself pulled away from his legitimate business dealings to return to a life of crime once again. Whitehead’s trilogy is a beautiful portrait of a changing city, and Cool Machine is more than a fitting end to what has become one of the most exciting projects in publishing in recent years.
The Flayed Man
By Chloe Lauter
Soft Skull
In Chloe Lauter’s dazzling debut, Ellis Karsten must balance her work as an ER nurse and caring for her mother through her early onset dementia and something much darker—a thirst for blood that risks turning her into a mindless, skinless killing machine. When their last supply of blood vanishes, Ellis must track down help while also avoiding a fabled monster known as “The Flayed Man,” who is drawn to her family’s condition. The Flayed Man is a book that knows how to draw blood: combining a spine-tingling vampire story and a haunting depiction of familial love and the pain of caring from someone you’re not yet ready to lose. This is everything you want in a literary horror novel.
The Great Wherever
By Shannon Sanders
Henry Holt and Co.
Shannon Sanders announced herself as a writer to watch with her debut short story collection, Company, and we’re eagerly anticipating her new novel, The Great Wherever. When Audrey Lamb, an underpaid gig worker looking for more, discovers that she’s inherited her late father’s stake in a sizable Tennessee farm, she sees an opportunity to remake her life. But she’s not alone, as ghosts of her ancestors watch on with judgement. Sanders has written an unforgettable multigenerational saga about our ties to our land and the power of ancestry.
Nightjar
By Emily Ruskovich
Random House
I’m thrilled to see the return of Emily Ruskovich following her extraordinary 2017 novel Idaho. Nightjar features five magical stories set against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest wilderness, exploring the themes of estrangement, memory, and intimate grief. Ruskovich’s writing tows the line between subtly quiet and ferociously triumphant, as each story introduces us to characters so complicated and thorny that they might as well be real. Nightjar is haunting, riveting, and an absolute gift.
Yellow Pine
By Claire Vaye Watkins
Riverhead Books
Rose has found a community to raise her child at Yellow Pine, where a group of spirited misfits have mounted a stand against the “green energy gold rush” that she believes will destroy her beloved desert. When she rekindles a love with an old flame, it ignites a desire in her to fight against the wave of consumerism and industrialization threatening her home. Claire Vaye Watkins is at the top of her game with this wild trek of passion and resistance.
The New People
By Andrea Uptmor
Little, Brown and Company
When Chicagoans Emma and Rachel move into a charming house in a conservative Indiana town during the housing crisis, a series of strange occurrences make them question whether they are truly alone. Unbeknownst to them, the former homeowners, Charlotte and Dirk, continue to live secretly in the attic above the garage after being dispossessed by the recession. The New People is a deftly crafted debut that explores the themes of ownership, infertility, and our connection to one another with utmost confidence.
American Made: Stories of Work from the WPA
Edited by Anne Trubek
Belt Publishing
During the Great Depression, the government hired out-of-work writers to interview over 10,000 workers about their jobs and lives—from meatpackers in Chicago and farmers in Nebraska to construction workers building the New York City subway. American Made brings together many of these accounts for the first time, unveiling an illuminating history of work in America that continues to resonate today. Like Studs Terkel’s Working, American Made is a beautiful ode to the blue-collar workers who built the America we see today and highlights what’s changed—and hasn’t—in the years since.
Beginning Middle End
By Valeria Luiselli
Knopf
Valeria Luiselli’s latest follows a mother and daughter on a trip through Sicily following the collapse of their family. Weaving together philosophy, myths, natural history, and a collection of memorable characters, Beginning Middle End is a moving ode to our short time in the world and the connections that make our lives worth living. Luiselli is truly a bard for our modern times.
Tenderness
By Rowan Beaird
Flatiron Books
Rowan Beaird has already announced herself as a master of the slow burn thriller with her debut novel, The Divorcées. In Tenderness, she takes her talents to a remote island off the coast of Virginia for one of the most tense weddings you’ll ever read in fiction. Underneath the anticipation and glamor of the destination wedding, the guests whisper about the bride, who recently left a dangerous cult who may or may not be trying to track her down. Tight and introspective with a wonderfully combustible cast of characters, Tenderness is sure to be your go-to summer read.
Unsayable: A Life in Writing
By Michael Cunningham
Random House
From the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Hours comes an intimate memoir about language, young love, and the joys of living a creative life. From meditations on the first boy he ever fell in love with to conversations with the man he would marry, Unsayable is full of passion and joy at every turn. Unsayable is the type of book that will expand your heart and ignite your creative soul.
Carousel: An Essay on Seeing
By Sarah Minor
Yale University Press
Carousel opens as a professor begins delivering a lecture to a hot classroom. While her students have the internet in their pockets and screens on their wrist, what are they actually looking at when they have the ability to see in more directions than anyone else in history. Sarah Minor’s latest reinvents the form of literature by weaving together memoir and history as the lecture moves from lyric essay and medieval tapestries to surrealism, Instagram reels, and predator drones. This slim book is packed with insight—a remarkable lesson about how we perceive the world around us.
