July 2023 | What to Read this Month
This month we have some stellar books in the line-up! Starting with a quirky recluse who sets off a chain of unexpected events when she opts to incinerate her recently deceased father rather than follow the proper channels. It sounds weired, it gets dark, and it will probably be on your list of ‘bests’ for the year.
Looking for something lighter? Check out our women’s/ romance pick that is a modern reimagining of Pride and Prejudice…in Chinatown. Or, grab our mystery/ thriller pick that throws some Madeleine McCann vibes. A young child is lost on holiday and then someone shows up 13 years later claiming to be the lost girl. Our non-fiction pick also begins with a lost child that spurs a man and his family to grieve and come alive again in Yellowstone. Finally, we get to our picks for the under 18 set. I couldn’t choose this month between which elite private school YA book should make the list because they are very different. One channels Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars and the other is another Jane Austen reimagining (Northanger Abbey) but throws in some X-Files flair. So, I chose both! Lastly, we have a great middle grade chapter book that takes a city family to a cabin in rural Maine where a mystery unfolds as a bonafide treasure hunt!
What will you read this month? Head over to our Facebook Discussion Group where we are happy to talk all things books. Or catch up with us on Instagram. And, for more book talk, read along with me and you might get a sneak peek of future books. I bookstagram at VictoriaIsBooked.
Let’s turn pages!
Victoria
Book Lady for GHM
July 2023 | What to Read
Strange Sally Diamond | Liz Nugent
Publishing Date
July 18, 2023
GENRE
General Fiction
Reclusive Sally Diamond causes outrage by trying to incinerate her dead father. Now she’s the center of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also a sinister voice from a past she does not remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her early childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, big decisions, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say.
But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world, and why does he call her Mary? And why does her new neighbor seem to be obsessed with her? Sally’s trust issues are about to be severely challenged in this “inventive, addictive, and bold” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) thriller.
Good Fortune | C.K. Chau
Publishing Date
July 11, 2023
GENRE
Romantic Comedy, Women’s Fiction
…Pride and Prejudice, set in contemporary Chinatown…
When Elizabeth Chen’s ever-hustling realtor mother finally sells the beloved if derelict community center down the block, the new owners don’t look like typical New York City buyers. Brendan Lee and Darcy Wong are good Chinese boys with Hong Kong money. Clean-cut and charismatic, they say they are committed to cleaning up the neighborhood. To Elizabeth, that only means one thing: Darcy is looking to give the center an uptown makeover.
Elizabeth is determined to fight for community over profit, even if it means confronting the arrogant, uptight man every chance she gets…Mrs. Chen takes every opportunity to keep her investors close. Closer than Elizabeth likes.
The more time they spend together, the more conflicted Elizabeth feels…until a shocking betrayal forces her to reconsider everything she thought she knew about love, trust, and the kind of person Darcy Wong really is.
She Says She’s My Daughter | Lauren North
Publishing Date
July 24, 2023
GENRE
Mystery & Thrillers
Fourteen years ago, our family holiday ended in tragedy when my four-year-old girl was snatched from us on the beach… I only looked away for a second, and I have never forgiven myself.
Today, a seventeen-year-old girl has walked into a police station near our house. She says she’s my daughter. Abigail is back…This should be the happiest moment of my life, but something doesn’t feel quite right. As hard as I try, I don’t know the teenager in front of me. Then holes appear in Abigail’s story, her accent starts to slip, and I catch her faking tears for the journalists outside – and I’m more certain than ever that she is not my daughter. That she is a stranger. And that we cannot trust her…
But if this mysterious girl isn’t Abigail, then who is she – and what does she want with my family?
ThROUGH THE WILDERNESS | BRAD ORSTED
Publishing Date
June 27, 2023
GENRE
Non-Fiction, Memoir, Biography
When Brad Orsted’s fifteen-month-old daughter, Marley, died mysteriously at the home of Brad’s mother, he descended into madness. Blaming himself, he plunged into an abyss of grief, guilt, and self-recrimination, fueled by prescription drugs and alcohol. He planned his suicide as his wife, Stacey, searched for a new beginning. She finally found a job in Yellowstone National Park and, with their daughters, Mazzy and Chloe, the pair fled Michigan, looking for refuge and redemption in the 2.2 million acres of glorious American wilderness.
Through the Wilderness begins in Yellowstone, five months after the family’s arrival in 2012, when, in an alcoholic haze, Brad stumbled into a field of sage and survived a face-to-face encounter with an adult male grizzly bear. For the first time in almost two years, he realized he wanted to live—he just didn’t know how.
Desperate for help, Brad invited himself to a Crow sweat lodge ceremony, where an elder told him it was time to stop grieving. The elder’s words started Brad on a journey towards sobriety and inner peace, only possible because of lessons he learned in the wild, his new job as a wildlife photographer and filmmaker, and two orphan grizzly cubs who carried him back home and taught him how to live again.
Brad’s ten-year odyssey is about finding the wild inside the human heart. It is a journey of the spirit— a journey to forgiveness and sobriety, to love and life, to memory, and ultimately, to Marley.
The Legacies | Jessica Goodman
Publishing Date
July 25, 2023
GENRE
YA, Mystery/ Thriller
Ghosted | Amanda Quain
Publishing Date
July 25, 2023
GENRE
YA, Romance, Ghosts
Old money. New secrets. One killer party.
Scoring an invitation for membership to the exclusive Legacy Club in New York City is more than an honor. It gives you a lifetime of access to power and wealth beyond any prep school doors and guaranteed safety and security as Legacy Club members always look out for their own. That is, after you make it through a rigorous week of events and the extravagant gala, the Legacy Ball.
So it’s not surprising when Excelsior Prep seniors Bernie Kaplan, Isobel Rothcroft, and Skyler Hawkins are nominated as Legacies; their family pedigrees have assured their membership since birth—even if they’re all keeping secrets that could destroy their reputations. But scholarship kid from Queens Tori Tasso? She’s a surprise nominee, someone no one saw coming. Tori’s never fit in this world of designer bags, penthouse apartments, and million-dollar donations. So what did she do to secure her place?
The night of the Legacy Ball is supposed to be the best night of these seniors’ lives, a night of haute couture, endless champagne, and plenty of hushed gossip.
Everyone expects a night of luxury and excess.
No one expects their secrets to come out.
Or for someone to die trying to keep them hidden.
Never Have I Ever meets The X-Files in Amanda Quain’s Ghosted, a fresh and funny update on the Jane Austen classic, Northanger Abbey.
Hattie Tilney isn’t a believer. Yes, she’s a senior at America’s most (allegedly) haunted high school, Northanger Abbey. But ever since her paranormal-loving dad passed away, she’s hung up her Ghostbusters suit, put away the EMF detectors, and moved on. She has enough to worry about in the land of the living—like taking care of her younger brother, Liam, while their older sister spirals out and their mother, Northanger’s formidable headmistress, buries herself in work. If Hattie just tries hard enough and keeps that overachiever mask on tight through graduation, maybe her mom will finally notice her.
But the mask starts slipping when Hattie’s assigned to be an ambassador to Kit Morland, who’s just transferred to Northanger on—what else—a ghost-hunting scholarship. The two are paired up for an investigative project on the school’s paranormal activity, and Hattie quickly strikes a deal: Kit will present whatever ghostly evidence he can find to prove that the campus is haunted, and Hattie will prove it’s not. But as they explore the abandoned tunnels and foggy graveyards of Northanger, Hattie starts to realize that Kit might be the kind of person who makes her want to believe in something—and someone—for the first time.
The Mystery Traveler at Lake Fortune | Cathie Pelletier
Publishing Date
July 15, 2023
GENRE
Children’s Fiction (8-12), Mystery
When Charlie Baker’s parents announce that they’re taking him and his sister…to a cabin in Maine for two weeks, Charlie thinks they’re kidding… Then Mrs. Baker adds something else. “There’s no electricity,”…
When the Bakers arrive at Lake Fortune, in rural Maine, they are welcomed by a rickety cabin with an outhouse, a thunder and lightning storm, and a creature in the attic that masquerades as a ghost…
But then true adventure begins when they discover a clue left in a Mason jar on a tiny island in the lake. That clue—written by The Mystery Traveler—leads them to an old apple tree, and a second clue. Soon, they are on the path of an exciting treasure hunt, one that brings Charlie and the bossy Clarrisa together for the first time. Not only do they bond as brother and big sister—especially after a harrowing experience in which Charlie rescues Clarissa—they have the summer of their lives.
LAST MONth’s Popular Book Club Picks
Which ones will you be reading this month?
Note: Many of our books were read courtesy of NetGalley ARCs. While this does give us a sneak peak all suggestions and opinions are our own – we have no obligation to provide positive reviews. We will never recommend books we would not read ourselves or share with our own family. Additionally, italicized descriptions are from the publisher. Throughout the month we are so excited to discuss our opinions on all these picks – please join us here, on our Bookstagram, and in our Facebook discussion group!
