{"id":24303,"date":"2018-07-03T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T04:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=24303"},"modified":"2018-07-02T16:40:39","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T20:40:39","slug":"july-2018-books-to-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2018\/07\/03\/july-2018-books-to-read\/","title":{"rendered":"July 2018 Books to Read"},"content":{"rendered":"

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July 2018 Books to Read!<\/p>\n

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Summer is officially here, and the publishing slate is weighted heavily to books that fit well with a day at the pool. Things slow down about now, as folks take their holidays and prepare for the much busier fall slate. That doesn’t mean there are not several great books to look for this month. Here are a few that caught my attention, including a Young Adult novel that sounds incredibly strange and dark. Please let me know if there are any I’m missing that you’re excited for.<\/p>\n

The links to Amazon.com are affiliate links, so if you purchase the book (or any item) by going there from this page, we’ll make a bit of money for the site. Do not feel obligated, of course — we’ll keep going regardless! Release dates are based on the U.S. release date.<\/p>\n

July 10<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"Journey into the Mind’s Eye: Fragments of an Autobiography<\/strong><\/em>
\nby Lesley Blanch
\nNYRB Classics<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the blurb from NYRB Classics:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy book is not altogether autobiography, nor altogether travel or history either. You will just have to invent a new category,\u201d Lesley Blanch wrote about\u00a0Journey into the Mind\u2019s Eye<\/em>, a book that remains as singularly adventurous and intoxicating now as when it first came out in 1968.<\/p>\n

Russia seized Lesley Blanch when she was still a child. A mysterious traveler\u2014swathed in Siberian furs, bearing Faberg\u00e9 eggs and icons as gifts along with Russian fairy tales and fairy tales of Russia\u2014came to visit her parents and left her starry-eyed. Years later the same man returned to sweep her off her feet. Her love affair with the Traveller, as she calls him, transformed her life and fueled an abiding fascination with Russia and Russian culture, one that would lead her to dingy apartments reeking of cabbage soup and\u00a0piroshki\u00a0<\/em>on the outskirts of Paris in the 1960s, and to Siberia and beyond.<\/p>\n

\"\"My Year of Rest and Relaxation<\/strong><\/em>
\nby Ottessa Moshfegh
\nPenguin Press<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the blurb from Penguin Press:<\/p>\n

From one of our boldest, most celebrated new literary voices, a novel about a young woman’s efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes.
\n<\/b>
\nOur narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?<\/p>\n

My Year of Rest and Relaxation<\/i>\u00a0is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.<\/p>\n

\"\"Clock Dance<\/strong><\/em>
\nby Anne Tyler
\nKnopf<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the blurb from Knopf:<\/p>\n

Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life. In 1967, she is a schoolgirl coping with her mother\u2019s sudden disappearance. In 1977, she is a college coed considering a marriage proposal. In 1997, she is a young widow trying to piece her life back together. And in 2017, she yearns to be a grandmother but isn\u2019t sure she ever will be. Then, one day, Willa receives a startling phone call from a stranger. Without fully understanding why, she flies across the country to Baltimore to look after a young woman she\u2019s never met, her nine-year-old daughter, and their dog, Airplane. This impulsive decision will lead Willa into uncharted territory\u2013surrounded by eccentric neighbors who treat each other like family, she finds solace and fulfillment in unexpected places. A bewitching novel of hope and transformation,\u00a0Clock Dance\u00a0<\/i>gives us Anne Tyler at the height of her powers.<\/p>\n

\n

July 17<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"Ma Bole’s Second Life
\n<\/strong><\/em>by Xiao Hong
\ntranslated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt
\nOpen Letter<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the blurb from Open Letter:<\/p>\n

M<\/em>a Bo’le\u2019s Second Life<\/i>\u00a0is a humorous-yet-stark depiction of the despair of ordinary Chinese people confronted with the sudden onslaught of war and Westernization. It follows the\u00a0eponymous cowardly layabout as he escapes his unhappy family life by going on the run to avoid the coming Japanese invasion. Just a step ahead of the destruction, bumbling his way from one poorly thought out situation to the next, Ma Bo’le\u2019s comic journey mirrors that of China as a whole during this chaotic period of history.<\/p>\n

Incredibly well respected during her short, difficult lifetime, Xiao Hong\u2019s final novel is an undiscovered masterpiece, a philosophical comedy in the vein of\u00a0Bouvard and P\u00e9cuchet<\/i>, finally available to English readers in Howard Goldblatt\u2019s inventive rendering.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump<\/i><\/strong>
\nby Michiko Kakutani
\nTim Duggan Books<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the blurb from Tim Duggan Books:<\/p>\n

We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted by the occupants of the White House. Discredited conspiracy theories and ideologies have resurfaced, proven science is once more up for debate, and Russian propaganda floods our screens. The wisdom of the crowd has usurped research and expertise, and we are each left clinging to the beliefs that best confirm our biases.<\/p>\n

How did truth become an endangered species in contemporary America? This decline began decades ago, and in\u00a0The Death of Truth<\/i>, former\u00a0New York Times<\/i>\u00a0critic Michiko Kakutani takes a penetrating look at the cultural forces that contributed to this gathering storm. In social media and literature, television, academia, and politics, Kakutani identifies the trends\u2014originating on both the right and the left\u2014that have combined to elevate subjectivity over factuality, science, and common values. And she returns us to the words of the great critics of authoritarianism, writers like George Orwell and Hannah Arendt, whose work is newly and eerily relevant.<\/p>\n

With remarkable erudition and insight, Kakutani offers a provocative diagnosis of our current condition and points toward a new path for our truth-challenged times.<\/p>\n

\n

July 24<\/h3>\n

\"\"I Am Still Alive<\/strong><\/em>
\nby Kate Alice Marshall
\nViking Books for Young Readers<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the blurb from Viking Books for Young Readers:<\/p>\n

After:
\n<\/b>Jess is alone. Her cabin has burned to the ground. She knows if she doesn\u2019t act fast, the cold will kill her before she has time to worry about food. But she is still alive\u2014for now.<\/p>\n

Before:
\nJess hadn\u2019t seen her survivalist, off-the-grid dad in over a decade. But after a car crash killed her mother and left her injured, she was forced to move to his cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness. Just as Jess was beginning to get to know him, a secret from his past paid them a visit, leaving her father dead and Jess stranded.<\/p>\n

After:
\nWith only her father\u2019s dog for company, Jess must forage and hunt for food, build shelter, and keep herself warm. Some days it feels like the wild is out to destroy her, but she\u2019s stronger than she ever imagined.<\/p>\n

Jess will survive. She has to. She knows who killed her father\u2026and she wants revenge.<\/p>\n

\n

July 31<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"I Didn’t Talk<\/strong><\/em>
\nby Beatriz Bracher
\ntranslated from the Portuguese by Adam Morris
\nNew Directions<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the blurb from New Directions:<\/p>\n

The English-language debut of a master stylist: a compassionate but relentless novel about the long, dark harvest of Brazil\u2019s totalitarian rule.<\/p>\n

A professor prepares to retire?Gustavo is set to move from S\u00e3o Paulo to the countryside, but it isn\u2019t the urban violence he\u2019s fleeing: what he fears most is the violence of his memory. But as he sorts out his papers, the ghosts arrive in full force. He was arrested in 1970 with his brother-in-law Armando: both were vicariously tortured. He was eventually released; Armando was killed. No one is certain that he didn\u2019t turn traitor: I didn\u2019t talk, he tells himself, yet guilt is his lifelong harvest.\u00a0I Didn\u2019t Talk<\/em>\u00a0pits everyone against the protagonist?especially his own brother. The torture never ends, despite his bones having healed and his teeth having been replaced. And to make matters worse, certain details from his shattered memory don\u2019t quite add up… Beatriz Bracher depicts a life where the temperature is lower, there is no music, and much is out of view.\u00a0I Didn’t Talk’s<\/em>\u00a0pariah\u2019s-eye-view of the forgotten \u201csmall\u201d victims powerfully bears witness to their \u201cinternal exile.\u201d I didn\u2019t talk, Gustavo tells himself; and as Bracher honors his endless pain, what burns this tour de force so indelibly in the reader\u2019s mind is her intensely controlled voice.<\/p>\n

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Summer is officially here! Here are some books coming out in July that have my interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"none","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"[]","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[798],"tags":[],"coauthors":[505],"class_list":["post-24303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/July-2018-Featured-Image.jpg?fit=700%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-6jZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24312,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24303\/revisions\/24312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24303"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=24303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}