The 10 best books of July 2024 to tuck in your beach bag
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July is prime vacation month, and for many of us, that means more opportunities to read for pleasure.
Before you take to the road, check out our guide to the 10 best books this month. Our reviewers leaned into fiction, because, well, it’s summer. The novels include two books on the immigrant experience, in which families try to blend the best of old and new worlds into lives that might be confusing, but hold vast riches.
Why We Wrote This
Great reads abound in our 10 picks for this month. Travel to a tropical island, small-town Australia, or even 1950s Iran, without leaving your chair. Or take these books along on your vacation.
Another novel takes a closer look at the life of Maria von Trapp of “The Sound of Music” fame. It turns out the Broadway musical and the Hollywood movie altered significant details of the von Trapp family’s story.
In nonfiction, a historian shows how Winston Churchill’s lengthy visits to the White House helped cement his friendship with President Franklin Roosevelt, an asset to both men during World War II.
Welcome to Glorious Tuga, by Francesca Segal
Francesca Segal’s “Welcome to Glorious Tuga” transports readers to a fictional tropical island. This bighearted story of a young London veterinarian and herpetologist eager to study the isle’s endangered turtles and find her father is about the importance of discovering a sense of community and belonging. (Read our full review here.)
The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali
Why We Wrote This
Great reads abound in our 10 picks for this month. Travel to a tropical island, small-town Australia, or even 1950s Iran, without leaving your chair. Or take these books along on your vacation.
Fierce women fill the pages of Marjan Kamali’s engrossing tale of friendship, class, betrayal, and politics in Iran. Ellie is a smart, lonely girl desperate for a sense of family after the death of her father. Zesty, optimistic Homa would rather study to be a lawyer than attract the attentions of a future husband. As girls in 1950s Tehran, the two forge a bond that’s tested over decades.
Catalina, by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Catalina Ituralde is navigating her senior year at Harvard amid fears of deportation and dreams of love, fame, and literature. This lovely debut novel explores the immigrant experience through the lens of an ambitious, funny, smart, and sometimes fragile young woman.
The Anthropologists, by Ayşegül Savaş
Ayşegül Savaş’ shimmering novel follows an immigrant couple as they adapt to a new city and culture, while juggling ties to their family and pursuing a meaningful life.
Bright Objects, by Ruby Todd
A comet streaks across the Australian skies, transforming a grieving young woman. Sylvia finds her life upended by two intense men – a wealthy local with delusions of grandeur and a taciturn American astronomer. The story is at its best when it wrestles with truth: Whom do we believe, and why?
Come to the Window, by Howard Norman
War overseas. Pandemic fears. A shocking scandal. Attacks on “the other.” Howard Norman’s gem of a novel unfolds not in the recent past, but in Nova Scotia in 1918. Indelible characters, taut prose, deft pacing, and resonant questions about bearing witness make this a winner.
Just One Taste, by Lizzy Dent
Food journalist Olive Stone inherits her estranged father’s restaurant in London, along with his quest to complete a cookbook that requires travel in Italy. The project comes attached to her father’s irritatingly handsome sous-chef. Brimming with glorious landscapes, delectable food, charming leads, and emotional depth, this rom-com delights.
Maria, by Michelle Moran
Michelle Moran’s novel sheds light on Maria von Trapp and her musical family. Framed by her 1959 trip to New York to challenge Broadway’s Oscar Hammerstein about inaccuracies in the musical “The Sound of Music,” the book travels between pre-World War II Austria and midcentury America, revealing insights about the von Trapps.
The Piano Player of Budapest, by Roxanne de Bastion
Roxanne de Bastion weaves together a story about the grace and courage of her grandfather, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, with a meditation on love, home, music, and family. (Read our full review here.)
Mr. Churchill in the White House, by Robert Schmuhl
Robert Schmuhl focuses on British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s lengthy stays at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., especially during World War II. Churchill wasn’t an easy houseguest, but his extended visits were important to his success as a leader.
