What does your July reading look like? If you’re in need of recommendations, we have a couple to share with you, encompassing writers from all over the world and books in a wide variety of styles and genres. Whether you’re looking for deconstructions of certain worldviews or fascinating trips into history, we have you covered; here are 10 books that might pique your interest this month.
It’s hard to keep up with new books. Two months ago I read Arcade, Drew Nellins Smith’s first novel. It’s a hard-to-pin-down book about cruising and coming out in Texas, centered around a seedy “adult store.” The book is bold, direct, often uncomfortable, often hilarious. It was published a decade ago. The day I finished reading it I learned Smith’s second novel was coming out soon.
In our morning reading: this year’s 5 Under 35 honorees are announced, an excerpt of D. Foy’s new novel, an interview with Yahdon Israel, and more.
In our afternoon reading: an interview with Mitchell S. Jackson, new nonfiction from Colin Dickey and Sarah Gerard, and more.
In our morning reading: new nonfiction from Helen Phillips and D. Foy, thoughts on books by Drew Nellins Smith and Jordan Okumura, and more.
In our weekend reading: Francine Prose on Frankenstein, thoughts on the adaptation of “The Interesting,” an interview with Drew Nellins Smith, and more.
Ask me about my literary influences, and I’ll reflexively cite what I imagine is the usual collection of MFA-program darlings for an American man in his 30s: Flannery O’Connor, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Lorrie Moore, Tobias Wolf, James Baldwin. Then a number of personal fetishes: Julie Hecht, Jane and Paul Bowles, Nicholson Baker, Amy Hempel, R.V. Cassill.