July-August 2025 Book Marks
In keeping with the lazier pace of summer, I’ve combined the July-August reads this month. Twice the fun, packed into one read. But not one of these authors has kicked back in any way with the books below… so read away, stay cool and enjoy.
Fiction:
All the Men I’ve Loved Again by Christine Pride
The calendar is about to turn to the year 2000 and Cora Belle is headed off to college, determined to change her life. Up to now, she’s been Daddy’s girl at an all-white prep school in an all-white town. When she meets charming southern accented Lincoln with his dark skin and sexy smile, she’s destined to fall in love. But when tragedy pulls her into the wake of Aaron, the sensitive photographer who understands her, she’s poised between two loves, the one who she understands and the one who really understands her. Fast forward twenty years and Cora is single by choice. But fate has something else in store. An unexpected reconnection and a chance encounter have her right back where she started all those years ago, with the same men and the same decision. What will she do with her second chance?
Fiction:
The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani
Leave it to this master storyteller to take us from Lake Como, New Jersey to the shores of the “other one” in Italy. The book begins with recently divorced Jess, who has left her husband and moved home to heal. She’s the dutiful daughter who cares for her parents, cooks dinner and essentially puts herself last on the list. She’s also a talented draftswoman in the family marble business. After an unexpected loss, Jess travels to Carrara, Italy, and meets an artisan in her ancestral home. He sees her value and then begins to help her discover herself, as she learns the buried truth about her family history. Once again, Trigiani has written another sweeping epic that showcases a strong female character with heart and soul, relatable to all.
Fiction:
So Far Gone by Jess Walter
From the man who brought you “Beautiful Ruins,” (loosely based on Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s during the movie shoot for “Cleopatra”) Walter takes us to the moody Pacific Northwest. Rhys Kinnick has gone off the grid, fleeing to live a deep woods cabin after punching out his son-in-law at Thanksgiving. But real life is about to drag him back to the real world. His daughter, Bethany, shows up on his door with two kids in tow, escaping the husband who has lost himself to a religious militia that espouses violence in the name of the Lord. The story is a fast-moving, emotional and humorous tale (a hard combo to pull off) with well-drawn characters in a landscape that’s fractured in recognizable ways.
Fiction:
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
It’s everyone’s nightmare situation. A teenage son is driving the family van with everyone inside and when he momentarily loses control, the car veers into another lane, hitting and killing an elderly couple. Seventeen-year-old Charlie, the family’s golden boy with an athletic scholarship to UNC, has his father next to him in the passenger seat. The two daughters and mother, Lorelei (an international AI expert) are injured, but they will all heal physically. Each family member holds a secret about the event. And there is another “passenger” in the car, but I’ll let you learn about that one. When the family heads to vacation on the Chesapeake Bay to relax and heal, things begin to unwind as the family confronts the moral dilemma and who is culpable. The sudden appearance of billionaire Daniel Monet and his beautiful daughter raise the stakes, especially when Charlie and the daughter are attracted to one another. The drama that ensues keeps the reader engaged, while raising prescient and complicated questions around ethics, AI and what all this means for our future.
Fiction:
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
Jane is about as isolated as a teenaged girl can be, growing up off the grid in a Montana cabin with a father and his revolutionary ideas who has been very quiet about the past. All she knows about her mother is that she was killed in a car accident and that her father used to work in tech in the 80s, becoming disillusioned with what he thought AI and other “advancements” would do to the human race. When her father asks her to accompany him on a trip, Jane realizes he has made her an accomplice to a horrible crime. Fleeing to San Francisco, she must navigate the world and try to find the mother she now knows is out there. This book draws on the story of the Unabomber for inspiration, highlight what it means to question everything you thought you valued, including your parental love and devotion. It’s a bold, sweeping novel that will leave you thinking about it long after you close the pages.
Fiction:
Likeness by Samsun Knight
Within days, two women become pregnant by the same man, Sebastian. His first marriage has ended when he learns that the child he thought was his is that of another man. Overnight, this revelation changes his feelings about “closed love.” And while both Anne and Sandy understand they are in a polyamorous relationship, each have different reactions upon learning about the other and their pregnancy. This slim but delightful book intimately tracks the love, hurt, change of heart and mindset shifts of each woman with skillful writing and deft insights.
Historical Fiction:
The Last Assignment – A Novel of Dickey Chapelle by Erika Robuck
Robuck consistently combines her deep research into female historical figures into compelling characters of flesh and bone. In her last few books, the author has dug into the brave women in wartime, the true stories of heroes we don’t find in the textbooks, and this story is no exception. Combat correspondent Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle is in a rough place after being arrested a decade earlier for disobeying orders and going ashore at Iwo Jima. With her savings dwindling and her marriage crumbling, she seizes the opportunity to work with an international refugee organization where she can witness the front lines of the Hungarian and then the Cuban Revolutions, up to the early days of the Vietnam war, where a woman’s presence on the battleground was still unwelcome. This is the story of grit, temerity and courage in the face of discrimination.
Historical Fiction:
The Harvey Girls by Juliette Fay
In her books, Fay investigates parts of our America past that are quickly being forgotten, from the days of Vaudeville to this present book where she explores the bonds of female friendship against the backdrop of the burgeoning American Southwest. In the 1920’s, The Fred Harvey Company started the first hospitality chain of restaurants called “Harvey Houses,” which grew up around the Santa Fe Railroad system. The “Harvey girls,” as they came to be known, were neat, clean and well-paid. This story begins with Charlotte, a Boston brahmin on the run from an abusive, violent husband when she meets Billie MacTavish, from the other side of the tracks in small-town Nebraska. When both women become Harvey girls and share a room, the story takes off. Fay laces fun-fact information about interesting moments in history with character development and plot.
Non-Fiction:
The Lobster Trap – The Global Fight for a Seafood on the Brink by Greg Mercer
Lobster, once a food for the “poor,” has been an incredible success story as an industry, generating wealth and fueling the culinary world as a “luxury” food. The boom that began in the 1990s has led to murders, fights and now trade battles, including the rights to fish in geographic areas. But as a result of changing climates and overfishing, increasingly there are few lobsters left to catch in America and few alternatives for wide-scale seafood that lobstermen can use to pivot their business. In this well-researched book, Mercer takes us on a global journey through this critical time in an industry which may never look the same.
These are books I genuinely love and am thrilled to recommend to my friends. These are Bookshop.org affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I get a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Alternately, if you prefer to rent books at your local library or buy from your local bookstore, I very much support that!
