The It Books of July 2025

Summary

Book Riot - The Podcast: The It Books of July 2025 Release Date: July 2, 2025
Hosts: Jeff O’Neill and Rebecca Schinsky
Description: In this episode, Jeff O’Neill and Rebecca Schinsky delve into the standout "It" books of July 2025, reflecting on their selections for the first half of the year and anticipating trends for the upcoming months. They provide insightful commentary on various genres, authors, and anticipated releases, offering listeners a comprehensive overview of the summer's literary landscape.

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1. Introduction to July 2025 “It” Books

The episode kicks off with Jeff and Rebecca expressing their anticipations and uncertainties regarding July's book releases. Rebecca mentions the scarcity of standout titles for July and August, indicating a quieter period compared to the bustling May and June releases. Jeff echoes this sentiment, noting that July doesn't seem as monumental as previous months, yet they remain optimistic about the selections.

Notable Quote:

• Jeff O’Neill [01:08]: "July, we really jump off, you know, jump off the dock, into the pond."

2. Upcoming Best Books of the Year Panel

Before delving into July's selections, the hosts promote an upcoming panel event scheduled for July 9th in Portland, Oregon. This event will feature Jeff, Rebecca, Vanessa Diaz, and Keith Mossman discussing the best books of the year so far. Tickets are available through a link in the show notes.

Notable Quote:

• Jeff O’Neill [02:57]: "Tickets will be available. There'll be a link in the show notes there. 7pm Beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon."

3. July’s Top Selections

a. Daniel Krause – Angel Down

Jeff and Rebecca highlight Daniel Krause’s Angel Down as their leading pick for July. The book, published by Atria Books on July 29th, has already garnered starred reviews and is described as a blend of science fiction and speculative fiction set during World War I. The plot revolves around soldiers who encounter what they believe to be a fallen angel, leading to profound consequences.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeff O’Neill [08:38]: "Daniel Krause has a new book coming out July 29th called Angel Down from Atria Books."
• Rebecca Schinsky [09:19]: "I think Daniel Krause is gonna carry on."

b. Hannah Pittard – Let It Kill You

Hannah Pittard’s Let It Kill You is discussed as a messy yet compelling narrative based on her real-life experiences portrayed in her ex-husband's debut work. The book delves into themes of marriage, betrayal, and literary rivalry, offering a raw and unfiltered look into complex relationships.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeff O’Neill [12:02]: "This is a huge month."
• Rebecca Schinsky [13:40]: "A man and woman walk into a bar by Katie Yee."

c. Sylvia Moreno Garcia – The Bewitching

Sylvia Moreno Garcia’s The Bewitching is acknowledged for its unique take on multi-generational witchcraft narratives. Set in Massachusetts, it involves a grad student researching horror literature who uncovers more than she bargained for when reading a mysterious manuscript.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeff O’Neill [17:53]: "She manages to do a different thing in every book, which I think is a really special magic trick."
• Rebecca Schinsky [19:22]: "I think witches are kind of in the same zone that we're talking about Sylvia Moreno Garcia being in as well."

d. Gary Steingart – Vera, Faith

Gary Steingart’s Vera, Faith is highlighted as a satirical contemporary novel focusing on a family’s struggles, seen through the eyes of their precocious daughter. The book promises sharp social commentary wrapped in humor and relatable family dynamics.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeff O’Neill [20:35]: "Is anyone you trust more than Steingart to do a comic satire, contemporary, dealing with real things going on right now?"
• Rebecca Schinsky [21:07]: "It's like David Foster Wallace meets Jesse Eisenberg is kind of the Gary."

e. Katie Yee – Maggie or A Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar

Katie Yee’s debut novel explores the emotional journey of a woman diagnosed with cancer, personifying her tumor as "Maggie." The narrative employs vignettes to depict her coping mechanisms, blending humor with poignant reflections on marriage and personal struggle.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeff O’Neill [23:31]: "She starts to create this document called Guide to My Husband."
• Rebecca Schinsky [24:44]: "I feel like I'm either going to make it 20 pages in or I'll read the whole thing in one sitting."

f. Chuck Hogan – Carpool Detectives

Chuck Hogan’s Carpool Detectives is a true crime narrative featuring a group of moms who take it upon themselves to solve a double homicide in their hometown. Given Hogan’s background in crime fiction, this book is expected to appeal to true crime enthusiasts.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeff O’Neill [25:54]: "They find out that they all love true crime and that there was a double homicide in their hometown."
• Rebecca Schinsky [26:24]: "I do think Daniel Kraus is going to win this month in December when we're reviewing the second six months of the year on it books."

g. Sophie Elmhurst – Marriage at Sea

Sophie Elmhurst’s Marriage at Sea is a nonfiction account of a couple who quit their jobs to sail together, only to face a turbulent ocean and the ensuing challenges of survival. The book promises an engaging blend of relationship dynamics and adventurous survival.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeff O’Neill [27:38]: "These two people are kind of an odd couple and they're afraid of wasting their lives."
• Rebecca Schinsky [28:05]: "That sounds great. That sounds great."

4. Reflection on First Half of 2025

The hosts take a moment to review their selections from January to June 2025, acknowledging both successes and missteps. They candidly discuss books that didn't quite hit the mark, citing marketing mismatches and unforeseen popularity of certain titles.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeff O’Neill [39:30]: "January was easy. February was a rough look for us."
• Rebecca Schinsky [40:07]: "February was a rough look for us."

5. Highlights of Past Picks

• January: Onyx Storm was a successful pick.
• February: Faced challenges with Takes Me by Christina Rivera Garcia, deemed abstruse by the hosts.
• March: The Dream Hotel by Leila Lalami didn't meet expectations.
• April: Heartwood by Amity Gage received a big book club push but had mixed reviews.
• May: Successful with Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong.
• June: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil performed well, with Bury Our Bones expected to have longevity.

Notable Quotes:

• Rebecca Schinsky [43:30]: "May we nailed Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong."
• Jeff O’Neill [44:34]: "Maybe regression to the mean because it's also been a while since woman in cabin 10."

6. Anticipated Releases Beyond July

While the focus remains on July’s offerings, anticipation builds for August 2025 with Nicholas Boggs’s Baldwin: A Life, set to release on August 19th. The hosts express excitement over its extensive length and the inclusion of new archival material, positioning it as a potential award contender.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeff O’Neill [32:22]: "It's a 720-page book. I myself would love to say I would get to this."

7. Conclusion and Upcoming Events

Jeff and Rebecca wrap up the discussion by reiterating their top picks for July and reflecting on the year's trajectory. They encourage listeners to attend the upcoming best books panel in Portland and highlight the continued relevance of their selections.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeff O’Neill [47:05]: "BookRiot.com Listen for show notes. Check out the Patreon there."
• Rebecca Schinsky [47:34]: "I have no apologies. Eye mask, earplugs, white noise machine."

8. Audiobook Excerpt

The episode concludes with an excerpt from "A Bookseller in Madrid" by Mario Escobar, narrated by Lauren Etso. This historical audiobook transports listeners to 1930s Spain, following Barbara Spiel, a German refugee who opens a bookstore amidst the Spanish Civil War. The excerpt beautifully sets the stage for the narrative, emphasizing the power of literature and resilience in the face of tyranny.

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Key Takeaways:

• Daniel Krause’s Angel Down is the standout book for July 2025, blending historical and speculative fiction with strong critical acclaim.
• Hannah Pittard’s Let It Kill You offers a raw, introspective look into personal and literary conflicts.
• Sylvia Moreno Garcia’s The Bewitching continues to captivate with its multi-generational witchcraft narrative.
• Gary Steingart’s Vera, Faith and Katie Yee’s Maggie or A Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar highlight strong debut voices in contemporary and innovative fiction.
• Chuck Hogan’s Carpool Detectives and Sophie Elmhurst’s Marriage at Sea provide diverse genres from true crime to adventurous nonfiction.
• The hosts candidly reflect on their curated selections for the first half of 2025, acknowledging both hits and misses.
• Anticipation builds for future releases, particularly Nicholas Boggs’s extensive biography on James Baldwin.

Upcoming Events:

• Best Books of the Year Panel: July 9th, 7 pm, Downtown Portland, Oregon. Hosts and panelists include Jeff O’Neill, Rebecca Schinsky, Vanessa Diaz, and Keith Mossman. [02:57]

Additional Resources:

• Patreon: Access the running list of discussed titles and a back catalog of bonus content. [39:31]
• Show Notes: Available at BookRiot.com, including links to event tickets and book details.

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Stay Connected: For more updates, book recommendations, and exclusive content, visit BookRiot.com and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming platforms.

Transcript

[Rebecca Schinsky]

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[Jeff O'Neill]

A Venmo debit card. You can Venmo more than just your friends. You can use your balance in so many ways. You can Venmo everything. Need gas?

[Vanessa Diaz]

You can Venmo this.

[Jeff O'Neill]

How about snacks? You can Venmo that.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

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[Jeff O'Neill]

You can Venmo this or their next show?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

You can Venmo that. Visit Venmo Me Debit to learn more.

[Keith Mossman]

You can Venmo this or you can Venmo that. You can Venmo this or you can Venmo that. You can Venmo.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp bank and a pursuant to license my Mastercard International Incorporated card may be used everywhere. MasterCard is accepted. Venmo purchase restrictions apply.

[Keith Mossman]

This is the Book Riot Podcast. I'm Jeff o' Neill.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And I'm Rebecca Schinsky and we're talking.

[Keith Mossman]

About the IT books of July 2025 today.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

We're back.

[Keith Mossman]

We're back, back half of the year. Also going to do a check in on our selections and how we've done for 2025 so far. Rebecca, I'll tell you this, I did not have to hide anybody in the July IT books ranking. Have you looked at the July books and new releases?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I have not done a whole lot of July new release research right now because I try not to spo before we do these shows, but I keep a little like running list of titles I'm looking forward to so I can kind of, you know, see what I might pick each week. And it's slim pickings for most of this month and most of August. Like there are a few things I'm looking forward to, but I had not seen anything that looked like a real knockout to me. So I'm curious about how we're going to shake out here today.

[Keith Mossman]

Again, always interesting things, but especially coming off the Murderer's Row of June. Just as a quick reminder, King of Ashes, Susan Choi, Schwab Fibo, Taylor Jenkins Reid like all kinds of stuff going on.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This is a huge month.

[Keith Mossman]

I feel like July. I don't know. I don't know if this is a Laura McGrath, a Brenna Calmer. I don't know who could Tell us. But I feel like July isn't as big of a deal as it used to be. I feel like June and May are bigger, but July, we really jump off, you know, jump off the dock, into the pond.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I don't remember if July ever was bigger, you know, really from the run into Memorial Day through June tends to be the big surge of summer books. But we have started getting more, it feels to me at least more literary fiction in that same space. It's not all summer books, which is very welcome to me. But by the time we hit July, it's pretty quiet. August looks pretty quiet until the very end of August.

[Keith Mossman]

Until the very end. Because that book is so big. Like we're just going to do August.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. Just put it on August 26th.

[Keith Mossman]

Release the Avengers endgame anytime you want. You can do whatever, you know, Taylor Swift can drop or be honest, it can drop at least like on a Tuesday night with no hype. It doesn't really matter there. We're going to talk about the July it books first and then like I said, we're going to do a little bit of accountability corner about our selection so far. But first, if you have the wherewithal, the interest, the ability to get to pals on July 9, we will be then love to see you doing our best books of the year so far with Vanessa Diaz of Book R and Keith Mossman, buyer extraordinaire over there. Tickets will be available. They are available. There'll be a link in the show notes there. 7pm Beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon. It should be nice looking at the weather. Should be nice. Rebecca's coming in.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Lovely. I can't wait.

[Keith Mossman]

Old time. So let us know if you're coming. Make sure to get those tickets.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Four book experts and 20 of the best titles of the year plus whatever else we decide to shout out.

[Keith Mossman]

Well, we had to lock those in a while ago and I may have some movement on my list.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I have a I think I have a couple that are coming in hot. At least a few honorable mentions because we did lock them in in like late May.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And it was like. But we have a whole other month of the first half of the year to be reading for. I know we like to cheat on these things.

[Keith Mossman]

My my recent reading has been a lot of backlist travel based which I'll talk about on the show we're doing a little bit later. So I don't have as many as I could but there's a couple of contenders there. I have not read any of the July oh no. That's not true. I read one of the July titles here. But first, before we get into it, let's do a sponsored break.

[Vanessa Diaz]

Today's episode is sponsored by Harlequin Publishers of let's Give Them Pumpkin to Talk About By Isabel Popp Textile artist Sadie Fox did not sign up for this when she agreed to come home to Pea Blossom, Indiana. It was to care for her father's beloved pumpkin patch. The deal was that just for the summer, she would grow a ginormous pumpkin, win the Indiana State Fair's pumpkin contest, and finally win back her father's grudging respect. Instead, a horde of wild hogs destroyed the entire patch. Which is precisely when the annoyingly sexy sunshiny next door neighbor shows up. Josh Thatcher is a tech millionaire who traded in the office for growing gourds, including experimental squash hybrids. And for the life of her, Sadie can't understand what he sees in her sweary tattooed prickly self or why he's offering to help his biggest competitor. But a storm fueled kiss proves there's something growing between them. Maybe it's just an attraction, maybe it's more. Whatever it is, it's already bigger than Sadie's fast growing pumpkin or the secret that Josh has been hiding. This is a spicy small town fall romance that you can read in one sitting. The perfect kind of read to transition from summer to fall. And this book is by one of our very own Book Riot contributors, Isabel Poppy. The book is available [e-mail] thank you once again to Harlequin for sponsoring today's show. This episode is brought to you by Slow Burn, an imprint of Xando Projects. Listen, if you love your romance with a side of murder, secrets and slow burning tension. And I know I do, Nightshade by Autumn woods is for you. Set at an elite university tucked deep in the misty Scottish Highlands, the story follows Ophelia Winters as she searches for the truth about her parents deaths. But when a stalker starts closing in, she's forced to trust the last person she wants. Alex Corbo Green, the son of her prime suspect. With its heat, haunting setting and cliffhanger ending, Nightshade is a dark academia dream you won't want to wake up from. So we get a romance full of enemies to lovers tension, set in a gothic Scottish castle. Yes please to all of that. Alex and Ophelia are giving grumpy and grumpy with serious he falls first energy. And really, this is just a perfect blend of murder mystery, romantic suspense and dark academia vibes. Thank you once again to Slow Burn and imprint of Xando Projects. For sponsoring today's show. You can get Nightshade by Autumn woods now wherever books are sold.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This episode is sponsored by A Bookseller in Madrid by Mario Escobar. Stick around after the show to hear an excerpt from the audiobook provided by our sponsors. A Bookseller in Madrid by Mario Escobar is a powerful historical audiobook set in 1930s Spain. Barbara Spiel, a young German refugee fleeing Nazi Germany, opens a bookstore in Madrid that becomes a haven for free thinkers as the Spanish Civil War erupts. Barbara must fight to protect her sanctuary and those she loves. A tribute to the power of books and the courage of those who stand against tyranny. Escobar's story explores the intersection of love, literature and resistance. A Bookseller in Madrid is available everywhere you read and listen to books and it is narrated by the award winning voice of Lauren Edzo. Again, stick around after the show to hear an excerpt from the audiobook edition of A Bookseller in Madrid by Mario Escobar.

[Keith Mossman]

I think this is my. This, this book was my son's. Is my son's second most anticipated book of the year. And he vamps while Edelweiss decides. I tell you what, man, I'm all linked up. I have this stuff all ready to go. So some reason Two Weeks Sunrise at the Reaping was Ames's most anticipated book of the year and did not disappoint. I bought him Whale Fall by Daniel Krause because he likes sci fi and science and marine biology. I'm like, home run, home run. Can you hit three home run simultaneous? It's been a while since I played baseball.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

You are barking up the wrong.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah, right. Can you explain to me the infield fly rule? Is that something we should do for a few minutes?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Absolutely not.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. Anyway, but Daniel Krause has a new book coming out July 29th called Angel down from Atria Books. 304 pages. It's already gotten a starred review from a couple different spots. This one is a, I guess you'd call them sci fi spec fic. Whale Falls. A little more sci fi, I guess. This one's a little more specular fiction, but it's set in World War I. And a group of soldiers comes, you know, they're, they're walking through a battlefield and they find what they seem to think is a fallen angel. And that's the story of what happens.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I mean, I don't know what popular in my house.

[Keith Mossman]

I don't either because it's spec thick but it doesn't neatly fall into any particular like Whale Fall and this are maybe weird fiction almost. I guess a little China Mieville is. Is closer. I'm really excited about this. Ames loved Whale Fall. I thought it was really interesting to someone who is just going to do a weird book and play it out and see how it goes. And I find very exciting. If this is good, we'll have two from this kind of author which is interesting to have someone like. I can't think of a.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

If you can pull it off twice. That's really. That is really something. Whalefall did not fall into my personal reading zone but Bob loved it. I think co read it with a friend. I feel like I'm falling down on duties here because I don't think I've told him there's going to be a new Daniel Cross. Well, you've got four weeks, so. Right. He'll be excited to hear that. I think weird, like weird specific is maybe the way to describe it.

[Keith Mossman]

Sharifa, she would know better.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. It does feel like Kraus is operating in a zone that we don't have anybody else currently operating in. It does. And it feels to me, I think China Mieville is an interesting comp that if he were still writing as frequently as he had been for a while or if the name was still as recognizable as he was for a little bit there, we might be like seeing those comps more actively. But I think that's probably the right kind of reader for this.

[Keith Mossman]

Maybe John Darnell or Sylvia Marino Garcia who kind of moves around genres and does some different stuff.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, Garcia does something different every time.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. And stay tuned. Do I think there was a June book? I don't think it made on here, but I'm not gonna. So I think this is pretty interesting. So. Well, fall best book of 2023 from NPR. Crazily enjoyable was the quote from the New York.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Love to hear that. That's great for July.

[Keith Mossman]

Kind of the right idea. That is sublimb here a pol tale of survival, supernatural wonder and moral conflict. And you just don't hear the serialized descriptors like that. So I'm. I'm interested.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I have to say I love Polyphonic. We need to use that more often. It's a good one.

[Keith Mossman]

If people don't remember he co wrote the Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Which weird is.

[Keith Mossman]

I mean it's like. What is that again? I don't know. It's. It's a combination that. On paper. Well, these are on paper. That's the bad cliche, how books work. They tell books work. Well, I don't know. Pretty exciting. Pretty exciting kind of stuff. Okay, moving on. This might win the. Oh, boy. Oh, this one actually loaded. Okay. We should do a little edelweiss working for me here. This might be the messiest book of July from an author I really like, Hannah Pittard.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh, yeah.

[Keith Mossman]

If you love it, Let it kill you, which is a novel based on her true life experience of getting portrayed in her ex husband's debut.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, this is so messy.

[Keith Mossman]

Yes.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

So last year, maybe two years ago, she had a book out that was more about the divorce like that, in which it reproduced conversations between her and her husband and text messages between her and her husband, between the friend that her husband cheated with and that person's spouse. And then she also imagined some of the conversations and messages that they might have sent to each other or that she wished they could have sent to each other. And so this is her second book about this, like, very unusual experience. And in this one, she's. I was just looking at this earlier because I also really like her, that she's responding to the fact that her husband, who had been having an affair, writes her into his new novel. And, like, doesn't something terrible happen to the character?

[Keith Mossman]

I think so. I'm trying to, like, fuzzily look at it. Deeply complicated is what it's called here. We haven't really had the Leslie Jamison thing. Didn't really get to a point where they were fictionalizing each other. I don't.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Right. Yeah. No.

[Keith Mossman]

This feels like mutual assured destruction. Literary variety here.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. Like, he wrote about. She wrote about him, and then he wrote about her. And now that she's writing about him, writing about her. And how many more var rounds of this will they go? Like, this is the kind of drama that you want to, like, be adjacent to and pop your popcorn to, but that you don't want to be anywhere.

[Keith Mossman]

Right.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Involved in. So this, like, book distance. This is perfect. I will eat this up with a spoon.

[Keith Mossman]

Yes, I think so. In her bio. I'm just asking this question. She is the winner of the Amanda Davis High Wire Fiction Award. Is that someone's name Amanda Davis Highwire or the Amanda Davis Award for, like, High Wire Fiction?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm going to go.

[Keith Mossman]

What do you. What do you think here is happening?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I wish that my last name were High Wire. Badass. The Rebecca Shinsky Bungie Award.

[Keith Mossman]

Right.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm going to guess it's probably just Amanda Davis. And highwire is an adjective.

[Keith Mossman]

Should we Found the book. Right. Highwire Fiction Award for the best book with the highest degree of difficulty.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes.

[Keith Mossman]

That's a category kind of the Daniel Krause High Wire Award. Maybe.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Sure. I think highest degree of difficulty is one we should add to our like end of the year superlatives difficulty book.

[Keith Mossman]

We'Ve talked about in some time. I have to think. I. I mean, if it were anyone other than Percival Everett. I feel like James.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes.

[Keith Mossman]

Goes sideways like 11 times out 25 different ways.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah.

[Keith Mossman]

Someone somewhere got canceled just for thinking about how James could have got. I'm not a.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That's right.

[Keith Mossman]

I'm not a supporter of Thought crimes, but I get it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I understand on that one. On that one you are sitting out there thinking about rewriting Huck Finn. Maybe not.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. The comps here just show how much of a mess this Petard book will be. Death Valley by Melissa Broder, which was very Strange Monsters by Claire Deder. And then of course, All Fours by Miranda July.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes, I did see that. Now we're in Miranda July comp land.

[Keith Mossman]

Jeffrey R. I mean, it's sold. Rebecca, I don't know what to say.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It did. It's fine. I understand it. And you know, War of the Roses is being readapted. So I think we are in a moment for like a messy marriage thing. I saw the trailer for the new one recently.

[Keith Mossman]

A little more slapstick than I think. All Fours turns and I assume this is going to be too.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman. And they're re releasing the book War of the Roses, like a new edition in paperback and ebook in July for that. So maybe we're just going to have a moment of like, look at these messy marriages. I'm here for this.

[Keith Mossman]

I know you are.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Can Bombach adapt it, please?

[Keith Mossman]

So that's if you.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's about writers and it's about marriage.

[Keith Mossman]

I know. And there's like a screaming cat with heart eyes on the COVID I don't know. So this is. If you love it, Let it kill you by Hannah Pittard.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm gonna say Daniel Krause is gonna carry on.

[Keith Mossman]

Oh, I forgot we had that part to do. I'm just talking about.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

No, it just occurred to me that I have to do a knockout round because you've been gone for so long. I don't know how to do this.

[Keith Mossman]

Don't know what's going on.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. I think Daniel Krause is going to carry on like Whalefall had a huge audience. Pittard is wonderful, but in a pretty Specific, I think, like literary fiction niche. And this sounds like carving more into that space. Like she's going into some weird places. It's not slapstick or a straightforward memoir or even like a. Just a straightforward novel about this because, as you said, the cat talks. So we'll pass Daniel Kraus through.

[Keith Mossman]

Speaking of Silvia Moreno Garcia, July 15. Our next contender is the Bewitching. And there's a little bit of. Remember when we were teenagers or maybe you were a tween when Deep Impact and Armageddon came out.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh, yes, Armageddon was very important.

[Keith Mossman]

So I'm not sure that July of 2025 is the time you want to be releasing a multigenerational saga about witches, because that's what that's. It's on its. On its own. Sounds amazing, but boy, does it look if you squint or maybe really have to not squint for this not to sound like barrier bones.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, bad luck to do a multi generational witch book right after multi generational vampires. But Marino Garcia is like, very popular and beloved by her readers. And she does manage to do a different thing in every book, which I think is a really special magic trick. Daniel Krause is probably going to be more widely read. I don't know that we've. I don't think any of these three so far are probably really an award contender. And all three of these are tricky for big book club stuff. But Kraus, I do think has the most IT book potential that we've heard.

[Keith Mossman]

It feels like Marino Garcia, and I don't have the sales numbers, has found kind of a consistent spot. Like Mexican Gothic did, I think, quite a bit better. And it raised her profile. But then silver nitrate and some other things feels like they're kind of going to be in this zone. And people like the zone. And I like this zone.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I do, too. She's in a. She's in it, I think that's right. She's in a good zone. A dedicated readership. She sells well enough to continue getting book deals. She does interesting things, and she's done enough different things that I think her readers have confidence that whatever the next experiment is, that will be good and interesting as well. It's not like she's done one thing for 20 books and then she throws a curve ball. Like she has demonstrated that she can really do this.

[Keith Mossman]

So I don't know that it's exactly multi generations of witches themselves, but there is witchcraft, there's multi generational. The main character is a grad student focusing on the history of horror literature looks into a manuscript and I know you're going to be shocked. It doesn't turn out to be just a bunch of pages at that point.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

You read them out loud and things happen.

[Keith Mossman]

It's set in Massachusetts. You can, you know, maybe extrapolate from there with the directionality and verticality of what that may happen to some of these witches at some point. But yeah, I think a cool book. I don't know. We get a lot of witch books and do they sell very well? We sign a lot of these. But when you come to best books of the year or most popular books of the year, it hasn't really been.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think, you know, I don't know, I think witches are kind of in the same zone that we're talking about Sylvia Marino Garcia being in as well. Like there is a consistent, consistent audience for a witch book, but it's not a top tier, you know, subject matter or domain.

[Keith Mossman]

We haven't looked at Barrier Bones or Atmosphere. I don't know how those books are selling.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

They're doing very well right now in hardcover fiction. It's Atmosphere and then Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soul.

[Keith Mossman]

Well, well, well. Turns out the big books turned out to be the big books. Okay, that's the bewitching and I don't know if I said, but It's Del Rey. July 15th. Up next, one of one of the authors of our heart, Gary Stangart, has a new book out July 8th from Random House called Vera comma or Faith. A family struggling to stay together. And it's told through the eyes of their precocious 10 year old daughter. And it's set contemporary. It's a contemporary novel and it's about what's going on in the country, I think. Is there anyone you trust more than Steyngart to do a comic satire, contemporary, dealing with real things going on right now?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

No.

[Keith Mossman]

No, I don't know who else I'm picking.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Stingart at the top of his game. Skewering the present moment.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Is just genuinely and consistently delightful.

[Keith Mossman]

Blurbs from or yeah, blurbs from Karen Russell, if Baruman and Michiku Kakutani, who I guess they just send books to and like, would you mind Every now.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And then Kakutani just appears to blurb a thing.

[Keith Mossman]

Also, Steingart probably has as much blurb, you know, probably as many chits in the blurb circuit.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

He's got a lot of goodwill in the blurb.

[Keith Mossman]

It's like one of those poker players, the end of the World Series of Poker. There's just like this giant mound of chips and he can call anyone that he. He wants to. To see what's going on there. So. I am really looking forward to this. We both liked our country friends and I've been on the. The GS bandwagon really, since super sad True Love Story, which, yeah, I would be fascinated to read now because it feels only more and more prescient than Boys at 20:15. I think I was blogging, maybe so it could have been even pre br.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

But yeah, we'll take a look at it.

[Keith Mossman]

Take a look for that in the. In the future.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

August is looking in. Well, this is for July. July's a little quiet. Maybe we'll. If we both read it, we'll talk about it. I don't know if we'll officially book club it. That's not on the calendar. But we'll both be reading Steingart and this. It'll give me an excuse, which I always take to remind us all that Gary Steingart is the only author who should ever be sent to review his experience on a cruise.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah, I mean, it's like David Foster Wallace meets Jesse Eisenberg is kind of the Gary.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

David Foster Wallace, if he didn't take himself so seriously.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. Who wouldn't mind doing some selfies with martinis.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. Yeah. He ends up wearing that.

[Keith Mossman]

If.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Folks, if you're listening to this and you have not read this, Google yourself. The Gary Steingart cruise Review. They send him on, like, the world's biggest cruise ship for a week and he basically has an existential crisis and ends up with a T shirt that says something like daddy's little meatball. And it's just amazing.

[Keith Mossman]

The next one is Cancer Corps.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Well, we gotta make.

[Keith Mossman]

Oh, sorry, colleagues. I'm just moving on. So, Vera, Faith Against angel down is where we're at right now.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think we're gonna keep Daniel Kra.

[Keith Mossman]

Makes sense to me as well.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Steingart will be appreciated by people like us, but I think Daniel Cross is going to sell very well.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. The next one is Maggie Semicolon or A man and a Woman Walk into a Bar by Katie Yee. I think this is my only debut pick. I'm not sure this is Cancer Courts fiction. So, you know, this may not be one for you, but a man and a woman walk into a restaurant and instead finds out that there may be some infidelity going on with someone called Maggie. She then gets a chest ache, discovers it's cancer, and then calls the tumor Maggie. And then over the course of, like, the next months.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Great work.

[Keith Mossman]

She, you know, it's the sort of kind of what comes after. And I guess it's told in vignettes.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm in on this one. Man. I've been seeing it everywhere.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. And she creates this guy. I guess this is the person I don't know if she said that's having an affair is her husband. She's married to him. She starts to create this document called Guide to My Husband. A user's manual for the other Maggie. It sounds. There's a version of this which is like a little precious and sentimental, but actually feels a bit sharper than that. So I'm not sure what to do with this. I don't have any experience of this.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That I would like the Nora Ephron screenplay with this pitch because it would be like if this is done with some sharpness and like the Guide to My Husband because I'm going to die and you're going to be left with him is kind of sweet but also kind of like here is the really annoying thing that he does and how to deal with it or what will shut him down or any those kinds of things that long married people have. Like, that would make it a really enjoyable, satisfying read. I'm definitely going to pick this one up because I've seen it coming up everywhere. I don't have enough confidence in it because it's a debut author to bump her ahead of Daniel Krause. But this has big book club potential. I would not be surprised.

[Keith Mossman]

Under 200 pages. You love to see a Book of the Month club selection. So some people are going to give it a shot there because it's part of their subscription. Whatever. I'll be curious to see. I think for me to be interested in this, I need to hear that it's very funny.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. I will report.

[Keith Mossman]

Very funny. Okay.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I feel like I'm either going to make it 20 pages in or I'll read the whole thing in one sitting.

[Keith Mossman]

So that is Maggie. Or A man and a woman walk into a bar by Katie Yee. And I've lost my release date. It's coming out sometime in July. That's all I can tell you right now because it's freezing on me here. We're gonna do. This is on my audiobook list. And I am not a conventional kind of true crime person. So I need something that's a little bit different. But this sounds that way. It is coming out from random house on July 29th. The story here is the Carpool Detectives. A true story of Four moms, two bodies and one mysterious Cold Case by Cold Case by Chuck Hogan.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Okay.

[Keith Mossman]

And in 2020, this group of moms, you know, they're mom in it up and you know, the kids are growing up and they're trying to figure out what to do, what comes next. And they find out that they all love true crime and that there was a double homicide in their hometown many years ago. And so they decide to try to solve it. And it's okay, I'm of this crime.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

In that sounds like fun.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah, I think so.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'll wait for your review of that one.

[Keith Mossman]

So Chuck Hogan wrote the book Prince of Thieves, which got turned into the movie the Town. And he wrote the crime novel Gangland, which I didn't.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Fascinating. Next move for him.

[Keith Mossman]

I mean, if you're a crime writer, even a novelist, and you hear this story.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, that's great.

[Keith Mossman]

I think you just take it on. I'm surprised that some podcast hasn't picked this up. Maybe they.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It sounds very podcast worthy.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. The Carpal Detectives by Chuck Hogan.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Okay, Daniel Krause is going to continue with angel down, but Carpool Detectives has real potential.

[Keith Mossman]

I mean if this gets it maybe is optioned already, but you can see a murderer's row of like 40 something actresses lining up to do a 100 put it on Apple Lies a Lion Morior. But like true crime situation.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah.

[Keith Mossman]

Next up, July 8th from Riverhead, the authors. It's called A Marriage at Sea. Colon A True Story of Love, Obsession and Shipwreck by selfie Sophie Elmhurst. I like a book about relationships. I like a book about a boat. I like a nonfiction book that clocks in at 256 pages. So these two people are kind of an odd couple and they're afraid of wasting their lives. But what if they quit their jobs and bought a boat and sailed? And then what if it went crazy with a wild ocean and you're alone together for a long time and you're trying to survive and it's a true story. And also the comps are Stay True by Hua Hsu and the Art Thief by Michael Finkel. I couldn't be more excited, Rebecca.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, that sounds great. That sounds great. The nonfiction of it all means that it probably will not be up for the big book clubs. Nonfiction again, doesn't tend to sell as well unless it sells really, really well, which maybe this also sounds like there's adaptation potential. Daniel Krause rolls on. He's having a good month.

[Keith Mossman]

I wondered if something like this might happen. Okay, we're gonna take our second break here. Before we go to the last. I guess we're just down to three now. We're kind of cooking through it today.

[Vanessa Diaz]

Today's episode is sponsored by Horrible Women, Wonderful Girls by Julianne Sipos. Head to wonderfulgirlsnovel.com now and click on the free cookbook link just for Book Riot listeners. Because Pie neighbor, what happens when a sharp tongued misfit collides with a world famous brand built on small town secrets and lies? Behind the pastel perfect promises spun by an angry army of prairie Karens lies the ugly truth behind Littleburg's Wonderful Girls. Freshly fired, forced into rehab and on the run from MeToo Hollywood, JC Grayson did not come to play. With no filter and nothing to lose, she sets out to expose a billion dollar fraud. With her job on the line, her sobriety at stake, and fellow outcasts relying on her resilience for their reinvention. Meet the hilarious new series heroine we didn't know we needed. Flawed, fearless and refreshingly unfiltered flipping the script on empowerment, image and identity in today's America. Thank you once again to Horrible Women, Wonderful Girls for sponsoring today's show. And don't forget to click on wonderfulgirlsnovel.com for that free cookbook link. Today's episode is brought to you by splashtide Publishing llc, publishers of Bleeding Roses by April Savage the Romans are slaughtered while trying to colonize Dacian territory. This thrusts the elite Axius and famed hero Nestor into a painful reckoning that their fallen were not killed by humans. They embark on a journey to save their beloved commander Titus and the army who undertake a mission to avenge their fallen. Axius believes the Dacian queen Vasiliki holds the key to uncovering the truth about the killers as a plot seeking to undermine Rome from within is discovered. As they confront their worst fears, they realize this bloody war is already spilling into the streets of Rome. But the beasts in Dacia want more than Rome. They want the world. These beasts we speak of, not your garden variety beast. Dacia has hidden an ancient power able to turn humans into pure blood werewolves for centuries. So if you love werewolf fiction, historical fiction books that take us to ancient Rome, you are going to want to check out Bleeding Roses by April Savage. Thank you once again to splashtide Publishing LLC for sponsoring today's show. Today's episode is sponsored by Danforth & Co. LLC and the Immortal Alchemy series by Kit Danforth. Rival alchemists battle for control over immortality. Their warriors fight in the shadows where they travel, royal houses fall and no one can stop them. Cole always believed she was just a kitchen maid until a secret shatters her world. Uncovering the truth of her birth thrusts her into a realm of magic and whispered curses. When her stepfamily mysteriously dies, suspicion points to her, and a witch hunter is dispatched to drag her to the gallows. On the run, Cole finds an unlikely ally in Niccolo, a mercenary with a lethal charm. But she isn't safe anywhere, as more than one hunter wants her dead. Soulbinder is a romantic and perilous adventure brimming with humor and suspense. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Deborah Harkness, this epic fantasy blends danger, destiny, and the haunting cost of eternal life. Begin the journey. The key to immortality awaits, but it demands everything. Thank you once again to Danforth & Co. And Soulbinder for sponsoring today's show.

[Keith Mossman]

All right, I look, this is not going to be that book of the month, but within a certain circle it will be. And we'll probably get a lot of juicy excerpts and interviews about it because Nicholas Boggs's Baldwin A Love Story comes out this month. Oh, I'm, I just got this updated. This is an August 19th release. Release.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh, okay.

[Keith Mossman]

I had my spreadsheet for July. I don't know if it got moved or I screwed it up. But we can do a little preview. We can talk about here. The number one blurb is a long thing from Zadie Smith. And then we also get Jacqueline Woodson and a whole bunch of other people going on. The early reviews have been great. It's super long. It's 720 pages. I myself would love to say I would get to this, maybe have some time to throw together a first edition interview, see if Boggs will come talk to me for a minute about some section of it. But I was just in, I was just in the east coast and doing a bunch of museums and Baldwin's appearing in a lot of museums and he's there and he's one of those people that has, I think he has become one of those mid 20th century literary icons alongside, like your Joan Didion's, where people now know him more than they know his work.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes.

[Keith Mossman]

And I hope this is a grain of sand around a pearl of discourse and attention can, can coalesce. But there's this new archival material and reporting and interviews. There hasn't been a big biography of Baldwin in three decades. And I think the world is different. And an approach to Baldwin right now could be radically different. And Unearth new things at this point.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Going to be really interesting. I think this has big award potential.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, that's a lot about a book that's not coming out this month.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

So it's not even in the running. And Daniel Krause rolls on.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah, that's an easy one for him. This one I have read. My. My interview with Benedict Nguyen is coming out on Thursday.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

On first, I wondered about this one.

[Keith Mossman]

The book is called Hot Girls with Balls, which certainly wins the award for best title of the month. It's fiction. It's from catapult on July 1st. So it just. It's out today and it is a story about two trans volleyball players who. Asian American trans women who play professional volleyball in this sort of not our world, but not. Not our world. Right. Where there is a men's pro indoor volleyball league that's sort of on par with the NBA. It seems like there is no real discuss or there's no controversy about trans athletes playing in this or that sport under this or that gender. That's one thing that I talked to Benedict about. It's like she wasn't interested in that discussion, was interested in transness. Bodies, athletes, fans, their influencers as well as athletes and. And fell in love with volleyball. Benedict is a ballet aficionado and sort of was watching YouTube one day and saw like high level volleyball and thought.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It was just so interesting.

[Keith Mossman]

So there's some really fascinating descriptions of just volleyball play that I hadn't seen before. So it has a little. There's a little like near future satire element to it. But also I really like these characters. I don't know if it's sort of book club friendly enough or not in terms of plot. Like there's plot and things happen.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Catapult makes me kind of wrinkle my brow about that. Those tend to be a little on the. More literary excited.

[Keith Mossman]

It's very readable. It's not hard to. It's very readable in that way, but. And I don't think it's a topical thing either. I'm. That's not my resume.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

No. Plenty of book clubs would read a book about it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Just.

[Keith Mossman]

It just feels more.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's a little stranger, like higher concept than a book club tends to roll with. Yeah. I think Daniel Kraus then continues to carry the day. But I expect we'll see a lot about Hot Girls with Balls. It's a really like. Also just a standout cover. Like the title's great. The COVID is bright. There's a lot of Potential and maybe some paperback juice next year.

[Keith Mossman]

Center for Fiction First Novel Awards or PEN First Novel, I think.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I don't know how old win is, but it also does feel like a, you know, national book foundation. 30 under 30 or the new Yorkers. Is it New Yorker? Somebody does 35 under 35. Like there's a lot of ways that this book and the Benedict Wynn could get.

[Keith Mossman]

I don't actually know Benedict's age, I think on the younger side, but I don't know if it's a 35.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Okay.

[Keith Mossman]

35 cut off or not, but I can see that. So I, I liked it. I like the book.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Cool.

[Keith Mossman]

And up, up last. Ninth out of ten.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

You only had to knock out eight.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. A follow up with some books in between to her ginormous hit the woman in cabin 10. This is a direct follow up. She's written other books, but this is actually a follow up with the same characters.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Okay.

[Keith Mossman]

It's called the women in suite 11. July 8th, Simon and Schuster.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

For a second there, I thought you were joking. Like, let's just jump off of cabin 10 and move on to.

[Keith Mossman]

No, the women in suite 11. You know, I, I would always prefer to go from a cabin to a suite. In fact, I just skipped the cabin right into the suite. The main character, Low Blacklock, returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself shockingly, in a white knuckled race across Europe, which got me a little bit interested. It's a Swiss luxury hotel and things happen.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Sure.

[Keith Mossman]

Gotta go figure them out. And how. Okay, who are we gonna save and can we trust everyone? And I, you know where it was a bookseller and a waitress and English teacher and worked in the press, so she knows this world a little bit too.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This will probably sell very well. If it's good. It could knock out Daniel Krause. But again, like, not much book club potential. I don't think. Like a kind of a straight up thriller doesn't really do that very often. And the expectation after a hit like woman in cabin 10 is some regression to the mean because it's also been a while since woman in cabin 10.

[Keith Mossman]

Well, and she has some other stuff and I think they've sold well. But again.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And how on the hook are readers to like revisit this character? Yeah, I don't know. So I think Daniel Kraus is going to win this month in December when we're reviewing the second six months of the year on it books. I don't know how we're going to feel about having made that declaration, but I don't feel bad about it.

[Keith Mossman]

I think if anything comes up and just as obviously the pick over angel down it will be a surprise because if I look at these, I'm like, I'm not sure one that I would have even as a dark horse tsunami situation.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'd love a dark horse moment in the middle of July in publishing that never happens. It would be really fun.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. Really interesting to see. So that's, that's the list there. Angel down proceeds just to give you the few the other ones we went through. If you love it, let it kill you by Hannah Pittard the Bewitching by Sylvia Marino Garcia Vera or Faith by Gary Stingart Maggie or A man and woman walk into a bar by Katie Yee the Car the Carpool Detectives by Carl Hogan Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhurst Baldwin A Life by Nicholas Bogg is coming out in August, but I did mention it, so I'll do it there. Hot Girls with Balls by Bennett Nguyen. Benedict Nguyen and the women in Sweet eleven.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

All right.

[Keith Mossman]

Ware.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. And as always, Patreon members get access to the running list of all the titles that we talk about. You can find [e-mail] bookriotpodcast where you can also get the whole back catalog of bonus content from like three years now of making bonus content. And next year week we are doing something really fun so you'll not want to miss that.

[Keith Mossman]

All right, let's, let's go through the first six months just to make sure that there's nothing avoidably barbaric that we have to atone for.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

January.

[Keith Mossman]

Easy.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

We. We nailed it. Onyx Storm, Rebecca.

[Keith Mossman]

Easy. February.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh boy. February was a rough look for us.

[Keith Mossman]

Takes Me by Christina Rivera Garcia, which we talked about with Vanessa, which is abstruse to the point of excruciating in some degree.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I blame this one on the blurb marketing because the pitch for this sounds like it's going to be a rip roaring thriller of a time and it ends up being like quite experimental. I think my February pick would have either been from the ones that we talked about that month. Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley, which performed really well. Big debut. There's already an adaptation with Austin Butler attached to it. So like come on. Or Stony Art Devotional by Charlotte Wood was the I think lit.

[Keith Mossman]

I'm going a different way. I think one Day Everyone have always been against us by Omar. I've seen that all over the place. It's made some best books of the year so far. List and that of course, great.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

We had good contenders. Then in February we.

[Keith Mossman]

And we. And we picked the one that doesn't work.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah.

[Keith Mossman]

At all. March, we screwed up.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. We had the Dream Hotel by Leila Lalami. Should have been Sunrise on the reaping. That was my fault. I can own this one.

[Keith Mossman]

I don't know how I let us get away with that. I just. I just didn't know if it was going to be good.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah.

[Keith Mossman]

I didn't know it would be overheated. We just didn't know if it was on the level of soundbirds and snakes. I would have felt okay about taking a shot at Leilani. I think that book is doing okay. Ish. But Sunrise, the repeat turned into a bit of a juggernaut.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

The Dream Hotel had just gotten one of the big book club picks as we recorded that. So it really looked like it was. Was teed up to go places.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. April. Well, I picked as my favorite book of the year. It seems to be doing okay. I think if you put in a different month, it could have been outmatched by some others. But I don't have something in April that really competes all that well with addition. But you could talk me into something else.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, I don't think so either. I think Audition by Katie Kitamura was the one of the other ones that we talked about. Like, they're in some circles. Including ones I'm in. There was maybe a case for searches by Vahini Vara that continues to be mentioned. And then Heartwood by Amity Gage. Got one of the big monthly book club picks. I think it was also on either Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

[Keith Mossman]

It was. It was on Amazon.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

So far. I had not. At the time we did this in April, I had not tried to read it. But after it got that book club pick, the book club pick, I was like, let me give this a try. I made it like 20 pages. And the voice just like wasn't. Wasn't for me. So I would have had some bias there anyway if I had tried it. I think we can stand by Katie Kitamura and I still think that there's real award potential for her there. Plus like New York Times best books of the year potential. It rings submit book. Bells.

[Keith Mossman]

Yep. I don't know how well Matriarch by Tina Knowles has sold. It's got some. It got. Was on Amazon's and Barnes Nobles best books of the year so far, I think list. I haven't heard much about it. It's not, you know, that's not The. The. I tend not to do celebrity memoirs and that's not what I'm super interested in. But maybe I could be convinced there's another. That's so, like, crazy. Like, I don't know. That edition is selling very well. I don't care right now because I think it's going to be around at the end of the year.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, I agree. May we nailed Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong. I think we called that before the Oprah pick and then he got the Oprah pick and that book has just continued to soar. So we did well there. And then June, I think we also nailed. We picked Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, like carried the day until Atmosphere came in. And those are the correct one and two for June.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah, it feels that way, though. I don't know. I think Atmosphere is okay for right now. I'm feeling Barry, our bones is gonna have a little bit longer legs. I don't know why. No data for that. But I think. Think that's going pretty well.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I like them both. But yeah, I think Barrier Bones just feels like it will endure a little bit longer. And King of Ashes, SA Cosby, that like that sold. It did really well. I saw it in a bunch of places. I think that he's finding his real readership and I'm learning that like, that really deep, like crime fiction is not my vibe. Like the early SA Cosby was more where I was going to land. But seeing how well King of Ashes has performed helped me recalibrate expectations around that. Like, oh, a lot of people really are into the direction that he's going and so like pay attention to that and not the fact that it's kind of diverging from becoming a lot darker than the first few.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah, I was in a lot of bookstores in the east coast and I saw Spent by Alison Bechdel out a lot. I mean it's a title. It was cover out. I think again, a lot of independent bookstores, which makes sense.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Probably seen a lot of profiles of her.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah, yeah, I have picked it up. I hope to into the future, but that's another one I've seen a lot. I'm trying to look at what else here. I think the Dry Season by Phoebos is. Has some. Has some fans.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I know you're one, but yeah, it'll have some juice. I think we'll see her on end of year lists. Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin. I saw on some best books of the year so far lists and Some of the other, like what to read in June. I read that one. I thought it was very strong as a debut. Had some debut novel problems, but like pretty good. I'll read whatever he does next. And then I think you and Sharifah talked about Flashlight by Susan Choi from the June list and weren't in the love column for that one.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah, I guess. One other above. What's your sense of the Chernow situation?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh, I don't think anybody's really talking about it.

[Keith Mossman]

Not that much.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's the Mark tw. I think it's this interesting place where the book about Mark Twain is not very much about Mark Twain's writing. And the literary world then doesn't know what to do with like just a story about Mark Twain. The guy.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. And we had some listeners write in and say they liked the book, which I'm thrilled.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Great.

[Keith Mossman]

I don't know. That's anecdotal.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's so big.

[Keith Mossman]

It's. It's quite chunky, to be sure. There. Yep. So that's so far so good. What would you give us a B on our pick? A?

[Jeff O'Neill]

No.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I mean we really only like totally tanked it in.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. Sun not doing sunrise. We can't get an A by not picking that. But I think B is okay.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

B is good. And I'm. I kind of am letting us off the H. The hook for the death takes me pick because it was the marketing. So we base these on synopsis. And that synopsis is so different from what that book actually is.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. I think I just can't take a flyer on a author I don't know as well. Right. Like, I guess I'm looking at Kitamura. I hadn't read the book when we did it. I don't think I had.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

But you know.

[Keith Mossman]

But I know.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

You know what we're getting. Katie Kiedemura is one of our authors. Yeah.

[Keith Mossman]

All right. BookRiot.com Listen for show notes. Check out the Patreon there. Email us a podcastookriot.com you'll also find a link to the July 9th best books of the Year so far panel with Vanessa, Keith, Rebecca and I Powells and Beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon, 7pm Come down, the weather's supposed to be good. Come walk around. Can you make a little weekend out of it? You know, like an early week, you know, get out there. It's going to be light outside because it stays light till 11:49pm right now in Portland, much to my sleep chagrin. And the light does it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Seriously.

[Keith Mossman]

No. Like 904.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's like, that's even later.

[Keith Mossman]

It's not, it's not, it's not. No molasses.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

You gotta get on Team Imaska.

[Keith Mossman]

You know, with my mouth guard and eye mask, I feel like there's a little bit of just put me under at that point, you know, that's exactly.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

How I want to go to sleep at night.

[Keith Mossman]

Like in a coffin in the ground. Oh, I'm not under general anesthesia.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I. I have no apologies. Eye mask, earplugs, white noise machine. Just like put me in a cave and call it a night.

[Keith Mossman]

Yeah. So. All right, thanks everybody. Thanks, Rebecca. Talk to you later. Foreign.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Thanks so much for listening today. We hope you'll enjoy this audiobook. Excerpt of A Bookseller in Madrid by Mario Escobar performed by Lauren Etso My.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Father was a writer. We had loads of books at home, our huge library bigger than anyone else's I knew, except my grandfather Gabor's. He was a well known playwright who passed away when I was young. I inherited another passion from my father, his love for the French language. We Germans have always had a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the French, swinging between deep admiration for their culture and literature and complete disdain for so many other things. Yet since Adolf Hitler's rise to power and relentless attempt to take over every aspect of German society, France had become just one more enemy to take down. My other grandfather, Klaus, came from a much humbler background and his family trade was woodworking. Though he became a pastor, I was just a child when he built me a lovely little bookshelf for my room in our house on the outskirts of Berlin. From then on, I played at being a bookseller. I practiced all the time with my two sisters and my friends. When I finished my degree in French philology, it was the most natural thing in the world for me to start working at a highly acclaimed bookstore in downtown Berlin. The store belonged to a well known Jewish family. The owner was one of the women I admired most in the world. Ruth Friedman inherited the business from her father, who had inherited it in turn from his initially selling only books in Yiddish, the store evolved into a niche for foreign language literature, especially French. That girl's a tough cookie, Mrs. Friedman said, flipping through the magazine. For German booksellers, Hitler had threatened to do away with all non Aryan cultures, but so far nothing had come of it. Mrs. Friedman believed his words were just a political maneuver to secure the support of all the racist nationalist citizens. What girl? I asked Francois Frankel, the Polish woman who runs La Maison Du Livre, the French bookshop. The Nazis have been giving her grief for a decade now, though I don't know if it's because she's a Jew or because she sells French books. I had heard glowing reports about that meeting place for book lovers, but had never been able to visit. As soon as my workday ended, I would head straight there to continue my research. My goal was to finish my doctorate in French philology and then to open my own store. On top of all that, I was an editor for a few small publishing houses that translated books from French. Why don't the police do something to stop them? I asked. Ruth burst out laughing at my naivete. The police? Hermann Goering is their boss. You think he'll lift a finger to protect the Jews or the Polish immigrants? My father, a Social Democrat, had a seat in Parliament and had already experienced the wrath of Adolf Hitler and his henchmen after the burning of the Reichstag a month prior. The Enabling act, passed in March, granted dictatorial powers to Hitler. Communist and Socialist representatives were denied access to their seats in Parliament, and many of them were locked up in jails or in Dachau, the fearful concentration camp outside of Munich. My father had friends in the Centre Party and among the non Nazi ministers. For the moment, that had kept him out of jail. Everyone advised him to get out of the country, but he was not yet willing to leave our family home and all the memories, especially everything he had shared with my mother, Magda. That day, when my shift was over, I removed the pink apron all the female employees wore to reveal a floral dress, which was a celebration of the long 1933 summer, and went to pay my first visit to The Bookstore of Mrs. Frankel. From the outside it looked like a little French hole in the wall, but inside it was open and welcoming, the kind of place you never wanted to leave. There was a poster on the door about an upcoming lecture by a famous French author. Several French newspapers lined a front table. Many Berliners bought French papers because censorship had already stifled most of the German periodicals. A man with round glasses looked up as I entered. Besides us, the place was oddly empty for that time of day when people were generally out and about doing their shopping. My presence clearly surprised the man. May I help you with anything, young lady? He asked. Oh, I'm just having a look. The man nodded and went back to his book. I wandered between tables and mahogany bookshelves, carefully opening the COVID or running my fingers down the spine of one volume after another. I loved the smell of books and wood of ink and paper, the aroma of libraries and bookstores. For me, that smell was the gateway to Paradise Lost, where nothing bad could happen to me. After a while, a handsome man in a double breasted pinstriped suit walked in. He had a thin mustache and his black hair was combed back, revealing dark eyes that devoured everything in his path. I observed him discreetly as he greeted the man at the counter and began looking through German and French titles. I had lost my concentration. Every few seconds I glanced up cautiously at the stranger. I wondered where he was from and what he was doing in a store that so few Germans dared to enter anymore. Then an attractive, slender woman emerged from the back room, emanating simple natural elegance. She introduced herself to me as the owner Francoise Frankel and asked if she could help me find anything. Good afternoon. My name is Barbara. I'm looking through your French collection. I'm finishing my doctoral thesis about Honore de Balzac. Well, in fact, it's about why he became one of the greatest authors in French literature, despite being rejected by scholars and other famous authors. A smile played at Francois's lips. Ah, Barusac's importance cannot be understated. One of the greatest writers of all time, she replied. Not every book will go down in history, of course, but he painted a precise portrait of society in his day. No other author has hit the nail so squarely on the head. I think people were miffed at how easily storytelling came to him. Balzac could churn out a masterpiece in a matter of weeks. With a click of her tongue and a sigh, she continued. The envy of his contemporaries was bound to come. The main difference between the genius and the artist is that the first does not need the effort and tenacity of the second.