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Publishing This Week
Hello,

This week brings a dozen notable new books including Nan Fischer's Some of It Was Real, which our members rated a very positive 4.5-star average when reviewing it for our First Impressions Program. Other fiction to look out for includes The Half Life of Valery K, a rather wonderful novel from Natasha Pulley who is perhaps best known for The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and Oscar Hokeah's debut novel, Calling for a Blanket Dance about a young Native American man finding strength in his familial identity.

Among the nonfiction selections are Inventing the It Girl, a biography by Hilary A. Hallett about the life of Elinor Glyn who, to quote the subtitle, "created the modern romance and conquered early Hollywood," and Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World's First Modern Computer by Kathy Kleiman, which the publisher recommends for fans of Code Girls and Hidden Figures.

Enjoy!

Davina, BookBrowse Publisher



This Week's New and Notable Books
There are too many books published each week for you to read about them all, let alone read them all. So we do the legwork for you, scouring the publishers' catalogs and the pre-publication reviews to pick out what we believe to be among the best and most interesting. For more about our process, see “Picking Books” and “Rating Books”.
Some of It Was Real book jacket
Some of It Was Real
by Nan Fischer


On sale Jul 26 from Berkley Books
Genre: Literary Fiction. 352 pages
Members' Rating: 4.5/5

A psychic on the verge of stardom who isn't sure she believes in herself and a cynical journalist with one last chance at redemption are brought together by secrets from the past that also threaten to tear them apart.

Read More | Reader Reviews
Boys I Know book jacket
Boys I Know
by Anna Gracia


Debut Author
On sale Jul 26 from Peachtree Publishers
Genre: Literary Fiction (Young Adult). 352 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

A high school senior navigates messy boys and messier relationships in this unflichingly honest and much-needed look into the overlap of Asian American identity and teen sexuality.

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Calling for a Blanket Dance book jacket
Calling for a Blanket Dance
by Oscar Hokeah


Debut Author
On sale Jul 26 from Algonquin Books
Genre: Literary Fiction. 272 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

A moving and deeply engaging debut novel about a young Native American man finding strength in his familial identity, from a stellar new voice in fiction.

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Love Times Infinity book jacket
Love Times Infinity
by Lane Clarke


Debut Author
On sale Jul 26 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Literary Fiction (Young Adult). 368 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

The swoon of Nicola Yoon meets the emotional punch of Elizabeth Acevedo in this breakout debut novel that answers big questions about identity, family, and love.

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The Half Life of Valery K book jacket
The Half Life of Valery K
by Natasha Pulley


On sale Jul 26 from Bloomsbury USA
Genre: Literary Fiction. 384 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

From the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Kingdoms, an epic Cold War novel set in a mysterious town in Soviet Russia.

Read More
How to Read Now book jacket
How to Read Now: Essays
by Elaine Castillo


On sale Jul 26 from Viking
Genre: Essays. 352 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

An exploration and polemic that redefines the power and potential for reading by a novelist whose "prose is as good as it gets" (NPR) and who has "a real voice: vernacular and fluid, with a take-no-prisoners edge" (Kirkus).

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The Last to Vanish book jacket
The Last to Vanish: A Novel
by Megan Miranda


On sale Jul 26 from Scribner
Genre: Thrillers. 336 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

New York Times bestselling author Megan Miranda returns with a gripping and propulsive thriller that opens with the disappearance of a journalist who is investigating a string of vanishings in the resort town of Cutter's Pass - will its dark secrets finally be revealed?

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Beating Heart Baby book jacket
Beating Heart Baby
by Lio Min


Debut Author
On sale Jul 26 from Flatiron Books
Genre: Romance (Young Adult). 352 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

Lio Min's Beating Heart Baby is a "dizzying, sexy, and utterly heartfelt" (Mary H. K. Choi) love letter to internet friendships, anime, and indie rock.

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Inventing the It Girl book jacket
Inventing the It Girl: How Elinor Glyn Created the Modern Romance and Conquered Early Hollywood
by Hilary A. Hallett


On sale Jul 26 from Liveright/W.W. Norton
Genre: Biography. 464 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

The modern romance novel is elevated to a subject of serious study in this addictively readable biography of pioneering celebrity author Elinor Glyn.

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Putin book jacket
Putin
by Philip Short


On sale Jul 26 from Henry Holt and Company
Genre: Biography. 864 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

The first comprehensive, fully up-to-date biography of Vladimir Putin, woven into the tumultuous saga of Russia over the last sixty years.

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Proving Ground book jacket
Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World's First Modern Computer
by Kathy Kleiman


On sale Jul 26 from Grand Central Publishing
Genre: History. 320 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

For fans of Code Girls and Hidden Figures, Proving Ground is the untold, World War II-era story of the six American women who programmed the world's first modern computer.

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Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them book jacket
Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity
by Antonio Padilla


Debut Author
On sale Jul 26 from Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Genre: Science. 352 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5

A fun, dazzling exploration of the strange numbers that illuminate the ultimate nature of reality.

Read More
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