Best books July 2021: 10 page-turner books we recommend this month
From gripping thrillers and powerful memoirs to handbooks exploring self-worth and compassion, we have you covered with this month’s essential reads.
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The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
This book has been cropping up just about everywhere this month, and it’s so worth the hype.
The Last Thing He Told Me is a Reese’s Book Club pick, and I guarantee once you pick it up you won’t be able to put it down. Filled with gut wrenching plot twists and expressive family drama, this gripping mystery is about a woman who thinks she’s found the love of her life — until he disappears.
Cancel your plans for the day, because this one will hold you captive from cover to cover.
What Happened To You? By Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey
Have you ever wondered to yourself “Why did I do that?” or “Why can’t I just control my behaviour?” These are questions I know I’ve asked myself before. When questioning our emotions, it’s easy to place the blame on ourselves. Co-authored by renowned brain and trauma expert Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey, this book dives deep into trauma, resilience, and healing. This nonfiction pick explores these themes through deeply personal conversations, and offers a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”
Topping the charts on the New York Times Bestseller list for weeks now, this book is going to change the way you see your life.
Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Andy Weir brought us The Martian, and now he’s bringing us another irresistible interstellar adventure. Hail Mary is absolutely epic, and has been one of my favourite books this year.
The plot: Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Topping the charts worldwide, The Anthropocene Reviewed will not let you down. John Green explores the current geologic age in his latest book. This one dives into how humans have reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. It’s clear that Green has a gift for storytelling with this book being his seventh. His others such as The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns have received numerous awards, and even been turned into movies.
Funny, complex, and rich with detail, I can’t recommend this one enough.
The Ugly Cry by Danielle Henderson
This deeply moving and thought provoking memoir is filled with humour and wit. Written by Danielle Henderson, a well known TV writer and cohost of the film podcast I Saw What You Did.
In The Ugly Cry, Danielle tells tales of growing up, and growing wise. She shares the lessons she’s learned along the way, all the while upending our conventional understanding of family and its boundaries to include the millions of people who share her story.
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
I’ve read over 100 this year, and this is still in my top 10. Author of Three Women, Animal is Lisa Taddeo’s debut novel, and it is absolutely gripping in every way imaginable. Grab a blanket, a comfortable seat, and a large glass of wine, because this book will take you on a wild and vivid ride.
Lisa Taddeo has a unique way with words in that she has the power to pull you in immediately. When you open her book, she wraps her words around you and holds you right where she wants you from beginning to end. You won’t regret picking this one up. The audiobook just dropped, too, narrated by Emma Roberts, and it is phenomenal, so you might want to pick up your earphones for this one if audiobooks are your thing.
Girlvana by Ally Maz
This handbook brought to us by BC born yogi Ally Maz explores self-compassion through the ancient teachings of yoga and meditation. This book comes at the perfect time with the stress of the pandemic, and shifting rules and regulations, as we look at reopening the world again. Girlvana contains the tools and advice to keep you grounded in the face of the ever changing world.
This book is absolutely bursting at the spine with abundance of information, like breathing exercises, yoga postures, and short stories that are sure to motivate and inspire you. I absolutely loved this book, and although it’s called Girlvana, and targeted towards girls, this book contains something for everyone. None of us are exempt from the powers of self compassion.
Welcome Home by Najwa Zebian
Penned by well-known poet Najwa Zebian, Welcome Home is all about embracing your vulnerability instead of fearing it. Zebian’s debut novel is a safe place for you to welcome self-worth, compassion, and forgiveness into your life.
Najwa shares her personal story for the first time in this memoir, talking openly about leaving her home in Lebanon at age sixteen, to coming of age as a young Muslim woman in Canada.
Welcome Home is an answer to the pain we all experience when we don’t feel at peace with ourselves. We all deserve our own home.
Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
Ashley C.Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast and co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio. A well-known writer, you might have come across her work in The Guardian, ELLE Magazine, Buzzfeed, or OUT Magazine, to name a few.
Ford’s memoir, published by Flatiron, is truly brilliant and unforgettable. Somebody’s Daughter is a story of a childhood defined by the looming absence of Ford’s incarcerated father.
This memoir steps into the world of growing up a poor black girl in Indiana and explores how isolating and complex a childhood with an incarcerated parent can really be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them. We guarantee you won’t regret picking this one up.
The Queer Bible edited by Jack Guinness
A powerful and intimate collection of shorts that was inspired by QueerBible.com, an online community devoted to celebrating our most cherished queer heroes, both past and present.
The Queer Bible, published by Dey Street Books, is a selection of gorgeously illustrated essays from our most admired heroes like Elton John, Tan France, and Mae Martin. A celebration of LGBTQ+ history and culture, edited by GQ contributing editor Jack Guinness, this one is a must-read.
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