{"id":57471,"date":"2025-07-17T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=57471"},"modified":"2025-06-17T13:18:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T18:18:35","slug":"julys-bestsellers-club-fiction-and-nonfiction-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/julys-bestsellers-club-fiction-and-nonfiction-picks\/","title":{"rendered":"July’s Bestsellers Club Fiction and Nonfiction Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a new quarter and that means new fiction and nonfiction picks have been selected for you courtesy of Bestsellers Club! Four fiction picks are available for you to choose from: diverse debuts, graphic novel, historical fiction, and international fiction. Four nonfiction picks are available for you to choose from: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime. Our fiction and nonfiction picks are chosen quarterly and are available in regular print only. If you would like to update your selections or are a new patron who wants to receive picks from any of those four categories, sign up for\u00a0Bestsellers Club<\/a>\u00a0through our website!<\/p>\n

Bestsellers Club<\/a> is a service that automatically places you on hold for authors, celebrity picks, nonfiction picks, and fiction picks. Choose any author, celebrity pick, fiction pick, and\/or nonfiction pick and The Library will put the latest title on hold for you automatically. Select as many as you want! Still have questions? Click here\u00a0<\/a>for a list of FAQs.<\/p>\n

Below you will find information provided by the publishers and authors on the titles we have selected for January from the following categories in fiction: diverse debuts, graphic novel, historical fiction, and international fiction and the following categories in nonfiction: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime.<\/p>\n

Acronym definitions
\nBIPOC: Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
\nLGBTQ+: Lesbian, gay, transgender, queer, and more.<\/p>\n

FICTION PICKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Diverse Debuts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Diverse Debuts: Debut fiction novel by a BIPOC author, LGBTQ+ author or an author from another marginalized community.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Woodworking<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Emily St. James<\/p>\n

An unforgettable and heartwarming book-club debut following a trans high school teacher from a small town in South Dakota who befriends the only other trans woman she knows: one of her students.<\/em><\/p>\n

Erica Skyberg is thirty-five years old, recently divorced–and trans. Not that she’s told anyone yet. Mitchell, South Dakota, isn’t exactly bursting with other trans women. Instead, she keeps to herself, teaching by day and directing community theater by night. That is, until Abigail Hawkes enters her orbit.<\/em><\/p>\n

Abigail is seventeen, Mitchell High’s resident political dissident and Only Trans Girl. It’s a role she plays faultlessly, albeit a little reluctantly. She’s also annoyed by the idea of spending her senior year secretly guiding her English teacher through her transition. But Abigail remembers the uncertainty–and loneliness–that comes with it. Besides, Erica isn’t the only one struggling to shed the weight of others’ expectations.<\/em><\/p>\n

As their unlikely friendship evolves, it comes under the scrutiny of their community. And soon, both women–and those closest to them–are forced to ask: Who are we if we choose to hide ourselves? What happens once we disappear into the woodwork<\/em><\/p>\n

Detransition Baby meets Fleishman is in Trouble in this remarkable debut novel from an incisive contemporary voice. A story about the awkwardness of growing up and the greatest love story of all, that between us and our friends, Woodworking is a tonic for the moment and a celebration of womanhood in all its multifaceted joy.<\/em> – Zando – Crooked Media Reads<\/p>\n

\n

Graphic Novel:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Graphic Novel: Fiction novel for adults of any subgenre with diverse characters depicted by color illustrations, sketches, and photographs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Tessa Hulls<\/p>\n

An astonishing, deeply moving graphic memoir about three generations of Chinese women, exploring love, grief, exile, and identity.<\/em><\/p>\n

In her acclaimed graphic memoir debut, Tessa Hulls traces the reverberations of Chinese history across three generations of women in her family. Tessa\u2019s grandmother, Sun Yi, was a Shanghai journalist swept up by the turmoil of the 1949 Communist victory. After fleeing to Hong Kong, she wrote a bestselling memoir about her persecution and survival\u2014then promptly had a mental breakdown from which she never recovered.<\/em><\/p>\n

Growing up with Sun Yi, Tessa watches both her mother and grandmother struggle beneath the weight of unexamined trauma and mental illness, and bolts to the most remote corners of the globe. But once she turns thirty, roaming begins to feel less like freedom and more like running away. Feeding Ghosts is Tessa\u2019s homecoming, a vivid, heartbreaking journey into history that exposes the fear and trauma that haunt generations, andthe love that holds them together.<\/em> – MCD<\/p>\n

\n

Historical Fiction:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Historical Fiction: Historical fiction novel written by a BIPOC author, LGBTQ+ author or an author from another marginalized community, with main character(s) from a marginalized community.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Devil Three Times<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Rickey Fayne<\/p>\n

Yetunde awakens aboard a slave ship en route to the United States with the spirit of her dead sister as her only companion. Desperate to survive the hell that awaits her at their destination, Yetunde finds help in an unexpected form\u2014the Devil himself. The Devil, seeking a way to reenter the pearly gates of heaven, decides to prove himself to an indifferent God by protecting Yetunde and granting her a piece of his supernatural power. In return, Yetunde makes an incredible sacrifice.<\/em><\/p>\n

Their bargain extends far beyond Yetunde’s mortal lifespan. Over the next 175 years, the Devil visits Yetunde’s descendants in their darkest hour of need: Lucille, a conjure woman; Asa, who passes for white; Louis and Virgil, who risk becoming a twentieth-century Cain and Abel; Cassandra, who speaks to the dead; James, who struggles to make sense of the past while fighting to keep his family together; and many others. The Devil offers each of them his own version of salvation, all the while wondering: can he save himself, too?<\/em><\/p>\n

Steeped in the spiritual traditions and oral history of the Black diaspora, The Devil Three Times is a baptism by fire and water, heralding a new voice in American fiction.<\/em> – Little, Brown and Company<\/p>\n

\n

International Fiction:<\/strong><\/p>\n

International Fiction: Fiction novel originally written in another language with main character(s) from marginalized communities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Taiwan Travelogue<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by\u00a0Ya\u0301ng Shua\u0304ng-zi\u030c ; translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Lin King.<\/p>\n

May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She\u2019s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.<\/em><\/p>\n

Soon a Taiwanese woman\u2014who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name\u2014is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko\u2019s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It\u2019s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the \u201csomething\u201d is.<\/em><\/p>\n

Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan\u2019s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.\u00a0<\/em> – Graywolf Press<\/p>\n

\n

NONFICTION PICKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Biography pick<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Queen of All Mayhem: the Blood-Soaked Life and Mysterious Death of Belle Starr, the most dangerous woman in the West<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Dane Huckelbridge<\/p>\n

A riveting, deeply researched, blood-on-the-spurs biography of Belle Starr, the most legendary female outlaw of the American West.<\/em><\/p>\n

On February 3, 1889, just two days shy of her forty-first birthday, Myra Maybelle Shirley\u2014better known at that point by her outlaw sobriquet \u201cBelle Starr\u201d\u2014was blown from her horse saddle and killed by a pair of shotgun blasts, delivered by an unseen assailant, only a few miles away from her home in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma. Thus ended the life of one of the most colorful, authentic, and dangerous women in the history of the American West.<\/em><\/p>\n

While today\u2019s household names like Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane had dubious criminal bona fides, Belle\u2019s were not in any doubt. She led a gang of horse thieves (a very serious crime in an era when horses were often the basis of one\u2019s livelihood); was romantically involved with two of the West\u2019s most legendary outlaws, Cole Younger and Jim Reed (her first husband); and participated in stickups and robberies across present-day Texas and Oklahoma. When Reed was murdered, Belle crossed into Indian Territory, where she assimilated into the Cherokee tribe, a matrilineal society, and soon married Sam Starr, a direct descendant of Nanye\u2019hi, the greatest female warrior in Cherokee history.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dane Huckelbridge, acclaimed author of No Beast So Fierce, probes a life rich in contradictions and intrigue. Why did a woman who had considerable advantages in life\u2014a good family, a decent education, solid marriage prospects, a clear path to financial security\u2014choose to pursue a life of crime? The life of Belle Starr is one of almost endless trauma: the horrors of the Civil War, which destroyed her hometown and killed her beloved brother, Bud; the untimely deaths of her first two husbands, both of them murdered; a stint in Detroit\u2019s notorious women\u2019s prison. Her career coincided with those of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and yet Belle Starr was a very different sort of feminist icon.<\/em><\/p>\n

Queen of All Mayhem is a triumph of biography, revealing one of the most-mythologized figures of Western lore as she truly was.<\/em> – William Morrow<\/p>\n

\n

Cookbook pick<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The How Not to Age Cookbook<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Michael Greger<\/p>\n

New from Michael Greger M.D., FACLM, whose books have sold more than one million copies worldwide, comes a fully-illustrated cookbook filled with recipes to make you healthier as you age.<\/em><\/p>\n

In his instant New York Times bestseller, How Not To Age, Dr. Michael Greger revealed that diet can regulate every one of the most promising strategies for combating the effects of aging. His Anti-Aging Eight streamlined evidence-based research into simple, accessible steps for ensuring physical and mental longevity. Now, in How Not To Age Cookbook, decades of scientific research are put to use in over a hundred recipes that will leave readers feeling nourished for years to come.<\/em><\/p>\n

Each of these simple, nutrition-packed dishes uses ingredients that have been proven to promote a healthy lifespan and inspiration from the places around the world where people traditionally live the longest. Grounded in the latest nutrition science, How Not to Age Cookbook is chock-full of delicious meals, snacks, and beverages that will keep the body both nourished and youthful.<\/em> – Flatiron Books<\/p>\n

\n

Social Justice pick<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>American Teenager: How Trans Kids are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Nico Lang<\/p>\n

From an award-winning journalist comes a vivid and moving portrait of eight trans and nonbinary teenagers across the country, following their daily triumphs, struggles, and all that encompasses growing up trans in America today<\/em><\/p>\n

Media coverage tends to sensationalize the fight over how trans kids should be allowed to live, but what is incredibly rare are the voices of the people at the heart of this debate: transgender and gender nonconforming kids themselves.<\/em><\/p>\n

For their groundbreaking new book, journalist Nico Lang spent a year traveling the country to document the lives of transgender, nonbinary, and genderfluid teens and their families. Drawing on hundreds of hours of on-the-ground interviews with them and the people in their communities, American Teenager paints a vivid portrait of what it\u2019s actually like to grow up trans today.<\/em><\/p>\n

From the tip of Florida\u2019s conservative panhandle to vibrant queer communities in California, and from Texas churches to mosques in Illinois, American Teenager gives readers a window into the lives of Wyatt, Rhydian, Mykah, Clint, Ruby, Augie, Jack, and Kylie, eight teens who, despite what some lawmakers might want us to believe, are truly just kids looking for a brighter future.<\/em> – Abrams Books<\/p>\n

\n

True Crime pick<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Salman Rushdie<\/p>\n

On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black\u2014black clothes, black mask\u2014rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it\u2019s you. Here you are.<\/em><\/p>\n

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.<\/em><\/p>\n

Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature\u2019s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art\u2014and finding the strength to stand up again.<\/em> – Random House<\/p>\n

This title is also available in large print and CD audiobook.<\/p>\n

\n

Join\u00a0Bestsellers Club<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to have the newest fiction and nonfiction picks automatically put on hold for you every quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a new quarter and that means new fiction and nonfiction picks have been selected for you courtesy of Bestsellers Club! Four fiction picks are available for you to choose from: diverse debuts, graphic novel, historical fiction, and international fiction. Four nonfiction picks are available for you to choose from:[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9934,10,14,5,1,8],"tags":[10449,9989,441,186,6553,10442,10443,6552,787,616,6408,10455,10450,9603,10446,10456,3651,10447,10444,10445,3482,2105,10448],"class_list":["post-57471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bestsellers-club","category-books","category-library-news","category-read-a-likes","category-reference","category-staff-picks","tag-american-teenager","tag-bestsellers-club","tag-biographies","tag-cookbooks","tag-diverse-debuts","tag-emily-st-james","tag-feeding-ghosts","tag-fiction-picks","tag-graphic-novel","tag-historical-fiction","tag-international-fiction","tag-knife","tag-nico-lang","tag-nonfiction-picks","tag-rickey-fayne","tag-salman-rushdie","tag-social-justice","tag-taiwan-travelogue","tag-tessa-hulls","tag-the-devil-three-times","tag-true-crime","tag-woodworking","tag-yang-shuang-zi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-eWX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57471"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57549,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57471\/revisions\/57549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}