Looking Ahead: July Highlights

It's hot, friends. It's hot and I'm moving and all I can think about right now is my countdown to vacation, and I can't wait to be curled up in a beach chair sipping a Wachusett Blueberry (only the greatest blueberry beer of all times) and reading some of these great books. Because after the slow reading month of June, I need some great books:

How Should a Person Be?, by Sheila Heti (Picador, June 25th): While technically a paperback release of a 2012 book (and a June release at that), I can't let this one fall off the radar. Hailed as an impressive overlap of fiction and autobiography, the novel is a compilation of transcripts of conversations, "real emails," and fictional narrative, and I'm intrigued by the approach if nothing else.

The Light in the Ruins, by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday, July 9th): Would you believe I've never read any of Chris Bohjalian's work? Maybe it's because I don't know how to pronounce his last name (not a joke, that; I recently read in Drunk Tank Pink that unpronounceable names are more likely to be ignored or skipped over unconsciously). Whatever the reason, this seems like a good book on which to change this statement. Promising Italian countryside, multiple time periods, and secret histories, The Light in the Ruins is already receiving rave reviews from other bloggers and I'm excited to dive in. This one will likely come on vacation with me.

The Deep Whatsis, by Peter Mattei (Other Press, July 23rd): I've written before about my love of Other Press titles, and this one promises to fall into step with others before it in that vein. Plus, as one who spends her 9-to-5s working for an advertising agency, I can't pass up anything described as "a gripping and hilarious satire of the inherent absurdity of advertising and the flippant cruelty of corporate behavior."