It seems very strange to write a column about books after the break for COVID-19 and then the new columns about the logistics of contactless pickup.  A little taste of normality is nice.

 

LibraryReads is a monthly list of book recommendations from librarians.  Each month they provide details on ten books that are going to be published that month.  That month can mean the last day of the month so we do not have all these books yet, but you can still place holds.

 

The top pick of the month is “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; this is described as “a perfect gothic mystery with an updated

sensibility that will appeal to the modern reader.”  It concerns a Mexico City socialite in the 1950s who is sent to check up on her cousin who lives in a remote and strange mansion.

 

Romances take up several places on the list including “Take a Hint, Dani Brown” by Talia Hibbert recommended for fans of “The Wedding Date” and “The Kiss Quotient.”  The second book, “The Boyfriend Project” by Farrah Rochon tells a story in which three women betrayed by the same man become friends and decide to do better.

 

“The Guest List” by Lucy Foley is one of the big books of the summer in which a fancy wedding celebration on a remote island off of Ireland turns deadly.

 

Another thriller with great reviews is “The Last Flight” by Julie Clark in which two women decide to take advantage of their chance to exchange lives and disappear, but then one of them is killed.

 

“The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett is a book about two twin sisters and how their lives diverge when one sister decides to pass for white and abandon her family for wealth.

 

“The Empire of Gold” is a fantasy about a land warred over for centuries and “Devolution” by Max Brooks “takes a group of privileged idealists, sets them in a beautiful utopia . . . and then brutally removes all the comforts they expect.”

 

Emily Griffin’s latest novel, “The Lies that Bind” and Megan Miranda’s “The Girl from Widow Hills” round out the list.