What Book Clubs Are Reading in July

This month, Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss invite their club members to delve into the sophomore novel from the author of Fleishman Is In Trouble. They call it "an exhilarating novel about one American family, the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, and the wild legacy of trauma and inheritance."

Reese Witherspoon's pick this month is a new novel from The New York Times best-selling author of Friends and Strangers that’s full of secrets, psychics and ghosts. It stars a Harvard archivist who returns to Coastal Maine, and winds up investigating her once-abandoned childhood hideaway. “It’s an entrancing spin on a generational novel and filled with mystery,” declared the book-loving actor and producer.

For her 106th book club pick, Oprah chose the follow-up to the beloved The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which was also a previous Oprah book club pick. “Summer is here and I love to settle in with a big book that takes me through the season,” declared the TV titan. “This riveting family saga takes us on an extraordinary journey that brilliantly interweaves history, philosophy, adventure, and mysticism to explore the meaning of love, friendship and living your life’s true purpose.”

Jenna Bush Hager made a bold claim when announcing the small town crime story that she chose for her club this month: “I’m thrilled to share with you what might be my favorite book club choice yet,” she declared of the We Begin at the End author’s latest book. “This genre-bending masterpiece has something for everyone – and I promise you won’t be able to put it down.”

The Icelandic and Chinese singer dubbed "Gen Z's Pop Jazz Icon" by the NY Times picked a critically-acclaimed dark academic fantasy set in an alternative-reality 1830s England that spoke to her own multicultural background. “As someone who grew up between three vastly different cultures, Babel immediately caught my attention because of how well the narrative captured the differences and similarities between them, and was therefore validating to my experience as a mixed-culture and mixed-race person who spent her life navigating friendships and creating art that transcend those differences.”

This month, actor Dakota Johnson picked an award-winning Latin American author's "powerful and beautifully written" US debut novel that’s set in "a terrifyingly convincing near-future” ravaged by a mysterious plague, according to The Guardian. This one was also a Tertulia staff pick!

Publishers Weekly called Kaia Gerber’s July pick a “distinctive story of female friendship” about a woman who discovers a peculiar trove of letters written by a long forgotten artist that seem to mirror her own life.

Author and publisher Zibby Owens selected the latest beach read from the bestselling author of Same Time Next Summer that Shelf Awareness found “bittersweet and often wryly funny, Summer Romance is an appealing mix of starry-eyed romantic moments, quirky local characters, and reflections on moving forward after loss."

In the California Book Club’s July pick, a California woman impersonating her dead brother descends into madness, blurring the lines between reality and fiction in a debut novel that Kirkus praised as “intelligent, bizarre, and brilliantly written,” adding that “Blackburn shares a deep intellect and odd sensibility with authors like George Saunders and Rion Amilcar Scott, but this novel is its own thing.” This one was also featured in Tertulia's First Dibs Editors Salon as one of the top picks of winter releases.

For her July pick, actor Natalie Portman went with one of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years, which tells the groundbreaking story of a tragic love triangle in post war Europe.“I can’t think of a better time for us to revisit James Baldwin and read Giovanni’s Room, a novel set in 1950s Paris revolving around a young American caught between his desires and societal conventions.”