Lost Canyon
by Nina Revoyr

Nina Revoyr, author of Wingshooters, has a new book out this month! It’s called Lost Canyon and is very different from Wingshooters! Lost Canyon is a thriller about four people from L.A. who decide to take a hiking trip together. They’re strangers to each other except for Tracy, the fitness instructor, who coordinated the trip. Once the group reaches their intended starting point, they learn the trail they wanted to take is unavailable. Rather than take an alternate trail that may be quite busy with other hikers, the group decides to take a chance on an unknown trail and a hand-drawn map. The group meets some unexpected (and unwelcome) obstacles. Revoyr does an excellent job of drawing the characters for the reader so that by the time the plot takes over the reader’s attention, the reader feels as though s/he knows the characters, and perhaps more importantly, care about them. The book will be out in both hardcover and paperback on August 25.

Off the Radar: A Father's Secret, a Mother's Heroism, and a Son's Quest
by Cyrus Copeland

A few months ago, I received a phone call   from an author named Cyrus Copeland. He was reaching out to bookstores about his memoir. Cyrus told me he was raised by an American father, and Iranian mother, the first female lawyer of the Islamic Republic, who represented his father after he was imprisoned for espionage during the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis. Cyrus moved from Philadelphia to Tehran as a boy and once there, his father, Max Copeland, disappeared. Was Max a spy? A CIA agent? Piecing together conversations with his mother, letters, and journal entries, Cyrus explores his deceased father’s history. While the politics are complex, Cyrus’s narrative is an easy-flowing read and I’m enjoying it immensely!

Last Bus to Wisdom
by Ivan Doig

Reading this book was bittersweet. Doig is one of my favorite authors, and a new book from him is always a pleasure; but this one is his last and was published posthumously. The novel has Doig’s familiar themes: a love for Montana and its tough homesteaders and ranchers, the coming of age of a precocious young person, tolerance and self-discovery. The book is funny, nostalgic, and has some unexpected twists. When his grandmother needs surgery in 1951, Donal is sent by bus from Montana to Manitowoc Wisconsin to stay with his great aunt and her husband. He arrives after an eventful trip to discover that Aunt Kate, unlike his grandmother, is bossy and tyrannical. After one dispute too many, Kate packs him back to Montana. Donal is joined by Uncle Herman and the two have a series of rollicking misadventures. Do savor this last book by one of our great treasures. Last Bus to Wisdom will be released August 18 and may be pre-ordered from Beagle and Wolf.

The Nature of the Beast
by Louise Penny

The latest book in Penny’s series about Chief Inspector Armand Gamache will be released on August 25. Penny’s books transcend the genre of mystery as she tells stories “of damage and healing in the human heart, leavened with affection, humor and redemption."  In The Nature of the Beast, a nine year old boy who tells tall tales disappears and the residents of Three Pines are faced with the possibility that some of his outrageous stories were true. As they search for the child and the truth, they discover an old crime and an old betrayal. We have this entire series in stock—start with the first one and read them in order. The Nature of the Beast may be pre-ordered from Beagle and Wolf.

I am Malala
by Malala Yousafza

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. In 2012, when she was fifteen, she was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. She has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. This is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.

One of our book groups will discuss this powerful book later this month.

Listen to Malala’s acceptance speech when she was presented with the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train is a great summer read. Engaging from the first page, it is told in the voices of three women whose lives intersect in a way that none of them could have anticipated. It kept me guessing and was one of those books that I wished would go on a bit longer as I was reminded of how much I enjoy a good mystery/thriller. Now I just need to find a few more to get me through the rest of the summer…

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin

This book has been on my radar for a long time and I am so glad that I finally picked it up and read it. The story centers around Island Books and its owner, A.J. Fikry. It is a delightful commentary on bookstores, books, and the people who love them. The story presents serious questions to ponder, and is funny, real, and heartwarming throughout.  As A.J. Fikry says, "Sometimes books don't find us until the right time." I'm glad that The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry found me this summer.

Braiding Sweetgrass
by Robin Wall Kimmerer

This book gets my vote as the best non-fiction of the summer. The author is a mother, an environmental biologist, professor and a member of the Potawatomi Nation. She has been trained as a scientist to ask questions of nature with tools of science. As a Native American she embraces the idea that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. Braiding Sweetgrass is a series of essays that combine science and traditional teachings in a skillful and splendid way. I'm recommending it to friends and family.

Invention of Wings
by Sue Monk Kidd

This is historical fiction at its best.  The author tells the story of Sarah Grimke, a real person. Sarah's story is paired with the story of Handful, the slave given to Sarah on her 11th birthday. Sarah and her sister become deeply involved in abolition and the rights of women. I could hardly put this book down as each page had a new twist to the story.

Shotgun Lovesongs
by Nickolas Butler

A small town near Eau Claire, friendships that last over decades, including a musician who made the big time and a bull rider who got kicked in the head and talks like it, marriages and farms and attempts to make over old landmarks. It's a good novel for Midwesterners!

The War of the Worlds Murder
by Max Allan Collins

This is quite unlike Collins's Road to Perdition, but both vividly recreate their period. This book is a lot of fun, and I now know a lot about Orson Wells and his radio play that famously rocked the nation.

Seven Sisters 
by Margaret Drabble

Who is this woman? She moves to a so-so London neighborhood because her professor husband took a younger woman. Her daughters take his side: she’s on her own. She starts studying Virgil but the school turns into a health club, so instead she works out. And finds some adventures, some perspective, and some friends.

The Long Way Home
by Louise Penny

I’m almost finished with rereading the series, and I’m so sad that it will end! I will be first in line to get the new one when it comes out this month! (Here's what Sally says about the upcoming book.) This time I’m reading the series with my iPhone in my lap, so I can look up artists, French phrases, and landmarks she references when I’m curious. What a wealth of imagery and ideas! The book released in paperback this month.

Seveneves
by Neal Stephenson

Seveneves follows the story of humanity in the wake of the moon fragmenting into seven pieces. When scientists around the world realize that the moon will continue to fragment and burn up in the atmosphere, thus causing the end of all life on earth, the whole of humanity bands together to make sure earth will survive. Even though it’s a bit wordy, Seveneves is a great Sci-Fi read, filled with adventure, space, and the aftermath of bad luck and bad decisions.

The Financial Lives of the Poets
by Jess Walter

You would think that a book called The Financial Lives of the Poets would be a very slim volume, indeed. Jess Walter's novel, however, is neither slim nor lightweight, though it is wryly funny. The book's main character,  Matthew Prior, has made a bad choice or two, following his original bad choice to quit his job as a journalist and start a combination poetry/stock market tip website. Financial advice in verse. What could possibly go wrong? 

Matt's finances, predictably, crumble, his marriage teeters, and he is desperately scrambling to hold it all together. In the process, he comes up with what he thinks is the perfect plan—to sell the one thing he can think of with the highest profit margin—marijuana. I won't tell you how it all turns out. If you like wry, sarcastic humor (or were ever a fan of the show Weeds) and are OK with some salty language and a little recreational drug use in your novels, then this is a great read for you.