July 2022 Adult Top 10 Picks

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  1. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
    by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Canada
    Del Rey
    Jul 19, 2022
    FICTION / Historical / General
    Hardback
    The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
    by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Canada
    Del Rey
    Jul 19, 2022
    FICTION / Historical / General
    Hardback
    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a lavish historical drama reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico.

    “This is historical science fiction at its best: a dreamy reimagining of a classic story with vivid descriptions of lush jungles and feminist themes. Some light romance threads through the heavier ethical questions concerning humanity.”—Library Journal (starred review)

    “The imagination of Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a thing of wonder, restless and romantic, fearless in the face of genre, embracing the polarities of storytelling—the sleek and the bizarre, wild passions and deep hatreds—with cool equanimity.”—The New York Times (Editors Choice)


    FINALIST FOR THE HUGO AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Polygon, Tordotcom, Paste, CrimeReads, Booklist


    Carlota Moreau: A young woman growing up on a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatán peninsula. The only daughter of a researcher who is either a genius or a madman.

    Montgomery Laughton: A melancholic overseer with a tragic past and a propensity for alcohol. An outcast who assists Dr. Moreau with his experiments, which are financed by the Lizaldes, owners of magnificent haciendas and plentiful coffers.

    The hybrids: The fruits of the doctor’s labor, destined to blindly obey their creator and remain in the shadows. A motley group of part human, part animal monstrosities.

    All of them live in a perfectly balanced and static world, which is jolted by the abrupt arrival of Eduardo Lizalde, the charming and careless son of Dr. Moreau’s patron, who will unwittingly begin a dangerous chain reaction.

    For Moreau keeps secrets, Carlota has questions, and, in the sweltering heat of the jungle, passions may ignite.

    The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
    is both a dazzling historical novel and a daring science fiction journey.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  2. Upgrade
    by Blake Crouch
    Ballantine Books
    Jul 12, 2022
    FICTION / Thrillers / Technological
    Hardback
    Upgrade
    by Blake Crouch
    Ballantine Books
    Jul 12, 2022
    FICTION / Thrillers / Technological
    Hardback
    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “If Michael Crichton had written a superhero novel, it would look a lot like Upgrade.”—The New York Times Book Review

    “You don’t so much sympathize with the main character as live inside his skin.”—DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Outlander series

    “Mysterious, fascinating, and deeply moving—exploring the very nature of what it means to be human.”—ALEX MICHAELIDES, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient and The Maiden

    ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, She Reads

    The mind-blowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion—currently in development as a motion picture at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners


    “You are the next step in human evolution.”

    At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

    But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

    The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

    Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

    Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

    And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

    Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  3. Things We Do in the Dark
    by Jennifer Hillier Canada
    Minotaur Books
    Jul 19, 2022
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Hardback
    Things We Do in the Dark
    by Jennifer Hillier Canada
    Minotaur Books
    Jul 19, 2022
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Hardback

    "Propulsive and chilling." --People Magazine

    "An intoxicating thrill ride. Hillier jams her foot on the accelerator and never lets up." --New York Times Book Review

    Things We Do in the Dark is a brilliant new thriller from Jennifer Hillier, the award-winning author of the breakout novels Little Secrets and Jar of Hearts. Paris Peralta is suspected of killing her celebrity husband, and her long-hidden past now threatens to destroy her future.


    When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom—covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her—she knows she'll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it's not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it's only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she's worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future.

    Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early nineties. Reyes knows who Paris really is, and when she's unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris's secrets. Left with no other choice, Paris must finally confront the dark past she escaped, once and for all.

    Because the only thing worse than a murder charge are two murder charges.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  4. Where You End and I Begin
    by Leah McLaren Canada
    Random House Canada
    Jul 26, 2022
    BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women
    Hardback
    Where You End and I Begin
    by Leah McLaren Canada
    Random House Canada
    Jul 26, 2022
    BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women
    Hardback
    NATIONAL BESTSELLER

    A daughter’s unflinching exploration of the intimate and unconventional relationship she shared with her mother—a brilliant, charismatic woman haunted by a traumatic past.


    When Leah is eight, her mother, Cessie, abruptly flees her role as a rural housewife in search of a glamorous career in the city. In the chaotic years that follow, Cessie lurches from one apartment, job, and toxic romance to the next. In a home without rules or emotional boundaries, daughter and mother become close confidantes—a state of enmeshment that suits them both. Their bond is loving but also marked by casual indifference. Cessie’s self-described parenting style of “benign neglect” is a hilarious party joke, but for her daughter it’s reality. In Leah’s first year of high school, her mother makes a disclosure that will forever alter their relationship: She confides that from the age of 12 well into her teens, she was the lover of her 45-year-old married pony club instructor. The trauma of the “Horseman,” Cessie explains, is not just a dark family secret but the reason for all her ill-conceived life choices, including marriage and motherhood itself. For years after, into adulthood, Leah is haunted by the specter of the Horseman. He is the nameless anxiety and restlessness she observes in her mother and increasingly recognizes in herself. Eventually, she and Cessie set out to discover truth of what became of her mother’s rapist. The investigation that ensues pushes their relationship to the brink of collapse. Leah is seeking solace in the facts, but first she must confront a deeper, more painful truth: that her story—the story of trying and failing to love a complicated mother—is not the Horseman’s after all. A riveting and devastating portrait of mother and daughter, Where You End and I Begin is a memoir that explores how trauma is shared between women and how acts of harm can be confused with acts of love.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  5. Hokuloa Road
    by Elizabeth Hand
    Mulholland Books
    Jul 19, 2022
    FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Amateur Sleuth
    Hardback
    Hokuloa Road
    by Elizabeth Hand
    Mulholland Books
    Jul 19, 2022
    FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Amateur Sleuth
    Hardback

    A young man is drawn into the dark side of paradise in this "brilliantly atmospheric" (New York Times Book Review) and "refreshingly creepy" (Washington Post) mystery.

    A New York Times Notable Book of 2022

    On a whim, Grady Kendall applies to work as a live-in caretaker for a luxury property in Hawaiʻi, as far from his small-town Maine life as he can imagine. Within days he's flying out to an estate on remote Hokuloa Road, where he quickly uncovers a dark side to the island’s idyllic reputation: it has long been a place where people vanish without a trace.

    When a young woman from his flight becomes the next to disappear, Grady is determined—and soon desperate—to figure out what's happened to Jessie, and to all those staring out of the island’s “missing" posters. But working with Raina, Jessie’s fiercely protective best friend, to uncover the truth is anything but easy, and with an inexplicable and sinister presence stalking his every step, Grady can only hope he'll find the answer before it's too late.

    Perfect for fans of Peter Heller and The White Lotus, and from award-winning writer Elizabeth Hand, a master of crime fiction known for her magnetic characters, seductive prose, and fearless excavations into the darkest corners of our world, comes a chilling and illuminating new novel about a place unlike any other—and the deadly cost of keeping it so.

    "Set in a Hawaii so vividly imagined I'm still shaking sand out of my shoes."—Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of The Final Girl Support Group

    “Twisty and dark . . . easily one of the best thrillers I've read.” —Rachel Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs

    “This is the perfect book for your summer beach bag—an evocative mystery set in a tropical island paradise.” —Jason Rekulak, author of Hidden Pictures


    View this title on BNC CataList
  6. Reputation
    by Sarah Vaughan
    Atria/Emily Bestler Books
    Jul 05, 2022
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Hardback
    Reputation
    by Sarah Vaughan
    Atria/Emily Bestler Books
    Jul 05, 2022
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Hardback
    “Astonishingly timely and clever, utterly gripping.” —Lucy Foley, #1 New York Times bestselling author
    “Sarah Vaughan has done it again. Superb.” —Shari Lapena, New York Times bestselling author

    The bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal—now a hit Netflix series—returns with a psychological thriller about a politician whose less-than-perfect personal life is thrust into the spotlight when a body is discovered in her home.

    As a politician, Emma has sacrificed a great deal for her career—including her marriage and her relationship with her daughter, Flora.

    The glare of the spotlight is unnerving for Emma, particularly when it leads to countless insults, threats, and trolling as she tries to work in the public eye. As a woman, she knows her reputation is worth its weight in gold but as a politician, she discovers it only takes one slip-up to destroy it completely.

    Fourteen-year-old Flora is learning the same hard lessons at school as she encounters heartless bullying. When another teenager takes her own life, Emma lobbies for a new law to protect women and girls from the effects of online abuse. Now, Emma and Flora find their personal lives uncomfortably intersected…but then the unthinkable happens.

    A man is found dead in Emma’s home. A man she had every reason to be afraid of and to want gone. Fighting to protect her reputation and determined to protect her family at all costs, Emma is pushed to the limits as the worst happens and her life is torn apart.

    Another breathless and twisty novel from an absolute “master of suspense” (CrimeReads), Reputation brilliantly illustrates that it isn’t who you are that matters…it’s who people think you are.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  7. Just Like Home
    by Sarah Gailey
    Tor Books
    Jul 19, 2022
    FICTION / Thrillers / Supernatural
    Hardback
    Just Like Home
    by Sarah Gailey
    Tor Books
    Jul 19, 2022
    FICTION / Thrillers / Supernatural
    Hardback

    Just Like Home is a darkly gothic thriller from nationally bestselling author Sarah Gailey, perfect for fans of Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House as well as HBO's true crime masterpiece I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

    “Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories — she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there, beneath the house he'd built for his family.

    Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting… but who else could it possibly be?

    There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  8. From the Jump
    by Lacie Waldon
    G.P. Putnam's Sons
    Jul 19, 2022
    FICTION / Romance / General
    Paperback / softback
    From the Jump
    by Lacie Waldon
    G.P. Putnam's Sons
    Jul 19, 2022
    FICTION / Romance / General
    Paperback / softback
    A chronic yes-woman finally admits to what—and who—she really wants in this unforgettable and heartfelt romantic comedy, by the author of The Layover.

    Liv Bakersfield is used to living her life in “shoulds.” Be fit. Be financially responsible. Be your best self. An overworked graphic designer, she’s stretched so thin that she’s about to miss yet another vacation with her beloved group of college friends. But when Liv finally decides to start saying no, it feels good…good enough to leap straight into quitting her job and hopping on a plane to join them in South Africa.

    Amid the exotic landscape and unforgettable sights, Liv expects sun and safari animals and an easy time with her best friends. But such close proximity makes everything more complicated, especially with the emotionally unavailable Lucas Deiss. Their friendship is the only thing in her life that's still solid, and she vows to do anything she can to keep the group together. But once they get back to LA, Liv discovers that her leap of faith has become a freefall, sending her crashing into Deiss's arms. With the trust of the people she loves most on the line, Liv must decide between doing what she should … and risking everything for what she shouldn’t want.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  9. After Hours on Milagro Street
    by Angelina M. Lopez
    Carina Trade
    Jul 26, 2022
    FICTION / Romance / Multicultural & Interracial
    Paperback / softback
    After Hours on Milagro Street
    by Angelina M. Lopez
    Carina Trade
    Jul 26, 2022
    FICTION / Romance / Multicultural & Interracial
    Paperback / softback
    A WASHINGTON POST BEST ROMANCE OF 2022
    A FATED MATES BEST ROMANCE OF 2022
    AN ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY BEST ROMANCE OF 2022


    Guapo pobrecito, her grandmother calls him. The “poor handsome man.”

    Professor Jeremiah Post, the poor handsome man, is in fact standing in the way of Alejandra “Alex” Torres turning Loretta’s, her grandmother’s bar, into a viable business. The hot brainiac who sleeps in one of the upstairs tenant rooms already has all of her Mexican American family’s admiration; she won’t let him have the bar and building she needs to resurrect her career, too.

    Alex blowing into town has rocked Jeremiah to his mild-mannered core, but the large, boisterous Torres clan is everything he never had. He doesn’t believe Alex has the best interest of her family, their community, or the bar’s legacy in mind. To protect all three, he’ll stand up to the tough and tattooed bartender with whom he now shares a bedroom wall—and resist the insta-lust they both feel.

    But when an old enemy threatens Loretta’s and the surrounding neighborhood, Alex and Jeremiah must combine forces. It will take her might and his mind to save the home they both desperately need.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  10. Kaleidoscope
    by Cecily Wong
    Dutton
    Jul 05, 2022
    FICTION / Literary
    Hardback
    Kaleidoscope
    by Cecily Wong
    Dutton
    Jul 05, 2022
    FICTION / Literary
    Hardback
    A dazzling novel about the tumultuous relationship between two sisters, a shocking loss that changes everything, and the life-altering adventure that follows.

    Morgan and Riley Brighton are joint heirs to Kaleidoscope: a glittering, ‘global bohemian’ shopping empire—created in sleepy Oregon and catapulted into haute New York—sourcing luxury goods from around the world. Morgan, statuesque beauty and Kaleidoscope’s talented designer, is adored by all, especially by the Brighton parents. Yet no one loves her more than Riley, whose shy and adventurous spirit is exalted by her sister.

    When a catastrophic event dismantles the Brightons’ world, Riley must stand in the spotlight for the first time in her life, with questions about her family that challenge her memory, identity, and loyalty. Restless and heartbroken, she sets off across the globe with the person she least expects, to seek truths about those she thought she knew best—herself included.

    Kaleidoscope is at once an examination of the precious bond between sisters as well as a vibrant story of exploration and surprising love. Moving and funny, warm and wise, Cecily Wong delivers a transporting, addictive page-turner that will tempt your appetite for food and travel and change the way you imagine your place in the world.
    View this title on BNC CataList

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