Summer isn’t only about beach reads, and really, you can read anything you want on the beach. Titles being released this July include books weighty in content, size, or both, and below are just a few. This short list of fiction and nonfiction features narratives that leave their unique mark on the past, spanning the lives of the Romantic poets, World War I, the Salvadoran civil war, and 1980s London. Follow our coverage of some of these and many other recommended reads in our digital magazine.
Jamaica Road: A Novel
by Lisa Smith
Jul 15, 2025. 448 pages
Published by Knopf
Lisa Smith’s debut novel, set in London in the 1980s, follows the bond that develops between classmates Daphne Johnson, born to Jamaican parents in England, and new Jamaican student Cornelius “Connie” Small, along with details of the immigrant experience and racism of the time. A Kirkus review praises the book for its “pitch-perfect” dialogue, calling it “a major achievement from an author with talent to spare,” and “A moving, beautifully structured novel from an incredible new voice.”
Archive of Unknown Universes: A Novel
by Ruben Reyes Jr.
Jul 1, 2025. 288 pages
Published by Mariner Books
Combining speculative technology with real history and a contemporary storyline, Ruben Reyes Jr.’s debut novel (after his short story collection There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven) presents a stirring premise based around the Salvadoran civil war (1979-1992). In it, Harvard students Ana and Luis explore their family pasts, including the mystery of what happened to Luis’s great uncle Neto, who disappeared during the war. Kirkus calls it “A gripping family history with a fresh speculative edge and timely resonances with the currently unfolding timeline.”
Angel Down: A Novel
by Daniel Kraus
Jul 29, 2025. 304 pages
Published by Atria Books
In another novel that introduces fresh speculative elements into known history, Daniel Kraus depicts a literal fallen angel found on a battlefield in France during World War I, who may hold the power to help end the conflict. Fans of historical fiction already know there’s a glut of novels to be found on both world wars; this one offers something different not in the form of little-known history but by melding history with the imaginary. As Publishers Weekly puts it, “With this vigorous narrative, Kraus breathes new life into the war novel.”
The Trembling Hand: Reflections of a Black Woman in the Romantic Archive
by Mathelinda Nabugodi
Jul 29, 2025. 432 pages
Published by Knopf
In The Trembling Hand, Romanticism scholar Mathelinda Nabugodi investigates famous British Romantic writers — Wordsworth, Coleridge, Percy and Mary Shelley, Keats, and Byron — and their relationships with race and slavery. This seems like an excellent nonfiction selection for book clubs, as it touches on fertile topics related to both literary and general history, and makes societal observations still relevant today. Novelist Colm Tóibín remarks, “The Trembling Hand engages the reader both emotionally and intellectually in the quest to re-see, re-imagine and re-read the past.”
