Readers’ Choice: The Top 10 Most Shelved Books in July

In a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as Russian soldiers abduct her father in the middle of the night and then set fire to her home. When their lifelong neighbor Akhmed finds Havaa hiding in the forest with a strange blue suitcase, he makes a decision that will forever change their lives. A story of the transcendent power of love in wartime, A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA is a work of sweeping breadth, profound compassion, and lasting significance.

Want more recommendations from a bookseller? You got it.

Sophie Lucido Johnson gets a lot of questions when she tells people that she’s polyamorous. MANY LOVE is an intimate look at this often misunderstood practice: its history, its misconceptions, and Johnson's personal transformation from serial monogamist to proud polyamorist.

In need of summer reading recommendations? Look no further.

A lively, sexy, and thought-provoking novel, EROTIC STORIES FOR PUNJABI WIDOWS is the tale of a young woman who teaches a creative writing course for Sikh widows at a community college. But the class doesn't go as planned when one of Nikki's students shares a book of sexy stories, setting off a wave of unexpected events. Reese Witherspoon picked this novel for her book club and so should you.

What’s your book club reading this summer? We’ve got suggestions.

By the New York Times bestselling author of MANSON, the comprehensive, authoritative, and tragic story of preacher Jim Jones, who was responsible for the Jonestown Massacre—the largest murder-suicide in American history.

Fan of the My Favorite Murder podcast? Add these to your shelf, today.

Alan Hollinghurst, award-winning author of THE LINE OF BEAUTY, returns with this sweeping family saga, following a group of men from 1940s Oxford to present day London. The book is not only a deeply emotional character study, but an exploration of changing views and experiences of homosexuality in the UK over the last century.

Fan of Queer Eye? You’ll love Antoni Porowski’s book recommendations.

THE AFTERLIVES is a novel about a haunted Mexican restaurant, a machine that connects the living with the dead, and a young man who had a heart attack at age 30 and was technically dead for a few minutes before being revived. Smart, thought-provoking, and superbly written, THE AFTERLIVES is a meditation on what it means to be alive and what it means to consider what happens after you're not.

Looking for a mind-blowing read? Here are some of our favorites.

An unnamed narrator known as “The Girlfriend” is on a road trip with her (possibly, soon-to-be ex-)boyfriend to visit his parents… but there’s something amiss. Beside the fact that the girlfriend is receiving strange phone calls, events spin out of control when they make an unscheduled stop at an abandoned high school. This is the perfect listen for your next road-trip… if you want to seriously freak yourself out.

Read by Candace Thaxton

Into audiobooks? Into thrillers? Here are some audiobook thrillers you’ll enjoy.

A dual biography of a seventeenth-century artist and a nineteenth-century art-obsessed bookseller, this historical mystery centers on the authenticity of a Diego Velázquez painting and will intrigue even those who’ve never set eyes on his renowned portraits.

Headed to the beach? Here are some nonfiction books to bring along .

Truly fun to read, this unique and unusual novel asks: What would you do if you knew the day you would die? This Jewish American family saga is about four siblings whose lives are changed by a fortune-teller and whose fates are intertwined forever more. Magic, logic, and emotion figure into a story that covers several decades and allows readers to know a fictional family as well, or perhaps better, than they know their own.

Looking for recommendations from a bestselling author? Alice Hoffman has a few.

Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie in The Little House on the Prairie television series and grew to love the wretched little girl she portrayed, recounts her experiences on and off the prairie with deep humor and insight. Dare I say it… it’s hard to hate Nellie after reading this autobiography.

Can’t get enough of Laura Ingalls Wilder? Here’s a reading list for grown-up PRAIRIE fans.