Book Club Recommendations for July
Your turn to buy for book club this month? Don't fret - we've made it easy for you!
Browse our picks for book club this July!
Bestiary - K-Ming Chang - R320
Three generations of Taiwanese American women are haunted by the myths of their homeland in this spellbinding, visceral debut about one family's queer desires, violent impulses and buried secrets.
One evening, Mother tells Daughter a story about a tiger spirit who lived in a woman's body. Her name was Hu Gu Po and she paid the price for her body in hunger.
It's one of many stories Daughter absorbs from the women in her family, about gourd daughters, buried gold and rabbit moons. Soon afterwards, Daughter wakes with a tiger tail.
And more mysterious events follow: holes in the backyard spit up letters penned by her estranged grandmother; a visiting aunt arrives with red hands and snakes in her belly; her brother tests the possibility of flight.
All the while, Daughter is falling for Ben, a neighbourhood girl who is more bird than tiger and has mysterious stories of her own. As the two young lovers translate the grandmother's letters and the myths that surround them, Daughter must reckon with how deep these stories are buried within her, and what power is rising, violently, through her. She will have to bring her family's secrets to light in order to change their destiny.
Polsslag - Marie Lotz - R315
Speurder-kaptein Alek Strauss van die FSO word saam met sy span uitgeroep na ’n raaiselagtige moordtoneel. Die liggaam van ’n vrou is in ’n afgeleë bouval in Pretoria-Oos gevind. Advokaat Lynn Rawlins is skynbaar verwurg. Teen die muur staan in bloed geskrywe: Sprich nichts Böses.
Doktor Nadiya Patel, forensiese sielkundige, is vas oortuig die moordenaar se modus operandi is ’n waarskuwing dat nog lewens in gevaar is.
’n Meesleurende spanningsroman deur Marie Lotz, die skrywer van Roofdier.
Once Upon a Wardrobe - Patti Callahan - R345
Megs Devonshire is brilliant with numbers and equations, on a scholarship at Oxford, and dreams of solving the greatest mysteries of physics.
She prefers the dependability of facts-except for one: the younger brother she loves with all her heart doesn't have long to live.
When George becomes captivated by a copy of a brand-new book called The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and begs her to find out where Narnia came from, there's no way she can refuse.
Despite her timidity about approaching the famous author, Megs soon finds herself taking tea with the Oxford don and his own brother, imploring them for answers. What she receives instead are more stories... stories of Jack Lewis's life, which she takes home to George.
Why won't Mr. Lewis just tell her plainly what George wants to know? The answer will reveal to Meg many truths that science and math cannot, and the gift she thought she was giving to her brother-the story behind Narnia-turns out to be his gift to her, instead: hope.
James Patterson: The Stories of My Life - James Patterson - R350
The official autobiography of James Patterson, where he tells the story of his life and his journey to becoming a world-renowned author who continues to captivate readers across the globe.
How did a boy from small-town New York become one of the world's most successful writers?
On the morning he was born, he nearly died. Growing up, he didn't love to read. That changed. He worked at a mental hospital in Massachusetts, where he met the singer James Taylor and the poet Robert Lowell. While he toiled in advertising hell, James wrote the ad jingle line "I'm a Toys 'R' Us Kid." He once watched James Baldwin and Norman Mailer square off to trade punches at a party. He's only been in love twice. Both times are amazing. Dolly Parton once sang "Happy Birthday" to James over the phone. She calls him J.J., for Jimmy James. Three American presidents have invited him to golf with them.
These are the stories of James Patterson's life: the most anticipated memoir of 2022.
No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBride - R320
It's been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer catching him. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast.
Now isn't the time to get distracted with other cases, but Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh doesn't have much choice. When Benedict Strachan was just eleven, he hunted down and killed a homeless man.
No one's ever figured out why Benedict did it, but now, after sixteen years, he's back on the streets again - battered, frightened, convinced a shadowy 'They' are out to get him, and begging Lucy for help.
It sounds like paranoia, but what if he's right? What if he really is caught up in something bigger and darker than Lucy's ever dealt with before? What if the Bloodsmith isn't the only monster out there? And what's going to happen when Lucy goes after them?
The Second Verse - Onke Mazibuko - R320
The second verse of any song always has to be more killer than the first. Always. The rhythm has to slap. The lyrics must be on point. The feeling intense. And the impact mad definitive.
It's just the way it is. In the same way, if you do well once in life, then you always have to be better from that point onwards. No doubt.
East London, aka Slummies, circa 1998. Bokang Damane is a dreamer and an outsider with mad problems. Things only get worse when everyone thinks he wants to off himself just because he wrote an essay on suicide. Really? Talk about d.r.a.m.a.
Life at the moment is just a sorry son-of-a-checklist of insolvable problems.
Problem #1: Not black enough for the black kids and too black for the white kids. Yep, that's what happens when you attend a mad pompous all boys' college and live in the burbs.
Problem #2: Family finances are a joke - they can't even afford Bokang's initiation. Now he can't get props like any decent Xhosa man.
Problem #3: An alcoholic, gambling attorney for a father who expects the world to bend to his will.
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