Summer is the perfect time to start tackling your TBR. You may already be getting a head start on your summer reading goal or looking for books to add to your list. This July is jam-packed full of amazing nonfiction releases you won’t want to miss. Here are five of the best releases coming this July.
How We Grow Up by Matt Richtel
Release Date: July 8, 2025
Matt Richtel unpacks the mysteries of the adolescent brain during an era of rapid social change. While we, like any other creature, evolve and develop over eons, the pint-sized access we have to wealths of information at all times is forcing puberty to hit earlier. Richtel explores this deeply troubling phenomenon through the lens of biology, specifically, the brain. A growing body of research focuses on the adult neurobiology of an adolescent’s growing “social brain.”
Becoming Baba by Aymann Ismail
Release Date: July 8, 2025
Aymann Ismail, Slate staff writer and now memoirist, follows him coming of age post 9/11 as a son of Egyptian immigrants. The news and media are busy spreading Islamophobia to the American public while his parents pull him out of the Islamic school in Teaneck, New Jersey, out of fear that they can’t live safely and be explicitly Muslim. At his new public school in Manhattan, Aymann is the only Muslim his friends know. So becomes the balancing act of his life as his parents turn to faith to guide their lives, yet he is also unequivocally American. Ismail structures his memoir with the framework of religion and family as he examines how his job, and eventually fatherhood, have him questioning his identity as a Muslim man. How does he honor his faith and culture and leave room to grow?
Nothing More of This Land by Joseph Lee
Release Date: July 15, 2025
In Nothing More of This Land, Lee traces the Indigenous history and the brutal colonialism and culture erasure of its community and people. To do so, he brings his own family history to paint a global narrative of Indigenous life, taking us to locations like the Alaskan tundra and forests of Northern California. He also meets activists fighting to protect their land and communities, working to reclaim tradition. Lee’s stories create a cohesive tapestry depicting the diverse life and history of Indigenous people.
Monopoly X by Philip E. Orbanes
Release Date: July 15, 2025
Monopoly X recounts the best-kept secret operation of World War II: MI-9, a special version of the popular board game, Monopoly, used to help Allied POWs escape. Orbanes pulls back the curtain for the frist time on the covert progam, how they hid, maps, money and tools within game boards, all without the Nazis’ knowlege. This was dubbed Monopoly X and became an integral part of espionage and secret codes during World War II.
The Carpool Detectives by Chuck Hogan
Release Date: July 29, 2025
This true crime novel tells the story of four ordinary mothers who meet at fundraisers for their kids’ school and discover their shared passion for true crime. Marissa, Jeannie, Samira, and Nicole zero in on a double homicide that took place a decade ago in their hometown. A couple in their 60s vanished overnight, only to be discovered at the bottom of a ravine. Despite their lack of connection to the case or any law enforcement experience, the four mothers comb through pages of police reports, dig for evidence, and search potential crime scenes in a DIY investigation that could blow the case wide open again.
From memoirs to true crime stories, July has an amazing lineup of nonfiction you won’t want to miss!
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