Jul 31

Jul 31 If You Only Read One: July 2020

#SFOL Recommends, If You Only Read One, The Top Rated

We know that we read — and review — a lot of books. It definitely helps that there are three of us, in that regard. So with this feature, we want to tell you our favorite read of the month - if we only recommend one book to pick up, what would it be?

Shannon

I didn’t read as much as I did in June, but I feel confident recommending Natasha Diaz’s YA novel “Color Me In” (Bookshop | Kindle). My full review is here, but this novel about a teenage girl—who inadvertently passes as white—dealing with the impending divorce of her Jewish dad and Black mom, while finding her own voice, is excellent. At the end of the day, Nevaeh is a teenage girl trying to figure out who she is, and she realizes she doesn’t have to reconcile her two identities—she can make her own.

Moira

I read a ton this month! Lots of it, however, was comfort/beach reading. Of the new books I read, J. Courtney Sullivan’s “Friends and Strangers” (Bookshop | Kindle) was far and away my favorite. I tore through this long but eminently binge-able novel about the relationship between a recent transplant from Brooklyn to a small college town and her nanny. This book examines power dynamics, class struggles, and professional boundaries in an engaging and thought-provoking way.

Elizabeth

Much like June, most of my reading this month has been of the comfort variety — July has been…difficult, to say the least. That said, these comfort reads have been both funny and hopeful, and you know I only read well-written fluff. If I had to choose one from the extensive list, it would be “The Last Train to Key West” by Chanel Cleeton (Bookshop | Kindle). Of the three of us, I am the most inclined to read historical fiction, and this combined that genre with another fave (beach read). A full review is coming soon, but this is the perfect amount of romance, adventure, and intrigued, set against the backdrop of Key West in the 1930s…with a hurricane barreling towards the island.

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