New Books for July 2025

Small, Independent, and University Press, and Author-published Books

NewPages learns about many wonderful book titles each month to share with our readers. You can read more about some of these by clicking on the link to their blog post. If you are a publisher or author looking to be listed here and featured on our blog, social media, and in our weekly newsletter, please visit our FAQ page.

An Education: How I Changed My Mind About Schools and Almost Everything Else, Diane Ravitch, Columbia University Press
A former conservative education advocate chronicles her shift to critiquing reforms in public education. Read the book review here.

Becoming Sarah, Diane Botnick, She Writes Press
The story of four generations of women, beginning with a birth in Auschwitz, exploring the Holocaust’s subtle, enduring impact on their lives. Read the book review here.

In the Wake, Ariel Machell, Finishing Line Press
This chapbook uses Comet Neowise and Willamette River to explore fleetingness, examining memory and the raw, unresolving experience of grief. Read the book review here.

The Book Eaters, Carolina Hotchandani, Perugia Press
Poems that examine selfhood, family, and cultural inheritance, using powerful metaphors of consumption to explore loss. Read the book review here.

Borderlines: An Astral Experience in Poems, Alan Botsford, Cyberwit.net
In this newest poetry collection, Botsford explores the world and himself while living abroad in Japan. See sponsored blog post here.

The Coin, Yasmin Zaher, Catapult
“The plot isn’t really the point of the novel. Instead, it’s more of a character study of a Palestinian woman who is stuck in her life.” Read the book review here.

Confessions, Catherine Airey, Mariner Books
Three generations of Irish women from the 70s to 2020s, reveal their hidden struggles and unspoken family truths. Read the book review here.

Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alfred A. Knopf
A story about four Nigerian women, examining romantic relationships, societal expectations, and the impact of cultural events. Read the book review here.

The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong, Penguin Books
A second-generation Vietnamese immigrant battles addiction, creating family among fellow low-wage workers in a struggling American town. Read the book review here.

Feller: Poems, Denton Loving, Mercer University Press
Using nature to explore connection and longing, revealing profound human truths, Loving’s third poetry collection is once deeply rooted in his Appalachian soil and universally resonant. See sponsored blog post here.

Fragments of Cerulean, Neal H. Paris, Revelation House Works
This collection of short stories explores the fragile nature of identity and the haunting echoes of loss, transformation, and fear. See sponsored blog post here.

God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning, Meghan O’Gieblyn, Doubleday
O’Gieblyn examines how AI metaphors impact humanity and theology, cautioning against surrendering to unquestionable machine “gods.” Read the book review here.

The Mistaken Place of Things, Gabriela Aguirre, trans. Laura Cesarco Eglin, Eulalia Books
This poetry collection delves into loss, reality, and emotional landscapes, leaving readers with profound questions. Read the book review here.

My Little Book of Domestic Anxieties, Elizabeth Sylvia, Ballerini Book Press
Poems that explore memory, motherhood’s tensions, and personal anxieties, balancing past burdens with the present’s profound, common truths. Read the book review here.

The Names, Florence Knapp, Pamela Dorman Books
A remarkable debut, presenting three distinct storylines exploring how a mother’s choice of her son’s name alters their lives. Read the book review here.

Raw Deal: The Indians of the Midwest and the Theft of Native Lands, Robert Downes, The Wandering Press
This historical account details the centuries-long theft of Native lands in the Midwest through swindles, broken treaties, and violence. See blog post here.

Run for the Hills, Kevin Wilson, Ecco
Four abandoned half-siblings go on a cross-country quest to find their shared, ever-reinventing father. Read the book review here.

Songs for the Land-Bound, Violeta Garcia-Mendoza, June Road Press
Poems that navigate motherhood, marriage, and aging through art, contrasting forms, and raw emotional depth. Read the book review here.

The Utopians, Grace Nissan, Ugly Duckling Presse
An artist’s response to Utopia, critiquing capitalism’s devastating impact on society through innovative poetic language. Read the book review here.

Walking the Burn, Rachel Kellum, Middle Creek Publishing
This collection of poems metaphorically explores fire’s impact, addressing trauma, healing, and societal issues. Read the book review here.

What She Saw in the Lotería Cards, M. Garcia Teutsch, Bottlecap Press
In this collection of poems, Teutsch maps identity through poetic vignettes, weaving myth and memory with the symbolic language of Lotería. See the sponsored blog post here.

More Notable New Books

Poetry

Anything and Its Shadow, Lucie McKee, Green Writers Press
The Articulations, Elizabeth K. Switaj, Kernpunkt Press
Deus Absconditus and Love Letters from Outer Space, Michael Barach & Brandi George, Kernpunkt Press
Here and There: 50 Years of Poems, Ray Clark, Green Writers Press
Italian Dinner Music, Alissa Sammarco
Nostalgia for the Future: New and Selected Poems 1984-2024, Gregory Djanikian, Green Writers Press
Then Then Then, Scott Daughtridge DeMer, Kernpunkt Press
Rural Astronomy, Georgann Eubanks, EastOver Press

Fiction

The Beast in the Pines, S.W. Lynch, Serotonin Press
Before the Leaves Fall, Fairlight Books, Clare O’Dea
Blurred Faces, Allan Radcliffe, Fairlight Books
By the Edge of the Night (A Coveted Soul Book 1), Darkjestress (aka Jamie French)
Daddy Issue, Eric C. Wat, University of Nebraska Press
Don’t Take This the Wrong Way, Kim Magowan and Michelle Ross, EastOver Press
The Hometown Bookshop, Jenna Warren, Fairlight Books
The Mean Ones, Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, Creature Publishing
My Lips, Her Voice, L. L. Madrid, Creature Publishing
Nikkolas: The Story of Santa Claus, John G. MacKenzie, Robert D. Reed Publishers
Perfect Happiness, You-Jeong Jeong, Creature Publishing
The Scald-Crow, Grace Daly, Creature Publishing
When We Were Hardcore, Linda Michel-Cassidy, EastOver Press
Woman in Blue, Douglas Bruton, Fairlight Books

Nonfiction

Brands in the Age of AI, Mark Kingsley, Quarto Publishing Group
Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment, Mary Anne Franks, Bold Type Books
Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left, Eoin Higgins, Bold Type Books
Selected Misdemeanors, Sue William Silverman, University of Nebraska Press
The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood, Kristen Martin, Bold Type Books

See June 2025 book titles here.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as our Books Received monthly roundup. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!