10 best books of July 2016, according to Amazon's editors

Whether you're escaping the heat in an air-conditioned house or lounging at the beach, a book is always the perfect companion. Check out these titles to get some ideas as to what could be your next favorite read, with thoughts on the books from Amazon senior editor Chris Schluep.

1. 'The Wolf Road,' by Beth Lewis

Lewis's debut novel, set in a post-apocalyptic wilderness, tells the story of Elka. Elka was raised by a man named Trapper, who found her lost and alone as a small child. But the day comes when Elka discovers that Trapper may not be what he seems and so she sets out to try to find her real family. The novel has a "gritty, pioneer feel," Schluep says. Elka is "a female Huckleberry Finn."

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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