The following are lists of books releasing the weeks of July 18th and July 25th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers.

It started with a simple but great idea --- the $20,000+ Great Graphic Novel Giveaway at this year’s American Library Association annual conference in New Orleans. One library would receive hundreds of hand-selected graphic novels all to become a better resource for this material for patrons in their community, as well as shelving, spinner racks and furniture that included seating and tables to give them a way to display --- and enjoy --- these books. We teamed up with Brodart and Diamond Book Distributors to make it all happen. And the prize value grew and grew as more and more publishers came on board to participate until it was worth more than $25,000. All for one library.

It’s coming…soon…the NEWLY REDESIGNED site for Bookreporter.com. This week we finished the beta version, and we have it out with more than 150 folks for testing and comments. Their feedback will help guide us the rest of the way to launch, which is very exciting. When we hit send on the last beta-test email last night, it was a nice feeling. I realized that 15 years ago this month, I was in very much the same place as then we were beta testing our first website for launch. Even after all these years, moments like this bring the same anticipation wondering what readers are going to think.

After a few whirlwind weeks of conferences and business trips, I'm finally able to catch my breath. I'm happy to be able to spend some time at home now, especially with the pool open for business and the fridge stocked with lemonade.