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Readers' Most Anticipated New Books of January
New year! New books! Quite a lot of them, actually. Fellow book lovers, may the new year be filled with favorite authors and new discoveries. In a perfect world, we’d all have paid time off for reading. But what can you do? Some people have weird priorities.
New in January: Author Stephen Markley returns with a promising eco-fiction epic in The Deluge. A Ghanaian woman discovers the joys of London town in Jessica George’s Maame. And ace Australian author Jane Harper delivers another state-of-the-art whodunit with Exiles. Also: haunted houses, young divorcées, and a word from the Duke of Sussex.
Each month the Goodreads editorial team takes a look at the books that are being published in the U.S., readers' early reviews, and how many readers are adding these books to their Want to Read shelves (which is how we measure anticipation). We use the information to curate this list of hottest new releases.
One of the new year’s buzziest titles, this debut novel from author and comedian Monica Heisey tells the tragicomic story of Maggie, “the Surprisingly Young Divorcée whose marriage lasted only 608 days.” Maggie’s adventures in post-divorce dynamics include 4 a.m. hamburgers and doomed graduate school projects, along with some tragic and intermittent dating. Bonus trivia: Heisey is also a screenwriter whose credits include the very funny Schitt’s Creek.
Author Stephen Markley (Ohio) returns with a sprawling American epic concerning climate change, ecological collapse, and maybe a little bit of hope. Charting the first decades of the 21st century, The Deluge follows a cast of vivid characters—a neurodivergent mathematician, a wily eco-terrorist, a courageous young activist—as the downward spiral accelerates. Advance notices on this one are promising: Stephen King has called it a modern classic.
On the Providence plantation in Barbados, 1834, an enslaved woman makes her break for freedom after the Emancipation Act achieves nothing at all. Determined to find her stolen children, young mother Rachel sets off on a journey by river that will take her from the forests of British Guiana across the sea to Trinidad. British author Eleanor Shearer is the granddaughter of Caribbean immigrants and based her debut novel on true historical accounts of the era.
Maddie Wright, aspiring late bloomer, has a dead-end London office job and a father ill with Parkinson’s disease. When her mom returns from Ghana for a year, Maddie takes a break, finds a new place, and starts living her life. Internet dating! Weird flat mates! Office drama! Born and raised in London to Ghanaian parents, author Jessica George writes with wisdom and wit in this debut novel about the liminal space between cultures.
Restless horror author Grady Hendrix (The Final Girl Support Group) has a wavelength all his own, broadcasting on a very specific frequency between scary and funny. It’s a tricky tone to maintain, but Hendrix always seems to nail it. His latest novel—set during the COVID-19 pandemic—follows Louise and Mark Joyner, a pair of estranged siblings forced to sell the family home when their parents die. But why did mom and dad cover all the mirrors? And why is the attic door nailed shut?
Billed as a new kind of literary thriller, Age of Vice begins with five decidedly dead people in New Delhi. From here, author Deepti Kapoor’s sprawling crime fiction epic investigates the feared Wadia family—very wealthy, very corrupt, and very dangerous. Set in the shadowy corners of contemporary India, Kapoor’s novel promises action and intrigue from the remote villages of Uttar Pradesh to the dark heart of the New Delhi criminal underground.
Isabelle Drake hasn’t slept in a year. Since the night her toddler Mason was stolen from his crib, she’s been in a state of severe insomnia, punctuated by mysterious blackouts. As the case turns cold, Isabelle turns to a shady true-crime podcaster for help. When her memory starts returning, including long-buried childhood recollections, Isabelle realizes her nightmare has only just begun. Moral of the story: Never trust a podcaster. Stacy Willingham (A Flicker in the Dark) has the disturbing details.
Check out our interview with Willingham here.
Check out our interview with Willingham here.
Devotees of Leigh Bardugo’s smash hit Ninth House will be happy to hear the news: Alex Stern is back. The highly anticipated sequel story Hell Bent finds the estimable Ms. Stern chasing a certain lost soul from the hallowed halls of Yale through the gates of the infernal underworld. Bardugo’s version of New Haven, Connecticut, is so much fun: sinister artifacts, eldritch tomes, and a puckishly subversive take on Ivy League intrigue.
Check out our interview with Bardugo here.
Check out our interview with Bardugo here.
The latest mystery novel from celebrated Australian author Jane Harper takes readers to the lush heart of South Australian wine country. Friends and family of young mother Kim Gillespie have gathered one year after her mysterious disappearance. Also on the scene is federal investigator Aaron Falk, who suspects that something’s not right with this tight-knit family. Harper, author of The Dry and The Lost Man, is one of the mystery genre’s most dependable puzzle makers.
Winner of this month’s unofficial Best Book Title award, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone promises a new approach angle to the typical mystery thriller. Ernest Cunningham has killed a person. In fact, everyone in Ernie’s family has killed, at least once—his brother, his wife, his stepfather, his sister-in-law. (“Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.”) Author Benjamin Stevenson has a delicious premise in the new book: It’s time for the family reunion.
Colombian American author Patricia Engel (Infinite Country) is back with this collection of 10 award-winning short stories set in various locales across the Americas—North and South and in between. The stories in The Faraway World are loosely themed around concepts of migration and sacrifice, with stops in Cuba, Miami, Ecuador, and New York City. Bonus trivia: Engel’s 2010 novel, Vida, won Colombia’s national book award, the Premio Biblioteca de Narrativa Colombiana.
Royal family watchers, your patience is about to be rewarded. Spare, the long-awaited and much-discussed memoir from Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is likely to be among the year’s biggest books. Advance word suggests that the memoir will address, among other events, the tragic death of Princess Diana, who died when Harry was just 12 years old. Proceeds from the book will be shared with various children’s charities around the world.
Which new releases are you looking forward to reading? Let's talk books in the comments!
Check out more January book coverage here:
Comments Showing 1-31 of 31 (31 new)
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Tash
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Dec 28, 2022 12:54AM
Arghhh there are so many amazing new releases in Jan. Age of Vice, Hell Bent and the new Grady Hendrix 😍
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I am looking forward to reading Spare. My family ancestry on my grandmother's side shows I am the 11 cousin of Diana Spencer which makes William and Harry my 12th cousins. My DNA chart shows I am 53% Great Britain and 34 % Scotch-Irish .
Brian G. Stazel wrote: "I am looking forward to reading Spare. My family ancestry on my grandmother's side shows I am the 11 cousin of Diana Spencer which makes William and Harry my 12th cousins. My DNA chart shows I am 5..."Fascinating. I'm looking forward to reading Spare too. May I ask which company you used for DNA charting?
I’m looking forward to Verse Novelist Thushanthi Ponweera’s debut: I Am Kavi. It’s set in Sri Lanka.
Looking promising. I see one that looks interesting already.
Excited for Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone!
Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare comes out this month!!!
Also patiently waiting for Secret Project #1
I got to start Secret Project #1 and am enjoying it immensely! Sanderson releases are always top of my list and I selfishly think they should make these lists lolI’m excited to explore some of these other releases, too! Some I hadn’t heard of and some I’ve been waiting for.
River Sing For Me - can’t wait to get my hands on that. Intrigued by Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone.
Just read “the Nine Lives of Felix the Tomcat” by Felix the Tomcat.Hilarious and fun…an intrepid, fascinating literafedvTomcat at large. Good read! M. Patterson
I'm surprised the latest You novel isn't on this list. It's definitely my most anticipated read!
Definitely ready for a new Grady Hendrix! I am interested in Hell Bent but still need to get around to reading Ninth House....
Brian G. Stazel wrote: "I am looking forward to reading Spare. My family ancestry on my grandmother's side shows I am the 11 cousin of Diana Spencer which makes William and Harry my 12th cousins. My DNA chart shows I am 5..."Scotch is whisky. People are Scots. :-)
Brian G. Stazel wrote: "I am looking forward to reading Spare. My family ancestry on my grandmother's side shows I am the 11 cousin of Diana Spencer which makes William and Harry my 12th cousins. My DNA chart shows I am 5..."Your definitely American
The Social Climber-Amanda Pellegrino-elGhost 19-Simone StJames
Loathe to Love You
“Something Old, Something New”
Snap out of it
Phaedra-Laura Shepperson
The Hunter-Jennifer Herrera
The Rom-Com Agenda
Exes and O’s-Amy Lea
The Reunion-Kayla Olson
Owner of a Lonely Heart-Eva Carter
You Should Smile More-Anastasia Ryan
I’m so Effing Hungry-Amy Shah
Murder Book-Thomas Perry
The Other Guest-Heidi Parks
Jan 24
Make A Wish-Helena Hunting
Don’t Open the Door-Allison Brennan
The Book Spy-Alan Hlad
Do I Know You?-Emily Wibberley
The House at the End of the World-Dean Koontz
The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone-Audrey Burges
Tomorrow Belongs to Us-Lily Zante
Georgie, All Along-Kate Clayborn
The Keeper of Stories-Sally Page
Unknown Caller-Lisa Unger
The Second You’re Single-Cara Tanamach
Georgie, All Along-Kate Clayborn
The Sweet Spot-Amy Poeppel
New York, New Year, New You-Rachel Bloome
I want to read All the dangerous things so bad
Sooo excited to be reading Spare! It is absolutely dreadful that the “institution “ did not get help for grieving boys. Harry is his mother’s son through and through. He has always been my favourite.My heart and prayers go out to Duchess Meghan.🌸
