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Goodreads Editors Share Their March Book Picks
Here at Goodreads World Headquarters, we sort through a lot of books each month. Our monthly Readers' Most Anticipated Books feature is exactly that—selections based on the data about the books that Goodreads members are placing on their Want to Read shelves. Essentially, these are the books that your fellow Goodreads regulars are excited about.
Of course, the Goodreads editorial staff gets excited about books, too. And we regularly come across specific new releases that we can’t wait to read—or “won’t shut up about,” to borrow a phrase from the colleagues who sit right next to us.
As to be expected, there are always way more great books each month than we have time to read, so we're passing our findings along to you, complete with genre tags, our unhinged commentary, and general enthusiasm. Think of this list as our intel on the books you might not be hearing about absolutely everywhere else, from two people who really, really want to help you find a great read.
On the docket for March: a modern riff on the Hades/Persephone myth, a multigenerational exploration of the California immigrant experience, and a "Seinfeldian novel of existentialism and sisterhood." Bonus pick: A heartfelt memoir on the metaphorical utility and eternal glory of basketball.
Of course, the Goodreads editorial staff gets excited about books, too. And we regularly come across specific new releases that we can’t wait to read—or “won’t shut up about,” to borrow a phrase from the colleagues who sit right next to us.
As to be expected, there are always way more great books each month than we have time to read, so we're passing our findings along to you, complete with genre tags, our unhinged commentary, and general enthusiasm. Think of this list as our intel on the books you might not be hearing about absolutely everywhere else, from two people who really, really want to help you find a great read.
On the docket for March: a modern riff on the Hades/Persephone myth, a multigenerational exploration of the California immigrant experience, and a "Seinfeldian novel of existentialism and sisterhood." Bonus pick: A heartfelt memoir on the metaphorical utility and eternal glory of basketball.
Sharon read and loved an early copy of this book because: In the grand Joycean tradition of tongue-in-cheek Irish takes on ancient Greek material, this debut is a classicist fever dream of a novel. Set after the failed Sicilian expedition (415–413 BCE), the book follows two Syracusan potters who decide to stage a production of Euripides. The actors? Their Athenian enemies imprisoned in a nearby quarry. Shenanigans? Oh, they ensue.
Genre: Historical fiction
Genre: Historical fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Speaking of contemporary rewrites of Greek classics (send them allllll to me, please), I am super interested in this modern riff on the Hades/Persephone myth where Hades is a shady pharmaceutical CEO; Persephone is the young camp counselor he lures in with wealth and opiates; and her mother, Demeter, is the head of a failing agricultural NGO. Sounds clever, right?
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: In Andrew Boryga's debut, Javier Perez has perfected the art of giving white college admissions officers and top-tier magazine editors what they want: a finely honed, almost entirely fictional sob story about his background as an underprivileged Puerto Rican kid growing up in the Bronx neighborhood. This one gives me big The Talented Mr. Ripley meets Erasure meets Yellowface vibes.
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I love a personal essay/cultural criticism mashup, so you better believe I hit the Want to Read button SO FAST when I found out about Morgan Parker's newest essay collection. Covering the traumas and triumphs of living as a Black woman in America and spanning from the period of the transatlantic slave trade to Serena Williams, this book promises to be an unputdownable read.
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir-in-essays
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir-in-essays
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: A new book by Hanif Abdurraqib is an automatic add to my Want to Read shelf. Here the acclaimed nonfiction author uses the game of basketball to explore the larger themes of success, the tensions between excellence and expectation, and role models, which he threads together with poignant memoir. Be sure to check out his earlier books as well, including A Little Devil in America, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, and Go Ahead in the Rain.
Genre: Nonfiction/Essay/Memoir
Genre: Nonfiction/Essay/Memoir
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Lisa Ko grabbed my attention with her 2017 debut novel, The Leavers. In Memory Piece, she charts the history of three friends—from their teenage days in the 1980s, into the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s, and then to the future of the 2040s. Early reviewers are hailing this book as "thought-provoking" and "beautifully character driven."
Genre: Fiction/Historical fiction
Genre: Fiction/Historical fiction
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: First of all, this isn't Dickens' Great Expectations. This is Vinson Cunningham's debut novel about a young Black man who joins the staff of a historic presidential campaign. The coming-of-age story is a meditation on politics, religion, fathers, and family. I've enjoyed Cunningham's writing in The New Yorker and am excited to read his fiction!
Genre: Fiction
Genre: Fiction
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: This is a new-to-me author, but the Goodreads reviews on this novel have me highly intrigued. In Gowda's latest work, an immigrant couple's years of hard work culminate with moving to their dream home in a beautiful gated California community. But for the couple's American-born children, success isn't so easily defined.
Genre: Fiction
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: If you follow along, you may notice that I love a debut novel. Here we're talking an epic reimagining of American folk heroes Paul Bunyan and John Henry. I'm so ready to read this tall tale of an origin story that ultimately makes a giant swing at the American dream.
Genre: Fantasy/Retellings/Historical fiction
Genre: Fantasy/Retellings/Historical fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: As soon as I read the publisher's blurb describing this book as "a Seinfeldian novel of existentialism and sisterhood," I told Cybil that she had to let me have this one for this month's editors' picks column. This book about two sisters (and their dog named Amy Klobuchar) bonding and bickering their way through the year 2019 seems like it'll be a hoot to read. Early reviewers are also promising an ending I won't see coming. Challenge accepted!
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I love books where cities themselves feel like characters, so the promise of "the meddling influence of a city called Prague" in this book's description intrigued me immediately. Also the mention of a hero named Hero, who carries with her a book whose text seems to warp and shift depending on who is reading it and when. Color me very, very intrigued.
Genre: Speculative literary fiction
Genre: Speculative literary fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Video game designer Sloane Cooper finds herself in a bit of a bind when she promises a prospective employer that she'll stay single in order to dedicate herself to the job. Of course, immediately after making this ill-advised (and very illegal) vow, Sloane is invited on an all-inclusive, all-expenses-paid trip by her neighbor, Charlie. The catch? Oh, she just has to pose as Charlie's girlfriend. No problem, right? After all, she did promise (something that is extremely illegal for companies to require)!
Genre: Romance
Genre: Romance
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: If your opening words to describe a debut novel are "A work of literary horror in the gothic tradition…" I'm automatically adding it to my "to read next" list. Add in a recurring dream of an unsettling hotel and a surreal examination of the day-to-day tensions of 2011 South Korea, and this seems twisty enough to keep me reading into the evening.
Genre: Gothic/Horror
Genre: Gothic/Horror
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Oh yeah, we are staying with the debut novels this month! Hear me out with this verbiage taken directly from the book page: "A chilling and unforgettable story of a close-knit Jewish family in London pushed to the brink when they suspect their daughter is a witch."
Genre: Fiction/Horror
Genre: Fiction/Horror
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I love a book with an intriguing premise, so this one caught my eye. Just one month before her wedding, a mixed-race British woman makes the shocking discovery that her fiancé's ancestors might have enslaved hers. And here she thought it was just a coincidence that they both had the last name McKinnon!
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: "Eight translators walk into a house at the edge of a primeval forest…only for the author whose magnum opus they are translating to disappear without a trace." I mean, come on. Is that a hook or is that a hook? Here's another hook: This book was written by one of Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk's translators.
Genre: Literary fiction/Mystery
Genre: Literary fiction/Mystery
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: We've previously established my love for books that refer to the Melville masterpiece Moby-Dick, so it should be no surprise that this book caught my eye. Plus, "Failed Pitbull impersonator teams up with a killer whale during his quest to become a modern-day, real life Scarface" is just a chef's kiss of a premise!
Genre: Fiction/Thriller
Genre: Fiction/Thriller
Which new releases are you looking forward to reading? Let's talk books in the comments!
Comments Showing 1-39 of 39 (39 new)
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I've never heard of any of them except Great Expectations. Isn't that a classic?
Law wrote: "I've never heard of any of them except Great Expectations. Isn't that a classic?"Did you notice the author name or read the blurb about it?
Misha wrote: "Law wrote: "I've never heard of any of them except Great Expectations. Isn't that a classic?"Did you notice the author name or read the blurb about it?"
So it is a different version. It looks intriguing, but it has a low rating, so I'm not sure if I will enjoy it.
I'm going to get a copy of Glorious Exploits. Then I'm going to post selfies reading it. The cover is hilarious!
Law wrote: "Misha wrote: "Law wrote: "I've never heard of any of them except Great Expectations. Isn't that a classic?"Did you notice the author name or read the blurb about it?"
So it is a different versio..."
It's not a different version, it's an entirely different book by an entirely different author.
Law wrote: "I've never heard of any of them except Great Expectations. Isn't that a classic?"G.D. wrote: ""Eight translators walk into a house at the edge of a primeval forest…only for the author whose magnum opus they are translating to disappear without a trace." I mean, come on.
A reaction on point..."
did you read the notes by the recommender?
Cathy wrote: "Law wrote: "I've never heard of any of them except Great Expectations. Isn't that a classic?"G.D. wrote: ""Eight translators walk into a house at the edge of a primeval forest…only for the author..."
It does seem entirely different from the classic Great Expectations.
I have to agree with Vit Babenco "Trendy books have the same aesthetic value as the snowflakes printed on toilet paper – use and forget. Judging by the rating all those Goodreads authors are greater writers than Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, F. Scott Fitzgerald and all the Nobel Prize winners."
Valerie wrote: "I have to agree with Vit Babenco "Trendy books have the same aesthetic value as the snowflakes printed on toilet paper – use and forget. Judging by the rating all those Goodreads authors are greate..."You must be fun at parties.
It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone looking for books that are by Black/women authors, and not someone looking for great books regardless of the biography and biology of the author.This is the surest path to kill literature.
Valerie wrote: "I have to agree with Vit Babenco "Trendy books have the same aesthetic value as the snowflakes printed on toilet paper – use and forget. Judging by the rating all those Goodreads authors are greate..."A book doesn't have to be a classic to be good.
Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone looking for books that are by Black/women authors, and not som..."Not really.
Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone looking for books that are by Black/women auth..."Not really, what? It doesn't feel like a complete thought.
Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone looking for books that are by Blac..."Reading books from Black or women authors doesn't necessarily mean the end of literature--it's the contrary. Books from new voices help expand literature. Books from Black or women authors can be great.
This is a great list. I haven't heard of most of these books so I have like 15 tabs open right now lol.
Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone looking for books ..."I can't tell if you're intentionally twisting my words or you didn't understand. Two of my favorite authors are Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie. I never said “reading books from Black or women authors” would end literature. I was saying that promoting books because the authors are a certain race or gender rather than promoting great work *regardless* of the race or biology of the author is the surest path to get people not read.
People want to read interesting books, not books that someone thinks promotes a political agenda, which is what this list is doing.
If you want to make a political point, run for office. If you want to talk about books, then tell us about great writers that are Black, White, and Purple Polka-dot. Reverse discrimination is a real things.
Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone lookin..."Tony Morrison? Maya Angelou? Octavia E. Butler? Celeste Ng? Elizabeth Acevedo? The list goes on.
Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone lookin..."And what political agenda is this list trying to promote? So you believe that people should read books regardless of race is what I assume is your point. What does reverse racism have to do with it? By the way, there is one white author on this list.
Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled b..."“Bunyan and Henry: Or, the Beautiful Destiny” by Mark Cecil. A book which she chose because John Henry is one of the two main characters. She explicitly states in a number of cases that her criteria for selecting these books was because they were either about women, about Black people or some other minority, or both. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with a book so organized. But the entire list contains no books which don't meet those criteria. When a book on the list doesn't appear to fit this criteria, it's written by a woman. This is a list obviously compiled by someone prejudging the books by race and gender. A system which prioritizes this way, by process of elimination, fails to prioritize by quality.
If a great novel by a straight, white, male which had no minority characters came to her attention, she would dismiss it out of hand.
How can you look at this list and not see this?
Again, my favorite author of all time is a minority author. One of my favorite novels was written by a Black woman about Black people. I've read many Black authors. I read women authors. I will do so in the future. But such a list as this clearly excludes that which is not Black, female, or otherwise minority. Whether the person who compiled this list is aware of their bias I can't say without having a conversation with them. Nonetheless, the bias is there. The result is that worse books inevitably get promoted over better books simply because of the race or gender of the author. Therefore literature becomes less interesting to those who use such lists to select their reading. Since the books are going to be worse, there will be less and less desire on the part of such readers to return to literature, especially when a phone or a laptop is almost surely within reach.
My overall point is that readers have been themselves a declining minority for awhile and we can't afford to alienate new ones lest reading die a slow death. QED.
Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "Law wrote: "Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to m..."The list sure looks biased now.
Misha wrote: "Law wrote: "I've never heard of any of them except Great Expectations. Isn't that a classic?"Did you notice the author name or read the blurb about it?"
This book was poorly named…needs to be renamed. IMO
Bea wrote: "This is a great list. I haven't heard of most of these books so I have like 15 tabs open right now lol."Same!!! I'm looking forward to reading a bunch of them.
Is Cybil looking forward to debut novels this spring? Hard to tell on this (excellent) list!
Italiangirl wrote: "Misha wrote: "Law wrote: "I've never heard of any of them except Great Expectations. Isn't that a classic?"Did you notice the author name or read the blurb about it?"
This book was poorly named…..."
Why do you think it needs to be renamed?
Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone looking for books that are by Black/women authors, and not som..."Correct, you're better off using 4chan's /lit/ board if you want actual good recommendations. This list is only good to copy and mock for how awful it is
The list is just what I expected - I agree with Michael here - see also the NY Times lists of new books - same approach is taken there to selection.
Law wrote: "I've never heard of any of them except Great Expectations. Isn't that a classic?"Not this one. Read the blurb.
Fed's most watched anon wrote: "Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone looking for books that are by Black/women auth..."So you're saying this list was made based on the authors' races and not the best new books?
james baker wrote: "The list is just what I expected - I agree with Michael here - see also the NY Times lists of new books - same approach is taken there to selection."So you're saying this list was made based on the authors' races and not the best new books?
Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone looking for books that are by Black/women authors, and not som..."The fact that people can’t handle intentional diversity in a booklist without pearl clutching over how it will ‘destroy literature’ is maybe an indicator of why we need lists like this.
Lots of books here are retelling and reimagining, unfortunately. I prefer original stories. But The Extinction of Irena Reyby Jennifer Croft and The Invisible Hotel
by Yeji Y. Ham look very interesting. Adding it to my TBR.
Blake wrote: "Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone looking for books that are by Black/women auth..."Is there something wrong with a person who wants the best new books regardless of race rather than a list that was made with the authors' races?
Dark Academia wrote: "Lots of books here are retelling and reimagining, unfortunately. I prefer original stories. But The Extinction of Irena Reyby Jennifer Croft and The Invisible Hotel
by Yeji Y. Ham look very intere..."
How are some of these books on this list retellings?
Definitely have a few I'm aiming at. The Invisible Hotel is the most interesting on this list to me.
Law wrote: "Fed's most watched anon wrote: "Michael wrote: "It's like people only read now to virtue signal. Does no one enjoy being enthralled anymore? This list seems to me compiled by someone looking for bo..."Yes. I'm saying exactly that the selection is based not on quality but on race and gender.
Law wrote: "james baker wrote: "The list is just what I expected - I agree with Michael here - see also the NY Times lists of new books - same approach is taken there to selection."So you're saying this list..."
"Intentional diversity" is another way of saying "we want to discriminate based on race and sex and exclude those that we feel aren't 'diverse' enough, but we don't want to be called racist while we do it."
I'm saying the selections here were made in large part through racism and misandry. Put a pretty name on it if you want, but racism is racism no matter which way it cuts. As I said previous (maybe you missed the post) Salman Rushdie and Zadie Smith are some of my favorite writers. Rushdie is in fact my absolute favorite writer. I have no problem with diverse literature. BOTH these authors would agree with me, and I can scare up the quotes to prove it.
Hyper-Woke really shouldn't go around accusing people of pearl-clutching. Hypocrisy is a bad color.
Oooh!! There are a bunch on here I havent heard of! I always apreciate a list with books that fly under my radar. Fruit of the Dead, Memory Piece, The Invisible Hotel, and The Extinction of Irena Rey are really calling put to me.
A reaction on point. There is nothing that makes a reader salivate the delicious smell of a little metafiction twist, I am hooked.
One of these days I might manage to look at a listical and not have my TBR list hopelessly expanded