The New November Books Goodreads Editors Can't Wait to Read

Posted by Cybil on November 1, 2025

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.
 
Some of the stories on tap for November: Hookups and hangovers in Belfast! Extinct sea creatures in Finland! Romantic shenanigans in the trenches of academia! Bonus pick: The ecological history of the world via elemental air deity.
 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: In Gabel's sophomore novel (The Ensemble), she delivers a literary time-travel novel that explores the blurriness between the past and present, and the long hold that loss and grief have on us. I cannot wait for this one, which promises to be a heartrending page-turner. 

Genre: Literary fiction/Sci-Fi


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Already a bestseller in Spain, this translated debut novel is a darkly humorous coming-of-age tale that looks at the soul-crushing realities of surviving the modern workforce. 

Genre: Contemporary fiction


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: The author of Beasts of a Little Land and City of Night Birds returns with this collection of 10 short stories. Early reviewers are praising the tales as both ambitious and heartbreaking.

Genre: Short stories


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: In the column of Books-for-Bookish-People this November, we have this deeply reported nonfiction history of the Black bookstore as a community hub and site of radical resistance woven into the fabric of American life. Viva la bookstore!  

Genre: Nonfiction


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: In this debut, a small town that's become a trendy rural getaway for big-city folks finds the tensions between longtimers and newcomers reaching a boiling point during a fraught congressional race. Gentrification, hotly contested swing state elections, and exclusive cliques? Tough real-life issues, but great fictional fodder!

Genre: Contemporary fiction


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Spoiler alert: I've already read this book, and I loved it! I think you should read it too if you fancy the idea of two longtime academic rivals who enter a marriage of convenience so they can split the lone permanent faculty position available in their respective fields. What could be more romantic than helping each other out of adjunct hell?!

Genre: Romance


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: In this latest iteration of the category of beauty-and-wellness industry thriller/horror novels that Cybil and I have fondly dubbed "Goop Gore," a teenage girl becomes addicted to a facial cream designed to alter one's looks. Good thing her brother works for the startup that makes the cream and can dig into its sinister doings!

Genre: Thriller


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: The history of the world, told through the story of a mischievous wind that's blasted through the landscape since Edenic times. Picture me as the Leonardo Dicaprio pointing meme excitedly shouting, "This! I need this book!"

Genre: Literary fiction


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: If you write a novel that spans three centuries and throw in an extinct sea creature, I am absolutely going to read your book. This debut was a smash hit in Finland when it was first published there, with reviewers calling the novel a breathtaking literary adventure. 

Genre: Historical fiction


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Williams' newest short story collection has already been longlisted for the 2025 National Book Awards, so my interest is piqued! The tales here include the hound of Odysseus finally getting his own voice and twin heiresses hard-set on disrupting the effects of their family’s past deeds.

Genre: Short stories 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: This Irish novel navigates the messy late-20s/early 30s of a group of friends. Early reviewers are calling this novel honest and raw, as well as witty and funny. You'll need to jump on your group chats after reading this one!

Genre: Contemporary fiction


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: If you haven't been paying proper attention to the horror genre lately, you may not realize that Appalachian horror is Having a Moment. And why wouldn't it be? So I am quite excited about this debut novel that mixes Southern Gothic vibes and dark folklore set at the oldest and most storied HBCU in the nation.

Genre: Horror


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet is back this fall with a book that seeks to demystify poetry for the masses (of which I belong). Through six chapters, Smith walks readers through the work of her fellow contemporary poets as well as some of the classics. 

Genre: Nonfiction/Poetry


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: First published in the U.K. earlier this year, Buckley's novel that's been longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize is finally coming to U.S. readers. This short book takes on weighty topics of identity, free will, and guilt as a woman grieving the death of her father returns to the same Greek island where she weathered her mother's death nine years earlier.

Genre: Literary fiction 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I'll join Cybil on the train of "Booker Prize–longlisted U.K. novels now publishing in the U.S." with this atmospheric novel about a young man whose quiet life by the sea is interrupted when an American film director comes to town on a location scout. Early reviewers are rapturous about this one—peep that 4.22-star rating!  

Genre: Literary fiction/Historical fiction