Goodreads Editors Share the January Books They Can't Wait to Read

Posted by Cybil on December 31, 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 January: deadly debt solutions in Ohio, a strange museum love story in Japan, and historical horror in 1848 Ireland. Plus: the enduring complications of Faustian bargains.  


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: If you want me to read a short story collection, use the words "absurdist, funny, and speculative," and then, to seal the deal, throw in comps to Karen Russell and Carmen Maria Machado. Also: Anne Boleyn back from the dead, a Manhattan Project–based "Choose Your Own Apocalypse," and the ultimate dinner party guest list?? Um…YES. 

Genre: Short stories


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Hear me out: How about a debut novel following a has-been reality-TV star and a disgraced producer who get one last shot at redemption on a show set on a remote island…written by a former Survivor contestant? Early reviewers are calling this an insane page-turner. Also, Goodreads' resident Survivor fan (and our social media manager) Daniel is super excited about this one! 

Genre: Fiction 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: You may already know Austin for Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be DeadInteresting Facts about Space, and We Could Be Rats. But if not (and WHY NOT?), then now's a great time to read her! Austin's latest is about a librarian returning to work after a mental breakdown, only to confront book-banning crusaders in community. 

Genre: Fiction


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: "Fleabag meets Big Swiss." Yep, I am clearly a sucker for a good book comp, and this is an incredibly intriguing one! In this debut novel, a misfit livestreams her life for seven days and nights to raise money to save her comatose sister. 

Genre: Fiction 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Karl Ove Knausgaard wrote a book about an art student who makes a (literal) Faustian bargain? Karl Ove Knausgaard wrote a book about an art student who makes a (literal) Faustian bargain! I am seated

Genre: Literary fiction


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Speaking of artists making questionable bargains, this debut follows a painter on book tour for the revenge fantasy she wrote about an old mentor/lover who ruined her nascent art career a decade ago. But when a fraught invitation arrives from that same mentor, the fictions she's constructed for her life threaten to unravel. Dark! Sexy! Compelling!

Genre: Literary fiction


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: The medieval period is having something of A Moment right now, across book genres. In this offering with a very on-the-nose title, the protagonist is having a terrible time in the 21st century: His apartment is infested with spiders, his boyfriend just broke up with him, and so on. Unfortunately, stress-induced time travel back to the seemingly simpler year of 1300 just proves the old adage that no matter where you go, there you are.

Genre: Fiction/Time Travel


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: This short, snappy, puzzle-box of a book has a lot going on in addition to its excellent title. Teen Indian American sisters Georgette Ayyar and Agatha Krishna (get it?) decide in the summer of 1986 that their abusive uncle must die. According to Georgie, the British are to blame. Is this book a murder mystery? Sorta. Is it also a tribute to sisterhood, an unflinching indictment of colonialism, and a weirdly playful ode to 1980s girlhood in America? Yes.

Genre: Fiction


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: If you like your dysfunctional with a huge emphasis on the "fun," you need to be reading this debut novel. This family saga is brimming with endearing eccentrics.

Genre: Fiction 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I got no further than "Rika Horiuchi’s new part-time job is to converse with a statue of the Venus de Milo—in Latin—every Monday" in the jacket description of this book before smash-adding it to my Want to Read shelf.

Genre: Fiction 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: So something fun I've learned about myself in doing this editors' picks series is if you put the words "Moby-Dick reimagined" anywhere on a book jacket, I will IMMEDIATELY pick that book.

Genre: Historical fiction/retelling


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: It turns out that the saying "At first you go bankrupt slowly, then all at once" is a misquoted line from Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. The correct quote is when a character is asked how he went bankrupt, and he replies, "Two ways: gradually and then suddenly." You get the gist. In this debut thriller, a couple facing a similar dilemma seems saved by a series of large checks that start arriving in the mail. However, the genre savvy among us knows nothing is truly free…
Genre: Thriller 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I dearly love a literary mystery, so I'm very excited that Thrity Umrigar (HonorThe Museum of Failures) is putting out a thriller this month. When Aliya's wife, Sam, goes missing one morning after an argument, she finds that the conventional wisdom of "the spouse did it" gets extra complicated when you're brown and queer in America. 

Genre: Mystery/Thriller 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: The year is 1910. The place is Cornwall. Halley's Comet is about to pass overhead, and the Viscount of Tithe Hall is convinced that it signals the end of the world. He orders the entire house sealed up against the apocalypse…and is promptly murdered in his locked study within his locked home. Yep, this one hits all the right notes for me!

Genre: Historical mystery


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Four words: Potato famine horror novel. Then throw in a mysterious position and remote manor house? Come on! Need more? How about: Early reviewers are simply raving about this one.

Genre: Historical Horror


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: The author of the beloved Snow Falling on Cedars is back this January with a tale of a misfit woman hitchhiking through America, while across the world, in Tibet, it's decided that her five-year-old son is the the seventh reincarnation of the illustrious Norbu Rinpoche. As one early reviewer put it: "This is an excellent book for people who enjoy offbeat characters who ask profound questions."

Genre: Historical fiction 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: In the sci-fi thriller, the crew of a space shuttle flight to Saturn’s moon Titan returns to a weirdly altered Earth. Note, this book is marked Book One, so get in on this new series from blast off! 

Genre: Science Fiction 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Billed as a history of Black America through the history of trees, this exploration of botanical and cultural interconnection comes recommended for readers of Braiding Sweetgrass and How the Word Is Passed. I love a deep dive focused through a narrow aperture, and this book sounds like a great way to combat the January midwinter blues.

Genre: Nonfiction/Nature/History