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Get Ready! Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2026
For devoted bookworms, the new year is an exciting time. Specifics on the year’s upcoming books start making the rounds, along with release dates. The Goodreads editorial team has been carefully tracking and sorting this information, and we’re pleased to report that 2026 is going to be really quite busy. And, frankly, pretty awesome.
We’ve assembled here 68(!) books slated to be published in the U.S. in 2026, sorted into the usual suspect genres. We’ve also been tracking early reviews and crunching the numbers on how many readers are adding these books to their Want to Read shelves. All of that information ultimately informs our annual curated list of the Most Anticipated new releases of the coming year.
Some highlights to start with, in no particular order: Douglas Stuart, the Booker Prize–winning author of Shuggie Bain, invites readers to Scotland’s remote Hebrides islands with another Gaelic drama, John of John. Ann Patchett continues her lifelong exploration of the human heart with her new novel, Whistler, coming in June. Early readers are adoring Terah Shelton Harris’s latest, a different kind of survival story titled Where the Wildflowers Grow. And Maggie O’Farrell, author of 2020’s Hamnet, returns this summer with the much anticipated Land, set in 19th-century Ireland.
Let’s see, what else? We’ve got karmic afterlife conjecture from the great George Saunders. State-of-the-art contemporary romance (in Europe!) from Tia Williams. A Pacific Northwest riff on the haunted house story from Marcus Kliewer. And the latest in literary science fiction from the never-not-interesting Emily St. John Mandel. For hardcore bookworms: an interdimensional library from Kate Quinn.
Plus: Alice Feeney! Abby Jimenez! Patrick Radden Keefe! Monika Kim! David Sedaris! And some long-awaited series conclusions from Alice Oseman and Leigh Bardugo. One final note—remember former teen TV star Jennette McCurdy and her colossally popular 2022 memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died? Well, McCurdy is a novelist now.
Please note that this collection isn’t exhaustive, just a sampling of the titles that are buzzing in the Goodreads community. There’s definitely a lot more cooking out there, and we’re tracking rumors all the time. So stay tuned for updates.
Click around below for release dates and more information about each title, and feel free to add anything that catches your eye to your Want to Read shelf. Happy hunting! Happy New Year!
Contemporary & Historical Fiction
One of the most anticipated books of the year, Half His Age is the debut novel from former teen star Jennette McCurdy, who basically went supernova a few years back with her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. McCurdy’s novel introduces 17-year-old Waldo, a high school student who falls deeply into something with her creative writing teacher. Maybe it’s love, maybe it’s lust, maybe it’s just a need to be seen.
Publication date: January 20
Publication date: January 20
Romance and thriller specialist Ashley Winstead (In My Dreams I Hold a Knife) goes in another direction entirely with the story of a music industry executive who falls for a self-destructive singer of the ascendant California indie rock band the Future Saints. Winstead digs deep into themes of grief and family dysfunction as she maps the twisty roads of love, friendship, and quality rock music.
Publication date: January 20
Publication date: January 20
Recommended for readers of Yaa Gyasi and Ayana Mathis, this literary family epic from author Nikesha Elise Williams follows seven generations of Black women down into the very soul of a troubled nation. In 1995, 14-year-old Tati starts researching her family. The Dupree women, it seems, are destined to give birth only to daughters, an odd fact that leads to a series of astonishing revelations dating back to 1917.
Publication date: January 27
Publication date: January 27
George Saunders, author of 2017’s Booker Prize–winning Lincoln in the Bardo, is generally acknowledged as one of the greatest writers working today. His highly anticipated new novel, Vigil, returns to previous existential territory, as a psychopomp ghost helps a dying oil company executive to reckon with all that he hath wrought. Scores are settled. Things get weird. Early readers are loving this one.
Publication date: January 27
Publication date: January 27
Historical fiction readers will want to flag this one: Author Sadeqa Johnson (The House of Eve) explores the legacy of mixed-race children in Germany and the U.S. by following the fates of several characters over time. The plot includes a Black soldier in World War II, a lonely high school girl in 1965, and one woman with a vision of the slow, painful, but ultimate triumph of love.
Publication date: February 10
Publication date: February 10
The much anticipated new novel from author Terah Shelton Harris (One Summer in Savannah) tells the story of a deeply traumatized young woman who finds hope and healing at a flower farm in rural Alabama. Harris’ novel explores some dark places—grief, shame, abuse. But the story ultimately celebrates the slow and steady power of courage and human kindness. Bonus trivia: Author Harris is a former librarian. Good people.
Publication date: February 17
Publication date: February 17
M.L. Stedman’s novel The Light Between Oceans won the 2012 Goodreads Choice Award for historical fiction. (It generated a very good 2016 movie, too.) The author’s long-awaited follow-up novel returns readers to the wilds of Western Australia, circa 1958, where a terrible tragedy changes many lives. Stedman’s epic, character-driven narrative charts one family’s fate over the next 40 years. Avoid spoilers with this one.
Publication date: March 3
Publication date: March 3
Wouldn’t it be weird if you semi-reluctantly agreed to a four-day cruise featuring a famous 1990s boy band, then you ended up making a connection with one of the band members, whom you crushed on so hard in childhood? Well, that’s what’s up in the new novel from Emma Straub (This Time Tomorrow), which mucks about in the messy waters of middle age, aching nostalgia, and arrested fandom.
Publication date: April 7
Publication date: April 7
Grown-ups can tell you: It’s hard making new friends—really tight new friends—as an adult. Using a dual-POV structure, Love by the Book tells the story of Remy and Simone, two women who forge a deep friendship after a platonic meet-cute in a favorite bookshop. Early readers are evangelizing about author Jessica George’s easy humor and heartfelt ruminations on female friendship.
Publication date: April 7
Publication date: April 7
John-Calum Macleod has just returned from art school to his childhood home in Scotland’s rugged Hebrides islands. John’s dad is a devout sheep farmer, his grandma is an old Glasgow girl, and John feels obliged to conceal his sexual orientation. Then one revelation changes everything. Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart (Shuggie Bain) returns with a novel about family, community, and the tenacity of love.
Publication date: May 5
Publication date: May 5
Pepper Mills, age 77, is determined to make the best of her recent and reluctant move to the Vista View Retirement Community. But after meeting a new friend, she must navigate a situation that no one saw coming. Pepper is pregnant. Author Laurie Frankel (This Is How It Always Is) presents a wry but poignant drama that doubles as a modern fable concerning reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.
Publication date: May 5
Publication date: May 5
Kathryn Stockett, author of 2009’s The Help, invites readers to flashback yet again to a forgotten corner of American history. The Calamity Club follows three women in 1933 Mississippi, where the Great Depression is reminding everyone—especially vulnerable women—that catastrophe is just a breath away. But these three women (two women and an old-soul tween, technically) are done with victimhood. And they have a plan.
Publication date: May 5
Publication date: May 5
Daphne Fuller has just been reunited with her former stepfather, Eddie Triplett, after a chance meeting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While their acquaintance was brief—the marriage lasted only a year, when Daphne was nine—the two formed a powerful bond. Ann Patchett (Bel Canto) returns with an extended meditation on those rare human connections that change the trajectory of your life.
Publication date: June 2
Publication date: June 2
With her 2020 novel, Hamnet, author Maggie O'Farrell delivered an instant classic of historical fiction and ended up on everyone’s end-of-year lists (including ours). Her new novel moves the action to 19th-century Ireland where a father-and-son team have been tasked with mapping the devastation of the Irish potato famine, also known as the Great Hunger. Bonus trivia: Hamnet made for a pretty great movie, too.
Publication date: June 2
Publication date: June 2
The new novel from author and physician Daniel Mason (North Woods) resembles his other work in that it pretty much defies easy synopsis. The story concerns Miles Krzelewski—father, husband, and perpetually late PhD student—and an exceedingly strange local legend that may not be a legend at all. Russian folktales are involved. Bonus trivia: Mason wrote his first novel while still in med school. How is that even possible?
Publication date: July 14
Publication date: July 14
Mysteries & Thrillers
Benjamin Bayliss is up to something, and his wife, Camille, knows it. But she can’t spy him out because Ben tracks her every move. So Camille hires bartender Aubrey Price to take her place for 12 hours, digitally speaking, while Camille pokes around. But when Ben winds up really quite severely dead, both women are in need of an alibi.
Publication date: January 13
Publication date: January 13
Artist-on-the-rise Eden Fox has just returned from her morning run to find another woman in her beautiful seaside house. She looks just like Eden, actually. And Eden’s husband insists the other woman is his wife. The latest psychological suspense novel from Alice Feeney (Rock Paper Scissors) is a straight-up mystery-thriller—there’s no alternate dimensions or woo-woo involved. Just nuclear-grade deception.
Publication date: January 20
Publication date: January 20
Chicago author Mary Kubica (Local Woman Missing) specializes in mystery thrillers with airtight plots and devious twists. Her latest concerns a double killing at a Wisconsin lake resort town, a missing teenager, and a lovely little lakeside cottage splattered with blood. Kubica uses alternating POVs to add further revelations and to gradually eliminate suspects…one way or another.
Publication date: February 3
Publication date: February 3
When a child abuser is murdered, circumstances change suddenly for three women connected to the dead man—a traumatized victim, a former reality TV star, and the abuser’s mother. Hawaiian author T Kira Madden does interesting and complicated new things with the mystery-thriller template, folding in hard questions about crime, justice, and storytelling itself.
Publication date: March 10
Publication date: March 10
BFFs Benny and Joy have found a profitable niche with their podcast about near-death experiences and survival stories. But when Joy and her husband suddenly go missing, Benny must solve the mystery before he’s picked up as the prime suspect. Debut author Tiffany Crum crafts her plotline around a sideways kind of love story. It gets twisty. Plus, the title suggests that this is the sort of book you’ll want on your shelf.
Publication date: March 10
Publication date: March 10
Six struggling authors are invited to a Scottish island only to find that their host—famous novelist Arthur Fletch—is most decidedly dead. But his PR people have a proposal. The job? Finish Fletch’s final novel. The prize? A ridiculous amount of money. The catch? Well, it gets interesting. Part satire, part locked-room mystery, The Ending Writes Itself is the debut novel from author Evelyn Clarke, who is actually two authors.
Publication date: April 7
Publication date: April 7
Fantasy Novels
Debut author Shen Tao invites readers to the Azalea Dynasty, where corruption and greed have left the people on the brink of starvation. When young Wei Yin finds herself in the palace corridors of power, she makes a decision that could change everything. Tao’s epic fantasy features dark themes and brutal passages—check the content notes—along with an innovative magic system based on poetry.
Publication date: January 20
Publication date: January 20
The second book in author Moniquill Blackgoose’s Nampeshiweisit series continues the story of Anequs, a young Indigenous woman with a magical connection to dragons. The new book picks up the summer after Anequs’ first year at the Academy and continues the series’ anti-colonial reimagining of traditional dragon mythology, magic schools, and romance subplots.
Publication date: January 27
Publication date: January 27
This one looks like so much fun: Through a secret door in the Boston Public Library, a desperate young woman finds a collection of books that literally transports the reader to their respective fictional worlds. The cobblestone streets of Sherlock’s London, the grassy banks of Huck Finn’s Mississippi River, Jane Eyre’s Regency drawing rooms. Historical fiction author Kate Quinn takes a side trip into literally literary fantasy.
Publication date: February 17
Publication date: February 17
Canadian author Heather Fawcett (author of the delightful Emily Wilde series) clearly has her priorities straight. Her new book has a great title, an even better cover illustration, and it’s all about saving cats. Also: dark magic! Fawcett’s cozy fantasy, set in 1920s Montreal, features a rescue shelter manager who must team up with her new landlord, a failed dark sorcerer, to defeat a common threat.
Publication date: February 17
Publication date: February 17
Based on a series of very real killings starting in 1764, the legend of The Beast of Gévaudan has inspired fevered speculation—and werewolf lore—for hundreds of years. To wit: author Cameron Sullivan’s debut historical fantasy novel, which features an immortal narrator, a troubled M/M romance, and plenty of “sorcery, demons and debauchery.” The Red Winter also earns bonus points for that compelling cover art image.
Publication date: February 24
Publication date: February 24
In 2023, Shannon Chakraborty introduced the world to the dread pirate Amina al-Sirafi, terror of the Indian Sea, lover/slayer of demons, and devoted mom to her adorable daughter Marjana. Book two in the series, scheduled to drop in May, finds the semiretired Amina once again gathering her crew in pursuit of fortune and glory. Bonus trivia: The series’ first book was nominated for the prestigious Hugo Award.
Publication date: May 12
Publication date: May 12
Leigh Bardugo fans—we are legion—will want to circle September on those new year calendars. That’s the tentative publication date for Dead Beat, the third and final chapter in Bardugo’s Alex Stern trilogy (Ninth House) concerning Ivy League secret societies and attendant occult weirdness. Details are scarce, but Bardugo recently messaged fans on Instagram, promising: “… ohhhh it’s going to be a wild one.”
Publication date: September
Publication date: September
Science Fiction Novels
From the author of the smash D&D fever dream Dungeon Crawler Carl, the sci-fi adventure Operation Bounce House proposes another mad scenario steeped in the specifics of gamer culture. The gist: A nefarious corporation decides to test its new war machines by letting Earth gamers remotely kill off the settlers of a distant colony planet. Look for dark humor, drone warfare, and grim allegory.
Publication date: February 10
Publication date: February 10
Multi-genre author Alexis Hall (Boyfriend Material) goes future-tense Melville in this new book, inspired by the classic Moby Dick. In Hall’s reiteration, the whale is a space leviathan, the captain is an obsessive spaceship pilot, and our narrator is a curious Earthling named I, which works out nicely for narrating. Look for some gender flipping, a bit of queer space horror, and yet another dispiriting vision of Earth’s future.
Publication date: March 10
Publication date: March 10
This second installment in The Captive's War series continues James S.A. Corey’s epic sci-fi saga, in which the last remnants of humanity are forced into a galactic Darwinian struggle with other captive species. Corey (who is actually two authors) specializes in far-future space opera (The Expanse!), and the new book promises an alarming new complication: the Swarm! Oh, it’s a trip, man.
Publication date: April 14
Publication date: April 14
Over on the literary end of the sci-fi aisle, The Radiant Dark chronicles 50 years with a rural Adirondacks family who accidentally makes contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Author Alexandra Oliva (The Last One) leverages a traditional spec-fic narrative template—the first contact story—to explore themes of spirituality, trauma, ambition, and other matters of the human heart.
Publication date: April 28
Publication date: April 28
Revered SFF author Martha Wells has found well-deserved success with her innovative series The Murderbot Diaries. On one level, it’s an adventure series about a lethal but introspective cyborg. On another, it’s an ongoing meditation on interpersonal communication, neurodivergent perspectives, and societal priorities. On every level, it’s great—and the new one features Murderbot dealing with kids. Human children. The worst.
Publication date: May 5
Publication date: May 5
A legendary corporate samurai on a frozen planet reluctantly agrees to One Last Job. It works out fine. Just kidding, these things never end well. Celebrated fantasy author Fonda Lee, winner of the World Fantasy Award for her 2018 genre classic, Jade City, makes her first foray into adult space opera. Bonus trivia: Author Lee is a black belt martial artist. This seems relevant.
Publication date: May 5
Publication date: May 5
Another literary sci-fi specialist, Emily St. John Mandel (author of the brilliant Station Eleven) is set to return in autumn with her new novel, Exit Party. Not much has been disclosed about the upcoming book, aside from the tease that it’s a “mind-bending story of crimes committed and loves lost across space and time.” We’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, check out our Q&A with Mandel from her last novel, 2022’s Sea of Tranquility.
Publication date: September 15
Publication date: September 15
Horror Novels
Fans of 2024’s inventive horror novel Don’t Let the Forest In may want to try this one, the latest from ascendant author C.G. Drews. You Did Nothing Wrong features a worried mom, her autistic son, and a new take on the haunted house story. Is it supernatural horror? Is it psychological suspense? Is it dark family drama? The answer is yes.
Publication date: March 17
Publication date: March 17
Emmett Truesdale has finally found a diet that works for him. Sure, it’s a dangerous clinical trial and, sure, he’s losing big chunks of time to memory blackouts. The important part is that people are mysteriously disappearing and authorities are warning of a cannibalistic killer on the loose. Wait, what were we talking about? San Diego author Luke Dumas (A History of Fear) is back with a vengeance.
Publication date: March 31
Publication date: March 31
When unemployed graphic designer Macy Mullins accepts a three-day housesitting job over the internet, she figures it’ll be easy money. But the gig comes with some oddly specific rules. More like rituals, really. Author Marcus Kliewer (We Used to Live Here) blends supernatural horror with psychological suspense in his latest scary story, and the stakes are higher than they seem.
Publication date: April 21
Publication date: April 21
Using parallel timelines, author Kylie Lee Baker deploys historical fiction to tell a new kind of ghost story. We begin with a very old house in Japan, where a young man has taken refuge after trouble back in the U.S. Meanwhile, in 1877, a female samurai shelters in the same house. Time gets slippery. Bonus trivia: Baker is the author of last year’s well-received Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng.
Publication date: April 21
Publication date: April 21
The title of Monika Kim’s new horror novel refers to a deeply unsettling real-life epidemic in South Korea in which creepy little men use spycams to illegally film women, then upload the footage online. Kim’s novel tells the story of what happens when one young woman takes vengeance. Alert readers will remember that Kim’s debut novel was nominated for not one but two Goodreads Choice Awards last year.
Publication date: April 28
Publication date: April 28
Romance Novels
Following up on last year’s First-Time Caller, this new media-themed rom-com from B.K. Borison slots in as book two in her Heartstrings series. This time around, it’s radio meteorologists in love as Jackson Clark and Delilah Stewart are assigned to cover the snowstorm of the century together. He’s uptight. She’s spontaneous. He’s no fun. She’s nothing but. What’s that thing they say about opposites?
Publication date: February 24
Publication date: February 24
A-list romance novelist Abby Jimenez returns to bookshelves in March with this poignant story of roads not taken and That One Magical Night. Chris’ dilemma may be a pop culture cliché—he’s in love with his best friend’s girl—but that doesn’t make it any less painful. In fact, it makes it so much worse. Bonus trivia: Did you know that author Jimenez is also a cupcake mogul?
Publication date: March 24
Publication date: March 24
Devastated would-be bride Frankie has just been left at the altar by her gutless fiancé. That’s when her estranged bestie and childhood friend George shows up. He has an idea. He’ll go with Frankie on her honeymoon, and the two can repair their damaged friendship in the warm summer breezes of a Vancouver Island resort. Canada’s favorite daughter Carley Fortune returns with a new twist on silver linings.
Publication date: May 5
Publication date: May 5
If you’re in the market for a friends-to-lovers romance at a destination wedding aboard a luxury cruise liner, we have the most extraordinary coincidence to report. The new rom-com from genre ace Katherine Center (The Bodyguard) provides just that, as two childhood friends share a series of cringey predicaments, swoony moments, and fortuitous cabin room assignments.
Publication date: May 19
Publication date: May 19
Author Tia Williams famously detailed a steamy summer week in Brooklyn with 2021’s Seven Days of June. In her newest book, The Missed Connection, love takes flight after a chance encounter on a European airline leads a casting agent to seek out her mysterious (and very handsome) seatmate. The smoldering detective she hires to help just might complicate matters. Only time will tell!
Publication date: June 16
Publication date: June 16
Talk about a literal second-chance romance. After her untimely demise, 32-year-old L.A. attorney Joey Vasquez is offered the opportunity to return to her freshman year in college and rethink her adult life from the ground up. A great chance to finally get together with the best friend she's pined for all these years? Maybe. Life has a way of throwing curveballs, especially when you think you know how things will turn out.
Publication date: July 7
Publication date: July 7
Romantasy Novels
This debut romantasy from author Jaclyn Rodriguez has some intriguing ideas in the mix. Forced by the powers that be to compete in a deadly magical academy, young Rune Ryker is persuaded to team up with a charming but arrogant prince. As usual, it’s all in the specifics: The powers that be are immortal druid-kings, the arrogant prince has neck tattoos, and the magic system is based on tarot cards.
Publication date: January 13
Publication date: January 13
Throne of Nightmares is technically the third book in Kerri Maniscalco’s Prince of Sin series, but first-time readers don’t need to fret. Each book is a standalone narrative, dedicated to a rather literal take on the demon lover concept. The series follows the seven princes of Hell—Envy, say, or Gluttony—and the lucky/unlucky mortal women who make their acquaintance. Book three spotlights Prince Sloth and a mortal bookworm. Fun!
Publication date: February 10
Publication date: February 10
Contemporary romance author Devney Perry switched lanes last year with Shield of Sparrows, a lively romantasy featuring a reluctant princess and a legendary monster hunter. Readers of the first book responded enthusiastically to the book’s blend of creative worldbuilding, witty dialogue, and daring plot swerves. Look for new complications in the second book and a particularly painful separation. Also: more monsters.
Publication date: April 7
Publication date: April 7
This second installment in Sarah A. Parker’s BookTok-hyped Moonfall series continues the story from 2024’s When the Moon Hatched, which introduces snarky assassin Raeve and the brooding king known as Kaan Vaegor. Parker deploys a multi-POV narrative approach to gradually expand her world of moons, dragons, palace intrigue, and new twists on high fantasy traditions.
Publication date: May 19
Publication date: May 19
Sequel to last year’s moody and stylish The Knight and the Moth, this second book in author Rachel Gillig’s Stonewater Kingdom series should appeal to readers who like their fantasy swathed in gothic vibes and a dreamlike atmosphere. Returning readers: The new storyline finds our heroine Sybil in the clutches of the king, but a mysterious new player has entered the field of play.
Publication date: September 1
Publication date: September 1
Young Adult Novels
This rather intriguing YA romantasy features several compelling story elements: A tournament of lethal bachelorettes, a prince who expects to be murdered on his wedding night, and a grove of previously murdered princes-turned-trees. Also: a poorly worded magical pact. Fascinating, isn’t it? It’s the latest from author Roshani Chokshi (The Gilded Wolves), and we didn’t even mention the pearl crocodiles.
Publication date: January 6
Publication date: January 6
Author Rachel Griffin (The Nature of Witches) returns with a love story almost certainly unlike anything you’ve read before. The plot concerns a shadowed village and a mysterious entity known as the Starmaker. But the amazing part is that author Griffin wrote the book while recovering from a traumatic brain injury. Or, to use her theory, she recovered by writing the book. Check the book page reviews section for a note from the author.
Publication date: February 17
Publication date: February 17
“Who killed Alicia Angelos?” That’s the big question in this YA murder mystery, which takes place on and around the set of an escape room TV show. The unfortunate Ms. Angelos, it seems, was found murdered on set at the end of last season, making the new episodes a bit tense. Authors Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles) and Tamara Moss (the Lintang series) team up for some twisty television intrigue.
Publication date: April 7
Publication date: April 7
Recommended for fans of both action/adventure and fantasy/romance, the new novel from author Emily Varga (For She Is Wrath) follows the fate of an intrepid relic hunter who crosses over into the land of the Fae. Early readers are enjoying the book’s advanced plot maneuvers, which involve interesting magic, forced-proximity romance, and some double-sided allegory concerning the sins of empire.
Publication date: June 30
Publication date: June 30
This sixth and reportedly final installment in the world-famous Heartstopper series promises to bring final resolution to Alice Oseman’s adored graphic novel saga. What began in 2016 as a queer romance between two young students has blossomed into one of the 21st century’s great love stories. Advance rumors suggest that the final volume will also include a series-spanning epilogue.
Publication date: July 7
Publication date: July 7
Nonfiction
Acclaimed British author Jeanette Winterson explores the art of storytelling with this ambitious nonfiction foray into the heart of fiction. Winterson’s book is structured around the story of Shahrazad in the Arabic folktale collection One Thousand and One Nights. But Winterson’s book quickly fractals out into larger concerns—how fiction and creativity can quite literally save us, as individuals and as a civilization.
Publication date: January 20
Publication date: January 20
In August 1992, federal agents in Idaho engaged in a bloody 11-day standoff that eventually became known as the Ruby Ridge incident. Author Chris Jennings takes a true-crime approach to the story that gradually unfolds into a larger inquiry concerning conspiratorial politics and doomsday prophecies in America.
Publication date: February 10
Publication date: February 10
Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Jon Meacham looks for help in our present national situation by offering a close reading of our past. With American Struggle, Meacham excavates relevant primary-source documents going back to 1619—speeches, letters, essays—then adds specific commentary on their contemporary relevance.
Publication date: February 17
Publication date: February 17
It’s a 21st-century kind of story: Back in 2023, personal trainer Oliver James took to TikTok to chronicle his quest to learn to read. As one of millions of functionally illiterate adults in the U.S., James opted to candidly document his experience for others who might be in a similar situation. Unread is structured around 21 key books that helped him on his way.
Publication date: February 24
Publication date: February 24
From her teenage breakout role on Married…with Children to her later movie career (Anchorman!), actress Christina Applegate has always brought formidable comedy chops to the screen. Her much anticipated memoir covers her very California upbringing, her complex personal and professional life, and her recent MS diagnosis. “I truly believe that books can make people feel less alone,” she writes. “That’s why I’m doing this.”
Publication date: March 3
Publication date: March 3
Lindy West’s insightful and very funny writing on just about everything—pop culture, body image, feminism—has been in perpetual circulation for years now, endlessly fwd’d online by her legions of devoted readers. Her new book details a cross-country road trip following the sudden success of her breakthrough book Shrill, later made into a Hulu series with the very funny Aidy Bryant.
Publication date: March 10
Publication date: March 10
Author Jenny Lawson is a master of one of humanity’s greatest magic tricks: using humor to get through tough times. Through her memoirs and essay collections, Lawson has won over an army of devoted readers. Her new book is practical—100 actual tools and tricks Lawson uses to navigate her various issues concerning depression and anxiety.
Publication date: March 31
Publication date: March 31
London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth
by Patrick Radden Keefe
by Patrick Radden Keefe
New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe is generally acknowledged as one of the best old-school literary journalists still rooting out stories. (His 2022 book, Rogues, is so much awful fun.) Keefe’s latest book revisits the tragic case of Zac Brettler, a London teenager who mysteriously fell to his death from a luxury apartment building in 2019.
Publication date: April 7
Publication date: April 7
Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life
by Alex Mayyasi and the hosts of NPR's Planet Money
by Alex Mayyasi and the hosts of NPR's Planet Money
The team behind NPR’s long-running radio show and podcast Planet Money collects several new stories designed to demystify the complicated world of money and how it moves around. In the mix: sports contracts, housing crises, raisin cartels…this sort of thing.
Publication date: April 7
Publication date: April 7
Yale historian Beverly Gage won a Pulitzer Prize for her 2022 book, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century. In her new collection, Gage assembles 13 stories from America’s past based on 13 historical locations—monuments, battlefield memorials, roadside attractions, and the fantasy metropolis known as Disneyland.
Publication date: April 7
Publication date: April 7
For several years now, author Mac Barnett has been writing stories for children as well as a newsletter for adults about stories for children. Picture books and children’s literature are often the first experience kids have with the power of narrative. With Make Believe, Barnett encourages discussion about the many ways we tell stories to our kids.
Publication date: May 5
Publication date: May 5
For his many fans around the world, a new book by David Sedaris is an event—a time to rethink your whole reading queue. Sedaris specializes in comic essays, drawn from his life, that can be hilarious and devastating all at the same time. Not much is known yet about the new book, but Sedaris is as close as you can get to a sure thing. Mark your calendars.
Publication date: May 26
Publication date: May 26
