A Little Hope

Ethan Joella

Ethan Joella’s deeply moving, life-affirming novel about residents in a small Connecticut town facing everyday fears and desires—a lost love, a stalled career, a diagnosis—pulls at the heartstrings and provides hope.

Release: November 16

Dava Shashtri’s Last Day

Kirthana Ramsey

In Kirthana Ramisetti’s debut novel, an elderly billionaire with terminal brain cancer plans to spread a rumor that she’s already dead. Dava wants to know how she’ll be remembered, but when her obituaries leak a secret she thought she’d buried for good, she’s left with a mess to clean up before she takes her final bows.

Release: November 30

Five Tuesdays in Winter

Lily King

Writers & Lovers author Lily King returns with a story collection that focuses on humanity’s capacity for love, in all its myriad forms. Told in the intimate voices of unique and endearing characters of all ages, these tales explore desire and heartache, loss and discovery, moments of jolting violence and the inexorable tug toward love at all costs. 

Release: November 9

Our Country Friends

Gary Shteyngart

In the rolling hills of the Hudson Valley, a group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most.  Shteyngart details their conversations, frustrations, confusions and betrayals in this a darkly comedic examination of isolation, friendship and love.

Release: November 2

The Sentence

Louise Erdrich

Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. Set in a Minneapolis bookstore, Tookie, a formerly incarcerated person and newly hired bookseller must figure out why the shop is being haunted by its recently deceased patron.

Release: November 9

Win Me Something

Kyle Lucia Wu

A perceptive and powerful debut of identity and belonging—of a young woman determined to be seen. Growing up in New Jersey as biracial Chinese American and the daughter of divorced parents, Willa has always struggled to feel as though she belongs anywhere. When she takes a job working as a nanny in a wealthy white household, she finds herself re-analyzing her childhood experiences through a new lens.

Release: November 2

Wish You Were Here

Jodi Picoult

Diana had her whole life planned out… until a global pandemic put a dark damper on things. Forced to turn her romantic birthday trip to the Galápagos into a solo expedition, Diana quickly finds herself alone, locked down, and isolated on vacation. After connecting with a local family, however, Diana finds herself examining everything that has brought her to this point and wondering if there’s a better way to live.

Release: November 30

All Her Secrets

Wanda M. Morris

In this fast-paced thriller, Wanda M. Morris crafts a twisty mystery about a black lawyer who gets caught in a dangerous conspiracy after the sudden death of her boss. When her white lover and boss is murdered, hotshot attorney Ellice finds herself in charge of his Atlanta firm and as the organization’s only Black lawyer. But the skeletons in her closet demand that Ellice remain low-profile. When Ellice uncovers a shady conspiracy that may tie together her past and present in unimaginable ways, she is trapped in an ethical and moral dilemma with no way out.

Release: November 2

The Collective

Alison Gaylin

Camille Gardner is a grieving and angry mother who, five years after her daughter’s death, is still obsessed with the privileged young man she believes to be responsible. When her rash actions draw the attention of a secret group of women – the collective – Camille is pulled into a dark web where these mothers share their wildly different stories of loss as well as their desire for justice in a world where privilege denies accountability and perpetrators emerge unscathed.

Release: November

Everything I Didn’t Say

Nicole Baart

After June’s younger brother was accused of murdering a local couple in cold blood, she decided to swear off her hometown. But a true crime podcast has forced June to return now that she’s all grown up — and has a teen daughter of her own – to look for answers and clear her family’s name.

Release: November 2

Hello Transcriber

Hannah Morrissey

Every night, while the street lamps shed the only light on Wisconsin’s most crime-ridden city, police transcriber Hazel Greenlee listens as detectives divulge Black Harbor’s gruesome secrets. When her neighbor admits to hiding the body of an overdose victim — a death linked to Candy Man, a local drug dealer — Hazel is pulled into a taut investigation.

Release: November 30

Comfort Me with Apples

Catherynne M. Valente

Catherynne M. Valente’s horror-fantasy novella centers on Sophia, a young wife living in the picture-perfect community of Arcadia Gardens, where a strict HOA code keeps everyone safe and happy. Sophia lives a normal suburban life — until she begins to notice some strange things. Why is there a lock of hair in her desk drawer? Why is there a bone in the knife block? And why can’t she go into her own basement?

Release: November 9

The Family

Naomi Krupitsky

Sofia and Antonia, two Italian American girls living in 20th-century Brooklyn, were inseparable — until Antonia’s father mysteriously disappeared, shortly after he cut ties with the mafia. As they grow up and have children of their own, Sofia and Antonia lead parallel lives, their choices shaped by the community they were raised in: the Family.

Release: November 2

The London House

Katherine Reay

Uncovering a dark family secret sends one woman through the history of Britain’s World War II spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris to save her family’s reputation. Caroline is tasked with writing the next chapter of her family’s story. But she must choose whether to embrace a love of her own and proceed with caution if her family’s decades-old wounds are to heal without tearing them even further apart.

Release: November 2

The Sisters Sweet

Elizabeth Weiss

Josie and Harriet Szász had a stable career as the Sisters Sweet — a vaudeville act in which they posed, convincingly, as conjoined twins. But when Josie leaves to pursue a Hollywood career, thereby exposing family’s fraud, Harriet is left to pick up the pieces of her life and blaze her own trail.

Release: November 30

A Certain Appeal

Vanessa King

A Certain Appeal is a contemporary retelling of Pride & Prejudice set in the world of New York burlesque. Liz, a down-on-her-luck interior designer, as she takes on a new side hustle: performing in a Manhattan burlesque revue. At a show, she meets the grumpy financier Will Darcy. Liz wants nothing to do with him, so of course their besties fall for one another. Each encounter begins to feel more heated than the last, but is Liz and Will’s chemistry enough to topple a terrible first impression? 

Release: November 2

All the Feels

Olivia Dade

Olivia Dade is back this month with a follow up to Spoiler Alert. This time, it’s Cupid actor and fanfic author Alexander Woodroe who’s been targeted by the god of love. When a bar fight results in bad press, Alexis’s handlers hire a therapist – Lauren – to keep him in line. But the more time they spend together, the harder it is for Lauren to keep her professional remove and her heart intact, especially when she discovers the reasons behind his recklessness, not to mention his Cupid fanfiction habit. Another scandal’s about to rock the boat, but can Alex and Lauren weather the storm?

Release: November 16

The Fastest Way to Fall

Denise Williams

Wes and Britta may be the least well-advised match of the century. She’s a writer working on a story about FitMe, a fitness app that pairs users with body-positive personal trainers. He’s the CEO of the app company and Britta’s assigned personal trainer. Britta’s his first client after he decides to get back to what he loves – coaching – and they click immediately. When they start working out in person, Wes and Britta find it increasingly challenging to deny their chemistry and maintain a professional distance.

Release: November 2

Just Haven’t Met You Yet

Sophie Cousens

Laura’s traveling to the Channel Islands to write about her parents’ love story from the place it all started. But at the start, her journey hits an unexpected snag: She’s just mixed up her luggage with someone else’s. Based on the bag’s contents, Laura is positive that the bag she carried out of the airport belongs to her soulmate. Now, she just needs to figure out who he is.

Release: November 9

The Perishing

Natasha Deón

Lou, a young Black woman, wakes up in an alley in 1930s Los Angeles, nearly naked and with no memory of how she got there or where she’s from, only a fleeting sense that this isn’t the first time she’s found herself in similar circumstances. Lou finds refuge with an adoptive family and slowly begins to build a life for herself in Great Depression-era California. But when she suddenly collides with a stranger from her past,  Lou sets out to investigate the mystery of her existence and make sense of the jumble of lifetimes calling to her from throughout the ages before her time runs out for good.

Release: November 2

Our Violent Ends

Chloe Gong

In this romantic sequel to These Violent Delights, Shanghai is under siege as blood feud rages on the streets between two gangs. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love… and first betrayal. But something is brewing in the shadows and Juliette and Roma must set aside their grudges to work together and save the city.

Release: November 16

Skin Of the Sea

Natasha Bowen

Simi is faithful to her people’s old ways and serves as Mami Wata – a mermaid who collects dead souls from the sea to help them cross over into the afterlife. But when she defies the order of things to keep a young boy alive, Simi must undertake a treacherous journey to make amends. There is much Simi does not understand — about herself, the boy she saved, and their Supreme Creator.

Release: November 2

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Nikole Hannah -Jones

Expounding on Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Pulitzer Prize-winning journalistic project, The 1619 Project brings together 18 essays and 36 works of fiction and poetry to examine the legacy of chattel slavery on American society.

Release: November 16

Cokie: A Well Lived Life

Steven V. Roberts

As a trailblazing longtime NPR journalist, Cokie Roberts was an inspiration and role model for women and girls. Reflecting on Cokie’s life, those closest to her remember her impressive mind, impish wit, infectious laugh, and the tenacity that sent her career skyrocketing through glass ceilings at NPR and ABC. In this loving tribute, Cokie’s husband of 53 years and bestselling-coauthor Steve Roberts reflects not only on her many accomplishments, but on how she lived each day with a devotion to helping others. 

Release: November 2

Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer

Rax King

Rax King’s irreverent and charming collection of 14 essays that tribute to the cringiest fads of yesteryear, from Jersey Shore to the music of Creed. Tacky is a nostalgia-soaked antidote to the millennial generation’s obsession with irony, putting the aesthetics we hate to love into kinder and sharper perspective.

Release: November 2