A new year will soon be here, which means new books! January is flush with great new releases. In particularly, there are a TON of great mystery and thriller releases. After two slow month of publishing, it is refreshing to have plentiful options.
Contemporary & Literary Fiction | Historical Fiction | Romance | Thrillers & Mysteries | Horror & Gothic Fiction | Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Magical Realism | Young Adult | Nonfiction
Contemporary & Literary Fiction
Nonfiction
Julie Myerson
Two parents stand by powerlessly as their only child seems intent on destroying herself. As the mother―a novelist―attempts to understand her daughter, she finds herself revisiting her own uneasy, unresolved relationship with her mother. Weaving between childhoods past and present, laced with temptation and betrayal, Nonfiction: A Novel is an unflinching account of a mother, daughter, wife, and author reckoning with the world around her. But can a writer ever be trusted with the truth of her own story?
Publication date: January 2
Publisher: Tin House Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Fetishist
Katherine Min
In this hilariously savage, poignant novel by acclaimed author Katherine Min, a grieving daughter’s revenge on the man who caused her mother’s death sets off a series of unexpected reckonings. The Fetishist is the story of three people—Kyoko, a Japanese American punk-rock singer full of rage and grief; Daniel, a philandering violinist forced to confront the wreckage of his past; and Alma, the love of Daniel’s life, a Korean American cello prodigy long adored for her beauty, passion, and talent, but who spends her final days examining if she was ever, truly, loved.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Amazon | Bookshop.org
My Friends
Hisham Matar
A luminous novel of friendship, family, and the unthinkable realities of exile, from the Booker Prize–nominated and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Return. One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio, about a man being eaten alive by a cat, and has the sense that his life has been changed forever. Obsessed by the power of those words—and by their enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa—Khaled eventually embarks on a journey that will take him far from home, to pursue a life of the mind at the University of Edinburgh.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Random House
Amazon | Bookshop.org
River East, River West
Aube Rey Lescure
Set against the backdrop of developing modern China, this mesmerizing literary debut is part coming-of-age tale, part family and social drama, as it follows two generations searching for belonging and opportunity in a rapidly changing world—perfect for readers of Behold the Dreamers, White Ivy, and The Leavers.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: William Morrow
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Poor Deer
Claire Oshetsky
A wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire Oshetsky. Heartrending, hopeful, and boldly imagined, Poor Deer explores the journey toward understanding the children we once were and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of life’s most difficult moments.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Ecco
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Sugar, Baby
Celine Saintclare
In the vein of Luster and Queenie, an unflinching portrayal of high-paid sex work in the age of the internet-an intoxicating, bold debut from a dazzling new voice. Sugar, Baby follows Agnes, a mixed-race 21-year-old whose life seems to be heading nowhere. That is until she meets Emily, daughter of one of her cleaning clients, who lives in London and works as a model . . . and a sugar baby, dating rich older men for money. A compelling journey of self-discovery that offers sharp commentary on race, beauty, and class, Sugar, Baby is an electric, original, spellbinding novel that will keep readers turning the pages until the very end.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Amazon | Bookshop.org
You Only Call When You’re in Trouble
Stephen McCauley
After a lifetime of taking care of his impossible but irresistible sister and his cherished niece, Tom is ready to put himself first. An architect specializing in tiny houses, he finally has an opportunity to build his masterpiece―“his last shot at leaving a footprint on the dying planet.” Naturally, that’s when his phone rings. Tom does what he’s always done―answers the call. Thus begins a journey that will change everyone’s life and demonstrate the beauty or dysfunction (or both?) of the ties that bind families together and sometimes strangle them.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Family Family
Laurie Frankel
India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward sixteen-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero. Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do ― she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie.
Publication date: January 23
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Martyr!
Kaveh Akbar
A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.
Publication date: January 23
Publisher: Knopf
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Come & Get It
Kiley Reid
From the celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age comes a fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a professor and three unruly students. A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption, and reckless abandon, Come and Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior.
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame
Olivia Ford
Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes. But her new-found independence and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. By putting herself in the limelight, has Jenny created a recipe for disaster?
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Confrontations
Simone Atangana Bekono
Salomé Atabong is the sixteen-year-old daughter of a Cameroonian father and a Dutch mother, living in the Netherlands. She arrives at a juvenile detention center to start a six-month sentence for a violent crime, which she did commit but does not regret. Expected to visit with a racist psychologist and perform her apologies, Salomé refuses to atone. But even if Salomé could get home, it would be no refuge: her father has recently been diagnosed with liver cancer. Raw and unsentimental yet lyrical, Confrontations captures the paradoxical demands society makes on Black women, the way communities, schools, and the prison system perpetuate racism, and the cost of Black female defiance.
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Historical Fiction
The Storm We Made
Vanessa Chan
A spellbinding, sweeping novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII—and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family.
Publication date: January 2
Publisher: S&S/Marysue Ricci Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Goldenseal
Maria Hummel
A Gentleman in Moscow meets My Brilliant Friend in this novel of two estranged friends who reunite to confront each other and the devastating betrayal that tore them apart. Set against the vivid landscapes of Los Angeles and unfolding with the evanescence of a dream or a memory, Goldenseal peels away the layers of an intimate female friendship to reveal a stirring and haunting story about the search for connection and the lingering echoes of lost love.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Counterpoint
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Unsinkable
Jenni L. Walsh
Inspired by true stories of Violet Jessop and the thirty-nine women of the Special Operations Executive. Two unsinkable women. Two stories of survival, family, and finding one’s own happiness. One connection that reshapes both their lives forever.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Harper Muse
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The London Bookshop Affair
Louise Fein
Two courageous women. One astonishing secret. A world on the brink of war. A new historical drama from Daughter of the Reich bestselling author Louise Fein, about a London bookshop involved in an espionage network, set against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Publication date: January 16
Publisher: William Morrow
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge
Lizzy Pook
A young woman searches for the truth about her sister, who boarded a ship headed to the frozen Arctic and never returned. Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge is a transporting, atmospheric novel about the lengths we will go to for justice—and for love.
Publication date: January 16
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Diva
Daisy Goodwin
New York Times bestselling author Daisy Goodwin returns with a story of the scandalous love affair between the most celebrated opera singer of all time and one of the richest men in the world. In this remarkable novel, Daisy Goodwin brings to life a woman whose extraordinary talent, unremitting drive and natural chic made her a legend. But it was only in confronting the heartbreak of losing the man she loved that Maria Callas found her true voice and went on to triumph.
Publication date: January 23
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Hard by a Great Forest
Leo Vardiashvili
Amid rubble and rebuilding in a former Soviet land, one family must rescue one another and put the past to rest: a stirring novel about what happens after the fighting is over. In a journey that will lead him to the very heart of a conflict that has marred generations and fractured his own family, Saba must retrace his father’s footsteps to discover what remains of their homeland and its people. By turns savage and tender, compassionate and harrowing, Hard by a Great Forest is a powerful and ultimately hopeful novel about the individual and collective trauma of war, and the indomitable spirit of a people determined not only to survive, but to remember those who did not.
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: Riverhead
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Queen of Sugar Hill
ReShonda Tate
Bestselling author ReShonda Tate presents a fascinating fictional portrait of Hattie McDaniel, one of Hollywood’s most prolific but woefully underappreciated stars—and the first Black person ever to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in the critically acclaimed film classic Gone With the Wind.
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: William Morrow
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Romance
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon
Kimberly Lemming
Spice trader Cinnamon’s quiet life is turned upside down when she ends up on a quest with a fiery demon, in this irreverently quirky rom-com fantasy that is sweet, steamy, and funny as hell.
Publication Date: January 2
Publisher: Orbit
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend
Emma R. Alban
A swoon-worthy debut queer Victorian romance in which two debutantes distract themselves from having to seek husbands by setting up their widowed parents, and instead find their perfect match in each other—the lesbian Bridgerton/Parent Trap you never knew you needed!
Publication Date: January 9
Publisher: Avon
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Hedging Your Bets
Jayne Denker
When small-town neighbors go head-to-head, better start Hedging Your Bets. Opposites attract in this enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy of feuding neighbors and dueling hearts from Jayne Denker, the author of The Rom-Com Agenda.
Publication Date: January 9
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Red String Theory
Lauren Kung Jessen
In this charming rom-com about two star-crossed lovers, a woman whose life is guided by her belief in the red-string of fate finds her perfect match—but his skepticism about true love puts a knot in their chances.
Publication Date: January 9
Publisher: Forever
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Love, Naturally
Sophie Sullivan
A charming opposites-attract romance, Love, Naturally by Sophie Sullivan is for anyone who ever stepped outside their comfort zone and found that all the best things can happen when you take a chance.
Publication Date: January 16
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Say You’ll Be Mine
Naina Kumar
A teacher with big dreams joins forces with a no-nonsense engineer to survive an ex’s wedding and escape matchmaking pressure from their Indian families. Their plan? Faking an engagement, of course.
Publication Date: January 16
Publisher: Dell
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Breakup Tour
Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
A rising-star musician has a second chance at love with an old flame she remembers all too well in this swoony romance from the acclaimed authors of The Roughest Draft.
Publication Date: January 23
Publisher: Berkley
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Takeover
Cara Tanamachi
Sometimes, when you ask the universe for your soulmate, you wind up with your hate mate instead. On Nami’s 30th birthday, she’s reminded at every turn that her life isn’t what she planned. She’s always excelled at everything – until now. Her fiancé blew up their engagement. And her sister, Sora, is getting married to the man of her dreams, Jack, and instead of being happy for her, as she knows she ought to be, she’s fighting off jealousy. Frustrated with her life, she makes a wish on a birthday candle to find her soulmate. Instead, the universe delivers her hate mate, Nami’s old high school nemesis, Jae Lee.
Publication Date: January30
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Thrillers & Mysteries
Anna O
Matthew Blake
Joining the ranks of Gillian Flynn, A. J. Finn, and Alex Michaelides, Matthew Blake delivers the thriller of the year: a dark, twisty, and shocking mystery about a young woman who commits a double murder while sleepwalking, and then never opens her eyes again.
Publication date: January 2
Publisher: Harper
Amazon | Bookshop.org
First Lie Wins
Ashley Elston
Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.
Publication date: January 2
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Rabbit Hole
Kate Brody
A twisty, sexy debut exploring the dark side of true crime fandom and the blurry lines of female friendship, perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, My Favorite Murder, and Fleabag. Conspiracy theories from Reddit seduce a disaster-prone woman into an obsession with solving her older sister’s cold-case disappearance.
Publication date: January 2
Publisher: Soho Crime
Amazon | Bookshop.org
One of the Good Guys
Araminta Hall
Two young women vanish in a seaside town. At the cliff’s edge, nobody is who they seem. From the critically acclaimed author of Our Kind of Cruelty and Imperfect Women, comes an urgent psychological thriller about gender, power, and how both are captured in our contemporary media environment. Unexpected and twisty from its first page to its last, One of the Good Guys asks: If most men claim to be good, why are most women still afraid to walk home alone at night?
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Gillian Flynn Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Northwoods
Amy Pease
The dark underbelly of an idyllic Midwestern resort town is revealed in the aftermath of a murder with ties to America’s opioid epidemic in this unputdownable and thrilling debut that is perfect for fans of James Lee Burke, William Kent Krueger, and Mindy Mejia.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Woman on the Ledge
Ruth Mancini
A woman falls to her death from a London bank’s twenty-fifth-floor roof terrace. You’re arrested for her murder. You tell the police that you had only met the victim the previous night at your office party. She was threatening to jump down from the roof, but you had talked her down. You’ve got nothing to do with this tragedy. You’re clearly being framed. So why do the police keep picking holes in your story? Even your lawyer doesn’t seem to believe you. It soon becomes obvious that you’re keeping secrets. But who are you trying to protect? And why?
Publication date: January 16
Publisher: Harper
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Search Party
Hannah Richell
A spellbinding locked-room mystery about a glamping trip gone horribly wrong when a powerful storm leaves the participants stranded and forced to confront long-held secrets and a shocking disappearance. Moving between the police investigation, a hospital room, and the catastrophic weekend, The Search Party is a propulsive and twisty destination thriller about the tenuous bonds of friendship and the lengths parents will go to protect their children—perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley.
Publication date: January 16
Publisher: Atria Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Ilium
Lea Carpenter
Set in the dark world of international espionage, from London to Mallorca, Croatia, Paris, and Cap Ferret: the gripping and suspenseful story of a young woman who unwittingly becomes a perfect asset in the long overdue finale of a covert special op.
Publication date: January 16
Publisher: Knopf
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Prima Facie
Suzy Miller
Tessa Ensler loves her job. She’s worked her way up to being a top criminal defense barrister against all the odds, and fights to defend those pleading not guilty. Tessa believes in the law, believes in the system. But when Tessa is raped by a coworker, she struggles to find the strength to bring him to justice in the face of the barriers and opposition within that same system. Determined to have her day in court, Tessa is forced to confront the stark reality that the law was not written for victims, and that she is the one on trial.
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Twenty-Seven Minutes
Ashley Tate
In this stunning and propulsive debut, a town grieves the loss of a young girl―but some fight to keep the truth about her death a secret. For fans of Jane Harper, Ashley Flowers, and Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Horror & Gothic Fiction
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years
Shubnum Khan
Sana is curious and questioning and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion: To the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects—and to the door at its end, locked for decades. Behind the door is a bedroom frozen in time and a worn diary that whispers of a dark past: the long-forgotten story of a young woman named Meena, who died there tragically a hundred years ago. Watching Sana from the room’s shadows is a besotted, grieving djinn, an invisible spirit who has haunted the mansion since her mysterious death. Obsessed with Meena’s story, and unaware of the creature that follows her, Sana digs into the past like fingers into a wound, dredging up old and terrible secrets that will change the lives of everyone living and dead at Akbar Manzil.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Viking
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Where You End
Abbott Kahler
From bestselling nonfiction author Abbott Kahler comes a spellbinding fiction debut: an unusual form of amnesia upends the lives of identical twins, forcing them to face the indelible, dangerous shadow of the past. Intensely creepy and beautifully written, Abbott Kahler’s Where You End is an unforgettable tale of intrigue, revenge, and the quest for redemption.
Publication date: January 16
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Amazon | Bookshop.org
This Wretched Valley
Jenny Kiefer
This trip is going to be Dylan’s big break. Her geologist friend Clay has discovered an untouched cliff face in the Kentucky wilderness, and she is going to be the first person to climb it. Together with Clay, his research assistant Sylvia, and Dylan’s boyfriend Luke, Dylan is going to document her achievement on Instagram and finally cement her place as the next rising star in rock climbing. Seven months later, three bodies in various states of decay are discovered in the trees just off the highway. But Dylan is still missing—and no trace of her, dead or alive, has been discovered. Were the climbers murdered? Did they succumb to cannibalism? Or are their impossible bodies the work of an even more sinister force?
Publication date: January 16
Publisher: Quirk Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Midnight on Beacon Street
Emily Ruth Verona
A suspenseful and entertaining debut thriller in which a teenager must overcome her own anxiety to protect the two children she’s babysitting when strangers come knocking at the door. Chock-full of nods to classic horror films of the seventies and eighties, Midnight on Beacon Street is a gripping thriller full of electrifying twists and a heartwarming tale of fear and devotion that explores our terrors and the lengths we’ll go to keep our loved ones safe.
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Magical Realism
Here in Avalon
Tara Isabella Burton
An enchanting New York City fairy tale about two sisters that fall under the spell of an underworld cabaret troupe that might be a dangerous cult—but one that makes the materialist world left in its wake feel like a sinister cult itself.
Publication Date: January 2
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Wild & Distant Seas
Tara Karr Roberts
A gorgeous debut, laced through with magic, following four generations of women as they seek to chart their own futures. Moving, beautifully written, and elegantly conceived, Wild and Distant Seas takes Moby-Dick as its starting point, but Tara Karr Roberts brings four remarkable women to life in a spellbinding epic all her own.
Publication Date: January 2
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Atlas Complex (Atlas, #3)
Olivie Blake
An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment. Old alliances quickly fracture as the initiates take opposing strategies as to how to deal with the deadly bargain they have so far failed to uphold. Those who remain with the archives wrestle with the ethics of their astronomical abilities, while elsewhere, an unlikely pair from the Society cohort partner to influence politics on a global stage.
Publication Date: January 9
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Sanctuary of the Shadow
Aurora Ascher
For humans, the circus is a place filled with wonder and amazement. For Harrow, though, it’s a place to hide from those who slaughtered her entire clan. Disguising her abilities as part of her act has kept her true identity safe for years. Until he arrives.
Publication Date: January 9
Publisher: Red Hook/Tangled
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Longest Autumn
Amy Avery
For fans of Ariadne, a spellbinding debut fantasy about Tirne, one of four humans rigorously selected to usher the turn of the seasons into the mortal world. Every year, she escorts the taciturn god Autumn between the godly and human realms. This year, the enchanted Mirror that separates their worlds shatters after Tirne and Autumn pass through, trapping both of them in the human realm. Away from the magic of the gods’ home, Tirne suffers debilitating headaches that return with a vengeance. Worse, Autumn’s extended stay in the human realm turns him ever more mortal and vulnerable, stirring a new, forbidden attraction to Tirne.
Publication Date: January 16
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Tusks of Extinction
Ray Nayler
Moscow has resurrected the mammoth. Dr. Damira Khismatullina, an expert in elephant behavior, was brutally murdered trying to defend the world’s last elephants from the brutal ivory trade. Now, her digitized consciousness has been downloaded into the mind of a mammoth. As the herd’s new matriarch, can Damira help fend off poachers long enough for the species to take hold? Or will her own ghosts, and Moscow’s real reason for bringing the mammoth back, doom them to a new extinction?
Publication Date: January 16
Publisher: Tordotcom
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Unbound
Christy Healy
For fans of Hannah Whitten and Rebecca Ross, Unbound is a gender-bent reimagining of the classic tale of a monstrous beast and the beauty determined to tame it, set against the lush backdrop of Irish mythology and folklore.
Publication Date: January 16
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Bullet Swallower
Elizabeth Gonzalez James
A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to save his family, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come, finally, to collect a cosmic debt generations in the making.
Publication Date: January 23
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Amazon | Bookshop.org
House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)
Sarah J. Maas
Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she’s going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that’s no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.
Publication Date: January 30
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Young Adult
Sky’s End
Marc J. Gregson
Plummet into a kill-or-be-killed competition where a scrappy underdog hell-bent on revenge must claw his way to the top in this thrilling YA fantasy debut.
Publication date: January 2
Publisher: Peachtree Teen
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Atlas of Us
Kristin Dwyer
Atlas has lost her way. In a last-ditch effort to pull her life together, she’s working on a community service program rehabbing trails in the Western Sierras. The only plus is that the days are so exhausting that Atlas might just be tired enough to forget that this was one of her dad’s favorite places in the world. Before cancer stole him from her life, that is. With her team, Atlas heads into the wilderness. As she sheds the lies she’s built up as walls to protect herself, she realizes that four strangers might know her better than anyone has before.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: HarperTeen
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Lunar New Year Love Story
Gene Luen Yang & LeUyen Pham
Graphic novel superstars Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham join forces in this heartwarming rom-com about fate, family, and falling in love. Val is ready to give up on love. It’s led to nothing but secrets and heartbreak, and she’s pretty sure she’s cursed―no one in her family, for generations, has ever had any luck with love. But then a chance encounter with a pair of cute lion dancers sparks something in Val. Is it real love? Could this be her chance to break the family curse? Or is she destined to live with a broken heart forever?
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: FirstSecond
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Shut Up, This Is Serious
Carolina Ixta
An unforgettable YA debut about two Latina teens growing up in East Oakland as they discover that the world is brimming with messy complexities, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Erika L. Sánchez.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
So Let Them Burn
Kamilah Cole
Whip-smart and immersive, this Jamaican-inspired fantasy follows a gods-blessed heroine who’s forced to choose between saving her sister or protecting her homeland—perfect for fans of Iron Widow and The Priory of the Orange Tree.
Publication date: January 16
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Getaway List
Emma Lord
The day of her high school graduation, Riley realizes two things: One, that she has spent the last four years trying so hard to be a Good Kid for her mom that she has no idea who she really is anymore, and two, she has no idea what she wants because of it. The solution? Pack her bags and move to New York for the summer, where her childhood best friend Tom and co-creator of The Getaway List — a list of all the adventures they’ve wanted to do together since he moved away — will hopefully help her get in touch with her old adventurous self, and pave the road to a new future
Publication date: January 23
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
My Fair Brady
Brian D. Kennedy
My Fair Lady meets the classic teen film She’s All That in this charming and swoony new rom-com from Brian D. Kennedy, author of A Little Bit Country. Perfect for fans of What If It’s Us and She Gets the Girl.
Publication date: January 23
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Invocations
Krystal Sutherland
From the author of New York Times bestseller House of Hollow comes a darkly seductive witchy thriller where, though both men and demons lurk in shadows, girls refuse to go quietly into the night.
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Red
Annie Cardi
A Christian girl is stigmatized by her peers after seeking an abortion in this modern retelling of The Scarlet Letter for the #MeToo era. Perfect for fans of YA books like Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, or Exit, Pursued by a Bear, by E. K. Johnston, Red is a timely and relevant young adult novel about finding your voice and rising above shame. Anyone looking for teen girl books that explore the complex themes of reproductive rights, religious hypocrisy, and overcoming adversity will appreciate this story of judgment and redemption.
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Nonfiction
The Age of Deer: Trouble & Kinship with our Wild Neighbors
Erika Howsare
A masterful hybrid of nature writing and cultural studies that investigates our connection with deer—from mythology to biology, from forests to cities, from coexistence to control and extermination—and invites readers to contemplate the paradoxes of how humans interact with and shape the natural world.
Publication date: January 2
Publisher: Catapult
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Furies: Women, Vengeance, & Justice
Elizabeth Flock
Renowned journalist and author of The Heart is a Shifting Sea Elizabeth Flock investigates what few dare to confront, or even imagine: the role and necessity of female-led violence in response to systems built against women.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Harper
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Of Greed and Glory: In Pursuit of Freedom for All
Deborah G. Plant
A ground-breaking, personal exploration of America’s obsession with continuing human bondage from the editor of the New York Times–bestselling Barracoon. An active vigilance is required of those who would be and remain free; with Of Greed and Glory, Deborah Plant reveals the many ways in which slavery continues in America today and charts our collective course toward personal sovereignty for all.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Amistad
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (And How It Got That Way)
Rachel Slade
From the best-selling author of Into the Raging Sea, a moving and eye-opening look at the story of manufacturing in America, whether it can ever successfully return to our shores, and why our nation depends on it, told through the experience of one young couple in Maine as they attempt to rebuild a lost industry, ethically.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Pantheon
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Wisdom of Plagues: Lessons from 25 Years of Covering Pandemics
Donald G. McNeil Jr.
Award-winning New York Times reporter Donald G. McNeil, Jr. reflects on twenty-five years of covering pandemics—how governments react to them, how the media covers them, how they are exploited, and what we can do to prepare for the next one.
Publication date: January 9
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust
Elizabeth B. White & Joanna Silwa
The astonishing story of Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg—a Jewish mathematician who saved thousands of lives in Nazi-occupied Poland by masquerading as a Polish aristocrat—drawing on Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir. Like The Light of Days, Schindler’s List, and Irena’s Children, The Counterfeit Countess is an unforgettable account of inspiring courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty.
Publication date: January 23
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine
Uche Blackstock
The rousing, captivating story of a Black physician, her career in medicine, and the deep inequities that still exist in the U.S. healthcare system. Legacyis a journey through the critical intersection of racism and healthcare. At once a searing indictment of our healthcare system, a generational family memoir, and a call to action, Legacy is Dr. Blackstock’s odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician—to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Publication date: January23
Publisher: Viking
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum
Antonia Hylton
In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a page-turning 93-year history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation’s last segregated asylums, that New York Times bestselling author Clint Smith describes as “a book that left me breathless.”
Publication date: January 23
Publisher: Legacy Lit
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Who Owns This Sentence: A History of Copyrights and Wrongs
David Bellos & Alexandre Montagu
A fascinating and original history of an idea that now controls and monetizes almost everything we do. Who Owns This Sentence? is an often-humorous and always-enlightening cultural, legal, and global history of the idea that intangible things can be owned, and makes a persuasive case for seeing copyright as an engine of inequality in the twenty-first century.
Publication date: January 23
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade
Hannah Durkin
Joining the ranks of Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Zora Neale Hurston’s rediscovered classic Barracoon, an immersive and revelatory history of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on US soil, told through the stories of its survivors—the last documented survivors of any slave ship—whose lives diverged and intersected in profound ways.
Publication date: January 30
Publisher: Amistad
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Looking for past month’s most anticipated lists?
