Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture
by
Samantha Ellis
Pegasus Books, 01/06/2026
Samantha's mother tongue is dying out. The daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees, Samantha grew up surrounded by the noisy, vivid, hot sounds of Judeo-...
more
Beth Is Dead
by
Katie Bernet
Sarah Barley Books, 01/06/2026
When Beth March is found dead in the woods on New Year's Day, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer.
Suspects abound. There's the neighbor who ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Thrillers
Debut Author
Black Bear: A Story of Siblinghood and Survival
by
Trina Moyles
Pegasus Books, 01/06/2026
When Trina Moyles was five years old, her father, a wildlife biologist known in Peace River as "the bear guy," brought home an orphaned black bear cub...
more
Call Me Ishmaelle
by
Xiaolu Guo
Grove Press, 01/06/2026
I must work on a ship as a man ... I must find freedom on the seas.
1843. Ishmaelle is born in a small village on the stormy Kent coast where she ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Historical Fiction
Digital Inc.: From Print to E-Book-Inside the Transformation of the Book Industry
by
Richard Curtis
Rivertowns Books, 01/06/2026
As a widely admired literary agent and the founder of one of the very first e-book publishers, Richard Curtis was present at the creation. He knows ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
Fire Must Burn: Sparks and Bainbridge Mysteries #8
by
Allison Montclair
Severn House, 01/06/2026
Sparks fly when an old friend comes to town ...
London, 1947. After recent events have left the normally steadfast Iris Sparks thoroughly shaken, ...
more
Homeschooled: A Memoir
by
Stefan Merrill Block
Hanover Square Press, 01/06/2026
Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were "stifling his creativity." Hungry for more time ...
more
Life After Ambition: A "Good Enough" Memoir
by
Amil Niazi
Atria Books, 01/06/2026
Building off her wildly popular viral essays "Losing My Ambition" and "The Mindfuck of Mid-Life," Amil Niazi explores what life looks like "post-...
more
Meet the Newmans: A Novel
by
Jennifer Niven
Flatiron Books, 01/06/2026
For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America's Favorite Family. Millions of viewers tune in ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Historical Fiction
Polar War: Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic
by
Kenneth R. Rosen
Simon & Schuster, 01/06/2026
Russian spies. Nuclear submarines. Sabotaged pipelines. Undersea communications severed in the dark of night. The fastest-warming place on earth—...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
Return of the Maltese Falcon
by
Max Allan Collins
Hard Case Crime, 01/06/2026
The greatest private eye of all time returns to finish the job.
Legendary mystery writer Dashiell Hammett only wrote one novel about detective Sam ...
more
Skylark: A Novel
by
Paula McLain
Atria Books, 01/06/2026
1664: Alouette Voland is the daughter of a master dyer at the famed Gobelin Tapestry Works, who secretly dreams of escaping her circumstances and ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Historical Fiction
Storm at the Capitol: An Oral History of January 6th
by
Mary Clare Jalonick
Public Affairs, 01/06/2026
The January 6th insurrection was a stunning and unprecedented attack on the center of American government. Unlike previous national traumas that ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
The Charmed Library: A Novel
by
Jennifer Moorman
Harper Muse, 01/06/2026
Like many other public libraries, the one in Blue Sky Valley, North Carolina, is a haven for readers. But it's also unlike any other. In this library,...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Thrillers
The Great Resistance: The 400-Year Fight to End Slavery in the Americas
by
Carrie Gibson
Atlantic Monthly Press, 01/06/2026
"Among the emancipators are the millions whose stories will never be known. They lived the struggle. They were the great resistance." Thus does ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
The Matchbox Girl
by
Alice Jolly
Bloomsbury Publishing, 01/06/2026
Adelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of...
more
Historical Fiction
The Murder at World's End: Stockingham & Pike #1
by
Ross Montgomery
William Morrow, 01/06/2026
Cornwall, 1910. On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Mysteries
Debut Author
The Storm: A Novel
by
Rachel Hawkins
St. Martin's Press, 01/06/2026
St. Medard's Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that'...
more
The Swan's Daughter: A Possibly Doomed Love Story
by
Roshani Chokshi
Wednesday Books, 01/06/2026
To find love is a curse ...
Prince Arris knows that marriage means murder. Thanks to a poorly worded wish to a sea witch, all one needs to rule the...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Watching Over Her: A Novel
by
Jean-Baptiste Andrea
Simon & Schuster, 01/06/2026
In an Italian monastery, a sculptor named Mimo lays on his deathbed. For decades, he has lived among the monks who watch over his masterpiece, an ...
more
Wildwood: A Novel
by
Amy Pease
Atria Books, 01/06/2026
Deputy Sheriff Eli North has spent the last year getting his life back together. He hasn't touched a drop of alcohol, he's working through his PTSD ...
more
Thrillers
Wreck Your Heart: A Mystery
by
Lori Rader-Day
Minotaur Books, 01/06/2026
Dahlia "Doll" Devine had the kind of hardscrabble beginning that could launch a thousand broken-hearted country songs, but now she's the star of her ...
more
Anatomy of an Alibi: A Novel
by
Ashley Elston
Pamela Dorman Books, 01/13/2026
Everyone at Chantilly's Bar noticed out-of-towner Camille Bayliss. Red lips, designer heels, sipping a Negroni. But that woman wasn't Camille Bayliss....
more
Thrillers
Dandelion Is Dead
by
Rosie Storey
Berkley Books, 01/13/2026
When Poppy discovers unanswered messages from a charming stranger in her late sister's dating app, she makes an impulsive choice: She'll meet him, ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
Detour: A Novel (Detour Series)
by
Jeff Rake, Rob Hart
Random House, 01/13/2026
Ryan Crane wasn't looking for trouble—just a cup of coffee. But when this cop spots a gunman emerging from an unmarked van, he leaps into action...
more
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Divine Ruin: Sister Holiday Mysteries #3
by
Margot Douaihy
Gillian Flynn Books/Zando, 01/13/2026
It's a steamy, restless end of the school year in New Orleans. Sister Holiday is finishing her music classes and preparing for her permanent vow ...
more
Don't Step into My Office: A Novel
by
David Fishkind
Arcade Publishing, 01/13/2026
Aspiring writer and general layabout Jacob Garlicker doesn't expect—walking along the beach on the night of his twenty-sixth birthday—to ...
more
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
Fire Sword and Sea: A Novel
by
Vanessa Riley
William Morrow, 01/13/2026
The Caribbean Sea, 1675. Jacquotte Delahaye is the mixed-race daughter of a wealthy tavern owner on the island of Tortuga. Instead of marriage, ...
more
Historical Fiction
Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China
by
Jung Chang
Harper, 01/13/2026
Jung Chang's epic family memoir,
Wild Swans, defined a generation, chronicling the experiences of Jung, her mother, and her grandmother—"three ...
more
Hyper
by
Agri Ismaïl
Coffee House Press, 01/13/2026
On the eve of the 1979 Revolution, Rafiq Hardi Kermanj, founder of Kurdistan's communist party, flees Iran for London with his young family. Thirty ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
I Could Be Famous: Stories
by
Sydney Rende
Bloomsbury Publishing, 01/13/2026
A listless woman befriends an influencer at a rooftop party, only to discover her lifestyle is not as glamorous as it seems. A college freshman gives ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Short Stories
Debut Author
Inside Man: Head Cases #2
by
John McMahon
Minotaur Books, 01/13/2026
FBI Agent Gardner Camden is an analytical genius with an affinity for puzzles. He and his squad of brilliant yet quirky agents make up the Patterns ...
more
Is This a Cry for Help?: A Novel
by
Emily Austin
Atria Books, 01/13/2026
Darcy's life turned out better than she could have ever imagined. She is a librarian at the local branch, while her wife Joy runs a book binding ...
more
Literary Fiction
Jean: A Novel
by
Madeleine Dunnigan
W.W. Norton & Company, 01/13/2026
Seventeen-year-old Jean, a troubled Jewish boy caught in the countercultural swirl of 1970s London, arrives at Compton Manor, a rural alternative ...
more
Literary Fiction
Like in Love with You: A Novel
by
Emma R. Alban
Avon Books, 01/13/2026
When Catherine Pine relocates to Bath in 1817, she comes face-to-face with her mother's arch nemesis and her daughter—the wildly popular Lady ...
more
Lost Lambs: A Novel
by
Madeline Cash
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 01/13/2026
The Flynn family is coming undone. Catherine and Bud's open marriage has reached its breaking point as their daughters spiral in their own chaotic ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
Miracle Children: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises
by
Katie Benner
Metropolitan Books, 01/13/2026
T.M. Landry College Prep, a small private school in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, boasted a 100 percent college acceptance rate, placing students at ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
Murder Your Darlings: A Novel
by
Jenna Blum
Harper, 01/13/2026
Known for such brilliant historical novels as
Those Who Save Us and
The Lost Family, A Mighty Blaze co-founder and
New York Times ...
more
Scavengers: A Novel
by
Kathleen Boland
Viking, 01/13/2026
After being fired for taking an uncharacteristic risk at her commodities trading job, Bea Macon sublets her New York apartment and books a one-way ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
Sheer: A Novel
by
Vanessa Lawrence
Dutton, 01/13/2026
It's 2015 and Maxine Thomas, the founder and creative director of the cult makeup company Reveal, has just been suspended by her own Board for a ...
more
Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage
by
Belle Burden
The Dial Press, 01/13/2026
It was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of...more
Biography/Memoir
The Age of Calamities: Stories
by
Senaa Ahmad
Henry Holt and Company, 01/13/2026
In this bold collection, Senaa Ahmad pushes the boundaries of history and its figures, sending the reader on a thrilling ride. In "Let's Play Dead," ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Short Stories
Debut Author
The Bookbinder's Secret: A Novel
by
A. D. Bell
St. Martin's Press, 01/13/2026
Lilian ("Lily") Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, chafes at the confines of her life. She is trapped between the ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Historical Fiction
The Cyclist: DS George Cross Mysteries #2
by
Tim Sullivan
Atlantic Crime, 01/13/2026
DS George Cross has unique and unmatchable talents. He uses a combination of logic, determination and exacting precision to get answers where others ...
more
The Hitch
by
Sara Levine
Roxane Gay Books, 01/13/2026
Rose Cutler defines herself by her exacting standards. As an anti-racist, Jewish secular feminist eco-warrior, she is convinced she knows the right ...
more
The Jilted Countess: A Novel
by
Loretta Ellsworth
Harper, 01/13/2026
The war stole Roza Meszaros's dreams of becoming a ballerina and her aristocratic family's fortune. But the penniless Hungarian countess's fate takes ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Historical Fiction
The Last of Earth: A Novel
by
Deepa Anappara
Random House, 01/13/2026
1869. Tibet is closed to Europeans, an infuriating obstruction for the rapidly expanding British Empire. In response, Britain begins training ...
more
Historical Fiction
The Magic of Untamed Hearts: Wild Magic #3
by
Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
Berkley Books, 01/13/2026
Like her sisters, Sage and Teal, Sky Flores has a touch of magic, and it's caused nothing but heartache. Not only did she disappear into the woods ...
more
The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us
by
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
Liveright/W.W. Norton, 01/13/2026
MacArthur Fellow and National Humanities Medalist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of
Plato at the Googleplex and
The Mind-Body Problem, returns ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Science, Health and the Environment
The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans
by
Maya Shankar
Riverhead Books, 01/13/2026
Life has a way of thwarting our best-laid plans. Out of nowhere you get an unexpected diagnosis, or your relationship ends, or you suffer some other ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Science, Health and the Environment
The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s
by
Jason Burke
Knopf, 01/13/2026
In the 1970s, an unprecedented wave of international terrorism broke out around the world. More ambitious, networked and far-reaching than ever before...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
The School of Night: A Novel
by
Karl Ove Knausgaard
Penguin Press, 01/13/2026
It's 1985, and the young and ambitious Kristian Hadeland is moving from Norway to London to study photography. He throws himself headfirst into the ...
more
The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game
by
C. Thi Nguyen
Penguin Books, 01/13/2026
The philosopher C. Thi Nguyen—one of the leading experts on the philosophy of games and the philosophy of data—takes us deep into the ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
The Snakes That Ate Florida: Reporting, Essays, and Criticism
by
Ian Frazier
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 01/13/2026
Writing on subjects as divergent as the mega-fires that burned the grasslands of the Great Plains in 2018, the tragic secret life of the manufacturer ...
more
The Undead: A Novel of Modern Russia
by
Svetlana Satchkova
Melville House, 01/13/2026
When Maya, a young Russian film-maker, makes a low-budget horror movie with her friends, it seems like a promising start to a career in indie film. ...
more
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
We Would Have Told Each Other Everything: A Novel
by
Judith Hermann
FSG Originals, 01/13/2026
When Judith Hermann runs into her psychoanalyst in the middle of the night on Berlin's Kastanienallee, the meeting sparks an exploration of the ...
more
A Box Full of Darkness
by
Simone St. James
Berkley Books, 01/20/2026
Strange things happen in Fell, New York. A mysterious drowning at the town's roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left ...
more
Thrillers
A Gift Before Dying: A Novel
by
Malcolm Kempt
Crown, 01/20/2026
After a botched high-profile murder investigation, Corporal Elderick Cole is exiled to the remote, rugged landscape of Nunavut, a vast territory in ...
more
A Very Cold Winter
by
Fausta Cialente
Transit Books, 01/20/2026
Fausta Cialente (1898–1994) was a novelist, journalist, political activist, and one of the first self-declared feminist Italian writers. Though ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Historical Fiction
A Wild Radiance
by
Maria Ingrande Mora
Peachtree Publishers, 01/20/2026
Josephine Haven is about to find out exactly where she fits into the march of Progress. Her outbursts are infamous at the House of Industry, the ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
All the Little Houses: A Novel
by
May Cobb
Sourcebooks Landmark, 01/20/2026
It's the mid-1980s in the tiny town of Longview, Texas. Nellie Anderson, the beautiful daughter of the Anderson family dynasty, has burst onto the ...
more
Thrillers
Better the Devil
by
Erik J. Brown
Harper, 01/20/2026
When a runaway teen is arrested for shoplifting, he's desperate not to be sent back to the hyper-religious parents he knows will never accept him. ...
more
Butterfly Games: A Novel
by
Kelly Scarborough
She Writes Press, 01/20/2026
In the opulent world of the Swedish royal court, Jacquette Gyldenstolpe walks a dangerous tightrope between romance and political intrigue. Neglected ...
more
Historical Fiction
Debut Author
Crucible
by
John Sayles
Melville House, 01/20/2026
As the Depression hits Detroit, Henry Ford — who doesn't like change — finds himself having to confront the crash of the economy, which he...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Historical Fiction
Crux: A Novel
by
Gabriel Tallent
Riverhead Books, 01/20/2026
Dan and Tamma are two teenagers in their last year of high school in the southern Mojave Desert. One is a gifted golden child, the other a mouthy ...
more
Cry Havoc: A Novel
by
Rebecca Wait
Harper, 01/20/2026
Fleeing Scotland after a humiliating family scandal, sixteen-year-old Ida Campbell secures a scholarship at a failing girls' boarding school situated ...
more
Departure(s): A Novel
by
Julian Barnes
Knopf, 01/20/2026
Shortly after our narrator, a writer named Julian, begins this compact book by discussing the workings of involuntary memory, he interrupts himself ...
more
Literary Fiction
Discipline: A Novel
by
Larissa Pham
Random House, 01/20/2026
I have the sense that something is being drawn between us. Not drawn as in line but as in arrow pulled back. Yet I dont know which of us holds the bow...more
Critics' Consensus:
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
Eating Ashes: A Novel
by
Brenda Navarro
Liveright/W.W. Norton, 01/20/2026
Alone and adrift in Barcelona, an unnamed narrator is haunted by the death of her teenage brother, Diego. Diego, the little boy she helped raise in ...
more
Evelyn in Transit: A Novel
by
David Guterson
W.W. Norton & Company, 01/20/2026
Radically open-minded, formidably strong, and unusually clear-eyed about herself and others, Evelyn Bednarz has always been a misfit. She's easily ...
more
Every One Still Here: Stories
by
Liadan Ní Chuinn
FSG Originals, 01/20/2026
What good is it to know what things are, what lies beneath the appearance of them? It is nothing until it is stated. It is nothing if it is not named....more
Critics' Consensus:
Short Stories
Debut Author
Football
by
Chuck Klosterman
Penguin Press, 01/20/2026
Chuck Klosterman—
New York Times bestselling critic, journalist, and, yes, football psychotic—did not write this book to deepen your ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
George Falls Through Time: A Novel
by
Ryan Collett
William Morrow, 01/20/2026
Newly laid off George's internet bill is in his ex-boyfriend's name. He's got a spider-infested apartment, and two of the six dogs he's walking in ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Good Guys: A Novel
by
Sharon Bala
McClelland & Stewart, 01/20/2026
"The easiest choices are the ones you make for other people."
Claire Talbot is the publicist at Children of the World, an international aid charity...
more
Thrillers
Half His Age: A Novel
by
Jennette McCurdy
Ballantine Books, 01/20/2026
Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder: A Novel
by
Nina McConigley
Pantheon Books, 01/20/2026
Summer, 1986. The Creel sisters, Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna, welcome their aunt, uncle and young cousin—newly arrived from India—...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
Just Watch Me: A Novel
by
Lior Torenberg
Avid Reader Press, 01/20/2026
Dell Danvers is barely keeping it together. She's behind on rent for her studio apartment (formerly a walk-in closet), she's being plagued by ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America
by
Howard Bryant
Mariner Books, 01/20/2026
Kings and Pawns is the untold story of sports and fame, Black America and the promise of integration through the Cold War lens of two transformative ...
more
Leyla's House: A Novel
by
Zülfü Livaneli
Other Press, 01/20/2026
The last living member of a great Ottoman family, the refined yet sheltered Leyla finds herself homeless and vulnerable when her house is sold by the ...
more
Literary Fiction
Nine Goblins: A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief
by
T. Kingfisher
Tordotcom, 01/20/2026
No one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, ...
more
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
One Aladdin Two Lamps
by
Jeanette Winterson
Grove Press, 01/20/2026
A woman is filibustering for her life. Every night she tells a story. Every morning, she lives one more day.
One Aladdin Two Lamps cracks open the ...
more
Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting
by
Nina Bandelj
Princeton University Press, 01/20/2026
Parents are exhausted. When did raising children become such all-consuming, never-ending, incredibly expensive, and emotionally absorbing effort? In ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Science, Health and the Environment
Scale Boy: An African Childhood
by
Patrice Nganang
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 01/20/2026
Patrice Nganang, the acclaimed author of
Dog Days, Mount Pleasant, and, most recently,
A Trail of Crab Tracks, which was a 2022
New Yorker Book of the...
more
Steppe: A Novel
by
Oksana Vasyakina
Catapult, 01/20/2026
A decade after her father walks out on her family, the narrator of
Steppe, now a literature student, decides to spend some time with him on the road ...
more
The Book of Alice: Poems
by
Diamond Forde
Scribner, 01/20/2026
"Alice / a god-song, swings still in the high / branch of our throats. I miss her, wonder / what she plants in heaven's mulch."
When her ...
more
Poetry & Novels in Verse
The Discovery of Britain: An Accidental History
by
Graham Robb
W.W. Norton & Company, 01/20/2026
Interweaving personal and historical narratives and making use of contemporary sources, Graham Robb's lively exploration of Britain through the ages ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth
by
Nicolas Niarchos
Penguin Press, 01/20/2026
Congo is rich. Swaths of the war-torn African country lack basic infrastructure, and, after many decades of colonial occupation, its people are ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
Debut Author
The Flower Bearers
by
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Random House, 01/20/2026
On the same day, hundreds of miles away, Griffiths' closest friend and chosen sister, the poet Kamilah Aisha Moon, who was expected to speak at the ...
more
The Future Saints: A Novel
by
Ashley Winstead
Atria Books, 01/20/2026
This is a love story, but not the one you're expecting.
When record executive Theo meets the Future Saints, they're bombing at a dive bar in their ...
more
The Infamous Gilberts: A Novel
by
Angela Tomaski
Scribner, 01/20/2026
Thornwalk, a once-stately English manor, is on the brink of transformation. Its keys are being handed over to a luxury hotelier who will undertake a ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Literary Fiction
Debut Author
The Oak and the Larch: A Forest History of Russia and Its Empires
by
Sophie Pinkham
W.W. Norton & Company, 01/20/2026
From the Baltic to the Pacific, from the Arctic to the steppes of Central Asia, Russia's forests account for nearly one-fifth of the world's wooded ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
The Poet Empress
by
Shen Tao
Bramble, 01/20/2026
Wei Yin is desperate. After the fifth death of a sibling, with her family and village on the brink of starvation, she will do anything to save those ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Debut Author
The Sea Child: A Novel
by
Linda Wilgus
Ballantine Books, 01/20/2026
England, early 1800s: Destitute and forced to leave her home in London, Isabel, a young widow of the Napoleonic Wars, returns to the village on the ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Historical Fiction
Debut Author
Two Women Living Together
by
Kim Hana
Ecco, 01/20/2026
When most of their peers were moving in with romantic partners and having children, Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo chose independence—savoring ...
more
University: A Reckoning
by
Lee C. Bollinger
W.W. Norton & Company, 01/20/2026
The American university―one of the most successful institutions in human history―is facing an unprecedented assault from the president of ...
more
History, Current Affairs and Religion
When There Are No More Stars Left to Count
by
María Martínez
Sourcebooks Casablanca, 01/20/2026
After a car collision ends her career as a ballet soloist with the National Dance Company in Madrid, 22-year-old Maya Rivet finds herself abandoned by...
more
Romance
When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America's Black Botanical Legacy
by
Beronda L. Montgomery
Henry Holt and Company, 01/20/2026
The histories of trees in America are also the histories of Black Americans. Pecan trees were domesticated by an enslaved African named Antoine; ...
more
When We Were Brilliant
by
Lynn Cullen
Berkley Books, 01/20/2026
In 1952, Norma Jeane Baker follows documentary photographer Eve Arnold into a powder room on the night they first meet. She has a proposition for her....
more
Critics' Consensus:
Historical Fiction
A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing: A Novel
by
Alice Evelyn Yang
William Morrow, 01/27/2026
Qianze has not seen her father in eleven years, since he walked out of her life the night of her fourteenth birthday and disappeared without a trace. ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Historical Fiction
Debut Author
A Brief History of a Long War: Ukraine's Fight Against Russian Domination
by
Mariam Naiem
Ten Speed Graphic, 01/27/2026
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine began long before the 2014 war that led to the Russia's invasion in 2022. The Ukrainian people have been ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
Beckomberga: A Novel
by
Sara Stridsberg
FSG Originals, 01/27/2026
Jackie's father, Jim, lives at Beckomberga. She takes the bus to visit him, though sometimes he refuses to see her and so instead she gets to know his...
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Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood
by
William J Mann
Simon & Schuster, 01/27/2026
The brutal murder of Elizabeth Short—better known as the Black Dahlia—in 1947 has been in the public consciousness for nearly eighty years...
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Burn Down Master's House: A Novel
by
Clay Cane
Dafina, 01/27/2026
As turmoil simmers within a divided nation, smoke from another blaze begins to rise. Sparked by individual acts of resistance among those enslaved ...
more
Historical Fiction
Dear Debbie
by
Freida McFadden
Poisoned Pen Press, 01/27/2026
Sometimes, enough is enough…
Debbie Mullen is losing it. For years, she has compiled all of her best advice into her column, Dear Debbie, ...
more
Thrillers
Escape!: A Novel
by
Stephen Fishbach
Dutton, 01/27/2026
Everyone gets the story arc they deserve.
Kent Duvall, a faded reality show winner, just wants another chance at glory—to find his way out of...
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Freddie and Stella Got Hot
by
Maggie Horne
Feiwel & Friends, 01/27/2026
By the time the Beaumont-Gardiner Award is announced, everyone's going to hate Levi Preston. And they're going to love us.
Freddie and Stella are ...
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I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200
by
Robert Brockway
Page Street Horror, 01/27/2026
That's why Eddie Video makes the perfect imaginary friend: He's smart, he's loud, he loves pulling pranks, and he's always there to chase away the ...
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Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
In Bloom: A Novel
by
Liz Allan
Simon & Schuster, 01/27/2026
It's the mid-nineties, and in the small, shitty coastal town of Vincent, Australia, four Nirvana-obsessed fourteen-year-old girls form a grunge band. ...
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Literary Fiction
Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island
by
Mike Pitts
Mariner Books, 01/27/2026
Rapa Nui, known to Western cultures as Easter Island for centuries, has long been a source of mystery. While the massive stone statues that populate ...
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Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
It Lurks in the Night
by
Sarah Dass
Disney-Hyperion, 01/27/2026
All Maya Woods wants is to reunite her three best friends, Pearl, Erica, and Lystra, for one last epic boat trip to the islands around their Caribbean...
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Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire
by
Julian Sancton
Crown, 01/27/2026
Roger Dooley wasn't looking for the San José. But an accidental discovery in the dusty stacks of a Spanish archive led him to the story of a ...
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Critics' Consensus:
History, Current Affairs and Religion
One Sun Only: Stories
by
Camille Bordas
Random House, 01/27/2026
A young woman takes stock after the burglary of her apartment. A teenager becomes obsessed with the obituaries in a weekly magazine. Grandchildren ...
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Paper Cut: A Novel
by
Rachel Taff
William Morrow, 01/27/2026
Everybody knows the story. Nobody knows the truth…
Lucy Golden is a true-crime icon, infamous for the murder she committed while escaping a ...
more
Critics' Consensus:
Thrillers
Debut Author
Persona
by
Aoife Josie Clements
LittlePuss Press, 01/27/2026
A feral shut-in discovers a disturbing internet porn video of what seems to be herself. A seance of coked-up artists summons unearthly forces in a ...
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Sparking Fire Out of Fate: Forging Silver into Stars #3
by
Brigid Kemmerer
Bloomsbury YA, 01/27/2026
Callyn has grown closer to Queen Lia Mara in Syhl Shallow, bonded by the secret magic they share. But their magic can stay hidden only so long, ...
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Critics' Consensus:
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Sundown Girls
by
L.S. Stratton
Nancy Paulsen Books, 01/27/2026
When sixteen-year-old Naomi Ward and her family head to a secluded cabin in the Shenandoah Valley for summer vacation they don't know the small, ...
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Critics' Consensus:
Thrillers
Debut Author
The Case of the Murdered Muckraker: Harriet Morrow Investigates #2
by
Rob Osler
Kensington Publishing, 01/27/2026
Chicago, 1898.In the midst of the Progressive Era, twenty-one-year-old junior detective Harriet Morrow is determined to prove she's more than a lucky ...
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The Cormorant Hunt: The Cormorant Trilogy #2
by
Michael Idov
Scribner, 01/27/2026
Disheartened CIA officer Ari Falk, now hiding in the Republic of Georgia, is hailed as a hero by some and branded a traitor by others after blowing ...
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Thrillers
The Hour of the Wolf: A Memoir
by
Fatima Bhutto
Scribner, 01/27/2026
Fatima Bhutto was a teenager when her beloved father was assassinated. Ever since, she longed for a complete and happy family. Years later, still ...
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The Seven Daughters of Dupree: A Novel
by
Nikesha Elise Williams
Gallery/Scout Press, 01/27/2026
It's 1995, and fourteen-year-old Tati is determined to uncover the identity of her father. But her mother, Nadia, keeps her secrets close, while her ...
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This House Will Feed
by
Maria Tureaud
Kensington Publishing, 01/27/2026
County Clare, 1848: In the scant few years since the potato blight first cast its foul shadow over Ireland, Maggie O'Shaughnessy has lost everything&#...
more
Thrillers
Vigil: A Novel
by
George Saunders
Random House, 01/27/2026
Not for the first time, Jill "Doll" Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. ...
more
Women of a Promiscuous Nature
by
Donna Everhart
Kensington Publishing, 01/27/2026
On a brisk February morning while walking to the diner where she works, 24 year-old Ruth Foster is stopped by the local sheriff. He insists she ...
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Literary Fiction
