best new books in 2021

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The best books of 2021

John le Carré’s final novel, the race to make a vaccine and the conclusion of the groundbreaking Noughts and Crosses series… Guardian critics pick the year’s best fiction, politics, science, children’s books and more. Let us know in the comments what your favourite books have been.

• The Observer’s best books of 2021, chosen by guest authors

Sally Rooney’s much-anticipated third novel, Damon Galgut’s Booker-winning family saga and Kazuo Ishiguro’s take on AI - Justine Jordan chooses the best novels of the year.

Read the full list Best fiction of 2021

Children’s books

Imogen Russell Williams on reimaginings of King Arthur and Medusa, luminous fairytales and the conclusion to the unforgettable Noughts and Crosses series - plus books for young readers by Ben Okri and inaugural poet Amanda Gorman.

Read the full list Best children’s books of 2021

Crime and thrillers

Final outings from John le Carré and Andrea Camilleri, plus three standout debuts - Laura Wilson picks five of the year’s best thrillers and crime novels.

Read the full list Best crime and thrillers of 2021

Science fiction

Adam Roberts selects five of the best science fiction novels of the year - from murder on a spaceship to a feminist utopia.

Read the full list Best science fiction books of 2021

Biography and memoir

Fiona Sturges rounds up the best celebrity autobiographies, from Brian Cox to Miriam Margolyes, as well as a poignant account of a woman who helped Aids patients and terrific studies of DH Lawrence and Barbara Pym.

Read the full list Best biography and memoir books of 2021

The inside stories of Brexit, Sage and Unite, plus a reckoning with Britain’s imperial history - Gaby Hinsliff’s choice of books about politics and politicians.

Read the full list Best politics books of 2021

Nicholas Wroe picks the best books about sport, covering everything from racism on the pitch to the history of female cycling - as well as memoirs by Billie Jean King and Rob Burrow.

Read the full list Best sport books of 2021

Ian Sample on a history of quarantine, a biography of the family that helped to fuel the US opioid crisis and the inside story of how the Oxford vaccine was made.

Read the full list Best science books of 2021

Covid-19 and the climate crisis haunt much of this year’s poetry, including Michael Rosen’s response to his experience in intensive care and Kate Simpson’s hopeful environmentally-themed anthology - Rishi Dastidar picks the best collections.

Read the full list Best poetry books of 2021

Comics and graphic novels

The return of Alison Bechdel, a cold war epic and a nuanced observation of a mother’s illness - James Smart marks a year of excellent graphic books.

Read the full list Best comics and graphic novels of 2021

Alexis Petridis chooses the best books about music and musicians - including Sinéad O’Connor’s striking memoir, Paul McCartney’s autobiography in lyrics and the story of a stolen piece of Nina Simone’s chewing gum.

Read the full list Best music books of 2021

A fascinating memoir of food and grief, Stanley Tucci’s life story in recipes and new cookbooks from Ruby Tandoh and the Ottolenghi test kitchen - Rukmini Iyer selects the best food books of the year.

Read the full list Best food books of 2021

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The Best Books We Read in 2021

By The New Yorker

“ De Gaulle ,” by Julian Jackson

New Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows.

This superb biography of the former French leader brilliantly explores how he managed to dominate his country’s political life for decades. Jackson’s account of De Gaulle’s youth and conservative milieu only enhances one’s respect for De Gaulle’s stand, in 1940, against the Vichy government, and his account of De Gaulle’s war years in London makes clear why Churchill and Roosevelt found him almost impossible to deal with. The second half of the book—which deals with De Gaulle’s return to power during the conflict in Algeria, and his somewhat autocratic presidency—is even more compelling; together the two halves form as good an argument as one can make for believing that a single individual can alter the course of history. But Jackson, with sublime prose and a sure grasp of the politics and personalities of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Republics, never allows that argument to overshadow De Gaulle’s extremely difficult and domineering personality, and why it never entirely fit the democracy he helped rescue and then presided over. —Isaac Chotiner

“ Segu: A Novel ,” by Maryse Condé

In a year that began with an attempted coup, it was good to remember that zealotry and factionalism have menaced every society—and often make for excellent storytelling, too. Maryse Condé’s 1984 novel “Segu” opens in the ruthlessly competitive capital of the eighteenth-century Bambara Empire, in present-day Mali, where the ruling mansa uneasily monitors the rise of Islam and the mysterious arrival of white explorers. Griots sing the exploits of a noble family, the Traores, whose sons are destined to suffer every consequence of modernity’s upheavals. Condé, who was born in Guadeloupe but spent years in West Africa, is the great novelist of the Afro-Atlantic world, and “Segu,” her masterpiece, is the mother of diaspora epics. The novel follows the Traores as they are scattered across the globe, from Moroccan universities to Brazilian sugarcane fields, pulled every which way by their ambitions, lusts, and religious yearnings. Condé excels at evoking the tensions of a world in flux, whether it’s the ambivalence of a man torn between his family gods and Islam’s cosmopolitanism or the cynicism of a wealthy mixed woman who sells slaves on the coast of Senegal. Despite its magisterial scope, “Segu” is also warm and gossipy, and completely devoid of the sentimental attachment to heritage that turns too many family sagas into ancestral stations of the cross. Condé has a wicked sense of humor that doesn’t play favorites, especially with her mostly male protagonists, whose naïve adventurism and absent-minded cruelty (especially toward women) profoundly shape the history that eludes their grasp. —Julian Lucas

“ Upper Bohemia: A Memoir ,” by Hayden Herrera

I came upon this recent memoir while browsing the shelves at the Brooklyn Public Library, and was immediately drawn in by its cover: a black-and-white photograph of two young girls, perched out the back window of a sports car, whose ruffled blouses and blond hair suggested a kind of patrician free-spiritedness. Herrera is known for her biographies of artists such as Frida Kahlo and Arshile Gorky, but in “Upper Bohemia” she turns to the story of her own family, a high-Wasp clan as privileged as it was screwed up. During the nineteen-forties and fifties, Herrera and her older sister Blair were shunted, willy-nilly, between their divorced parents, both of whom were possessed of great looks, flighty temperaments, and intense narcissism. Her mother and father—each married five times—often disregarded the girls, treating them as considerably less significant than their own artistic or sexual fulfillment, whose pursuit took them through urbane, artsy circles in Cape Cod and New York, Mexico City and Cambridge. Herrera tells a fascinating cultural history of a particular milieu, but what is most affecting is her ability to channel, in sensate detail, the life of a lonely child trying to make sense of the world around her. Her tone carries a measure of detachment, but I often found it immensely moving. “Blair and I had not spent much time with our mother since the fall of 1948 when, after putting us on a train to go to boarding school in Vermont, she drove to Mexico to get a divorce,” she writes. “Whenever our mother did turn up, she brought presents from Mexico, animals made of clay or embroidered blouses for Blair and me. She always made everything sound wonderful. She was like sunshine. Blair and I moved toward her like two Icaruses, but we never touched her golden rays.” This is a beautiful book. —Naomi Fry

“ Long Live the Post Horn! ,” by Vigdis Hjorth, translated by Charlotte Barslund

Vigdis Hjorth’s “Long Live the Post Horn!”—a swift, darkly funny novel about existential despair, collective commitment, and the Norwegian postal service—buoyed me during this strange, roiling year. Ellinor, the novel’s narrator, is a thirty-five-year-old public-relations consultant whose projects and relationships are characterized by a bleak, steady detachment. When her colleague Dag leaves town, Ellinor grudgingly inherits one of his clients: Postkom, the Norwegian Post and Communications Union, which wants to fight an E.U. directive that would usher in competition from the private sector. For Ellinor, the project begins creakily; gradually, she gets swept up. What results is a personal awakening of sorts—a newfound desire to live, connect, and communicate—and a genuinely gripping treatment of bureaucratic tedium. “Long Live the Post Horn!” is rich with political and philosophical inquiries, and gentle with their delivery. They arrive in the form of dissociative diary entries, awkward Christmas gift exchanges, and the world’s loneliest description of a sex toy (“he had bought the most popular model online, the one with the highest ratings”). There’s also a long yarn told by a postal worker, which makes for a wonderful, near-mythic embedded narrative. “What exactly did ‘real’ mean?” Ellinor wonders, experiencing a crisis of authenticity while desperately trying to produce P.R. copy for the Real Thing, an American restaurant chain. “Was the man behind the Real Thing himself the real thing, I wondered? I googled him; he looked like every other capitalist.” Expansive and mundane—this novel was, for me, sheer joy. —Anna Wiener

“ Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History ,” by Lea Ypi

Some people feel free to imagine their lives unbounded by history. Lea Ypi did not have that luxury. Born in 1979 in Albania, then one of the most sealed-off countries in the Communist bloc, she had little reason to question her love for Stalin until the day, in 1990, that she went to hug his statue and found that protesters had decapitated it. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the edifice of Albanian socialism collapsed, too. Even more disorienting was the fact that Ypi’s parents turned out never to have believed in it—they’d just talked a good line to prevent their dissident, bourgeois backgrounds from tainting her prospects. Ypi’s new book, “Free,” out in the U.K. and to be published stateside in January, is a tart and tender childhood memoir. But it’s also a work of social criticism, and a meditation on how to live with purpose in a world where history, far from having ended, seems energized by disinformation. Ypi, a political theorist at the London School of Economics, is interested in how categories of thought—“proletariat,” for instance—were replaced by reductive rallying cries like “freedom.” “When freedom finally arrived, it was like a dish served frozen,” she writes. “We chewed little, swallowed fast and remained hungry.” Her parents became leaders in the new democratic opposition but lost their savings to a shady investment scheme, and when the country devolved into civil war, in 1997, her formidable mother had to leave for Italy, where she worked cleaning houses. When Ypi studied abroad, her leftist friends didn’t want to hear about her experience: their socialism would be done right, and Albania’s was best forgotten. But Ypi is not in the business of forgetting—neither the repression of the system she grew up in nor the harshness of capitalism. Her book is a quick read, but, like Marx’s spectre haunting Europe, it stays with you. —Margaret Talbot

“ Harrow: A Novel ,” by Joy Williams

I have already written at length about the wonder of Joy Williams’s most recent novel , “Harrow.” But I feel compelled to re-state my case. The book is set in a world that climate change has transformed into a grave, and it’s dense with wild oddity, mystical intelligence, and with a keenness and beauty that start at the sentence level but sink down to the book’s core. “Harrow” tracks a teen-ager named Khristen across the desert, where she eventually meets up with a sort of “terrorist hospice” of retirees determined to avenge the earth. Her companion, Jeffrey, is either a ten-year-old with an alcoholic mother or the Judge of the Underworld. Williams, the real Judge of the Underworld, moonlights here as a theologist, animal-rights activist, mad oracle, social historian, and philosopher of language. Her comic set pieces—e.g., a birthday party in which the hastily provisioned cake depicts a replica, in icing, of Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son”—unlock tears, and her elegies wrest out laughter, if only because it’s absurd to find such pleasure in a study of devastation. When the book was over, I missed the awful, cleansing darkness of its eyes upon me. —Katy Waldman

“ A Mad Love: An Introduction to Opera ,” by Vivien Schweitzer

My late grandfather spent most of his weekends holed up in his study—a sunken room, adorned with a ratty Chesterfield sofa and posters from various international chess championships—listening to opera. As a child, I found this practice impenetrable. I didn’t understand the languages blaring out of his record player, and I wasn’t old enough to grasp the rhapsodic emotion inherent in the form. Opera is about Big Feelings; it radiates youth, yet it remains a passion that most people age into. (Perhaps that has something to do with the cost of a Met ticket.) Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly all I wanted to do was listen to Maria Callas, whose unhinged arias clicked into place as the soundtrack for my anxious, pacing mind. My grandfather was no longer around to discuss my fixation, but, fortunately, I found Vivien Schweitzer’s 2018 book, “A Mad Love,” which is a sparkling cultural history of opera’s greatest composers and their obsessive brains. Beginning with Monteverdi and barrelling through to Philip Glass, the book is about the blood and sweat that goes into writing an opera (an often lunatic effort, it seems), and about the feverish attachment fans have to the resulting work. I found myself tearing through it in the bathtub, delighted not just to inhale the gossipy backstories of the “Ring” cycle and “La Traviata” but to join the society of opera nuts of which my grandfather was a card-carrying member. I finally understood what he was listening for on those Sunday afternoons: anguish, joy, love, betrayal. —Rachel Syme

“ Not One Day ,” by Anne Garréta, translated by Emma Ramadan

It is a peculiar feeling, reading a book that seems to have been written for you but wasn’t. The friend who recommended the Oulipian writer Anne Garréta’s “Not One Day” must have known that I would find this merger of intimacy and anonymity irresistible. While recovering from an accident that has left her body immobile, the book’s narrator, a nomadic literature professor, decides that she will write about the women she has desired. Each woman will be identified by a letter of the alphabet; to each letter, she will devote five hours a day for precisely one month. She knows that narrating desire requires discipline—and she finds that desire always, always exceeds it. Letters are skipped and jumbled, so that the table of contents reads, “B, X, E, K, L, D, H, N, Y, C, I, Z.” The narrator takes a long break from the project and, when she comes back to it, one of the stories she writes is fiction. Slowly, the categories that keep desire and its creation of “our little selves” in check—self and other, past and present, man and woman, heterosexual and homosexual, solipsistic alienation and shared passion—get wonderfully and terrifyingly muddled. Instead of a confession written in the familiar “alphabet of desire,” we glimpse the making of a whole new language. I could smother the book with adoration—it is aching and maddening, intelligent and wildly sexy. But it would be simpler to say that reading it is like meeting someone new and feeling the world come undone. Here is a book that insists that the desire for fiction, for its mimicry and its mirage, is indistinguishable from the desire for another person. —Merve Emre

“ Tom Stoppard: A Life ,” by Hermione Lee

For a time this year, Lee’s newest biography just seemed to be around , and during a couple weeks when I was ostensibly reading other things, I found myself opening it in odd moments—over breakfast, waiting for the pasta pot to boil—until I realized that I’d worked my way through the whole thing. The biography is nearly nine hundred pages, so my experience of it as a side pleasure, a lark, is a testament to Lee’s craft. Much of Stoppard’s history is widely known: his passage from peripatetic refugee youth to Bristol newspaperman and radio-drama hack, and then, with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” to fame and fortune as a witty playwright. What Lee adds is detail, particularly around interesting career turns, plus a big serving of her own admiration. (Not entirely to its credit, I think, this is the sort of biography that everyone dreams of having written about them; our protagonist is always brilliant, invariably a delight. Stoppard, on reading it, was apparently moved to clarify that he was “not as nice as people think.”) What Stoppard contributes is an air of whimsy on the ride up his great tower of success. There is pleasant cohesion to his body of work, with its blend of bookish intellection and breezy verbal humor. Off the page, it becomes clear, he pairs casual social climbing with the cheery pursuit of material ease, often courtesy of Hollywood. He has maintained a stream of scriptwriting work, on projects such as the Indiana Jones franchise, and his constant efforts to boondoggle more luxury out of what’s offered him—his budget must be increased to accommodate a high-end hotel suite, he tells a studio, “because I prefer not to sleep and work in the same room”—are among the smaller charms of this book. Lee’s biography is ultimately such a pleasure, though, because it is a writer’s book: full of respect for the thrill of the craft, able to keep the progress of the life and the work aloft in the right balance. To read it is to be excited about the act of literature all over again. —Nathan Heller

“ Novel 11, Book 18 ,” by Dag Solstad, translated by Sverre Lyngstad

I first encountered “Novel 11, Book 18,” by the great Norwegian novelist Dag Solstad, on a bright, warm day, on a walk with some friends who were visiting from out of town. Buzzed on the weather and the handsome paperback cover—deep green on cream—and, above all, on the nearness of my friends, I bought it. It was almost funny, then, to discover how relentlessly bleak the book is. Published in 1992, but released in the United States this year, by New Directions, with an English translation by Sverre Lyngstad, it tells the story of Bjørn Hansen, a mild-mannered civil servant who has left his wife and son in pursuit of his lover, Turid Lammers. The change of life means a change of locale: Hansen leaves Oslo and settles in Kongsberg, a small, airless town where he soon joins an amateur theatre troupe, of which Turid is widely considered the most talented performer and a kind of spiritual leader. In probably the best and darkest bit of situational comedy that I read all year, Hansen tries to persuade the troupe—usually a vehicle for light musicals—to put on a production of Henrik Ibsen’s play “The Wild Duck.” He wins out, but the show is a terrible flop—and, worse in Hansen’s eyes, Turid gives a cynical, crowd-pleasing performance that inoculates her, and only her, from the more general disapproval of the audience. The relationship is soon over. Solstad tells the story in deceptively simple sentences that repeat themselves in a fugal fashion, gathering new and ever sadder aspects of meaning as they recur. Hansen, wading through the disappointing wash of his life—he’s having the worst midlife crisis imaginable—eventually cooks up a scheme of revenge that’s so sad and absurd it’s almost slapstick. The book’s generic title implies that tiny tragedies like Hansen’s are happening everywhere, all the time, as a simple cost of being alive. For Solstad, what feels like a reprieve—sun and intimacy, the company of friends—is just another step on a tightrope that stretches across the void. Maybe save this one for summer. —Vinson Cunningham

“ Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes ,” by Claire Wilcox

Among the books that most surprised and most moved me this year was “Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes,” a memoir by Claire Wilcox. Wilcox is senior curator of fashion at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and she writes about clothing with an intoxicating specificity: century-old gowns are made from “narrow lengths of the finest Japanese silk, hand-stitched together and then pleated into rills like the delicate underside of a field mushroom.” But this fragmentary, dreamlike book is not about fashion as it is often understood. There is no industry gossip, no analysis of trends. Rather, Wilcox uses her encounters with objects—the bags of lace in the museum’s collection, the pair of purple velvet trousers she borrowed from a charismatic friend—to explore themes of love and loss, birth and bereavement, family and tribe. The book, which is as skillful and oblique in its structure as the precious gowns she describes, is stitched together with loving care from narrative scraps and images, ultimately revealing how materiality and memory operate on one another, so that the sensation of holding a button in her fingers brings Wilcox back to her earliest memory of fastening her mother’s cardigan: “buttoning and unbuttoning her all the way up, and then all the way down again.” —Rebecca Mead

“ Sabbath’s Theater ,” by Philip Roth

Over the course of the pandemic, the actor John Turturro and I have been adapting Roth’s novel for the stage, so I’ve read the book probably twenty times now. I have been astonished again and again. It’s never the adulterous urinating or alte kaker underwear-sniffing that shock me. It’s Roth’s singular capacity for conjuring death—its promises, its terrors, its reliability, and the relentless ache that it leaves behind. There are times when Roth approaches the subject with a cosmic lightheartedness: “Exactly how present are you, Ma? Are you only here or are you everywhere?” Mickey Sabbath, the aging, insatiable puppeteer, asks his dead mother’s ghost. “Do you know only what you knew when you were living, or do you now know everything, or is ‘knowing’ no longer an issue?” When it pertains to Drenka, Sabbath’s Croatian mistress—his “sidekicker,” as she puts it—death is tinged with so much yearning that it’s almost too much to bear, for both Sabbath and the reader (this one, anyway). “Got used to the oxygen prong in her nose. Got used to the drainage bag pinned to the bed,” Sabbath thinks, recalling the last of many nights he spent at her hospital bedside. “Cancer too widespread for surgery. I’d got used to that, too.” For all of Sabbath’s lubricious opportunism, Drenka is his one love. “We can live with widespread and we can live with tears; night after night, we can live with all of it, as long as it doesn’t stop.” But it does, of course. It always stops. Though not, in this book, for Sabbath, Roth’s most unrepentantly diabolical hero, despite his relentless flirtation with suicide: “He could not fucking die. How could he leave? How could he go? Everything he hated was here.” —Ariel Levy

“ Warmth ,” by Daniel Sherrell

In “Warmth,” the writer and organizer Daniel Sherrell’s bracing début memoir , he refers to climate change as “the Problem”—the horrifying, galvanizing fact that should cause all sentient people to lose sleep, to shout themselves hoarse, to reorient their lives in fundamental ways. And yet, apart from a small minority, most people seem content to listen to the string ensemble on the deck of the Titanic, shushing anyone who tries to interrupt the music. To be clear, this is my harsh indictment, not Sherrell’s. For an unabashed climate alarmist, he is mostly compassionate to the quietists, in part because, like all Americans, he used to be one. Sherrell was born in 1990. His father, an oceanographer, took long research trips to the polar ice caps. Of all people, the Sherrells understood what an emergency climate change was—and yet their household was a normal one, in the sense that the Problem didn’t come up much. “Even when all the evidence was there before us,” Sherrell writes, “it was difficult to name.” The book is marketed as a climate-grief memoir, and it certainly is that, but what came through for me, even more clearly than the grief, was a kind of existential irony: not only are we apparently unable to solve the Problem, we can’t even seem to find an honest way to talk about it. Most Americans claim to believe the science; the science says that, unless we make drastic changes, the future will be cataclysmic; and yet, Sherrell observes, “it still sounded uncouth, even a little ridiculous, to spell this all out in conversation.” This is the way the world ends: not with a bang, and not even with much of a whimper. “Warmth,” written in the form of a letter to a child that Sherrell may or may not conceive, is not a thesis-y sort of book. But, if it has a central claim, it’s that the activist chestnut “Don’t mourn, organize!” is a facile mantra, a false choice. Why not both? —Andrew Marantz

“ Brothers and Keepers ,” by John Edgar Wideman

John Edgar Wideman was teaching at the University of Wyoming in the mid-seventies when, one day, his brother, Robert, showed up in town unannounced. Wideman had a young family and a steady job as a writer and an academic. Robert was on a more tumultuous path; he was on the run after a botched robbery back home, in Pittsburgh, had ended with one of his accomplices shooting a man, who later died from his injuries. Published in 1984, “Brothers and Keepers” is Wideman’s attempt to reckon with their diverging lives, and with the bond that they will never relinquish. He sifts through episodes from their childhood, searching for overlooked turning points. No single genre can tell such a complex story. Sometimes, the book is about the deprivations of the criminal-justice system, as Wideman describes in granular detail his visits to the prison where Robert serves a life term. (Robert would pursue education himself in prison, and, in 2019, his sentence was commuted.) At other times, the book feels surreal and fantastical, as Wideman entertains the possibility that their lives might have taken them elsewhere. And there are moments of austerity and dread, as he contemplates the ethics of turning his brother into a character. I often find that memoirs flatten the degree to which “the personal is political” is an idea rife with contradictions. What makes “Brothers and Keepers” so absorbing is that Wideman feels love but not sympathy—not for his brother, and certainly not for himself. —Hua Hsu

2021 in Review

• Richard Brody on the best movies .
• Doreen St. Félix on essential TV shows .
• Ian Crouch on the funniest jokes .
• Amanda Petrusich on the best music .
• Alex Ross on notable performances and recordings .
• Michael Schulman on the greatest onscreen and onstage performances .
• Kyle Chayka on the year in vibes .
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46 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2021

Being stuck at home has its upsides..

After a year of industry chaos and many delayed book releases, 2021 brings a bumper crop of new fiction and nonfiction books — including a collection by cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib and much-anticipated novels from Kazuo Ishiguro, Rachel Cusk, and, yes, Jonathan Franzen. It also brings promising fiction debuts from writers such as the late Anthony Veasna So and poet Melissa Lozada-Oliva. Here’s everything you need to get you through this last stretch of indoor time.

This quick-witted, trenchant debut novel starts like a superhero origin story. Darren Vender (he describes himself as an “attractive black man” who is “taller than average”) is a manager at a Starbucks in Park Avenue, where he’s worked for four years. At night he returns to the three-story brownstone in gentrifying Bed-Stuy where he lives with his mother. Then one day at work Darren is overcome by an ability he never knew he possessed: He convinces a regular customer who always places the same order to purchase another drink instead. Turns out the customer is a bigwig who is impressed by Darren’s salesmanship, and he invites Darren to work at his start-up. What follows is a harrowing tale that operates at the fraught intersection of capitalism, race, and class. — Tope Folarin

In this gripping reimagining of Jane Eyre that takes place in Birmingham, Alabama, Jane starts out as a dog-walker in Thornfield Estates, a wealthy gated community, where she soon finds out all that glitters is paste. She snares the attention of the mysteriously widowed Eddie Rochester, who recognizes that the secrets of Jane’s past perhaps mirror his own — and invites Jane to move in. She quickly gets access to a lifestyle she had only ever dreamed about, but something isn’t right: Eddie is distant. Strange noises come from upstairs. And she begins to realize she’s on a countdown to someone discovering who she really is. What would have happened if Jane Eyre had not been a naïve innocent with a heart of gold? Grab this page-turner and find out. — Nichole Perkins

Billed as a memoir, Owusu’s book is so much more: a history of Africa’s relationship with the West, a clear-eyed depiction of the ties that bind — and the grievances that disconnect — Black people around the world, and an analysis of how broken families produce broken human beings. But it’s Owusu’s life story that will burrow into you. She is the product of a union between a proud Ghanaian man and a hopeful Armenian American woman who perceive their relationship as an expression of intimate love and grand idealism. Owusu relies on the language of earthquakes — foreshock, mainshock, aftershock — to describe what happens to her and her family once her parents’ marriage breaks apart. This is a book that will shake you to your core. — Tope Folarin

Peters’s novel follows a trans couple, Amy and Reese, whose lives are turned upside down when Amy decides to detransition and become Ames. When Ames gets his lover/boss, Katarina, pregnant, things are flipped upside down once more. The word “polarizing” will be tossed around in discussions about this book , but mostly, Detransition, Baby will force you to think hard about family and queerness and motherhood and sex. And keep thinking about them long after you finish reading. — Madison Malone Kircher

Hubbard’s second novel is as original, warm, and expertly researched as her debut, The Talented Ribkins, but with significantly more tragedy. A groundskeeper at a down-on-its-heels southern mansion watches with increasing furor as the house’s owner manipulates his employees for riches and glory. A quietly thrilling addition to what I hope becomes a flourishing Ladee Hubbardverse. — Molly Young

Yang’s devastating history of the Chinese Cultural Revolution has been long in the making. First published four years ago in Hong Kong, The World Turned Upside Down is now finally available in English, thanks to translators and editors Stacy Mosher and Guo Jian. (Mosher and Guo are also responsible for translating Yang’s groundbreaking 2008 book Tombstone , about the Great Chinese Famine.) For Yang, who is 81 and still living in Beijing, the publication of such work is a testament to his political commitment and bravery: The World Turned Upside Down offers an unflinching account of the years 1966 to 1976, when China, under Mao, endured enforced starvation, mass purges, and constant double talk from government officials. This was gaslighting at a national scale. Cutting through decades of propaganda and revisionism, Yang’s much-needed corrective joins what one hopes is a new wave of reckonings, which includes Helen Zia’s Last Boat Out of Shanghai (2019) and Rana Mitter’s China’s Good War (2020). — Jane Hu

An elegant writer of unconventional thrillers, Finn has a gift for weaving existential and political concerns through tautly paced prose. The Hare is set in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, where we find a single mother scrapping for survival while cursed with a royally sociopathic ex-lover. One of many excellent books released by Two Dollar Radio, a family-run publisher out of Ohio. — Molly Young

Broder ( The Pisces ) is back with a new novel about a 24-year-old in Los Angeles named Rachel, who has an eating disorder, a disordered relationship with her mother, and a stand-up comedy hobby. (Honestly … that tracks.) At a therapist’s recommendation, Rachel goes on a 90-day detox from her mom and instead finds herself falling for a fro-yo heir, Miriam, whose family’s Judaism looks deeply different from Rachel’s own. A story about religion, sexuality, food, and feeling your fucked-up feelings. — Madison Malone Kircher

Hobson’s last novel, Where the Dead Sit Talking , a Cherokee coming-of-age novel set in 1980s Oklahoma, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and I’ll eat my pajamas if his new novel — which is also set in Oklahoma and deepens Hobson’s themes of displacement and violence — doesn’t get a nom too. — Molly Young

The suburban American hero of Lee’s new novel, Tiller, is a self-described “slightly-below-average guy in all categories” who gets caught up with Pong Lou, a borderline caricature of a Chinese American entrepreneur who sells drinks with alleged restorative qualities. The novel — set at a time when it was still possible to journey to China — alternates between Tiller’s whirlwind past, when he traveled across that country as Pong’s assistant, and his present, in which he’s residing in Middle America with a girlfriend who is under witness protection. As with Lee’s debut 1995 novel Native Speaker , or the more recent On Such a Full Sea (2014), which is set in a dystopian “New China,” this one subverts as many ethnic stereotypes as it perilously evokes. My Year Abroad is a syncopated surprise, with an ending that will be sure to leave you texting all your friends. —Jane Hu

You could describe Brontez Purnell, who lives in Oakland, as a writer, choreographer, filmmaker, curator, actor, and artist, or you could just cover your bases and call him a “national treasure.” 100 Boyfriends is a collection of short stories so wrigglingly alive and counterculturally refreshing that it deserves a new noun — a pod of whales, a murder of crows, a jubilee of Brontez Purnell stories? I’d wager that he sets down the best first lines of any living writer. — Molly Young

A debut novel from critic Oyler, Fake Accounts chronicles a woman who, at the dawning of the Trump presidency, discovers her boyfriend is a decently famous Instagram conspiracy theorist. That discovery is revealed on the novel’s back cover — but it’s a second, even more dramatic twist that upends the nameless narrator’s life and got me hooked on this book. If you’re looking for fiction that understands the complexities of life online and the way that world seeps into reality, this is it. — Madison Malone Kircher

Reading Patricia Lockwood raises questions. Questions such as, How can a person understand both herself and the world with such clarity? How does a person experience things so intensely and express them so buoyantly? Am I laughing or am I crying? Lockwood’s first novel is as crystalline, witty, and brain-shredding as her poetry and criticism. — Molly Young

When I heard that Ishiguro was coming out with a new novel, I gasped. Klara and the Sun is the writer’s first publication since winning the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. And if you’re a ride-or-die Ishiguro reader (what other kind is there?), you won’t be disappointed. Narrated in his signature first person — which hovers somewhere between inscrutable and Very Big Feelings — the book’s protagonist is the eponymous Klara, an Artificial Friend who is hypersensitive to human emotions. As Klara carefully and lovingly observes others, the work of Ishiguro’s reader is to carefully and lovingly observe her. An ideal novel for our lonely present, exploring questions of alienation, emotional labor, failed communication, and what it means to love a world that refuses to love you back. —Jane Hu

The protagonist of Nguyen’s 2015 novel The Sympathizer , a French-Vietnamese immigrant and North Vietnamese government mole, is a man forever caught between — between nations, identities, and his own morals. The last time we saw him, he was out at sea, off to an uncertain locale and praying for absolution and freedom. In this sequel to Nguyen’s Pulitzer winner, the same man has taken up residence in Paris, living in the country most implicated in the contradictions of his life as a colonial subject. Immersed in talk and conflict with left-wing intellectuals, junkies, and Vietnamese aunties, and haunted by dreams of torture and betrayal, the protagonist faces an even greater challenge than those he faced in the first novel. His mission, if he chooses to accept it, is to survive. — Kevin Lozano

In this poetry collection, spoken-word artist Jasmine Mans pulls at all the threads of who she is as a Black queer woman from Newark, unravels herself, then puts herself back together via clear, precise language that brooks no argument. In the poem “Because I Am a Woman Now,” the speaker wants the comfort of a lie, but knows that womanhood means facing truth in new, vague ways. In “Momma Said Dyke at the Kitchen Table,” Mans decodes a mother’s reaction to a daughter’s coming out. Black Girl, Call Home moves from vignette to cultural criticism to ballad to eulogy to memoir with grace. — Nichole Perkins

Chilean novelist Nona Fernández has developed a reputation for composing unsettling portraits of life during Chile’s brutal military dictatorship, with stories that venture beyond the stiff and incomplete histories recorded by truth and reconciliation commissions. In her 2015 coming-of-age novella, Space Invaders , a group of friends piece together memories of a classmate who vanished after her father, a police agent, went into hiding. Fernández’s upcoming book, The Twilight Zone , translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer, is just as eerie. Its narrator, a documentarian living in modern-day Santiago, obsessively combs through the confessions of a former military officer to reimagine the final moments of the people he tortured and disappeared. In the process, she ventures beyond the historical records that present the Chilean dictatorship’s crimes as a series of isolated cases, revealing an alternate world that haunts the nation’s psyche. — Miguel Salazar

Fans of Mary Gabriel’s exquisite Ninth Street Women , which tells the story of the mid-century New York City art boom from the perspective of five exceptional female painters, will rejoice over Fierce Poise , the first major biography of Helen Frankenthaler. Nemerov organizes his unconventional take into 11 distinct moments from the 1950s — the decade when Frankenthaler (barely out of college) developed her technique of staining a canvas with turpentine and pigment, married fellow artist Robert Motherwell, and worked toward her first major exhibition. Moody and textured, Fierce Poise celebrates, and mimics, Frankenthaler’s sweetly explosive paintings. — Hillary Kelly

There’s been a boom of workplace-set literature over the past five years or so—novels like Helen Phillips’s The Beautiful Bureaucrat, Hilary Leichter’s Temporary, and Halle Butler’s The New Me , which turn a deadpan focus on the stultifying rhythms and soul-killing mindlessness of the twenty-first century office. There’s No Such Thing As an Easy Job , by Japanese phenom Kikuko Tsumura (translated into English by Polly Barton), is the next candidate for this mini canon. The unnamed narrator is burnt out by the emotional stresses of her last job, so she wanders into an employment agency and asks for something easy and brainless. The agency complies, and while the series of bizarre and unexpected jobs she lands after that — hanging posters, writing copy for cracker boxes — free her from the tension of her old work, they also impose new questions about how we can separate any occupation from who we are. — Hillary Kelly

In Abdurraqib’s 2019 book Go Ahead in the Rain , a genre-bending tribute to A Tribe Called Quest, he blended criticism and historical analysis with personal essays and poetry. His upcoming collection, A Little Devil in America , is similar in approach and more expansive in scope, celebrating the rich and storied history of Black performance in the United States in a series of essays, reflections, and memories. From chapters on Soul Train and Whitney Houston’s musical career to historical analyses of dance marathons and meditations on blackface, Abdurraqib shares his love for Black performance — both onstage and in everyday life — and examines how it has been imagined, molded, and consumed by Black and non-Black audiences alike. — Miguel Salazar

This follow-up to Danan’s steamy 2020 debut The Roommate is filled with humor, healing, and heady good times (and, yes, that is a naughty pun). It inhabits the same world as Danan’s last book, and follows Naomi Grant — a former porn star and founder of a wildly successful sex-positive start-up — who now wants to share her unconventional expertise via live, in-person lectures but keeps finding that academia is too stubborn and old-fashioned to give her the time of day. When the handsome rabbi Ethan Cohen approaches her to teach a course on modern intimacy that he hopes will entice new blood to his synagogue, Naomi hesitates. Sex and religion, especially a religion she herself walked away from, don’t mix well, and this rabbi is way too hot for her not to corrupt. She decides to take the chance, and soon finds herself wondering: Who’s corrupting whom? — Nichole Perkins

“Recipes,” Lebo writes in the introduction to this glorious mash-up of memoir, love note, and cookbook, “are rituals that promise transformation.” The transformations she chronicles here are those of the flesh, both human and fruit — journeys through maceration and tenderization. In 26 essays, each accompanied by recipes for jellies, tonics, or balms, Lebo writes about little-known fruits such as aronia and medlar, known only to niche gardeners and long-dead cooks, and more ubiquitous varieties, such as blackberry and pomegranate. Every sentence is as sensuous as the first bite into a cold, juicy plum. — Hillary Kelly

Sincere and contemplative, Nelson’s debut novel is a love story about trauma, masculinity, and vulnerability. A young British-Ghanaian photographer falls for a dancer after a brief encounter in southeast London, and the two quickly develop a magnetic but undefined relationship, complicated by the fact that she lives in Dublin and dates one of his friends. During drunken excursions and sleepless nights, they bond over shared childhood experiences — both were among the only Black students at mostly white private schools — and a profound appreciation for Black artists from Isaiah Rashad to Zadie Smith. But as the relationship deepens, fissures begin to form. — Miguel Salazar

In 2018, Michelle Zauner, lead singer of the band Japanese Breakfast, wrote an essay for The New Yorker titled “ Crying in H Mart ,” where she discussed her connections to shopping in the Asian market chain, tearing up in the food court as she watched people eat, and how it all reminded her of her mother, who had passed away a few years earlier. Now Zauner has expanded that into a memoir, about her mother, her own life, and the centrality of food . Crying in H Mart is palpable in its grief and its tenderness, reminding us what we all stand to lose. — Gabrielle Sanchez

Jhumpa Lahiri craves difficulty. How else to explain the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist’s midcareer pivot to working in Italian? Over the past decade, Lahiri, already bilingual in Bengali and English, committed herself to achieving fluency in a third tongue: She moved her family to Rome, published collections of essays she wrote in Italian, translated novels by Italian writer Domenico Starnone into English, and outlined her obsession with her adopted language in an essay for the The New Yorker . Now we get Whereabouts , a novel Lahiri wrote in Italian then translated to English herself. It follows a woman as she moves through the nameless Italian city where she lives, contemplating her relationships and the unexpected directions her life has taken. Come for the linguistic derring-do, stay for the introspection. —Madeline Leung Coleman

Cusk’s latest novel draws loosely from Lorenzo in Taos , the 1932 memoir by art patron Mabel Dodge Luhan about the time D.H. Lawrence came to stay with her in New Mexico. Second Place tells of a male artist, “L,” who visits the female narrator, “M,” tracing an arc from L’s arrival at M’s secluded home in “the marsh” and concluding with his sudden departure. The plot is simple, yet the way it unfolds is as nuanced as ever, narrated in M’s second person to someone offstage. As with Cusk’s Outline trilogy, it takes seriously the complex emotional geometries between ordinary people. Second Place is a deeply philosophical book about what happens when you confuse art with life. —Jane Hu

Either you’re already onboard with this series and need no convincing, or you’ve somehow missed the fact that a cool French writer has been pumping out hilarious and corrosive novels about contemporary urban life at the center and fringes of Paris. Despentes writes like Armistead Maupin, but about aging Gen-Xers instead of hippies and New Agers. — Molly Young

To write on violence — especially violence against women — is a hazardous task. Lingering on sexual violence could spectacularize, or even reenact it. But Rose, a British academic who is one of our leading feminist critics, contends that the far greater risk is to remain blind to it. Her new book of criticism is marked by her usual vigilance, even as it wades into the unfinished business of recent events. In chapters about subjects ranging from trans rights and the Me Too movement to the sexual trafficking of migrant women and children, Rose stays focused, weaving analyses of ongoing sexual violence through readings of literature. What drives the whole work is the writer’s unwavering belief that we cannot begin to change our world without confronting the many forms of violence against women that continue to constitute it. —Jane Hu

Kawakami is a literary celeb in Japan whose much-lauded novel Breasts and Eggs was published in America last year, the first of her three books to be translated into English. Inspired by Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra , Heaven is an investigation of the intrinsic trauma of violence in which a 14-year-old boy who is bullied and taunted for his lazy eye forges a bond with a teenage girl, another victim of the mindless cruelty of children. (It was translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd, who also did Breasts and Eggs .) Haruki Murakami has called Kawakami his favorite young writer, but don’t let that fool you into thinking their work is similar: Kawakami’s writing is as grounded as Murakami’s is flighty, as dedicated to the pared-down shape of her prose as he is to the wild arcs of his narratives. — Hillary Kelly

When D.H. Lawrence died in 1930, many critics considered him little better than a glorified pornographer. He’d published a slate of highly sexualized (and often autobiographical) novels, starting with The Rainbow in 1915 to Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1928, and the eventual 1960 obscenity trial over the latter in the U.K. only perpetuated his divisive reputation. In this hyperfocused biography, Wilson — Lawrence’s first woman biographer — unpacks those years of Lawrence’s life and sifts through three major crises that affected his work, marriage, and philosophy, asking how such a gifted and original storyteller ended up scorned by the literary establishment during his lifetime. — Hillary Kelly

Galchen is an inventor and fabulist of the highest order: Her narratives are rigorous, antic creations that explore deceit, misinformation, identity, and the nature of knowledge. Her latest puzzle box of a novel is a surrealist horror story set in the 17th century. Narrated by Katharina Kepler — the herbalist mother of the famed German astronomer Johannes Kepler — the novel is constructed as a defense against the most serious of accusations: witchery. Written as a confession that Katharina offers to her next-door neighbor, the story is winding and hallucinatory, full of poison, gossip, and astral musings. Drawing partly from historical documents, the world Galchen creates feels more than just real. It feels haunted. — Kevin Lozano

In this tremendous novel by the Egyptian novelist, we meet a mother who directs her son to obey the orders of his dead father; a young man who wakes up in a ditch only to discover he somehow missed his own wedding; and another man who discovers he can walk on water. Each anecdote brushes the edge of the miraculous before resolving into something more quotidian — until the commonplace ebbs away, and we are left to ponder the mysteries that remain. This is the first of Kheir’s four novels to be published in English, translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger. — Tope Folarin

I’m a sucker for tales about female friendships that slide into obsession. The magnetism between women has so often been underestimated by history and literature that I’ll snap up the work of any author willing to go there. And Imamura isn’t just any writer. The Woman in the Purple Skirt , which took home Japan’s most prestigious literary award in 2019 and was translated from the Japanese by Lucy North, follows the aforementioned, otherwise nameless woman, as she sits in a park, watched by The Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. The two eventually become friends and their lives begin to mesh — but something is off, and one of the women is not what she seems. Not just another cheap thriller with a “you can’t trust anyone” conceit, Imamura’s latest is like Anita Brookner’s Look at Me , reimagined by a surrealist. — Hillary Kelly

Brandon Taylor had a hell of a 2020: His debut novel Real Life , about a queer Black biochemistry grad student barely getting by, was a critical darling that landed on the Man Booker shortlist and is now being developed into a film starring Kid Cudi. Filthy Animals , a new collection of linked stories, promises to delve into similar territory: young Midwesterners navigating cultural landmines and severed connections. A story about a man drawn into the open relationship between two dancers sounds especially Taylor, and especially biting. — Hillary Kelly

Sager has turned out a thriller a year since his 2017 breakout hit Final Girls , about the lone survivor of a horror-movie-style massacre who’s confronted with her past ten years later. They’re all creepily atmospheric, easy to read without being fluffy, and fun as hell. Each book has also been better and more confident than the last, with 2020’s Home Before Dark deftly weaving together narratives from a writer who recounted his experience living in a haunted house (à la The Amityville Horror ) , and his daughter, who returns to renovate the house after her father’s death. Sager’s next offering, Survive the Night , sounds just as fun, creepy, and compelling, with the tagline: “It’s November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House, Nirvana’s in the tape deck, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.” —Emily Palmer Heller

At a time when we all want to escape our real lives, what could be more alluring than the sparkling world of a romance novel? In her latest book, rom-com doyenne Guillory whisks us away to Hollywood with one familiar face, a male lead from one her previous novels, and a fresh one, an A-list actress waiting for her next big film. Guillory is known for whirling readers around the dance floors of weddings and palaces with glittering charm and delicate care, and now we can’t wait to see what she does with the glamourous and messy love lives of movie stars. — Tara Abell

The California-born son of Cambodian refugees, the late fiction writer So described inherited immigrant trauma with what Mary Karr called “mind-frying hilarity.” He published stories in The New Yorker and n+1 and died in December, at the age of 28 — nine months before the release of this debut story collection, which is one of the most exciting contributions to Asian American literature in recent years. Afterparties follows everyday life in a Cambodian American community, with a focus on a younger generation negotiating their families’ post-genocide trauma alongside the high jinks of American childhood. So wrote with a light touch, in contrast to Asian American refugee fiction that trafficks in melancholic inscrutability or melodrama. These stories are funny without being satirical, refreshingly realist, and generous in their levity. —Jane Hu

Awad is a dark genius, preternaturally gifted at creating vicious, hilarious tales about the depravity inside us. (Please read her 2019 novel Bunny , about a group of treacly, pink-beribboned MFA students who magically conjure up their ideal men — then ax them when the relationships don’t work out.) All’s Well is set in the theater world, where Miranda, a former actor still in pain from a horrific accident, is attempting to stage Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well . But the cast stages a coup: They want Macbeth . A wicked mash-up about opioid addiction, Bard nerds, Faustian deals, and a cursed play? Yes, please. — Hillary Kelly

Inflammation is both the metaphor and the stated subject of this ambitious interdisciplinary tome co-written by Patel, a journalist and activist, and Marya, a physician and composer. Together they map the connections between public health, social injustice, economic disparities, climate change, and ancestral trauma, making the case that our crappy world needs a new medical paradigm. — Molly Young

Henrik is a young Japanese man adopted by Danish parents and living in Paris, where he aspires to be a translator. When his girlfriend dies mysteriously, Henrik sets off on an investigation through the city’s seamy underbelly, confronting ghosts of all kinds. This is the debut novel of American writer David Hoon Kim, who himself lived in Paris and studied at the Sorbonne. He writes a mean sentence. — Molly Young

A perfect novel for your end-of-summer ennui, for what will always feel like that moody last week of vacation before school starts again. Four years after her last novel Into the Water and six years years after her international hit The Girl on the Train , Hawkins returns with a new thriller, a murder mystery set on a London canal boat. A little damp and a little cold, we can already feel our bones chilling from the lurking suspense and characters as murky as the Thames. — Tara Abell

Matrix by Lauren Groff (September 7)

With its brilliant he said, she said structure and mythological underpinnings, Groff’s 2015 novel, Fates and Furies , ginned up chatter and racked up award nominations. Matrix takes a sharp left turn away from the novelist’s usual focus on contemporary Americans. Instead, it heads to the 12th century to follow Marie de France, a former lady-in-waiting to Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom the French court sends to England to run an impoverished abbey. Groff has a knack for dissecting the inner workings of cloistered communities (the scarred small town of The Monsters of Templeton , the doomed cult of Arcadia ) so it will be fascinating to see what she makes of the hive-like energy of an all-female community. — Hillary Kelly

Maggie Nelson needs no genre. Reading her books — The Argonauts , Bluets , On Cruelty — tends to make classification of any kind feel destructive, like it would slice through her writing’s vital connective tissue. The same will almost certainly be true of her forthcoming book On Freedom , which will ask how that most American of ideals helps and how it hinders us in four distinct arenas: art, sex, drugs, and the climate. Reading Nelson is like watching a prima ballerina deliver the performance of a lifetime: athletic, graceful, and awe-inspiring. — Hillary Kelly

Richard Powers does Big well. His last novel, 2018’s Pulitzer-winning The Overstory , is a luminous, 500-plus page collection of stories, set across centuries, about the interconnectivity of forests and the people who live among and nurture trees’ primeval glory and innate intelligence. It’s so expansive it feels like you’re watching his characters from space. So it’s no surprise that his next novel, billed as a major event, will leave the atmosphere. Bewilderment is about Theo Byrne, a widowed astrobiologist searching for life on distant planets, who decides to take his young son on a galactic mission. Expect soaring prose and wise lessons about the bonds between humans and Mother Earth. — Hillary Kelly

From what we know so far about Franzen’s first novel since 2015’s Purity , it sounds exceptionally Franzen. Crossroads , the first novel of a new trilogy called “A Key to All Mythologies” (phew), centers on the Hildebrandt family: father Russ and mother Marion, who are both eyeing the exit out of their marriage, and their nearly grown children, Clem, Becky, and Perry. Reportedly the first in a trilogy of untold page count, this volume starts in 1971 and is set, of course, in a Midwest suburb; the series will eventually work its way through three generations. Most intriguing, the title is a tongue-in-cheek play on the character Casaubon’s long-belabored, unfinished book from George Eliot’s Middlemarch . So until October, we’ll be waiting with bated breath for more details — and another inevitable round of Franzenfreude. — Hillary Kelly

Dreaming of You by Melissa Lozada-Oliva (October 26)

A feverish story of young adulthood, exploring how fandom and obsession shape how we relate to the world. Lozada-Oliva’s verse novel borrows its name from Tejana pop star Selena Quintanilla’s 1995 album, released posthumously after she was murdered by the president of her fan club, and centers around a young Colombian-Guatemalan American poet grappling with heartbreak and a stalling career. She decides to summon Selena, her childhood hero, using improvised witchcraft — and is shockingly successful, only to watch helplessly as Selena is immediately catapulted back into stardom and out of the poet’s life. Using love notes, party gossip, self-reflections, and imagined dialogues — with strangers, exes, Selena, and even Selena’s killer — Dreaming of You navigates the complexities of Latinx identity, self-loathing, love, and the loneliness of drifting into adulthood. — Miguel Salazar

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The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2021

These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.

T he year 2021 was poised to be a great one for established, fan-favorite authors. We were blessed with new work from a buzzy roster of titans, from Colson Whitehead to Lauren Groff to Kazuo Ishiguro . But while they, along with several others, did not disappoint (see TIME’s list of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 ), it was debut authors who truly shined. In an industry that has long been criticized for exclusion—and where it’s increasingly difficult to break out from the crowd—a crop of bright new voices rose to the top. From Anthony Veasna So to Torrey Peters to Jocelyn Nicole Johnson and more, these writers introduced themselves to the world with fiction that surprised us, challenged our perspectives and kept us fulfilled. Here, the top 10 fiction books of 2021.

10. Klara and the Sun , Kazuo Ishiguro

The eighth novel from Nobel Prize–winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, longlisted for the Booker Prize, follows a robot-like “Artificial Friend” named Klara, who sits in a store and waits to be purchased. When she becomes the companion of an ailing 14-year-old girl, Klara puts her observations of the world to the test. In exploring the dynamic between the AI and the teen, Ishiguro crafts a narrative that asks unsettling questions about humanity, technology and purpose , offering a vivid view into a future that may not be so far away.

Buy Now: Klara and the Sun on Bookshop | Amazon

9. Open Water , Caleb Azumah Nelson

In his incisive debut novel, Caleb Azumah Nelson tells a bruising love story about young Black artists in London. His protagonist is a photographer who has fallen for a dancer, and Nelson proves masterly at writing young love, clocking the small and seemingly meaningless moments that encompass longing. In just over 150 intimate pages, Nelson celebrates the art that has shaped his characters’ lives while interrogating the unjust world that surrounds them.

Buy Now: Open Water on Bookshop | Amazon

Read more about the best entertainment of the year: TV shows | Movies | Songs | Albums | Podcasts | Nonfiction books | YA and children’s books | Movie performances | Video games | Theater

8. Afterparties , Anthony Veasna So

The nine stories that constitute Anthony Veasna So’s stirring debut collection, published after his death at 28, reveal a portrait of a Cambodian American community in California. One follows two sisters at their family’s 24-hour donut shop as they reflect on the father who left them. Another focuses on a high school badminton coach who is stuck in the past and desperate to win a match against the local star, a teenager. There’s also a mother with a secret, a love story with a major age gap and a wedding afterparty gone very wrong. Together, So’s narratives offer a thoughtful view into the community that shaped him, and while he describes the tensions his characters navigate with humor and care, he also offers penetrating insights on immigration, queerness and identity.

Buy Now: Afterparties on Bookshop | Amazon

7. Cloud Cuckoo Land , Anthony Doerr

The five protagonists of Anthony Doerr’s kaleidoscopic and remarkably constructed third novel, all living on the margins of society, are connected by an ancient Greek story. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, a National Book Award finalist, a present-day storyline anchors a sweeping narrative: in a library, an ex-prisoner of war is rehearsing a theatrical adaptation of the Greek story with five middle schoolers—and a lonely teenager has just hidden a bomb. Doerr catapults Cloud Cuckoo Land forward and back from this moment, from 15th-century Constantinople to an interstellar ship and back to this dusty library in Idaho where the impending crisis looms. His immersive world-building and dazzling prose tie together seemingly disparate threads as he underlines the value of storytelling and the power of imagination.

Buy Now: Cloud Cuckoo Land on Bookshop | Amazon

6. The Life of the Mind , Christine Smallwood

The contemporary fiction landscape is full of protagonists like Christine Smallwood’s Dorothy: white millennial women who are grappling with their privilege and existence in a world that constantly feels like it’s on the verge of collapse. Plot is secondary to whatever is going on inside their heads. But Dorothy, an adjunct English professor enduring the sixth day of her miscarriage, stands apart. In Smallwood’s taut debut, this charming yet profound narrator relays amusing observations on her ever-collapsing universe. Languishing in academia, Dorothy wonders how her once-attainable goals came to feel impossible, and her ramblings—which are never irritating or tiring, but instead satirical and strange—give way to a gratifying examination of ambition, freedom and power.

Buy Now : The Life of the Mind on Bookshop | Amazon

5. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois , Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

The debut novel from poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, longlisted for a National Book Award, is a piercing epic that follows the story of one American family from the colonial slave trade to present day. At its core is the mission of Ailey Pearl Garfield, a Black woman coming of age in the 1980s and ’90s, determined to learn more about her family history. What Ailey discovers leads her to grapple with her identity, particularly as she discovers secrets about her ancestors. In 800 rewarding pages, Jeffers offers a comprehensive account of class, colorism and intergenerational trauma. It’s an aching tale told with nuance and compassion—one that illuminates the cost of survival.

Buy Now: The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois on Bookshop | Amazon

4. Detransition, Baby , Torrey Peters

Reese is a 30-something trans woman who desperately wants a child. Her ex Ames, who recently detransitioned, just learned his new lover is pregnant with his baby. Ames presents Reese with the opportunity she’s been waiting for: perhaps the three of them can raise the baby together. In her delectable debut novel, Torrey Peters follows these characters as they become entangled in a messy, emotional web while considering this potentially catastrophic proposition—and simultaneously spins thought-provoking commentary on gender, sex and desire.

Buy Now: Detransition, Baby on Bookshop | Amazon

3. My Monticello , Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s searing short-story collection is one to read in order. Its narratives dissect an American present that doesn’t feel at all removed from the country’s violent past, and they build to a brutal finish. The unnerving standout piece—the titular novella—follows a group of neighbors who seek refuge on Thomas Jefferson’s plantation while on the run from white supremacists. Johnson’s narrator is college student Da’Naisha, a Black descendant of Jefferson who is questioning her relationship to the land and the people with whom she’s found herself occupying it. The story is as apocalyptic as it is realistic, a haunting portrait of a community trying to survive in a nation that constantly undermines its very existence.

Buy Now: My Monticello on Bookshop | Amazon

2. The Prophets , Robert Jones, Jr.

At a plantation in the antebellum South, enslaved teenagers Isaiah and Samuel work in a barn and seek refuge in each other until one of their own, after adopting their master’s religious beliefs, betrays their trust. In The Prophets, a National Book Award finalist, Robert Jones, Jr. traces the teens’ relationship, as well as the lives of the women who raised them, surround them and have been the backbone of the plantation for generations. In moving between their stories, Jones unveils a complex social hierarchy thrown off balance by the rejection of the young mens’ romance. The result is a crushing exploration of the legacy of slavery and a delicate story of Black queer love.

Buy Now: The Prophets on Bookshop | Amazon

1. Great Circle , Maggie Shipstead

The beginning of Maggie Shipstead’s astounding novel , a Booker finalist, includes a series of endings: two plane crashes, a sunken ship and several people dead. The bad luck continues when one of the ship’s young survivors, Marian, grows up to become a pilot—only to disappear on the job. Shipstead unravels parallel narratives, Marian’s and that of another woman whose life is changed by Marian’s story, in glorious detail. Every character, whether mentioned once or 50 times, has a specific, necessary presence. It’s a narrative made to be devoured, one that is both timeless and satisfying.

Buy Now: Great Circle on Bookshop | Amazon

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Write to Annabel Gutterman at [email protected]

60+ Books You Need to Read in 2021

How many of these new releases are in your reading list?

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For readers, 2021 has been poised to be all the more exciting, with new releases from the likes of Kazuo Ishiguro and Lauren Groff—not to mention many can’t-miss debuts—on the horizon. If you’re still putting together your Goodreads wish list for the year, make sure to consider some of these anticipated titles.

Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim

Some people say that all stories are about either love or war. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century Korea, Kim’s epic debut novel is about both. As children, an orphan boy and a girl sold by her family to a courtesan school form a deep friendship—but as they grow older and get swept up in the fight for Korean independence, the two must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice for one another.

Monster in the Middle by Tiphanie Yanique

7 years after releasing her debut novel, Land of Love and Drowning , Yanique is back with a sweeping new novel for the ages—a multigenerational love story spanning New York City, Ghana, and the Virgin Islands across decades.

Harper The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

When a National Book Award-nominated poet decides to venture into fiction, it’s an understatement to say that the bar is set pretty high. Even so, it seems Jeffers has cleared that bar with ease: the acclaimed writer’s debut novel follows the story of one American family from early white settlers’ appropriation of Native lands, through the African slave trade and Civil War, all the way into today’s tumultuous times.

G.P. Putnam's Sons The Turnout by Megan Abbott

From gymnastics to cheerleading, Abbott is a master at exploring the sinister underbelly of stereotypically feminine pursuits, and her latest—a psycho-thriller about a family-run ballet school whose ecosystem is upended by the arrival of a stranger—is no exception.

Berkley The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

Hoang’s latest romance puts readers through the wringer, but the happy ending is well worth it. After accidentally going viral, violinist Anna Sun should be celebrating her success; instead, she’s wrestling with burnout. When her boyfriend suggests they see other people, Anna sees it as a chance to figure out who she is apart from others’ expectations of her—but at what cost?

I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins

In Watkins’ hotly anticipated new novel, a writer struggling from postpartum depression boards a flight to a professional engagement in Reno that turns into a rambling journey of reckoning. A mother separated from the demands of motherhood, she plumbs the depths of her past and traverses the Mojave in search of an ever-elusive sense of closure.

Palmares by Gayle Jones

After 20 years of silence, Toni Morrison’s protégée returns this fall with the story of Almeyda, an enslaved Black girl who flees the plantations of Brazil and escapes to a fugitive settlement called Palmares – a safe haven for Black Brazilians fleeing captivity. Of course, reaching Palmares marks only the beginning of Almeyda’s journey. Soon after, she sets off across colonial Brazil in search of her lost husband.

This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

Let’s face it: there’s something kind of sinister about the Alexas and Siris and Google Home Maxes of the world. We’ve entrusted them with our homes, our families, and our most private information, all in hopes that they’ll make our lives a bit easier—but at what cost? Moreno explores the answer to that question in this gripping thriller, which follows a widower tormented by the smart speaker his late wife left behind.

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

Card-carrying members of Bachelor Nation, look alive! Cochrun’s swoon-worthy debut follows a producer on a Bachelor -esque reality show whose idealistic view of romance gets upended when he starts to develop feelings for the show’s lead, a handsome—and very awkward—tech genius who’s taken the job to rehabilitate his image.

Misfits: A Personal Manifesto by Michaela Coel

When it premiered on HBO last year at the height of the pandemic, Coel’s groundbreaking series I May Destroy You may indeed have destroyed more than a few viewers—but it saved a lot of them, too. This fall, the writer embraces that legacy with her new book, which serves as an impassioned ode to never fitting in.

Flatiron Books Tell Me How to Be by Neel Patel

If you like stories about families coming to terms with long-held secrets, Patel’s self-assured debut should be on your radar. As the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death approaches, seemingly perfect Renu questions whether she chose the wrong life; in Los Angeles, her commitment-phobic son Akash is still waiting for his to begin. When Akash returns to Illinois to help Renu sell the family house, both mother and son come face to face with their past regrets.

What Storm, What Thunder by Myriam J.A. Chancy

An ensemble cast of Haitians must contend with the aftermath of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Clancy’s unmissable first novel, which has already earned praise from writers such as Edwidge Danticat and Zinzi Clemmons. Across Port-au-Prince—Haiti’s capital—produce sellers, NGO architects, and wealthy expats alike navigate the fallout from the disaster.

Fight Night by Miriam Toews

Fight Club for girls, this isn’t. The bestselling Women Talking author’s new book follows three generations of women—irrepressible Grandma, her nine-year-old granddaughter Swiv, and Swiv’s pregnant mother—as they fight to survive in Toronto.

Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed edited by Saraciea J. Fennell

With a standout roster of authors that includes Naima Coster, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed is the kind of anthology we’d gladly wait all year for. In fifteen works of poetry and essays—from tales of the supernatural to takedowns of anti-Blackness—this collection offers something for just about every kind of reader.

Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu

Growing up biracial between New Jersey and Upstate New York, Willa Chen got used to never fitting in. But when she begins nannying for the Adriens, a wealthy white family living in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood, Willa suddenly becomes acutely aware of all the things she never had as a girl. Winsome and tender, Wu’s debut novel is about a girl who must confront her out-of-place childhood in her search for a solid sense of self.

God of Mercy by Okezie Nwoka

Forget what you think you know about the divine and let Nwoka’s bewitching novel introduce you to the Igbo village of Ichulu—home to Ijeoma, a girl who can fly. As the people of Ichulu and the surrounding villages wrestle with their gods, Ijeoma is forced into exile, where she must reckon with her growing powers while navigating a hostile world.

Grand Central Publishing Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir by Kat Chow

A veteran journalist and podcaster (she co-founded NPR’s Code Switch ), Chow turns her incisive gaze inward for her first book. Chronicling the aftereffects of her mother’s unexpected death from cancer, Chow’s memoir traces her extended family’s path across the globe to draw a startlingly intimate portrait of grief.

Atria Books The Shimmering State by Meredith Westgate

What if you could access the memories of those around you? That’s the premise of Westgate’s dystopian first novel, which follows Lucien and Sophie to a Los Angeles rehab center dedicated to treating abusers of a powerful new drug called Memoroxin. The two have no memory of each other, but are inexplicably drawn to one another all the same, in this Eternal Sunshine

for a new era.

The President and the Frog by Carolina de Robertis

De Robertis has carved out a niche for herself as a writer of playful, inventive novels that challenge our understanding of society, and her latest is no exception. A journalist visits a former Latin-American president in the lush gardens of the president’s modest home to discuss his life and legacy. Once a revolutionary who was jailed for inciting insurrection, the former president claims to have survived solitary confinement with the help of an unexpected companion: a deeply philosophical frog.

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza

Ever since they met as children, Black TV anchor Riley and her white best friend Jen have been closer than sisters. Even as adults, they can’t imagine anything ever coming between them—until Jen’s police officer husband shoots an unarmed Black teenager, and Riley is tasked with covering the story. Bestselling author Piazza and debut novelist Pride join forces for this deeply urgent novel about a heartbreakingly American phenomenon.

Keely Weiss is a writer and filmmaker. She has lived in Los Angeles, New York, and Virginia and has a cat named after Perry Mason.

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These Are the 55 Best New Books to Read in 2021

Add these to your reading pile right now.

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

So what should you read next ? This year, there are lots of exciting new releases from some of our favorite authors, as well as stunning debut books from a diverse group of newcomers in just about every genre you can think of. For 2021, many of our top book picks offer us critiques on our society today, a peek into complicated family dynamics, steamy romance novels that will remind you that love isn't dead after all, spooky thriller books that will send shivers up your spine, historical books that dip back into the past and creepy ghost stories that will keep you up past your bedtime.

And while some of these books may not be on shelves quite yet (or may be delayed due to supply chain issues), you should hit that preorder button anyway. Ordering books in advance not only gives you mail to look forward to that isn't a bill, but it helps support authors too. If you think we've missed something that should be included on our list, let us know in the comments — we always love discovering new books. Sound off about what you thought if you've read one of our favorites, too!

Ashley Audrain The Push: A Novel

Fans of psychological thrillers, crack open this one about the relationship between mothers and daughters. Before Blythe's daughter is born, she wants to create the deep bond she never had with her own mom. But when Violet arrives, she's convinced something's wrong with her little girl. The tragic events that follow will make you question her sanity and the story she's telling us.  

RELATED:  The 35 Best Psychological Thriller Books to Scare Yourself Silly

Una Mannion A Crooked Tree: A Novel

One fateful night, 15-year-old Libby's harried single mom orders her sister Ellen, 12, to get out and walk home after their bickering gets to be too much. What follows not only shatters the girls' innocence, but sets off a chain of events that reveals the darkness in their sleepy town. This novel drives home how one moment can change everything. 

Joan Didion Let Me Tell You What I Mean

Joan Didion needs no introduction, and neither does this incisive collection of works, mostly drawn from early in her career. Topics include Martha Stewart, a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, writing itself and her own doubts about it all. Didion fans shouldn't sleep this one, and neither should anyone else. 

Rachel Hawkins The Wife Upstairs: A Novel

The plot might feel familiar in this feminist twist on a classic gothic romance. Broke dog walker Jane has her sights on the wealthy Eddie Rochester. Eddie's got a past, but then again, so does she. Read to find out whether either of them can ever escape their secrets, or if their forbidden tryst is doomed to failure.

Sarah Moss Summerwater: A Novel

A creeping aura of disquiet pervades this quietly unsettling novel set in a cluster of cottages in rural Scotland. Lacking cell service, the families spend their days watching each other's movements through the blinds, learning perhaps a little too much about the others. It's a slow burn, but the payoff at the end will leave you breathless. 

Cherie Jones How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House: A Novel

This transporting novel set in Barbados reveals the way even the most disparate lives are interconnected. It delves into wealth and class, love and crime — and the emotional turmoil that roils in a rapidly gentrifying area and the people who live there.  

RELATED: 25 Books By Black Authors to Add to Your Reading List

Caitlin Horrocks Life Among the Terranauts

In a series of vivid, immersive short stories, we meet characters living in ever-so-slightly fanciful realities and others navigating deeply human experiences that could be ripped from our own lives. Whether you enjoy sci-fi, realistic fiction or bite-sized escapes from the real world, you'll find something to love here. 

Brandon Hobson The Removed: A Novel

The Echota family is never the same after their son Ray-Ray is killed in a police shooting. His mother Maria struggles with her husband Edgar's worsening dementia, while their daughter Sonja leads a solitary life and her brother Edgar battles drug addiction. As the anniversary of Ray-Ray's passing approaches, Maria and Edgar take in a foster son whose arrival just might be the change the family needs. 

Abigail Dean Girl A: A Novel

After Lex escapes from an abusive childhood, she does her best to put it all behind her. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves their family home to her and her siblings, the woman formerly known as "Girl A" has to reconnect with the only people who really know what happened to them. This gripping story about family dynamics and the nature of human psychology will hold you tight all the way through. 

Nancy Johnson The Kindest Lie: A Novel

When Ruth gets pregnant as a teenager, she gives up her son for adoption and leaves town for an Ivy League education, hoping they're both on a path toward better things. But she never really gets over him, so when her husband wants to start a family years later, she's drawn back home to find out what happened to her baby. What follows is a heart-wrenching story of family, racism, poverty and love. 

RELATED:  The 20 Best Feminist Books to Put on Your Reading List This Year

Chang Rae-Lee My Year Abroad: A Novel

This wildly original novel carries us across the world as Tiller, a mediocre college kid, gets tied up with Pong, an international businessman who takes him on the trip of a lifetime. We bounce between those adventures and the life Tiller finds afterward with Val, a single mom in witness protection, as he tries to figure out what it all means. It's by turns dark, humorous and almost sneakily insightful. 

Leesa Cross-Smith This Close to Okay: A Novel

We all carry our past with us, and that's never clearer than in this powerful story about two strangers who come together when they both need someone the most. Recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark pulls over when she sees Emmett about to jump from a bridge. She coaxes him to safety, and over the course of the emotional weekend that follows, we learn that Emmett's not the only one who needed saving. 

Jennifer Ryan The Kitchen Front: A Novel

You'll feel like you stepped back in time with this historical fiction set in WWII Britain. Four women from very different walks of life compete in a cooking competition to become a presenter on the BBC, and learn a lot about themselves — and each other — along the way. It's uplifting, a little scandalous and even includes recipes so you can cook along with them.  

Patricia Lockwood No One Is Talking About This: A Novel

This fragmented, genre-bending story about a woman who earns social media fame and wonders about what "the portal" is doing to society, her brain and the people who use it, feels both strange and intimately familiar. It's bizarre, oddly funny, at times piercing and absolutely a must-read for all of us social media users.

Emily Layden All Girls: A Novel

When scandal strikes a prestigious New England Prep School, all of the students handle the fallout a bit differently. This striking debut follows nine young women as they navigate their own coming-of-age in the shadow of a controversy that feels all too familiar. 

Kazuo Ishiguro Klara and the Sun: A novel

The hotly-anticipated latest novel from Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Kazuo Ishiguro deals with themes both personal and universal, familiar and futuristic. The 2017 Nobel committee described Ishiguro's books as "novels of great emotional force" that "uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world." Read this one and you'll understand why. 

Sarah Penner The Lost Apothecary: A Novel

If you've ever wanted to really get back at someone, have we got a book for you. In 18th century England, a secret apothecary sells disguised poison to the victims of oppressive men. That is, until a client makes a horrible mistake. Meanwhile, in modern-day England, an aspiring historian stumbles onto the story with potentially devastating results. 

courtesy of Kaitlyn Greenidge Libertie: A Novel

Growing up in Brooklyn during the Reconstruction, Libertie knows her physician mother wants Libertie to follow a similar path. But instead, Libertie accepts the proposal of a Haitian man to pursue a new life, only to discover she's still not his equal on the island. Inspired by the story of one of the first Black female physicians in the U.S., this is a gorgeous meditation on what freedom means.

Sharon Stone The Beauty of Living Twice

In a gorgeous memoir that talks about how she put her life back together after a massive medical event, actress and humanitarian Sharon Stone lets us all in to her world. Whether you've followed her work or not, this slice of life makes a great read. 

Morgan Jerkins Caul Baby: A Novel

The Harlem Melancons are powerful and prosperous, thanks to their magical caul that has healing properties. When neighbor Leila turns to them to save her baby and the deal falls through, it sets off a chain of events that will reverberate through the Melancon clan and Harlem itself. This engrossing story is rich with mystery, page-turning tension and the powerful ways family can hold us even in toxic circumstances. 

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26 of the best new books published in 2021 so far, from Oprah's self-help book to Stephen King's latest release

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• So many great new, bestselling books have already been published in 2021.
• These new books span genres like nonfiction, fantasy, thriller, and young adult.
• Want more? Check out our best summer beach reads , thrillers , romance novels , and fantasy books .

We're already almost halfway through 2021: The days are longer, the grass is greener, and reader's favorite books of the year (so far!) are starting to emerge. 

Many of the new books from the first half of the year are reflective of the world's conversations last year. New novels feature characters that are diverse in more than one way, exploring problems such as social justice, immigration, and what it means to be human in this world. Meanwhile, nonfiction releases tackle climate change, personal growth, and racism while offering logical solutions. 

Though we're only five months into 2021, incredible books have already been published. Whether you're looking for a fun young adult read or a self-help book that addresses a complex problem, the books we recommend might make your favorites list at the end of the year. 

The 26 best new books in 2021:

Historical fiction, young adult.

• Fiction and Poetry

A new memoir of an extraordinary life

"Just As I Am" by Cicely Tyson, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $17.32

For more than 60 years, Cicely Tyson was revered for her acting in American theater and film. Also a lecturer and activist, Cicely Tyson's story is one of authenticity, known and understood by any reader to pick up her book. It's a memoir of a full life, a timely and timeless story of the perseverance and triumph of Black women. Cicely is reflective and open, transferring her charisma to the page as readers follow her through great moments of her life, published just two days before her death at 96 years old.

A bestselling self-help book to change how we talk about trauma

"What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing" by Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce D. Perry, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $17.39

While many of us blame ourselves for our emotions, Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce Perry encourage us to shift the question from "What's wrong with you?" to "What happened to you?" Dr. Bruce Perry is a brain and trauma expert who offers scientific insight to the trauma-based reasoning behind our less favorable behavioral patterns. Combined with Oprah's personal and vulnerable anecdotes, the book weaves science and storytelling together to shift how we view trauma so our futures can be defined by more than our pasts.

A new look at the economic effects of racism

"The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together" by Heather McGhee, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $17.98

Heather McGhee is an American political commentator and strategist with an economic specialty who noticed racism as a common root problem to economic crises. Her book details her personal journey to uncover what she calls the "Solidarity Dividend": Gains that occur when people come together to accomplish what we can't do on our own. Heather McGhee uses stories from across America to demonstrate how white supremacy's collateral damage includes white people themselves and outlines her own message for a new future. 

A popular new psychology book to encourage rethinking

"Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know" by Adam M. Grant, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $16.80

This book blends psychology and self-help to prove how doubt, failing, and rethinking are instrumental to improving ourselves and our world. Adam M. Grant is a psychologist whose research has shown that intellectual humility, or the ability to take constructive criticism, often has more benefits to productivity than first-time successes. In three sections, he outlines why we struggle to embrace feedback, how we can help others rethink effectively, and how our communities can shift to encourage rethinking.

A collective historical collaboration

"Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019" by Editors Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, available at Amazon and Bookshop from $18.98

In an unparalleled and defining collection, "Four Hundred Souls" is a chronological account of 400 years of Black American history, told by 90 of America's most profound Black writers. In a book that reclaims the ways history was written, it outlines major events with people all but forgotten by American history. Through poems and essays, each author covers five years of Black American history, beginning with the arrival of 20 enslaved Ndongo people one year before the arrival of the Mayflower.

The biography of a Nobel Prize winner

"The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race" by Walter Isaacson, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $21

Jennifer Doudna became obsessed with science, DNA, and the code of life in the sixth grade. Now, she's known as the co-creator of CRISPR — a tool that can edit DNA. This biography depicts how Jennifer Doudna's childhood interest in nature evolved into a Nobel Prize and the potential to change how science affects all aspects of human life. This book also outlines the moral and ethical implications of DNA-editing as well as the ways in which it could improve our physical and mental health. 

A bestselling Great Depression historical novel

"The Four Winds" by Kristin Hannah, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $17.39

After "The Nightingale," Kristin Hannah truly became known as an outstanding historical fiction writer. This novel is set in 1934 Texas, where the Great Depression and an insufferable drought has farmers struggling to keep their livelihoods. Elsa is one of them, torn between fighting for her homeland or going to California with the hope of a brighter future. It's a portrait of the American Dream, a heartbreaking story that reads so easily despite the complexity of Kristin Hannah's characters and detailed portrait of life during the Great Depression.

A forbidden love story between enslaved men

"The Prophets" by Robert Jones Jr, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $18.59

This is a magnificent story of love thriving despite the heavy backdrop of slavery. Isiah and Samuel are two enslaved young men, caring for animals on a southern plantation. Their intimacy and refuge in each other protects them from the harsh world — until an older fellow slave begins preaching the master's gospel to gain his favor. When the enslaved people begin to turn on each other, not only is Isiah and Samuel's relationship threatened, but the harmony of the entire plantation. 

A World War II novel about code-breaking women

"The Rose Code" by Kate Quinn, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $13.49

In 1940, World War II engulfed Europe, and three women from England volunteered to train as code breakers while Britain prepared to join the fight against Germany. Osla, Mab, and Beth each have their own undeniable assets to code breaking. Seven years later, the three women are sworn enemies, torn apart by the pressures of secrecy and reunited over a mysterious letter — the key to which lies in the betrayal that tore them apart. 

An historical story about the power of books

"The Paris Library" by Janet Skeslien Charles, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $17.56

Odile was a librarian at the American Library in Paris in 1939 when the Nazis invaded the city. With her fellow librarians, Odile joined the Resistance armed with books. Nearly 45 years later, Lily is a teenager living in Montana when her elderly neighbor's interesting past and common passions offer her the adventure for which she's been searching. This book is about heroism, life during World War II, and the timeless love of literature.

A new YA book that asks deep questions

"One of the Good Ones" by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $11.99

When Kezi Smith is killed after attending a social justice rally, she becomes immortalized as a victim in the fight against police brutality. As Happi, her sister, mourns, she finds herself questioning the perfect and angelic ways in which Kezi is remembered. Struggling with big philosophical questions after her sister's death, Happi sets out to honor her sister in her own way, spurring a life-altering ride of discovery. This book is poignant and deeply interesting, addressing from a new angle the mentality that victims are either "thugs" or "one of the good ones."

The story of an Indian American teenager

"Red, White, and Whole" by Rajani LaRocca, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $11.99

"Red, White, and Whole" is the story of Reha, a teen torn between her traditional home and her school, where she is the only Indian American student. Her parents rarely notice this clash of worlds unless Reha isn't meeting their expectations. When Reha's mother is diagnosed with leukemia, Reha decides she will be the ideal daughter in the hopes of saving her mother's life. Though fictional, many of the struggles in this book are very real for teenage immigrants and children of immigrants. The emotion packed into these pages might break your heart and leave you shedding more than a few tears. 

A coming-of-age YA novel

"Concrete Rose" by Angie Thomas, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $13.98

A prequel to " The Hate U Give ," this YA takes place 17 years prior to Starr's story, where Maverick Carter is torn between making money by dealing for the King Lords or finishing school and working an honest job. When Maverick finds out he's a father, his life and priorities change, even though he's still torn between loyalty and responsibility. In this coming-of-age novel, Maverick tackles big issues with real consequences and finds what it really means to be a father.

A new science-fiction thriller

"Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $17.47

All Ryland knows is he's been asleep for a very long time, he's millions of miles from Earth, and he's the sole survivor of a last chance space mission with an impossible task ahead of him: Conquering an extinction-level threat to the human race. Full of perfectly geeky sci-fi excitement paired with nail-biting thriller elements, this story is an exciting read with Andy Weir's trademark humor throughout.

A bestselling, suspenseful thriller with two narrators

"The Good Sister" by Sally Hepworth, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $16.79

Fern and Rose are twin sisters who've escaped their mother's sociopathic home and are trying to live normal lives. Rose spent her childhood protecting Fern, so when Rose finds she can't have a baby, Fern sees an opportunity to repay her for everything she's done. As the long-buried secrets begin to reveal themselves, this thriller holds tight and refuses to let you go until the final pages. It's a domestic suspense of skewed memories and creepy double meanings. 

Stephen King's latest release

"Later" by Stephen King, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $9.56

In this coming-of-age storyline mixed with the supernatural elements that Stephen King writes best, Jamie is an extraordinary child who just wants an ordinary childhood. Though his mom urges him to keep it a secret, Jamie's ability to see the supernatural pulls him into a police pursuit of a killer threatening to strike from beyond the grave. "Later" is Stephen King at his finest: Creepy, compelling, and complex.

The final book of an epic fantasy series

"A Court of Silver Flames" by Sarah J Maas, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $16.85

This is the fifth and final novel of Sarah J. Maas's super-popular " A Court of Thorns and Roses " series. What began as a "Beauty and the Beast" re-telling morphed into a sexy, fantastical series with wolves, faeries, and nymphs while also tackling mental health, healing, and self-love. If you are a fantasy reader, this is a series you need to read, knowing that this final installment lives up to the high expectations.

A fresh story full of magical realism

"The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $13.29

Nora has regrets. On an evening when she feels like she's out of options and has ruined her life, she finds the midnight library. In the midnight library, the shelves go on forever — a different world inside each book, a life parallel to her own. Nora explores the lives she may have lived if she had made any single choice differently: Pursuing swimming or glaciology, undoing breakups, taking trips she'd previously canceled. This book has spurred some great conversations and leaves readers with the message that it's never too late to make the choices that can change their lives for the better.

A reimagining of a mythological legend

"The Witch's Heart" by Genevieve Gornichec, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $18.69

In "The Witch's Heart," fantasy meets Norse mythology to create an epic modern twist on a legend. Angrboda is a banished witch, forced to hide in the forest as a punishment from Odin for refusing to reveal the future. It is here that she meets Loki, and while their initial meeting breeds distrust, Angrboda soon falls in love with him. As she slowly recovers her powers, she knows she must protect her three children from growing dangers. This fantasy novel is a story of love, survival, and competing conflicts.

A perfect beach read

"The People We Meet on Vacation" by Emily Henry, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $10.06

This is a fun and cute rom-com story — and the perfect beach read. Alex and Poppy could not be more different, yet for the past 10 years, they've taken a summer vacation together to celebrate their friendship — until one mistake led to them not speaking for two years. When Poppy thinks back on the last time she was happy, she knows it was on vacation with Alex, so she reaches out and they embark on one more vacation to make everything right. While reading this book, you'll feel every bit of love and heartbreak that Alex and Poppy endure.

The bestselling story of a family torn by immigration

"Infinite Country" by Patricia Engel, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $14.95

A breathtaking book with a timely plot, this book follows a Columbian family fractured by immigration. Once their first child is born, Elena and Mauro flee a war-riddled Columbia for Houston, where they debate either overstaying their tourist visas or returning to Columbia and risking the safety of their children. When Mauro is deported, Elena is left in America — undocumented, caring for three children, and with few options for survival.

An emotional, funny new novel from a bestselling author

"Yolk" by Mary H.K. Choi, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $15.48

Jayne and June are estranged sisters. Jayne struggles to get by while juggling school, her mental health, her deadbeat boyfriend, and her social-media-obsessed friends. Meanwhile, June's life seems perfect, with her high-paying finance job and huge apartment — that is, until she's diagnosed with uterine cancer and desperately needs her sister's help. In this funny yet emotional contemporary novel, the sisters switch places to commit insurance fraud in the hopes of saving June's life. Though this book works through a lot of pain, the messages within are hopeful and uplifting.

A unique story of parenthood

"Detransition, Baby" by Torrey Peters, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $22.91

"Detransition, Baby" is an unapologetically vulnerable novel about an unconventional family. Reese is a trans woman with a nearly perfect life, except for her inability to have a baby. When Reese and her ex-girlfriend (now Ames) broke up and Ames detransitioned, Reese's life seemed to self-destruct. Meanwhile, Ames thought himself infertile until his boss, Katrina, got pregnant with his baby. As Katrina is unsure if she wants to keep it, Ames sees an opportunity to give his ex the baby she always wanted.

A new novel about two intertwining Muslim families

"The Bad Muslim Discount" by Syed M. Masood, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $17.72

"The Bad Muslim Discount" follows two families who immigrated from Pakistan and Iraq (respectively) to San Francisco in the 1990s. Anvar Farris' family unanimously decides to move to California and escape the fear growing in Pakistan, some of his family adjusting easily and others finding few ways to fit in as Muslims in America. Meanwhile, Safwa is a young girl growing up in Baghdad, who finds a far more dangerous route to escape the war. Anvar and Safwa's very different worlds collide and create a real picture of identity and faith in America, with fantastic dry humor spun throughout.

A historic inaugural poem

"The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country" by Amanda Gorman, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $9.59

This is the special edition of the inspirational poem read by Amanda Gorman at the 46th Inauguration on January 20, 2021. With a foreword from Oprah Winfrey, this poem plants the hope of America's future, demonstrates the power of poetry, and captivates readers with its breathtaking and uplifting messages.

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12 books NPR staffers loved in 2021 that might surprise you

Mia Estrada

In what has become an annual tradition, NPR's staff and regular book critics bring you a mighty year-end guide of Books We Love . In 2021, you can find more than 360 recommendations ranging from cookbooks to realistic fiction and from graphic novels to tell-all tales.

Here are the Books We Love: 360+ great 2021 reads recommended by NPR

Here are a handful of some of the most interesting staff picks — you may even find some choices that surprise you! — like The Secret History of Home Economics and Fat Chance, Charlie Vega.

We hope you enjoy our full slate of selections — and take some time to browse through for awhile!

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith

" Build Your House Around My Body begins with the disappearance of a young woman named Winnie, and works its way backwards through time, telling a story of unfinished business and long-delayed revenge. Some of its set pieces are familiar from Hollywood horror movies and Brothers Grimm fairy tales – there's an exorcism and a haunted forest. But because this book is set in Vietnam, the forest is an overgrown rubber tree plantation and the exorcism doesn't have crucifixes or holy water. It's a sprawling novel that tells a ghost story spanning generations, drawing the reader into its supernatural world." — Ari Shapiro , host, All Things Considered

Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World by Wil Haygood

"Billed as 'One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World,' this fascinating, exhaustively researched and gorgeously written tome delves deep into the background of everything from D.W. Griffith's monstrous silent Birth of a Nation , to teenager Darnella Frazier's video of the murder of George Floyd. If you've ever wondered why you can't see the Sidney Poitier/Dorothy Dandridge Porgy and Bess , or why Spike Lee had to borrow money to fly to Cannes to win Best Young Director for She's Gotta Have It , or why ... nah, I should stop. So many treasures to unearth, you'll want to do it yourself." — Bob Mondello , movie critic, Culture Desk

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

"Michelle Zauner's debut memoir eloquently lays out the complexity and the ongoing grief of losing a parent in your 20s, just as your own life is about to start. Zauner, who heads the indie band Japanese Breakfast, writes about how she turned to Korean food as a way to process her grief when her mother, her only tie to Korean culture, died of cancer. The book, which was first excerpted as viral New Yorker essay in 2018, reflects on how cooking and eating the food that her mom once prepared gives her a way to connect to her identity. As someone who also lost a parent in my 20s, it's hard to convey the loss of identity and confusion that I faced, so I'm so thankful this book exists." — Alyssa Jeong Perry , producer, Code Switch

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

"I'm glad there's a wave of YA books with fat protagonists, but the characters often possess a level of self-confidence that's too good to be true. Crystal Maldonado has created a much-needed believable protagonist with teenage and adult readers. Charlie Vega is a fat, glasses-wearing, biracial Puerto Rican with a diet-pushing mother and a beautiful, athletic best friend. When her classmate Brian pursues a romantic relationship, Charlie is plagued with-self doubt. The book is propelled by conflicts both internal and external. I'm glad this book isn't body-positive escapism, but rather a well-observed story of fat teenage life." — Jessica Reedy , producer/editor, Pop Culture Happy Hour

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke

"Kristen Radtke looks at the science of loneliness and its presence in American society – and interweaves it with poignant stories from her own life. She dives into its evolutionary purpose while retracing the surprising places where loneliness comes up: in TV laugh tracks, in the much-venerated lone cowboys in American pop culture. All the while, she shares her own brushes with isolation – mourning the end of a TV series, scrolling through her phone in bed, witnessing the death of her grandmother. It's a deeply engaging, masterful work of science and heart, and incredibly timely as the pandemic continues on." — Malaka Gharib , deputy editor, Goats and Soda, author of I Was Their American Dream

Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994-2007) by Dan Ozzi

"Let breathe new dawn - this art is dead / No sense of original thought in the mainstream" goes a lyric in the opening track of Against Me!'s first major-label album – one I (wrongly) thought sucked before ever having heard it, simply because it was on a major label. In Sellout , Dan Ozzi examines this intersection among bands trying to make a mark in the world, music labels hoping to make a buck off them and fans feeling betrayed by their idols. Even if you never spent time on punknews.org arguing about the taxonomy of "folk punk," it's a question that exists in every art form: How much is it worth to get paid? — Andrew Limbong , reporter, Culture Desk

Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford

Code Switch

To love and not forgive.

"Ashley Ford's riveting memoir is an honest, heartbreaking story about her father's incarceration and the resulting family trauma. Her story is about race and family and about how the choices we make, plus those forced upon us, can complicate the trajectory of our lives. Ford writes with a refreshing and riveting candor. As a fellow Hoosier, I found the book particularly compelling because it is not only a coming-of-age Midwestern tale with all the typical concerns about body image and mother-daughter tension, but also a sharp commentary on the harsh realities of growing up as a Black person in Indiana. Ford also gives us an important glimpse of how prison shapes the daughters left behind." — Asma Khalid , White House correspondent, Washington Desk

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

Book Reviews

Intimacy is nothing to be ashamed of in helen hoang's powerful new romance.

"Anna Sun is a talented violinist in the Bay Area whose disappointing boyfriend springs a proposal on her: an open relationship. While processing her boyfriend's request and battling a creative block, Anna meets Quan and wonders if he might be the real deal. I love this book because it deals with issues that feel really relevant to today, such as creative burnout, bad boyfriends and neurodivergence, which Helen Hoang explores through these deeply rich and heartfelt characters." — Candice Lim , production assistant, Pop Culture Happy Hour

The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard Life by Kyle Beachy

"The year 2021 is the year of skateboarding. The "rebel" pursuit was transformed into an Olympic sport. Thrasher magazine, skateboarding's bible, turned 40. And many have picked up skateboards for the first time. So The Most Fun Thing couldn't have come at a better time. Kyle Beachy is a longtime skater and writing professor. His memoir, compiled from essays that span a decade, ponder the meaning of skateboarding. "What percentage of skateboarding, I wonder, is talking about skateboarding?" he writes. "Half, probably. There is such rich joy to be found in these debates without stakes." Even as they "go nowhere, slowly." — Milton Guevara , production assistant, Morning Edition

The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live by Danielle Dreilinger

"The secret's out! Before I read this book, home economics was just a class that I took in junior high with the aptly named Mrs. Housekeeper. But in reading this book, I discovered that in the early 20th century, the field provided jobs for women in the sciences, corporations and government. And despite a flirtation with the eugenics movement, it was an area in which Black women could, and did, make significant contributions. Danielle Dreilinger also makes the case that cooking and managing a budget are invaluable lessons for all children and should still be part of the school curriculum. — Emiko Tamagawa , senior producer, Here & Now

The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel

"I'm among the weirdos who responded to the pandemic by upping my workouts, which made Alison Bechdel's latest graphic novel feel unexpectedly timely. A lifelong fitness freak, who's embraced everything from martial arts to mountaineering, Bechdel applies the same rigor to her analysis of her quest for a mind/body connection, which contains the sort of psychoanalytic layers, self-deprecating charm and ambitious complexities her fans have come to expect." — Neda Ulaby , correspondent, Culture Desk

Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey Into the Heart of Desire by Tracy Clark-Flory

"As a woman, dating men is kind of exhausting – especially when you consider all of the ways women's understanding of our own sexuality is shaped by the male gaze. In her new memoir, Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey Into the Heart of Desire, Jezebel writer Tracy Clark-Flory unpacks the different ways women are taught to be passive objects of lust, rather than active participants in sex. Through a combination of personal stories, previous reporting and feminist theory, Clark-Flory decodes the messy yet massively rewarding journey of taking agency over one's pleasure, with or without a partner." — Isabella Gomez Sarmiento , assistant producer, Weekend Edition

To read more recommendations from staff members, you can explore the "Staff Picks" section on the 2021 Books We Love website.

The 2021 Book Releases to Order Now and Thank Yourself Later

New titles from Jennifer Weiner, Akwaeke Emezi, Sally Rooney, and more.

2021 has given us some incredible books. While you're perusing through this year's top releases, expect a brilliant mix of fiction from bestselling authors like Morgan Jerkins and Sally Rooney, along with an invitation into the lives of prominent figures like Senator Mazie K. Hirono in  Heart of Fire   and Tarana Burke in  Unbound . Ahead, our list of the best books of 2021 to order today and thank yourself later.

'The Push' by Ashley Audrain

If you're looking for a psychological drama about motherhood, Ashley Audrain's  The   Push  takes readers inside the mind of main character Blythe who questions her relationship with her daughter when she's born, forcing her to eventually confront some truths about herself. 

Available January 5, 2021

'One of the Good Ones' by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite

When teen activist Kezi Smith is killed after attending a social justice rally, her family is left to wonder what it actually means to be "one of the good ones."

'The Prophets' by Robert Jones, Jr.

Robert Jones, Jr.'s debut novel,  The Prophets ,   is a queer love story centered on two enslaved men, Isaiah and Samuel, who live together on a plantation in the Deep South—forced to confront oppression, betrayal, and ultimately, the threat of their existence.  

'Black Buck' by Mateo Askaripour

Twenty-two-year-old Darren seemingly goes from a Starbucks employee to a ruthless salesperson at an NYC tech startup overnight, becoming unrecognizable to his family. After tragedy strikes, he turns his grief into action by devising a plan to help young people of color enter America's salesforce and achieve the "American dream."

Available January 12, 2021

'Detransition, Baby' by Torrey Peters

When Reese's girlfriend Amy decides to detransition and become "Ames," Reese finds herself engaging in self-destructive behavior. Things get even more complicated when Ames impregnates his boss and lover, Katrina. Alas, it gives him a chance to decide whether this is an opportunity to have both Reese and Katrina in his life.

'Aftershocks' by Nadia Owusu

Nadia Owusu's gripping memoir helps readers struggling with their own identity feel seen through Owusu's recount of her unstable childhood, family secrets, and depression that eventually lead to her self-discovery. 

You Have a Match' by Emma Lord

Tweet Cute  author Emma Lord returns with  You Have a Match , where main character Abby finds out that she has a secret sister who she decides to meet at summer camp. Expect some juicy drama to follow. 

'Concrete Rose' by Angie Thomas

Fans of  The Hate U Give  will be excited to learn Angie Thomas' second book in the series,  Concrete Rose , takes readers to Garden Heights 17 years before the events in the first novel. 

'Run to Win' by Stephanie Schriock and Christina Reynolds

In  Run to Win ,  EMILY's List  President Stephanie Schriock and VP of Communications Christina Reynolds create a guide on how to run for office and win. It includes a foreword from Vice President Kamala Harris who knows a thing or two about winning. 

'Shipped' by Angie Hockman

When a workaholic marketing manager and a remote social media manager (who are both up for the same promotion!) are forced to go on a company cruise together, they discover that their virtual love/hate relationship may not include much hate in real life after all. 

Available January 19, 2021

'Let Me Tell You What I Mean' by Joan Didion

Readers who have been longing for new Joan Didion will be thrilled to learn she's publishing 12 previously uncollected essays in  Let Me Tell You What I Mean .

Available January 26, 2021

'The Ex Talk' by Rachel Lynn Solomon

If you happen to love a good romance  and  NPR, look no further than Rachel Lynn Solomon's  The Ex Talk . 

Available January 26, 2021

'The Girls I've Been' by Tess Sharpe

Soon to be a  Netflix film starring Millie Bobby Brown ,  The Girls I've Been  centers on Nora, the daughter of a con woman, who is caught in a bank heist and determined to get herself, her girlfriend, and her ex/best friend out safely...no matter what it takes. 

'Girl A' by Abigail Dean

Behold a psychological novel about a girl who escapes captivity, and later finds herself at the very place she escaped from—forced to confront her identity as "Girl A." 

Available February 2, 2021

'Surviving the White Gaze' by Rebecca Carroll

In  Surviving the White Gaze ,   cultural critic Rebecca Carroll reflects on her childhood growing up Black in a white rural New Hampshire town and how she forged her path as a Black woman in America.

'Milk Blood Heat' by Dantiel W. Moniz

If you're obsessed with Florida, Dantiel W. Moniz's  Milk Blood Heat  uses the state as a backdrop to tell compelling stories of ordinary people in this memorable debut. 

'This Close to Okay' by Leesa Cross-Smith

In  This Close to Okay , Leesa Cross-Smith tells the story of recently-divorced therapist Tallie Clark, who spots a man named Emmett on a bridge who's seemingly trying to end his life. As they learn more about each other (the book is told in alternating perspectives), Tallie chooses not to tell him she's a therapist. Instead, they have to learn the truth about each other—and themselves—the hard way.

Available February 2, 2021

'Fake Accounts' by Lauren Oyler

Allow Lauren Oyler to take you on a wild ride in  Fake Accounts , where a woman discovers her boyfriend is an anonymous online conspiracy theorist. Believe it or not, that's only the beginning.

'My Year Abroad' by Chang-Rae Lee

When Pong Lou, a Chinese American entrepreneur, takes Tiller, an average American college student, with him on a trip across Asia, his perspective on life is forever changed. 

'Do Better' by Rachel Ricketts

Rachel Ricketts's  Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy  addresses anti-racism from a spiritually-aligned perspective, providing readers with a guidebook on how to fight racial injustice and white supremacy from the inside out.

'The Kindest Lie' by Nancy Johnson

Nancy Johnson's  The Kindest Lie  finds main character, Ruth, back in her hometown that's plagued with racism and despair during the 2008 financial crisis. There she befriends Midnight, a young white boy who helps her uncover secrets from her past. 

'Kink' Edited by R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell

Featuring an incredible roster of writers,  Kink  is a short fiction collection that explores love, lust, BDSM, and more, edited by bestselling author R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell.  

Available February 9, 2021

'Sparks Like Stars' by Nadia Hashimi

In  Sparks Like Stars , Sitara Zamani is transported to a new American life after communists staged a coup in her home of Afghanistan, assassinating the president and her entire family. Forty years later, she encounters the soldier who saved her (and may have been responsible for her family's death), prompting her to return to the country for answers. 

Available March 2, 2021

'My Inner Sky' by Mari Andrew

There's something about Mari Andrew's words and illustrations that make you feel at home.  My Inner Sky  reminds readers of the shared grief, joy, and sorrow that we experience throughout life—and how to cope with it.

'Professional Troublemaker' by Luvvie Ajayi Jones

If you've been consumed with imposter syndrome or, frankly, anything that's been holding you back in life, allow  New York Times  bestselling author and keynote speaker Luvvie Ajayi Jones to help you tackle that fear through her signature wit and refreshing honesty.

Available March 2, 2021

'Infinite Country' by Patricia Engel

Patricia Engel's  Infinite Country  takes readers into the lives of a Columbian family who has immigrated to the U.S. and is forced to weigh the all-too-familiar struggle of risking deportation or willingly returning to the very country they decided to flee from. 

'How Beautiful We Were' by Imbolo Mbue

When the fictional African village of Kosawa is being destroyed by an American oil company, the people residing in the village decide to fight back, prepared for the consequences that they'll face. 

Available March 9, 2021

'Black Girl, Call Home' by Jasmine Mans

Jasmine Mans's highly-anticipated poetry collection,  Black Girl, Call Home,  beautifully illustrates what it's like to be a queer Black woman in America. 

Available March 9, 2021

'Act Your Age, Eve Brown' by Talia Hibbert

Talia Hibbert's third book in the Brown Sisters series focuses on the unpredictable Eve Brown and the unexpected love she finds at the bed and breakfast she interviewed as a chef for. She may or may not have also ~ accidentally ~ hit the owner with her car, but we'll leave the rest of that story for the book. 

'Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue' by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Amanda L. Tyler

In  Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue , readers will learn even more details about the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's family life and lifelong career fighting for gender equality. The book was heading into production around the time of RBG's death. 

Available March 16, 2021

'Of Women and Salt' by Gabriela Garcia

Gabriela Garcia's  Of Women and Salt  spans across multiple generations of women living in Cuba, Miami, and Mexico and the decisions they have made that ultimately connect—and shape—their lives. 

Available March 30, 2021

'Libertie' by Kaitlyn Greenidge

In Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is conflicted between the life she feels compelled to live and the one her mother wants for her: to go to medical school and become a doctor. Things become increasingly complicated when Libertie accepts the marriage of a man from Haiti, only to discover her freedom is further limited as a Black woman in their relationship. 

'The Beauty of Living Twice' by Sharon Stone

In  The Beauty of Living Twice , actress and humanitarian Sharon Stone reflects on how she rebuilt her life after a massive stroke that altered her family, love, and career. 

Available March 30, 2021  

'Girlhood' by Melissa Febos

Here, Melissa Febos brilliantly explores society's definition of becoming a woman and the values—or lack thereof—it taught her growing up. 

'You Love Me' by Caroline Kepnes

Caroline Kepnes is back with the third book in the  You  series (yes, the original books from the Netflix series). This time around, Joe is headed to the Pacific Northwest and, well, you probably have an idea of what happens next. 

Available April 6, 2021

'Caul Baby' by Morgan Jerkins

Morgan Jerkins's first work of fiction is about a woman named Laila, desperate to become a mother, who's in search of a caul from an old and powerful family in Harlem known as the Melancons. What follows is a deep search for familial connection after Laila's niece, Amara, gives birth to a child named Hallow that she gives to the Melancons to raise. When Hallow and Amara cross paths years later, Hallow must decide where she truly belongs.

Available April 6, 2021

'Peaces' by Helen Oyeyemi

Helen Oyeyemi, bestselling author of  Gingerbread,  returns with another magical storyline. This time, in  Peaces , a couple finds themselves on a sleeper train that turns out to be anything but ordinary. 

'When the Stars Go Dark' by Paula McLain

Paula McLain,  New York Times  bestselling author of  The Paris Wife , is back with  When the Stars Go Dark— a story about a detective named Anna Hart who becomes obsessed with a missing persons report in her hometown that's reminiscent of an unsolved murder from her childhood.

Available April 13, 2021

'Aquarium' by Yaara Shehori

Yaara Shehori's debut centers on two deaf sisters, Lili and Dori Ackerman, raised by deaf parents who refuse to let them interact with anything or anybody in the world of hearing. That is, until they suddenly find themselves in it and are forced to relearn everything they've been taught. 

Available April 13, 2021

'Hana Khan Carries On' by Uzma Jalaluddin

Uzma Jalaluddin's rom-com with competing halal restaurants is exactly the kind of novel we need in 2021. 

'Heart of Fire' by Mazie K. Hirono

Mazie K. Hirono, the first Asian-American woman and the only immigrant serving in the U.S. Senate, shares her inspiring journey growing up in rural Japan and eventually becoming one of the most influential members of Congress.

Available April 20, 2021

'Crying in H Mart' by Michelle Zauner

If you read Michelle Zauner's  viral  New Yorker  essay  about crying in H Mart after her mother's death, you'll want to order her memoir, which expands on the essay, immediately. 

Available April 20, 2021

'Anna K Away' by Jenny Lee

At last, Jenny Lee's  Anna K— a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina — returns with its sequel,  Anna K Away ,   set over the course of the next summer after Alexia Vronsky's tragic death.

Available April 27, 2021

'You Are Your Best Thing' by Tarana Burke & Brené Brown

Tarana Burke, acclaimed activist and founder of the Me Too movement, and Dr. Brené Brown,  New York Times  bestselling author and professor, teamed up to create an anthology on the Black experience that includes essays from some of the most vital voices of our time. 

'The Last Thing He Told Me' by Laura Dave

You know it's probably a good thriller when Reese Witherspoon decides to transform it into a  limited TV series  starring Julia Roberts. When main character Hannah's husband disappears and leaves a note telling her to protect his daughter, she finds out her husband wasn't exactly who he was cracked up to be. Together, the mother and stepdaughter start to discover the truth about the man they thought they knew. 

Available May 4, 2021

'Notes on Grief' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The exquisite author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's latest work,  Notes on Grief , is a book we can all relate to in our ways during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, Adichie details the loss of her father last summer. 

Available May 11, 2021

'That Summer' by Jennifer Weiner

The summer wouldn't be complete without an aptly-titled novel from  New York Times  bestselling author Jennifer Weiner that explores themes of friendship and power. 

'Billie Eilish' by Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish fans, rejoice: The 19-year-old singer/songwriter is publishing a visual introspection into her life with never-before-seen photos.

'Yearbook' by Seth Rogen

As Seth Rogen perfectly  put it , "I wrote a book called  Yearbook . It’s true stories and essays and stuff that I hope you think are funny. It comes out in May, but if you like you can order it now. Yay!"

'People We Meet on Vacation' by Emily Henry

If you enjoyed Emily Henry's  Beach Read , you'll appreciate  People We Meet on Vacation —a novel about two best friends, Alex and Poppy, whose annual vacation ritual is halted after they've stopped speaking. And yet, somehow they convince each other to go on one final seven-day vacation together in an attempt to make it right. 

Available May 11, 2021

'While Justice Sleeps' by Stacey Abrams

There seems to be nothing  Fair Fight  founder Stacey Abrams can't do, and that includes writing a compelling thriller. Ever so timely,  While Justice Sleeps  centers on Avery Keene, a young clerk for the fictional Justice Howard Wynn, who becomes his legal guardian and power of attorney when he slips into a coma. When Avery discovers the justice has been secretly researching a controversial case, she's propelled on a quest for the truth while Washington attempts to replace the justice. 

'State of Emergency' by Tamika D. Mallory

In  State of Emergency: How We Win in the Country We Built , activist and social justice leader Tamika D. Mallory gives readers the tools they need to fight injustice and find a pathway towards true freedom. This is the first book from Charlamagne Tha God’s new imprint,  Black Privilege Publishing .

'Don't Breathe a Word' by Jordyn Taylor

The Paper Girl in Paris'  Jordyn Taylor returns with  Don't Breathe a Word— a boarding school mystery that alternates between the past and the present to discover the secrets that lie within Hardwick Preparatory Academy. 

Available May 18, 2021

'The Guncle' by Steven Rowley

When once-famous actor Patrick ,  otherwise known as Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP) ,  becomes the primary guardian of his young niece and nephew after tragedy strikes, he finds himself in the role of a lifetime. 

Available May 25, 2021

'Instructions for Dancing' by Nicola Yoon

Nicola Yoon,  New York Times  bestselling author of  Everything, Everything  and  The Sun Is Also a Star ,  returns with another charming love story. This time around, main character Evie has a vision of a couple's romance — knowing exactly how it begins and ends — and must determine whether her own budding romance is worth the risk of heartbreak. 

Available June 1, 2021

'With Teeth' by Kristen Arnett

Kristen Arnett's  With Teeth  paints an equally humorous and moving portrayal of a mother's fear of her hostile son while desperately trying to keep her family together as she grows increasingly resentful of her wife. 

'One Last Stop' by Casey McQuiston

The  New York Times  bestselling author of  Red, White & Royal Blue  returns with the queer New York City love story we didn't know we needed. In  One Last Stop , cynical 23-year-old August meets a gorgeous girl on the subway and it may actually be too good to be true after all — she soon discovers this woman is actually displaced in time from the '70s, and she must figure out how to help her. 

'The Other Black Girl' by Zakiya Dalila Harris

The Other Black Girl  is the NYC publishing story Black women have been waiting for. The novel centers on 26-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers who's fed up with the microaggressions she experiences as the only Black girl in the office, finding solace when the new girl Hazel arrives. That is, until Nella starts receiving threatening notes to leave her job, and soon realizes there's something much deeper going on here.

'Somebody's Daughter' by Ashley C. Ford

Ashley C. Ford invites us into her world growing up a poor Black girl in search of answers—namely why her father, who she often turns to for hope, is in prison—taking readers on an emotional journey that leads her to discover the truth about his incarceration, and herself, along the way.

Available June 1, 2021

'Malibu Rising' by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones and The Six  fans will be thrilled to learn Taylor Jenkins Reid has a new novel— Malibu Rising —coming out about four famous siblings in the '80s who throw an end-of-summer party.

'Seven Days in June' by Tia Williams

Tia Williams's sultry romance novel,  Seven Days in June , is about two former lovers who reconnect at a New York literary event. There, they can't deny their chemistry or the fact that they haven't forgotten about each other in the decades since they were last together. Now, during seven days in June, they must decide what their future has in store.  

'The Woman in the Purple Skirt' by Natsuko Imamura

Natsuko Imamura's  The Woman in the Purple Skirt , a bestseller in Japan, is being shared with an American audience this summer. The novel centers on, as you may have guessed, the Woman in the Purple Skirt, who is being watched by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. Why does everyone pay attention to the Woman in the Purple Skirt and not the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan? You'll just have to find out. 

Available June 8, 2021

'Dear Senthuran' by Akwaeke Emezi

In  Dear Senthuran , critically-acclaimed author Akwaeke Emezi turns the focus on their own life. Through a series of letters written to friends and family, they reflect on decisions about their gender and body, how they've managed to navigate certain relationships, and much more.

"As someone who’s been carefully curating their public image for years, it feels almost dangerous to write so honestly, but the final result is a text that I love, one that deeply engages with the metaphysics of Black spirit & singularly faces the Black reader,"  says  Emezi.

Available June 8, 2021

'Animal' by Lisa Taddeo

At its core, Lisa Taddeo's debut novel,  Animal , is about female rage and desire. If this book is anything like Taddeo's  Three Women , expect masterful storytelling. 

'Blackout' by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk & Nicola Yoon

Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk,  and  Nicola Yoon?! When six incredible Black storytellers come together to create a series of interconnected love stories, you know you're about to read something special.

Available June 22, 2021

'Filthy Animals' by Brandon Taylor

Hailed as one of 2020's breakout literary stars,  scientist-turned-novelist  Brandon Taylor is back with  Filthy Animals— a collection of connected short stories set in the midwest . 

Available June 22, 2021

'Something Wild' by Hanna Halperin

When sisters Tanya and Nessa Bloom travel to the Boston suburbs to help their mom pack up their childhood home, they reckon with their past while discovering a disturbing truth: their mother is in an abusive relationship. Now, they must figure out what comes next for all of them. 

Available June 29, 2021

'Seek You' by Kristen Radtke

Talk about a sign of the times. Kristen Radtke's  Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness  quite literally helps readers feel less alone as she explores our feelings of longing and why we're so afraid to talk about them. 

Available July 13, 2021

'Goldenrod' by Maggie Smith

Following the release of last year's  Keep Moving , Maggie Smith will publish another set of poems that center on parenthood, solitude, love, and memory. Smith  says   Goldenrod  has been five years (!) in the making. 

Available July 27, 2021

'They'll Never Catch Us' by Jessica Goodman

Jessica Goodman, bestselling author of  They Wish They Were Us  (the book is being adapted into a  TV series starring Halsey !), returns with  They'll Never Catch Us— a murder-mystery that centers on a new cross-country star in town who goes missing and the two sisters, also elite runners, who are prime suspects in her disappearance.  

'We Were Never Here' by Andrea Bartz

Andrea Bartz's mystery,  We Were Never Here , is about two best friends who are enjoying their annual reunion trip until one of them walks into their hotel room to find the other killed a backpacker in self-defense. A similar incident happened the year prior...was it just a coincidence or something more? 

Available August 3, 2021

'The Heart Principle' by Helen Hoang

The eagerly-anticipated third novel in the Kiss Quotient series, Helen Hoang's  The Heart Principle  proves how wrong you can be about someone—and how they may just be the right person for you. 

Available August 31, 2021

'A Slow Fire Burning' by Paula Hawkins

New York Times  bestselling author of  The Girl on the Train  Paula Hawkins's new novel— A Slow Fire Burning —is about a young man who's found murdered in a houseboat and the three women who are suspects in the case.

'Beautiful World, Where Are You' by Sally Rooney

Yes, you read that correctly. Sally Rooney, author of  Conversations with Friends  and  Normal People , returns with  Beautiful World, Where Are You —a novel about friendship and sex. 

Available September 7, 2021

'Misfits' by Michaela Coel

Michaela Coel's  Misfits  shares her journey of belonging and how we can all transform our lives by embracing who we are. If you felt the  I May Destroy You  creator's  Emmys speech  in your soul, you'll definitely enjoy this book. 

' The Night She Disappeared ' by Lisa Jewell

Lisa Jewell's  The Night She Disappeared, Marie Claire's  October book club pick , is a thriller that begins with the disappearance of 19-year-old mother Tallulah who doesn't return home after a night out. 

'Matrix' by Lauren Groff

If you love historical fiction, you'll appreciate Lauren Groff's upcoming novel,  Matrix , which centers on 17-year-old Marie de France who's sent to England to become the head of a poverty-stricken abbey. 

'You Got Anything Stronger?' by Gabrielle Union

Gabrielle Union's  You Got Anything Stronger?  is the followup to her first book,  We ' re Going to Need More Wine . Here, Union discusses everything from her experience with surrogacy to racism in Hollywood. Within her stories, she proves it's okay to change our minds as we grow and evolve. 

Available September 14, 2021

'Unbound' by Tarana Burke

Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too movement, has released her highly-anticipated memoir that highlights the strength and perseverance that led her to where she is today. As she  tweeted , "It’s been a long time coming."

'The Hill We Climb and Other Poems' by Amanda Gorman

If you follow Phoebe Robinson  on Instagram  or listened to  2 Dope Queens  or read any of her previous books, you know that you can expect hilarious life lessons and stories from her upcoming essay collection,  Please Don't Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes . The title alone is *chef's kiss.*

Available September 28, 2021

'Believing' by Anita Hill

Anita Hill, who made history when she testified in 1991 against then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas with claims of sexual harassment, is a prominent lawyer, professor, and advocate. In  Believing , she traces the history of gender violence in society and what she's learned in the decades since her testimony. 

'We Are Not Like Them' by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza

Christine Pride and Jo Piazza teamed up to write their new novel,  We Are Not Like Them —a story about two childhood best friends (one who's white and one who's Black) who are forced to navigate race and friendship when the white friend's husband is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. Read Pride and Piazza's interview with  MC   here .

Available October 5, 2021

'State of Terror' by Hillary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny

The collab I didn't know I needed! Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and bestselling author Louise Penny have teamed up to write a thriller about—wait for it—a secretary of state who joins her rival's administration and must combat a series of terrorist attacks. 

Available October 12, 2021

'The 1619 Project' by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Nikole Hannah-Jones's  The 1619 Project , originally  published in  The New York Times Magazine   in August 2019, is an expansion of the award-winning project that teaches us the dismal truth about America's history of slavery and how it's manifested into the world we live in today. Through Bookshop.org, customers can donate the book directly to local schools, libraries, and book banks. 

Available November 16, 2021

'Call Us What We Carry' by Amanda Gorman

The world is eagerly awaiting National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's debut collection of poetry, which includes the breathtaking poem she read at President Biden's inauguration titled,  "The Hill We Climb."  

Available December 7, 2021

Stay In The Know

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Rachel Epstein is a writer, editor, and content strategist based in New York City. Most recently, she was the Managing Editor at Coveteur, where she oversaw the site’s day-to-day editorial operations. Previously, she was an editor at Marie Claire , where she wrote and edited culture, politics, and lifestyle stories ranging from op-eds to profiles to ambitious packages. She also launched and managed the site’s virtual book club, #ReadWithMC. Offline, she’s likely watching a Heat game or finding a new coffee shop. 

Tour outfit number two is already here.

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“I gotta say, she seemed to be having the time of her life,” Selleck said of their turn on the dance floor in 1985.

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Including one that just might fill the Riverdale-shaped hole in your heart.

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Cue up Mike Reno and Ann Wilson’s “Almost Paradise."

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The Indiana native is the first senior citizen to join Bachelor Nation.

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Here's everything we know on the upcoming episodes.

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All the dance numbers! All the show tunes!

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Eight Best Picture Books to Gift at a Baby Shower

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written by Kim Howard

Gifting books at a baby shower, whether they’re in place of the card or as a stand-alone gift, is always a great idea. You’re gifting more than an item of clothes that will be outgrown. You’re gifting time spent snuggled up together reading. You’re gifting a memory maker and a brain developer. How incredibly special!

From classics that belong in every home library to touching and special new stories, here are eight of the best baby shower books you can gift.

Picture Books to Gift at a Baby Shower

MAMA LOVES YOU SO written by Terry Pierce; illustrated by Simone Shin

This lyrical board book features a mom narrating the depth of her love for her new baby. The illustrations of mama and baby animals in gorgeous natural settings are bright and modern. This is one of my go-to baby shower gifts, and it’s always a huge hit! 

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I LOVE MY DADDY written and illustrated by Sebastien Braun

This gentle board book showcases all the special things Daddies do, from bathing to playing to cuddling. The illustrations are soothing, depicting a sweet daddy and baby bear’s relationship. 

BUY ON AMAZON

DO MOMMIES EVER SLEEP? written by Kim Howard; illustrated by Karen Obuhanych

Told from the perspective of a very funny (and very awake) baby, this relatable story is sure to connect with every new mom and her own precious, never-sleeping baby. It’s the perfect sweet and light baby shower book!

GOODNIGHT MOON written by Margaret Wise Brown; illustrated by Clement Hurd

This is the classic bedtime story for kids and a must-have for a new mom’s home library. The board book version is an excellent choice for a baby shower gift.

MADE FOR ME written by Zach Bush; illustrated by Gregorio De Lauretis

A dad describes the love and special connection he feels with his child from the moment the baby was born.

THE GOING TO BED BOOK written and illustrated by Sandra Boynton

Another sleepy time classic! For a while, this board book was read before every nap and bedtime for my youngest. It’s sweet, silly, and ends with a boat full of sleeping animals gently rocking in the moonlight. I’m yawning just thinking about it…

BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR, WHAT DO YOU SEE? written by Bill Martin Jr.; illustrated by Eric Carle

No list of baby shower books would be complete without some Eric Carle! While THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR is an excellent go-to that is bound to pop up as a gift at a baby shower, I think BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR, WHAT DO YOU SEE? is another classic that deserves a place in every nursery. With it’s rhyming, predictable text and vibrantly colorful animals, this book is perfect for babies and toddlers. 

ON THE NIGHT YOU WERE BORN written and illustrated by Nancy Tillman

Everything about this story is whimsical, from the rhyming text to the dreamy pictures. I love how the story focuses on how special the child is, reminding them from the very first night they were born, nothing was ever the same again in the world. This is another baby shower classic pick for me! 

About Kim Howard

Kim Howard is a children’s book author and former teacher with her Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies. Her debut picture book  GRACE AND BOX  was the winner of the 2022 Indiana Authors Awards in the Children’s category. She enjoys doing author visits to schools and libraries and inspiring future generations of writers. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana with her husband and their three children. You can find out more about her at  www.kimhowardbooks.com .

Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.

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The Best Mystery Novels of 2021

Our crime fiction columnist picks the books that wowed her this year.

Credit... Weegee, via Getty Images

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By Sarah Weinman

• Published Dec. 7, 2021 Updated Dec. 9, 2021

Here is a secret worth sharing: Every year is a good year for crime fiction. I’ve known this for as long as I’ve been a serious reader of the genre, but was reminded anew as my first calendar year writing the Crime column nears its end. It’s been a pleasure to reconnect with old favorites and to acquaint myself with new ones, and to tour the ways in which crime writing opens a window onto society, revealing frayed and newly forged strands. Whittling down the list to a thieves’ dozen of standouts was difficult, as it should and must be.

History is the common thread for most of my selections, partly because the distance of several decades allows for welcome escape from contemporary concerns, and also because new context illuminates both past and present. Nekesa Afia’s debut, DEAD DEAD GIRLS (Berkley Prime Crime, 336 pp., paper, $16) , evokes women’s lives, circa 1920s Harlem Renaissance, in all their wayward and beautiful glory, as well as the abruptness with which their hopes and dreams can be violently snuffed out.

Stephen Spotswood’s second outing, MURDER UNDER HER SKIN (Doubleday, 368 pp., $23.99) , furthers the adventures of my favorite new sleuthing duo, Lillian Pentecost and Will Parker, as they solve mysteries in a 1940s milieu evoking Nero Wolfe and film noir. And though it is clearly set in the present day, Richard Osman’s joyous THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE (Pamela Dorman/Viking, 352 pp., $26) evokes classic crime tropes with a mix of sparkling humor and emotion.

This year’s crime fiction crop also featured several fresh spins on World War II. Derek B. Miller’s HOW TO FIND YOUR WAY IN THE DARK (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 368 pp., $26) felt especially attuned to my tastes, featuring midcentury gangsters, the famed Catskills resort Grossinger’s, the birth of standup comedy and tender examinations of Jewish identity. Naomi Hirahara’s CLARK AND DIVISION (Soho, 320 pp., $27.95) explored the ramifications of Japanese internment through the prism of one young woman determined to solve the murder of her sister. And FIVE DECEMBERS (Hard Case Crime, 425 pp., $29.99) , an epic of war, imprisonment, torture, romance, foreign language and culture by James Kestrel, movingly considers the cost of mass death.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s VELVET WAS THE NIGHT (Del Rey, 284 pp., $28) was a particular favorite, an immensely satisfying brew flavored with love, heartbreak, violence, music and unsettling dread set in early 1970s Mexico. Here is an author in total command of the genre.

A number of novels examined the ever-fraught relationship between artist and source material. The one that lingered most was Alexandra Andrews’s stylish and assured debut, WHO IS MAUD DIXON? (Little, Brown, 324 pp., $28) , a clever satire of writerly envy and ambition that shows why living in one’s own skin can be the scariest prospect of all.

Another growing trend in crime fiction this year centered on its relationship to real-life crime, whether using the true-crime podcast as a framing device or exploring the effects of actual killings. This category produced several superior efforts, above all Willa C. Richards’s debut, THE COMFORT OF MONSTERS (Harper, 400 pp., $27) , which juxtaposed a layered narrative of sisterhood, tough upbringings, violence and grief against the arrest of the Milwaukee serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer during the summer of 1991.

This year brought the first pandemic novels, and the coming months and years will undoubtedly produce more. Catie Disabato’s U UP? (Melville House, 305 pp., paper, $17.99) doesn’t quite count, since it was largely completed before lockdowns, yet it captures the feeling of the past 18 months. Its text-message-saturated, paranormal-tinged examination of loss, whether through sudden death or friendship rupture, creates an existential nightmare for the novel’s main character, Eve, as she tries to find her deepest self within the wreckage of the other selves she has abandoned.

My favorite crime novel was one I didn’t write about. But I echo the hosannas showered, in this paper and elsewhere, upon S.A. Cosby’s RAZORBLADE TEARS (Flatiron, 336 pp., $26.99) , a blistering and emotionally devastating portrait of parental grief and longstanding prejudice, and an express-train thriller of revenge achieved and denied. It’s brutal and violent and full of grace.

Finally, this year brought a bounty of welcome reissues. Those I rate highest are RHODE ISLAND RED , COQ AU VIN and DRUMSTICKS (all Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, paper, $16 each), Charlotte Carter’s jazz-inflected series featuring the street busker-turned-sleuth Nanette Hayes; Dorothy B. Hughes’s iconic 1946 noir novel, RIDE THE PINK HORSE (American Mystery Classics, 288 pp., paper, $15.95) ; the landmark 1987 puzzle mystery THE DECAGON HOUSE MURDERS (Pushkin, 288 pp., paper, $16) , by Yukito Ayatsuji; and Anthony Berkeley’s THE WINTRINGHAM MYSTERY (Harper 360/Collins Crime Club, 236 pp., $16.99) , republished for the first time in almost 95 years and a brilliant example of the author’s fiendish plotting skills.

Sarah Weinman’s crime fiction column appears twice a month in the Book Review.

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

The complicated, generous life  of Paul Auster, who died on April 30 , yielded a body of work of staggering scope and variety .

“Real Americans,” a new novel by Rachel Khong , follows three generations of Chinese Americans as they all fight for self-determination in their own way .

“The Chocolate War,” published 50 years ago, became one of the most challenged books in the United States. Its author, Robert Cormier, spent years fighting attempts to ban it .

Joan Didion’s distinctive prose and sharp eye were tuned to an outsider’s frequency, telling us about ourselves in essays that are almost reflexively skeptical. Here are her essential works .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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10 Best Sci-Fi TV Shows Based on Books, Ranked

W hether it's within the pages of books or on TV screens, sci-fi narratives are always thrilling. The best of them often stimulate the mind and captivate people’s imaginations while remaining grounded in reality. The increasing demand for sci-fi stories imply that viewers will not tire of this genre any time soon. Considering that unique and intriguing science fiction TV shows and movies continue to be churned out, it is evident that sci-fi is one of the most prevalent genres today.

Fans of sci-fi books understand the thrill of seeing their favorite stories adapted for the screen. If skillfully executed, seeing characters come to life deepens the reader’s connection to them. These visual adaptations not only bring intricate details in source materials to life, but also create a more immersive and tangible experience that extends beyond the reader’s imagination. Silo , for example, is one of the newest sci-fi TV series based on books, which has garnered a dedicated audience after it premiered in May 2023.

These 10 sci-fi TV shows bring the imaginative worlds created by authors to a larger audience.

Brave New World (2020)

Brave new world.

Release Date 2016-00-00

Main Genre Sci-Fi

Brave New World is loosely based on Aldous Huxley’s classic novel of the same name, which is set in a future where technological and scientific advancements have created a highly controlled and stable society. While everyone may seem happy in this utopian world, a hidden decay lurks beneath the surface.

What Makes It Great

This sci-fi TV show boasts a thought-provoking narrative that will appeal to both fans and non-fans of the source material. Despite not following the book closely, the series compensates with its great acting, excellent pacing, camera work, and visual effects. Rooted in the book’s universe, Brave New World proves to be an absolute enjoyment across its nine episodes for those willing to see it as its own story. Overall, it is a riveting sci-fi series that exposes the hypocrisies of the modern world.

Stream on Peacock

Under the Dome (2013-2015)

Under the dome.

Release Date 2013-06-24

Cast Eddie Cahill, Mackenzie Lintz, Alexander Koch, Rachelle Lefevre, Mike Vogel, Dean Norris, Colin Ford

Main Genre Drama

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, Under the Dome unfolds in the small town of Chester’s Hill, where a massive transparent dome descends, cutting the town from the outside world. As the town grapples with this abrupt isolation, tension arises, prompting characters to delve into the mystery behind the doom and its origins.

Opinions on Under the Dome are mixed, with some commending its suspenseful premise and exploration of individuals trapped in a confined environment. Others, however, argue that it deviates from its source material and has pacing issues. Nonetheless, for enthusiasts of Stephen King’s works or those who enjoy sci-fi shows set in small towns, this series proves to be intriguing, especially when viewed with an open mind. Notably, this sci-fi series features great love stories between its characters, emerging as one of its strongest points.

Stream on Paramount+

The 100 (2014-2020)

Release Date 2014-03-19

Cast Marie Avgeropoulos, Lindsey Morgan, Richard Harmon, Eliza Taylor, Bob Morley, jr bourne

Genres Family, Drama, Thriller

The 100 is a dystopian sci-fi series that sees the Earth no longer habitable, with the world's population residing in various spacecrafts. After some time, 100 delinquents are sent back to the planet's surface to test its habitability. While there, they form a new colony, but also face off against multiple threats that include, among many things, human survivors with no restraint and mutated creatures. Beyond its simple survival story, The 100 incorporates elements of political intrigue and power struggles among characters, making it more intriguing.

While there are some significant changes in plot, character development, and narrative direction, The 100 shares some fundamental concepts with Krass Morgan’s book series, on which it is based. Viewers who expect an exact adaptation may be disappointed, but the TV series is equally intriguing as the book, never afraid to delve into darker themes while constantly keeping viewers guessing about the fate of the characters and, by extension, humanity.

Stream on Netflix

Related: Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1950s, Ranked

Altered Carbon (2018-2020)

Altered carbon.

Release Date 2018-02-02

Cast Renee Goldsberry, Will Yun Lee, Anthony Mackie

Genres Sci-Fi

Set in a futuristic urban landscape reminiscent of Blade Runner , The Matrix and Akira , this Cyberpunk cinematic work centers on Takeshi Koviacs, who awakens centuries after his death to discover his consciousness has been placed in a new body. A gritty noir series, Altered Carbon is based on Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 novel of the same name.

While screen adaptations can’t translate every detail of a book, Altered Carbon effectively captures Takeshi Koviacs’ journey in a strange world marked by a big divide between the privileged and the less fortunate. Despite certain discrepancies between the book and series that may be noticed by those who have read the source material, Altered Carbon will be enjoyed by viewers who appreciate dystopian futures with a blend of well-choreographed action and philosophical exploration. The series boasts a compelling combination of an intriguing plot, strong characters, thought-provoking themes, and more, just like Morgan's novel.

The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-Present)

The handmaid's tale.

Release Date 2017-04-26

Cast O.T. Fagbenle, Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Joseph Fiennes, Ann Dowd

Genres Drama

Regarded as one of Hulu’s finest series , The Handmaid’s Tale unfolds in an authoritarian regime where women are treated like second-class citizens and any who tries to escape is punished. June is one of those who tried to escape her fate in this oppressive society but ends up getting caught and is forced to become a Handmaid, tasked with bearing children for childless government officials.

The Handmaid’s Tale transforms one of the most celebrated works of contemporary literature into a compelling yet nightmarish television series. It undoubtedly captivates viewers, immersing them in the miseries and emotions of its characters. Critically acclaimed for its faithful adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s book, the show, like its literary counterpart, has earned praise for its powerful exploration of real-life injustices and the dangers of religious extremism.

Stream on Hulu

Foundation (2021-Present)

Release Date 2020-00-00

Cast Lee Pace, Terrence Mann, Jared Harris

Inspired by the classic sci-fi novel series by American author Isaac Asimov, whose work has had a profound influence on the science fiction genre, the high-concept sci-fi series, Foundation , follows a band of characters as they join forces to prevent humankind from falling into the dark age.

While the series does stray somewhat from the book, Foundation is quite exceptional in its own rights. Although fans of the book may not be entirely happy with its deviation from the book's core aspects, some viewers agree that it is an epic story with an intellectual depth seen in its source material. For those willing to look beyond its faults, this AppleTV+ original emerges as a well-crafted, modernized sci-fi series with a cool concept, well-executed character arcs, and outstanding performances.

Stream on AppleTV+

The Man in the High Castle (2015-2019)

The man in the high castle.

Release Date 2015-01-15

Cast Ferry van Tongeren, Jaap Sinke, Chelah Horsdal, Jason O'Mara, Rufus Sewell, Brennan Brown, Alexa Davalos

The Man in the High Castle is a well-crafted portrayal of an alternate world where Nazi Germany and Japan both won World War II, and subsequently divided up America. Various characters living in this divided America navigate political intrigue, resistance movements, and a series of films depicting an alternate reality where the Allies won the war.

The Man in the High Castle is as ambitious and thought-provoking as Philip K. Dick’s historical novel, from which it is adapted. Despite its flaws, the series is a unique and visually striking series that delves into the darker side of authoritarian rule, while capturing humans' indomitable spirit in the face of harsh realities and adversity. As a brilliant alternate history TV show, it does its best to earnestly follow its well-written source material, with actors skillfully breathing life into both virtuous and villainous characters.

Stream on Prime Video

The Peripheral (2022)

The peripheral.

Release Date 2022-10-21

Cast T'Nia Miller, Gary Carr, Louis Herthum, JJ Feild, Jack Reynor, Chloe Grace Moretz

Genres Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Science Fiction

Rating TV-MA

Ranking among the best sci-fi series on Prime Video , The Peripheral is adapted from the 2014 novel by the renowned sci-fi author, William Gibson. The narrative revolves around a gamer who, after witnessing a murder in virtual reality, embarks on a journey to save humanity from a menacing force bent on destroying it.

The Peripheral is one of those adaptations that feel like you're actually watching the book come to life. It’s an exciting and original Prime Video show that demands viewers’ attention right from the onset as its twisty plot unfolds. While it’s often praised as a solid sci-fi series with great visuals and outstanding performances, others feel its premise is not fully developed. Despite any shortcomings, viewers who enjoy mysterious and engaging sci-fi will find satisfaction in both the book and the series.

Silo (2023-Present)

Release Date 2023-05-05

Cast Rebecca Ferguson, Common, Harriet Walter, Will Patton, Tim Robbins

Genres Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Creator Graham Yost

Read Our Review

An AppleTV+ series, Silo is an adaptation of the first book, Wool , from Hugh Howey’s trilogy of the same name. Set in a distant future where Earth has become uninhabitable due to toxic air and environmental hazards, this dystopian series follows a group of survivors who live in a massive underground structure known as the Silo.

Much like the book, the series presents an engaging storyline with great world-building and a gradual revelation of truth that keeps viewers invested in the characters’ fate. While some aspects of the show may be puzzling to viewers, fans of the book will, however, have a better understand of the unfolding of events and characters. It is an interesting and suspenseful dystopian series that many may find difficult to stop, just as readers similarly couldn’t put down the book.

The Expanse (2015-2022)

The expanse.

Release Date 2015-00-00

Cast Wes Chatham, Steven Strait, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Cas Anvar

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi

The Expanse is adpated from the series of sci-fi novels written by James S. A. Corey, the collective pseudonym for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Remaining true to its source material throughout its six seasons, the series begins with a mysterious conspiracy involving a missing woman which threatens the fate of earth. As the tension escalates, a tough detective and a renegade ship’s captain join forces to investigate the unfolding crisis.

The Expanse stands as a show committed to closely following its source materials, even though there may be minor differences between the show and the book, due to the latter’s more detailed nature. Also, while the book tells the story from the point of view of certain characters, the show unfolds through the perspective of various characters. Nevertheless, it is one mind-blowing sci-fi series .