20 new books to read right now.
Many years ago, I overheard a woman on the subway say that she tries to read 100 books every year. Personally, I’m much too slow to do that, but I think of her often and hope she’s well. Maybe she’ll even stumble across this list of new books coming out this week and get a little inspiration.
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Paul Auster, Bloodbath Nation
(Grove Press)
“Exceptional in its clarity and arresting in its sense of urgency … A harrowing, haunting reflection on the routine slaughter wrought by guns.”
–Kirkus
Pico Iyer, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise
(Riverhead)
“Everywhere Pico Iyer travels his keen vision allows him to see both ravishing beauty and profound flaws … His wide-ranging quest is a useful reminder that the journey often is more absorbing than any destination.”
–Shelf Awareness
Janet Malcolm, Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory
(FSG)
“This posthumous, delectably personal volume is a gift to all who have been happily provoked by her cutting observations, refusal to play nice, and mordant wit and a boon for every reader in search of superbly precise memoiristic essays.”
–Booklist
An Yu, Ghost Music
(Grove Press)
“An intriguing book that knits together music and life to touch on something profound.”
–The Guardian
Daniele Mencarelli, tr. Wendy Wheatley, Everything Calls for Salvation
(Europa)
“A young Italian man is involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward in Mencarelli’s evocative work of autofiction, his English-language debut.”
–Publishers Weekly
Kashana Cauley, The Survivalists
(Soft Skull)
“Funny and fresh, Cauley’s prose moves dynamic characters through a vivid, living New York City.”
–Kirkus
Jessica Johns, Bad Cree
(Doubleday)
“This gripping horror debut … is a satisfying slow burn that explores loss, generational trauma, and violence through a narrative that is chilling yet, at its center, burning with a defiant resilience.”
–Electric Lit
Kai Thomas, In the Upper Country
(Viking)
“Engrossing and intensely readable, this book represents just the beginning of a larger narrative, with many chapters yet to be told; very highly recommended.”
–Library Journal
Oindrila Mukherjee, The Dream Builders
(Tin House)
“A sweeping debut … [Mukherjee] does a great job capturing the setting and exploring the fateful power dynamics … a penetrating look at the fast-growing country’s shaky façade.”
–Publishers Weekly
Fatin Abbas, Ghost Season
(W. W. Norton)
“Abbas skillfully navigates boundaries between the disparate players and builds a fine drama out of their negotiations and bonds. Readers will be captivated by this immersive novel.”
–Publishers Weekly
Stephen Markley, The Deluge
(Simon & Schuster)
“An ambitious rendering of a forbidding future and the public and private challenges that will define it.”
–Kirkus
Lauren Fleshman, Good for a Girl
(Penguin Press)
“Good for a Girl is a necessary, important read that will enlighten athletes of all genders, their coaches and those who cheer for them.”
–Shelf Awareness
Eleni Sikelianos, Your Kingdom
(Coffee House Press)
“Sikelianos’s classic style always shows that she is the master of the line, especially the enjambed line, and she is able to write adeptly about this moving toward death that is hidden from her reader.”
–VIDA
Ferit Edgü, tr. Aron Aji, The Wounded Age and Eastern Tales
(NYRB)
“His unique voice has long been a force in Turkish literature and is translated by Aron Aji with the same haunting vigor.”
–Ayşegül Savas
Jamila Minnicks, Moonrise Over New Jessup
(Algonquin)
“An outstanding writer, Minnicks excels at capturing the atmosphere and issues of a specific locale at a particular time, the Deep South at the dawn of the civil rights era.”
–Library Journal
Laura Zigman, Small World
(Ecco)
“A moving story about the power of family secrets, sisterhood, and memory.”
–Booklist
Suzie Sheehy, The Matter of Everything
(Knopf)
“With punchy writing and vivid historical details, Sheehy brilliantly captures the curiosity that fuels science.”
–Publishers Weekly
Wheeler Parker and Christopher Benson, A Few Days Full of Trouble
(One World)
“ In this moving and important book, the Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. and Christopher Benson give us a unique window onto the anguished search for justice in a case whose implications shape us still. A vital and absorbing book.”
–John Meacham
Deena Mohamed, Shubeik Lubeik
(Pantheon)
“Mohamed’s bold, expressive illustrations split the difference between cartoon and realism, with brightly colored details.”
–BookPage
Prince Harry, Spare
(Random House)
“Rarely does a book have us hooked with just its title, but Prince Harry’s evocatively titled memoir, an apparent reference to his being the royal family’s ‘spare’ heir, promises to be a scintillating personal account.”
–USA Today
