Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Blog / en-US Mon, 24 Mar 2025 02:12:10 -0700 60 Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Blog / 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg /blog/show/2932-57-new-short-story-collections-to-curl-up-with Mon, 24 Mar 2025 02:12:10 -0700 <![CDATA[57 New Short Story Collections to Curl Up With ]]> /blog/show/2932-57-new-short-story-collections-to-curl-up-with





For today’s collection, we begin with an earnest appeal from the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ editorial team: If you’re not already in the habit, try mixing some short story collections into your regular diet of novels.

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It's great, we’re telling you. Short fiction moves to different rhythms, obviously, and it’s fascinating to see how different authors achieve different effects with the format. It’s also an absolutely fantastic way to discover new writers.

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We’ve gathered below a curated cross-section of new and recent single-author short story collections. All the books here have publication dates from the beginning of 2024 to April of this year.

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Some starting points, in no particular order: Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection features interconnected short fiction on the topic of, yes, rejection. Marie-Helene Bertino’s Exit Zero collects 12 strange tales on the guises of death. And dedicated fantasy readers already know that you just can’t miss with a Naomi Novik short story collection. Also look for new short fiction from Amanda Peters, Jared Lemus, Lydia Millet, and…hey, is that Rupert Everett? It is!

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Finally, our unofficial Best Book Title award goes to Jessie Ren Marshall for her exclamatory collection Women! In! Peril! Click on the cover images for more information about each book, and add any interesting leads to your Want to Read shelf.










posted by Cybil on March, 24 ]]> /blog/show/2930-historical-fiction-leaps-across-genres-in-these-45-recent-books Sun, 23 Mar 2025 23:59:13 -0700 <![CDATA[Historical Fiction Leaps Across Genres in These 45 Recent Books]]> /blog/show/2930-historical-fiction-leaps-across-genres-in-these-45-recent-books



As a genre, historical fiction tends to be restless. It often likes to jump shelves, wandering into other bookstore sections. This results in fun cross-category adventures like historical romance, historical fantasy, even historical sci-fi—a seemingly tricky maneuver, but it can be done.

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We’ve gathered several specimens of new and recent books in this area and sorted them into piles. Sarah Raughley’s The Queen’s Spade, for instance, is a streamlined historical mystery-thriller, with a kidnapped African princess fighting back against imperial power in 1862 London. Stephen Graham Jones� The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, likewise, brings historical horror—and vampires!—to the ruthless days of the American West.

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If you really want to cross some narrative wires, check out Kirsten Menger-Anderson’s new novel, The Expert of Subtle Revisions, which blends elements of mystery, love story, time travel, and Vienna circa 1933. You’ll find plenty of other veteran authors exploring these borderlands, including Jess Kidd, William Kent Krueger, Victor LaValle, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Brandon Sanderson.

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Scroll down for a tour of the cross-genre categories, and click on the book cover images for more details about each title. If anything looks promising, use the Want to Read button to add it to your digital shelf.

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Historical Mystery






posted by Sharon on March, 23 ]]> /blog/show/2919-48-new-nonfiction-nature-books-for-your-spring-reading Mon, 24 Mar 2025 00:25:20 -0700 <![CDATA[48 New Nonfiction Nature Books for Your Spring Reading ]]> /blog/show/2919-48-new-nonfiction-nature-books-for-your-spring-reading





Springtime always presents a dilemma for the dedicated bookworm. Get out in the sun, or stay in and read?

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Why not do both? We’ve gathered here 48 new nonfiction nature books on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, published over the past five years. You don’t have to read them outdoors and in the sun. But it’s more fun if you do.

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Many of the books here are species-specific or otherwise focused, so you can read up on your favorite plants and critters: mushrooms, raptors, owls, trees, sheep, horses, eels, and the occasional felonious moose. Others are more concerned with a comprehensive overview of our urgent ecological challenges. Some are maybe even life-changing, like Robin Wall Kimmerer’s instant classic The Serviceberry, which outlines an entire nature-based philosophy based on stewardship, gratitude, and community.

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So grab a chair and a sun hat and your favorite SPF number. As always, you can click on the book cover images for more details about each title, and use the Want to Read button to add books to your digital shelf.

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posted by Cybil on March, 24 ]]> /blog/show/2917-132-page-turner-books-to-help-you-beat-any-reading-slump Mon, 24 Mar 2025 01:08:18 -0700 <![CDATA[132 Page-Turner Books to Help You Beat Any Reading Slump]]> /blog/show/2917-132-page-turner-books-to-help-you-beat-any-reading-slump



April can be a tricky month for bookworms, especially those who set ambitious reading plans for the new year. Everyone starts with good intentions to read more, but then life starts to get lifey and the dreaded reading slump sets in.

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Today’s collection is designed to help combat this unfortunate phenomenon. We’ve assembled here a list of books scientifically engineered to be reading-slump busters. By “scientifically engineered� we mean “largely improvised,� but we did put our backs into this one by scouring our member data for tried-and-true recommendations from your fellow readers. Our editorial team can also personally vouch for the slump-busting abilities of some of the books below.

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We’ve sorted this collection into stacks so you can drill down to your personal areas of interest. You should be able to find several options here, whether you’re into superior fantasy worldbuilding or heart-tugging romance, page-turning mysteries or sanity-threatening horror. Watch for some specialty categories below, too.

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If you see any good leads, use the Want to Read button to add the book to your digital shelf. Happy reading!

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Stay-Up-All-Night Mystery-Thrillers






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Fantastical Worldbuilding


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Romances to Inspire Obsessive Love


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Too-Scared-to-Turn-Off-the-Lights Horror


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Sure-Bet YA


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Short Books to Read in a Single Sitting


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Immersive Longer Books That Will Hold Your Attention


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They've Withstood the Test of TimeÌýfor a Reason


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Quietly Beautiful Books That Inspire That Last-Page Sigh


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Bingeable Biographies & Memoirs


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Fascinating Microhistories


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posted by Sharon on March, 24 ]]> /blog/show/2916-from-1925-to-2024-100-years-of-popular-books-on-goodreads Sun, 23 Mar 2025 23:51:00 -0700 <![CDATA[From 1925 to 2024: 100 Years of Popular Books (on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ)]]> /blog/show/2916-from-1925-to-2024-100-years-of-popular-books-on-goodreads





Here at Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ World Headquarters, we like to occasionally step back for a really high-altitude assessment of readersâ€� favorite books. The idea behind today’s collection: Identify the most popular books published over the past 100 years, as determined by Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ members' digital shelves.

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To do this, we trawled through the most popular books on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and sorted by publication date, from 1925 to 2024. Then we picked out one title from at or near the top of each year. We didn’t always grab the top book for a few reasons. Repeats, for one—some eras are very Agatha Christie, for instance. Other years had multiple good contenders for the top spot and we resorted to metaphorical arm wrestling to determine which book made it in.

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We’re looking to curate a list that covers a wide range of genres, topics, authors, and ideas. You’ll see several stone-cold classics, along with a few books you probably read in your high school English class. Click around a bit and you’ll find beloved children’s books, famous fantasy worlds, scary-as-hell horror stories, pioneering historical fiction, literary science fiction, old-school whodunits, and several international blockbusters. (Also, if you’re in that kind of mood, a good deal of existentialist dread and grim dystopian visions.)

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Scan the list in chronological order to get a sense of the zeitgeist passing, as told from the shelves of fellow readers. It’s a fascinating collection. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ members are interesting, widely read, devastatingly good-looking people. Click on the book cover images for more information about each title, and use that Want to Read button to add books to your own aspirational shelf.

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1925

14942




1926

6251566




1927

545951




1928

355697







1929

57640287




1930

10974




1931

46114




1932

5129







1933

374388




1934

46164




1935

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1936

33052







1937

37415




1938

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1939

4395




1940

15622







1941

172366




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49552




1943

157993




1944

123933










1949

61439040




1950

6555529




1951

5107




1952

16981







1953

13079982




1954

13356706




1955

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1956

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1965

44767458




1966

25622780




1967

7597




1968

13642







1969

5081331




1970

292327




1971

179780




1972

52350







1973

21787




1974

38463




1975

52382796




1976

869208







1977

11588




1978

52916059




1979

11




1980

119073







1981

23878




1982

9328




1983

34497




1984

139253







1985

34454589




1986

15196




1987

6149




1988

10762786







1989

7763




1990

5805




1991

41219




1992

29044









1994

37004370




1995

92141




1996

13496







1997

1898




1998

9791




1999

17607




2000

3985







2001

6867




2002

2187




2003

17165596




2004

49628







2005

6334




2006

350540




2007

2459785




2008

2767052





















posted by Sharon on March, 23 ]]> /blog/show/2915-63-new-paperbacks-to-throw-in-your-bag-today Mon, 31 Mar 2025 11:24:32 -0700 <![CDATA[63 New Paperbacks to Throw in Your Bag Today]]> /blog/show/2915-63-new-paperbacks-to-throw-in-your-bag-today





With spring more or less springing, in the Northern Hemisphere anyway, the time has come to consider your portable and outdoor reading options.

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In today’s collection, we've selected 63 new paperback books published since the beginning of the year. (We threw in a few favorites from late December too, actually. There are no rules.) The idea with this set of titles was to scan for books that made a splash upon initial publication, and which are now available in cargo-pants-pocket-size paperback editions.

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You may have heard of some of these books, even if you weren’t particularly paying attention. You’ll find quite a few celebrity book club picks here, plus several Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Choice Award winners and nominees. For instance, Vanessa Chan’s The Storm We Madeâ€�concerning family and espionage in 1945 Malaya—was double nominated in 2024 for Readers' Favorite Historical Fiction and Readers' Favorite Debut Novel.

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Adventurous readers may want to check out Holly Gramazio’s debut, The Husbands, which blends romance, satire, and magical realism in the story of an infinite spouse generator. Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Orange expands his sprawling saga of Native American stories with Wandering Stars. Or if you’re in the mood for some literary sci-fi, Leif Enger’s dystopian vision I Cheerfully Refuse offers to short-circuit our collective doom loop with the power of hope.

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Click on the book cover images for more information about each title. If you spot any interesting leads, use the Want to Read button to add the book to your digital shelf.










posted by Cybil on March, 31 ]]> /blog/show/2914-readers-favorite-history-memoir-and-general-nonfiction-of-the-past-fi Mon, 24 Mar 2025 02:05:12 -0700 <![CDATA[Readers' Favorite History, Memoir, and General Nonfiction of the Past Five Years ]]> /blog/show/2914-readers-favorite-history-memoir-and-general-nonfiction-of-the-past-fi





Ever wondered about the excesses of 13th-century British monarchs? Or how religious cults get started? Or what it’s like to be clinically diagnosed as a sociopath?

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You can get these answers, and more, from today’s collection of facts, figures, phenomena, and nonfiction books.

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We’ve collected below the most popular recent nonfiction on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ over the past five years—the books that pop up most often on membersâ€� digital shelves. We’ve also sorted the collection into three general categories: History & Biography, Memoir, and General Nonfiction.

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For British monarchs and associated beheadings, try David Mitchell’s very fun, very weird Unruly. Amanda Montell’s Cultish digs into the history and psychology of fanaticism. And for the sociopath question, check out Patric Gagne’s utterly unique (and cleverly titled) Sociopath.

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You’ll also find books from acclaimed historians and nonfiction specialists including Erik Larson, Malcolm Gladwell, Isabel Wilkerson, and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

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Click on the book cover images for more information about each title. If you spot any interesting leads, use the Want to Read button to add the book to your digital shelf.



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History & Biography






posted by Cybil on March, 24 ]]> /blog/show/2913-get-ready-for-the-year-s-biggest-book-to-screen-adaptations Thu, 27 Mar 2025 10:01:29 -0700 <![CDATA[Get Ready for the Year's Biggest Book-to-Screen Adaptations ]]> /blog/show/2913-get-ready-for-the-year-s-biggest-book-to-screen-adaptations

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They say that the movie is never as good as the book, but at Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ we don’t think it’s a competition!

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Sci-fi, AI, cyborgs, bots, and speculative stories are what’s hot in 2025 ifÌýproduction studios and streaming services are any indication. Robert PattinsonÌýbecomes the face of Mickey7—or is he Mickey8—in the dystopian adaptation of Edward Ashton’s bestselling novel in theaters this March. Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s futuristicÌýKlara and the Sun is brought to life by the otherworldly Jenna Ortega, and Alexander SkarsgÃ¥rd puts the sizzle in cyborg in the Murderbot DiariesÌýon Apple TV+.

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There’s also a healthy dose of â€�80s and â€�90s nostalgia this year with remakes of Stephen King’s The Running Man and the Christopher Plummer sleeper spy thriller The Amateur.ÌýBridget JonesÌýis dating a younger man.ÌýAnd the franchise that just won’t die, a newÌýI Know What You Did Last Summer, will scare and surprise viewers and readers alike.

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We’ve curated thisÌýroundup of 25 books that are being adapted for feature films orÌýstreaming services for your viewing—and reading—pleasure. Some of these are already out, so you can begin bingeing immediately.

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There’s also information and links for both the books and theirÌýadaptations. Click on the book cover images for more information about each title, along with ratings and reviews from your fellow Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ enthusiasts. And you can use theÌýWant to ReadÌýbutton to add any possibilities to your digital shelf.

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Cinephiles and bibliophiles, unite!












What started as a reimagining of Jane Austen'sÌýPride and Prejudice is one of the most beloved chronicles of singledom. After sharing her diary, returning from the edge of reason, and , Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy shows Ms. Jones—or, ahem, Mrs. Robinson—chasing love of the May-December variety. Bridget is now older, not wiser, as she navigates widowhood and dating in the online era in this heartwarming, crackling comedy. Catch when you’re in the mood for love.














Mickey BarnesÌýis living life the seventh time around. An “expendable,â€� he’s a human clone on a dangerous mission to colonize the ice world of Niflheim. With his life literally disposable, Mickey transfers his personality and memories each time he dies. But things get complicated when Mickey is mistakenly left for dead and is welcomed back to his colony by…Mickey8. Two Mickeys cannot simultaneously exist, but what will happen when neither is willing to die? The highly anticipated film adaptation, starring Robert PattinsonÌýand by ÌýdirectorÌýBong Joon Ho,Ìý hits theaters on March 7.














Long Bright River follows Mickey, a compassionate Philadelphia police officer patrolling a neighborhood devastated by the opioid crisis. Mickey’s drug addict sister, Kasey, goes missing at the same time a series of prostitutes show up murdered in the neighborhood she patrols. It's a Good Morning America book club pick, and a Buzzfeed and NPR best book of the year, as Moore plots a gripping mystery amid addiction and allegiance in the city of brotherly love. The limited television series premieres on Peacock on March 13.














The Russians are taking control of the White House. A late-night phone call upends the life of FBI agent Peter Sutherland, whose career at the Bureau has been tainted by the legacy of his treacherous father. But the safety and security of the nation may be in Peter’s hands, as he races to expose a Russian mole and stop a conspiracy at the highest level of government. Based on Matthew Quirk’s spy thriller, catch Season 2 of Ìýon Netflix now.














What has the head of a dog, the body of a human, and the heart of a hero? When a police officer and his canine companion are injured on the job, an unconventional surgery creates canine crime fighter Dog Man. The first of this popular graphic novel series for kids hit the big screen in January with six-time Emmy winner Peter Hastings voicing the popular pup. Squirrels and scoundrels, beware! Dog Man fights crime, catches crooks and cats, and celebrates empathy and being yourself.














Is the ursine hero ofÌý30 books by Michael BondÌýarguably literature's most lovable British bear? All signs point to yes, including the astounding for the second Paddington film adaptation. (Sorry, Pooh.)ÌýThe third movie in the franchise, aptly titledÌý,Ìýfeatures an animated Amazonian adventure that takes Paddington and the Brown familyÌýback to his homeland. You can be sure they packed some marmalade sandwiches for the journey.














Societal shifts take center stage in The Leopard, the highly acclaimed historical fiction written by a bona fide Sicilian prince that describes the unification of Italy in the 1860s. Now a , Il Gattopardo tells the story of a decadent and declining aristocracy that find themselves sidelined by revolution and democracy. A scene-stealing dinner party and ball provide a taste of the world to come, where beautiful new faces effortlessly replace Palermo’s old-world order.














Small-time dope thieves pick the wrong mark in Dennis Tafoya’s debut crime thriller. Ray and Manny become fast friends in juvie and partners in crime posing as phony DEA agents where they rob minor-league drug dealers in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It’s the perfect life of crime until they hit a heist way over their heads and must reckon with a dealer willing to kill to settle the score. A score for streamers, Ìýpremieres on Apple TV+ this March.














The final book of the critically acclaimed Thomas Cromwell trilogy, Mantel’s flawless historical fiction traces the rise of Cromwell from obscurity to key adviser of Henry VIII and one of the most influential figures in British history. The Mirror & the Light follows Man Booker Prize–winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Between politics, religion, and all those wives, Cromwell’s history seems ready-made for TV. Ìýpremieres on PBS on March 23.














The subtitle says it all. Limonov: The Outrageous Adventures of the Radical Soviet Poet Who Became a Bum in New York, a Sensation in France, and a Political Antihero in Russia is a biography by French writer and journalist Emmanuel Carrère. In what she calls “an ambiguous life and a real adventure novel,â€� the book has been adapted into a film and tells the story of the magnetic underground artist and poet. Ìýhad a limited release in 2024 and hit theaters in February.














Mary Shelley’s timeless monster-and-mad-scientist face-off has inspired comic books, television shows, spin-off sequels, a bride, and more movies. This year, Frankenstein fans will get two additional tellings of Shelley’s original 1818 Gothic masterpiece. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The BrideÌýis slated for a September release, while Guillermo del Toro’s arrives in November. The monster is, indeed, alive and well.














It’s 2025. The economy is in shambles, crime is rampant, and survival is a spectator sport. Or at least it is for Ben Richards, who volunteers to be a contestant on the reality show The Running Man,Ìýwhere he must outmaneuver Hunters for 30 days to win $1 billion. Of course, if he loses, he pays the ultimate price—with his life, on live TV. The book was written by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, and Arnold Schwarzenegger brought this dystopian thriller to the big screen in the â€�80s. Now, it’s back and ready to run in theaters on November 21. Ìý














,Ìýa narrative Netflix series based on the nonfiction book The Woman Who Fooled the World by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, follows the rise and fall of Australian wellness influencer Belle Gibson. A fraud of the Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Delvey variety, 23-year-old Gibson rose to fame by claiming a healthy diet cured her of terminal brain cancer. The hitch? Gibson was never sick.














The first of the Murderbot Diaries, Alexander SkarsgÃ¥rd brings sizzle to the cyborg security agent in this Apple TV+ sci-fi series that premieres on May 16. Self-identified as Murderbot, it's hacked his internal systems to control itself. And like most machines that become self-aware, Murderbot wants to be alone, watch soap operas, and make diary updates. Over time, itÌýdevelops compassion for the scientists he serves and realizes the mission they are on is being compromised by an EvilSurvey team, plotting to reprogram Murderbot and kill them all.














Based on the popular book series, The Housemaid is a psychological thriller starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried and will be released just in time for the holidays. In this twisted tale of control and desire, Millie is an ex-con with a past who comes to the Winchesters' house as a live-in housekeeper but finds that some messes can’t be cleaned. Millie and Nina, the lady of the house who may or may not be recovering from a psychotic break, narrate this mind-bending thriller where both women are pushed to the brink.














Never one to shy away from difficult subjects, Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ favorite Colleen Hoover dives into the difficult relationships between mothers and daughters in Regretting You. Morgan and her teenage daughter, Clara, can barely relate and are pushed farther apart when an accident kills their husband and father. Back on the big screen with the adaptation of Regretting You, Hoover tackles family secrets, betrayals, and having the courage to face the truth.














Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s futuristic novel asks what it means to be human through the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend powered by the sun who serves as a companion to Josie, a genetically enhanced 14-year-old. As she navigates the world and tries to help her ailing human, Klara also bargains with her life force—the sun—to help JosieÌýsurviveÌýin this bittersweet story of love and connection. Known for her quirky characters, Jenna Ortega stars as Klara in the film adaptation out this year.














A nod to Nora Ephron’sÌýWhen Harry Met Sally, People We Meet on Vacation similarly tackles the question can men and women just be friends?ÌýPoppy and Alex have a friendship of the opposites-attract variety. But the two share a spirit of adventure, and we learnÌýtheir backstory through trips that crisscross the globe and chapters that travel through time. After a falling-out and years of not talking, Poppy reaches out to Alex to mend the friendship, and possibly more, on one final trip. Now a rom-com in its own right, Ìýhits Netflix this year.














In Orwell’s timeless allegory, horses, pigs, dogs, and donkeys live in peace and prosperity after they overthrow their farmer and gain control of the farm. But the ambitions and selfish nature of a pig called Napolean upend brief, bucolic bliss.ÌýWhat begins as dream of escaping tyranny shows how revolutions go awry, even among the animals. Directed by Andy Serkis, and with Keiran Culkin and Kathleen Turner, look for the third and latest adaptation of Animal FarmÌýthis summer. Ìý














Serial killers aren’t the only things that come back to life in a good horror. Duncan’s 1970s thriller was resurrected for audiences with the hit 1990s film, and this year brings a fresh retelling of the slasher story. Four teenagers kill a boy on his bicycle in a hit-and-run accident after a party. They make a pact to never mention their involvement in his death, but someone knows what they did and is going to make them pay. Franchise favorites Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt are back for the new movie release, just in time for summer.














It’s time for the second act. , the movie and second part of the musical that cemented Gregory Maguire’s place in popular culture, lands in theaters this November. If you’ve just crawled out from under a house, Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West fills in the backstory for the L. Frank Baum classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Thanks to Maguire, we learn that the green-skinned girl, Elphaba, isn’t wicked at all in this illuminating and imaginative fantasy.










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Even in the dystopian future, people travel to California looking for a better life—or long-lost brother. This is a futuristic story inspired by Nirvana and the idea of Kurt Cobain going on a road trip, and Swedish author Simon StÃ¥lenhag visually shows a future specked with nostalgia after the country is destroyed by a clone war, withÌýcopy blocks and artwork. The third in the Tales from the Loop series, The Electric State is being adapted into a starring Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger ThingsÌýand Chris Pratt. It is set to release on March 14.Ìý














When Charlie Heller’s fiancée is held hostage and killed by terrorists, he decides to take the matter of revenge into his own hands. A plot-driven spy thriller, The AmateurÌýtakes Charlie behind the Iron Curtain and to the underbelly of the CIA, where a double agent wants him dead. Made into a movie starring Christopher Plummer in 1981, the starring Rami Malek and Slow HorsesÌýdirector James Hawes will be released in April.














David Koepp is the most famous writer you’ve never heard of. He wrote the movies Jurassic Park,ÌýSpider-Man,Ìýand Mission: Impossible,Ìýbut Cold Storage is his first fiction. It’s everything a sci-fi thriller should be—gross, funny, captivating, and clever. A parasitic fungus accidentally escapes its container, and all of humanity is at risk for extinction. Pentagon bioterror operative Roberto Diaz is sent to stop it, but how? And is he too late? The film adaptation—also written by Koepp—stars Liam Neeson and is out this summer.














An improbable, epic adventure, Washington Black follows field-turned-house slave “Washâ€� through life and its incredible journey. Wash gets his freedom early on but lives with the echoes of slavery. He’s the likely culprit for the death of a man, and flees Barbados with his master’s brother in a hot-air balloon. Tracked by a bounty hunter and never fully free, Esi Edugyan’s third book explores the tension between slavery and freedom, oppression and possibility. The series based on the book comes to Hulu in 2025.Ìý








Which book-to-screen adaptationsÌýare you looking forward to? Let's talk books in the comments!







posted by Cybil on March, 27 ]]> /blog/show/2912-26-raucous-new-novels-featuring-very-messy-women Mon, 24 Mar 2025 00:43:12 -0700 <![CDATA[26 Raucous New Novels Featuring Very Messy Women]]> /blog/show/2912-26-raucous-new-novels-featuring-very-messy-women


Messy women of the world…assemble!



The very broad theme for this collection of books is messy women, and that can mean a lot of different things: women who find themselves in messes, women who make their own messes via questionable life choices, women who deliberately seek to get messy, and then the occasional and actual messy woman. Harried. Untidy. Bad with condiments.

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All of the books here are recent (published since January 2024) or coming very soon. Also, each title was specifically chosen by the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ editorial squad, exclusively composed of women who may or may not have some undisclosed experience with messiness themselves.

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This stuff seems to be in the zeitgeist just now. Several books listed below have hit a nerve and crossed over from bookworm circles into the larger pop culture conversation. Most fall into the category of contemporary or literary fiction, but there are a few interesting splashes of genre flavor concerning sentient protoplasm, AI chatbots, 1950s lesbian pulp fiction, and international incidents.

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Check out the descriptive intros, then click the book cover images for more details about each title. You can also use the Want to Read button to add interesting leads to your personal bookshelf.

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If it feels like every book club you hear about is reading this one, that’s because they are. Filmmaker, musician, and renaissance woman Miranda July has clearly hit a nerve with this portrait of an artist in middle age who deliberately upends her life in search of new freedoms—sexual, domestic, creative, and otherwise. Check out the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Ratings & Reviews pages for a wild (and ongoing) discussion of this irreverent and yet totally serious book. Ìý














When aspiring writer Jane married filmmaker John, they both had visions of a progressive, sane, egalitarian union—and the attendant joys of parenthood. But it didn’t work out that way. Sarah Manguso’s acclaimed 2024 novel chronicles one woman’s valiant efforts to hold it all together while the forces of tradition and inertia tear it all apart. The good news: A hopeful and nuanced coda is included.














With the razor-tipped novel Colored Television, Danzy Senna (Caucasia) delivers a dark comedy about cultural appropriation and Hollywood’s “racial identity–industrial complex.â€� While housesitting at a luxurious Los Angeles home, novelist Jane Gibson winds up making a Faustian bargain with the entertainment industry. Things go spectacularly wrong, but at least Jane's making use of thatÌýexcellent wine cellar. That’s not nothing.














Told with humor and heart, the latest from author Catherine Newman (We All Want Impossible Things) tells the story of one week in a Cape Cod beach rental, where matriarch Rachel (“Rocky�) has vacationed with her family for 20-odd years. With her kids growing up and her parents growing frail, Rocky stumbles her way through a kind of accelerated coming-of-middle-age journey. Messes are made. Secrets are revealed. Love is affirmed.














The tagline on this second novel from Korean American author R.O. Kwon (The Incendiaries) is pretty great: How brightly can you burn before you light your life on fire? That’s the question plaguing photographer Jin Han, whose obsession with ballerina Lidija Jung is artistic, sexual, intellectual, and soul-deep. Alas, there’s an existing marriage in play—and an old family curse. Exhibit is a literary queer romance with the intensity cranked up to 11.














Billed as a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior, Kiley Reid’s Come and Get It charts the adventures of Millie Cousins, senior-year residential assistant at the University of Arkansas, circa 2017. Amid shady professors and rowdy undergrads, readers will find plenty of smart women making plenty of questionable decisions. Also look for some interesting observations about privilege, race, queer politics, and campus power dynamics.














Finally, an answer to the age-old question: Can a determined woman find true love with a properly trained sentient blob? With her debut novel, author Maggie Su tells the story of 20-something Vi Liu and her quest to create the perfect boyfriend out of some discarded protoplasm. Su leans into the more playful traditions of magical realism to explore serious questions about desire and self-discovery. Sugary cereals are involved, somehow.














As a busy television executive and twice-divorced mother of two, Lisa Darling doesn’t have time for drama. But when handsome new coworker Zach Russo arrives in the office, she finds herself having feelings she hasn’t felt in a long, long time. Are these hot flashes a perimenopause symptom? Or are they hormonal flares in the traditional, old-fashioned sense? Hard to tell. Does it matter? Author Jane Costello has the details.














Inspired by the author’s own personal experiences, Crush presents a Generation X couple who decide to test the boundaries of marriage and desire in post-pandemic America. Author Ada Calhoun is a veteran journalist and has splashed around in these waters before via nonfiction (Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis). But with Crush, Calhoun aims for a different kind of truth through fiction.














Chicago-born author Claire Lombardo won a devoted readership with her 2019 intergenerational family drama, The Most Fun We Ever Had. Her new book profiles 57-year-old Julia Ames as she navigates the messy terrain of parental regret, evolving relationships, and life’s relentless changes. Lombardo is interested in the complex messiness of being human, especially in regard to family bonds.














Lambda Literary Fellow (and former criminal defense attorney) Anna Dorn is known for fast and funny books that splash around merrily in the weirdness of contemporary culture. Perfume & Pain follows the personal and artistic adventures of author Astrid Dahl, featuring antique perfume bottles, 1950s lesbian pulp fiction, and bossy vegans. Also: a very specific intoxicant cocktail known as the Patricia Highsmith.














Meanwhile, debut author Nussaibah Younis explores another part of the world—and the boundaries of grim humor—with her audacious dark comedy Fundamentally. After an awkward breakup in London, researcher Dr. Nadia Amin accepts an ethically questionable U.N. job offer at an Iraqi refugee camp. Nadia’s new gig goes in many unexpected directions as she deals with sullen staffers, overly optimistic volunteers, and a problematically horny Frenchman.














Teaching at a school for underprivileged boys in New York City, a young Palestinian woman gets mixed up with a street swindle by reselling Birkin bags in a doomed pyramid scheme. If that sounds like an unusual premise, that’s because Yasmin Zaher has written an unusual book. In fact, The Coin thoughtfully juxtaposes all sorts of interesting ideas: poverty and materialism; purity and corruption; misery and humor. America!














Acclaimed Australian writer Charlotte Wood (The Weekend) was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize with her latest novel, which follows a middle-aged Sydney woman on a kind of accidental (and possibly terminal) spiritual retreat. Fleeing from a failing marriage and crushing grief, our unnamed narrator winds up in a destitute monastery to ponder the big questions. What is the good life? How do we live ethically in this dying world? Also, what’s up with all these mice?














Thirty-two-year-old Sanjana is finally ready to divorce the husband she left a year ago, after a disagreement over whether or not the couple should have children (she's anti, he's pro). There's only one problem: He seems to have vanished. Her attempt to track him down leads her on a twisty journey to aÌýremote, maybe-cultishÌýresort run by her doppelgänger, Sanjena. Things get weird!Ìý














Brooklyn divorcée Rachel Bloom is back in the game. Kind of. Online dating apps have resulted in a few interesting encounters with younger men—and women, too—but no single person seems to have all the qualities Rachel needs. So she turns to technology and builds an A.I. chatbot programmed to maximize the emotional efficiency of midlife dating. Amy Shearn’s novel celebrates the escalating weirdness of just being human in the 21st century. Ìý














What’s a frustrated Muslim scholar to do when her artsy Ph.D. can’t even get her a middle-class salary in America? Why, marry rich, of course! The narrator in Liquid: A Love Story goes about this systematically, spreadsheeting out 100 dates without regard to ideology or gender—just money. Author Mariam Rahmani delivers a lacerating satire in the shape of a rom-com, with a satisfying twist ending in Tehran.














Set in the pulsing heart of Berlin’s underground arts scene, Good Girl introduces 19-year-old Nilab Haddadi, the daughter of middle-class Afghan refugees trying to stay low amid Germany’s metastasizing Islamophobia. Poet Aria Aber�s debut novel is a coming-of-age story, essentially, featuring warehouse raves, public housing, bad romance, and racial tensions.














Slated to hit shelves on April 8, Kate Folk’s debut novel profiles a delightful young woman who is…well, she’s sexually attracted to airplanes. Fatally attracted might be the better term—Linda hopes to marry her ideal aircraft one day by dying in a fiery crash. Look, the heart is a mysterious organ. Folk’s variation on the traditional love story goes in strange directions, but early readers are praising the book’s dark humor and genuinely lovable protagonist.














Also coming in April, Audition is the latest novel from celebrated author Katie Kitamura, whose 2021 novel, Intimacies, was longlisted for the National Book Award. Kitamura’s new story features a veteran actress from the New York City theater scene, her mysterious lunch companion, and some structural experimentation with competing narratives. Who are these two? What roles are they playing? Is this a novel or a puzzle? The answer is yes.














Francine Stevenson is a mess, but for entirely understandable reasons. After years of caring for her fragile mother, Francine is wrecked by mom’s sudden death. Pills and disco dancing help, but not enough. Then one day a bullied 10-year-old shows up at her door seeking refuge, and everything changes. Renee Swindle’s heart-tugger, coming April 25, explores ideas about friendship and grief, loneliness and connection, and the power of laughter versus despair.














Coming in May, author Honor Jones� debut novel tells the story of a recently divorced mom forced by circumstances to return to her childhood home. Living in perpetual flashback mode, Margaret tries to care for her daughters in the haunted spaces of her own childhood. A book about the essential tyranny of adulthood, Sleep provides a carefully observed character portrait of a woman who's determined to be the mother she never really had.














Thirty-year-old trans woman Max is disappointed with her career as a lawyer, her ambitions as a poet…everything, really. So when she tumbles down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve Party, Max decides to leverage the head-rattling experience and make one more go at the heteronormative life. Author Nicola Dinan (Bellies) explores issues of reinvention, regret, and the treacherous allure of domesticity—on shelves May 25.














And now for something completely different: Darrow Fair’s debut novel, coming in May, features a young woman in a very specific kind of trouble. Kidnapped and held for ransom by European political activists, headstrong 17-year-old Severine Guimard makes a series of dubious decisions, international headlines, and maybe even…some friends. Youthful exuberance meets Marxist ideology in the age of viral celebrity. Good times!














YA author Renée Ahdieh (The Wrath and the Dawn) makes her adult fiction debut with Park Avenue, which is being pitched as Succession meets Crazy Rich Asians. Young Manhattan lawyer Jia Song has just been dispatched to help her firm’s biggest client, an impossibly wealthy Korean family that’s coming apart at the seams. In public. In spectacular fashion. Turns out jet-set crisis management can get messy. Coming in June.














Finally, if you can wait until July, this tragicomic debut from author Katie Lee argues that even the worst messes can be cleaned up with grace and humor. Told over the course of several months, Yee’s book follows a Chinese American woman as she navigates marital infidelity and cancer at the same damn time. It’s laugh-or-cry territory, clearly, and our narrator copes by going both ways at once. Recommended for fans of Nora Ephron and Crying in H Mart.



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posted by Sharon on March, 24 ]]> /blog/show/2907-8-new-books-recommended-by-readers-this-week Mon, 24 Mar 2025 10:51:24 -0700 <![CDATA[8 New Books Recommended by Readers This Week]]> /blog/show/2907-8-new-books-recommended-by-readers-this-week
Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day,Ìýaccording toÌýearly data from your fellow readers.



To create our list, we focused on the booksÌýÅ·±¦ÓéÀÖ members can't wait to read, which we measure by how many times a book has been added toÌýWant to Read shelves. All these top titles are now available in the United States! Which ones catch your eye?

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Ìý Best books of the week:












You should read this book if you like: Contemporary romance, handsome veterinarians, cute kittens, perfect date nights, the perils of indecision, authors who are also cupcake moguls, Just for the Summer














You should read this book if you like: Contemporary fantasy, historical fiction, magical realism, dual timelines, Ireland circa 1800, Australia circa 2019, the deep dark magic of the sea, Weyward














You should read this book if you like: The literary end of the mystery genre, wilderness suspense, the Appalachian Trail, missing hikers, determined game wardens, armchair detectives, Sea Wife














You should read this book if you like: Contemporary fiction, realistic fiction, family drama, estranged siblings, Vietnamese sandwich shops, comedy-drama mixes, The Fortunes of Jaded Women














You should read this book if you like: Fantasy, mystery, genre blending, biotechnology, titanic monsters, alternate-universe Sherlock Holmes vibes, particularly cool speculative fiction worldbuilding, Foundryside














You should read this book if you like: Cozy mysteries, overly inquisitive tea shop owners, San Francisco police detectives, maternal matchmaking efforts, good intentions, varied outcomes, the Vera Wong series














You should read this book if you like: Fantasy, romance, vampires, queer relationships, ancient races that survive on human blood, subsequent complications thereof, subtext concerning systemic oppression, debut novels














You should read this book if you like: Nonfiction, creative how-to guides for aspiring authors, analytical essays, practical advice, generative writing prompts, Substack newsletters, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird



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posted by Sharon on March, 24 ]]>