guardian book reviews november 2021

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Book of the day Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings review – a perfectly realised fictional creation

Politics books does counter-terrorism work by richard english review – a thoughtful and authoritative analysis.

The big idea The big idea: why going shopping is due a comeback

News scottish authors criticise cancellation of glasgow literary festival aye write.

Carol Rumens's poem of the week Poem of the week: The Haunted Oak by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Book of the day Rural Hours by Harriet Baker review – the country lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann

Children's book reviews round-up Picture books for children – reviews

• All stories

Books of the year

Books of the year The best books of 2023

2023 in Culture The best books to give as presents this Christmas

Alison flood’s best crime novels and thrillers of 2023, rachel cooke’s best graphic novels of 2023, what to read.

Paperbacks This month’s best paperbacks: Margaret Atwood, Curtis Sittenfeld and more

Five of the best Five of the best books about social media

100 best novels of all time From The Pilgrim's Progress to True History of the Kelly Gang

The 100 best books of the 21st century

100 best nonfiction books of all time From Naomi Klein to the Bible – the full list

Non-fiction reviews.

Computing and the net books Literary Theory for Robots by Dennis Yi Tenen review – the deep roots of AI

Society books The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman review – what’s it worth?

History books How to Win an Information War by Peter Pomerantsev review – the radio host who beat Goebbels at his own game

Biography books byron: a life in ten letters review – dispatches from a lusty life.

Essays All Things Are Too Small by Becca Rothfeld review – bracing and brilliant essay collection

Memoir A Very Private School by Charles Spencer – a history of violence

History books The Rising Down by Alexandra Harris review – the joy of Sussex

Fiction & poetry reviews.

Fiction Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar review – an antihero in search of meaning

Translated fiction roundup The best translated fiction – review roundup

Fiction Choice by Neel Mukherjee review – parables for our times

Fiction Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel review – tale of teenage girl boxers scores a knockout

Fiction Practice by Rosalind Brown review – tea, yoga and sonnets

Fiction Memory Piece by Lisa Ko review – anxiety hums off the page in dystopian New York story

Fiction in translation Before the Queen Falls Asleep by Huzama Habayeb review – a memory palace built in exile

Children's and ya books.

Children's book roundup The best new picture books and novels

Children's book reviews round-up Young adult books roundup – reviews

Liu Cixin I’m often asked – there’s science fiction in China?

Mat Osman I wanted to write about a real London – dirty, dangerous, working class

Barbi Marković The real horror story is life itself

The Rev Richard Coles I think my CV looks like the work of a fantasist

Tommy Orange My whole family has had problems with addiction, including myself

Joanne Harris Some of us don’t see the line between the books and the world

Jon Cruddas Labour has to rediscover its moral purpose

The books of my life John Cooper Clarke: ‘I read Kerouac at 12 and figured I could improve on it’

Big idea the big idea: why going shopping is due a comeback.

Where to start with Where to start with: Buchi Emecheta

You may have missed.

‘You can see it as a revenge fantasy’ The new book arguing that enslaved people co-authored the Bible

Electric, poignant, exquisitely written Inside the inaugural Women’s prize for nonfiction shortlist

‘End of the world vibes’ Why culture can’t stop thinking about apocalypse

From Brideshead to Saltburn Why we can’t get enough of country house stories

Most viewed, most viewed in books, most viewed across the guardian, ‘outdated and misleading’: is it time to reassess the very concept of money, the big idea: why going shopping is due a comeback, crooked seeds by karen jennings review – a perfectly realised fictional creation, bri lee: ‘writing about getting molested is why i now enjoy artistic freedom. that’s cooked’, scottish authors criticise cancellation of glasgow literary festival aye write, poem of the week: the haunted oak by paul laurence dunbar, does counter-terrorism work by richard english review – a thoughtful and authoritative analysis, picture books for children – reviews, rural hours by harriet baker review – the country lives of virginia woolf, sylvia townsend warner and rosamond lehmann, franz kafka’s dour image hid a much lighter side, a new exhibition reveals, everyone in japan will be called sato by 2531 unless marriage law changed, says professor, the new science of death: ‘there’s something happening in the brain that makes no sense’, adidas bans fans from adding ‘44’ to german team football shirt, the soft life: why millennials are quitting the rat race, live middle east crisis live: briton and dual us citizen among seven killed in israeli strike in gaza, food aid charity says, avalanche at zermatt ski resort in switzerland kills three people, video shows california police fatally shooting teenager who was reported kidnapped, trump posts $175m bond in civil fraud case and averts asset seizures, trump gag order expanded after he attacks judge’s daughter on social media, ‘not even water’: ramadan radio show demystifies dutch muslim life.

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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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By James Wood

The Best Books to Read This November

Our picks for the 13 standout new releases of the month.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

This month, dive into a memoir by a royal whose legacy was cut short, immerse yourself in the history (and present) of a Hollywood's stalwart who's seen it all and is telling the tales, tear into a new novel in the series that's inspired one of our favorite literary (and television) obsessions, investigate the intricacies of the British aristocracy and royal marriages, or visit some of the world's most beloved destinations without ever leaving home.

1001 Days: Memoirs of an Empress

Written by Empress Farah Pahlavi—Iran's first and final crowned Empress—in 1976, this memoir, released only now, tells the story of how she came to find herself on the throne, the ways in which she and her husband envisioned a new Iran, and reality that the couple and their country faced. It's a fascinating story of power and hope, and a glimpse at how the world we live in could have been. 

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Solid Ivory: Memoirs

James Ivory has spent his life telling other people's stories as a director ( A Room With a View ,  Howard's End ,  The Remains of the Day ) and screenwriter ( Call Me By Your Name ), but in this revealing new memoir, the filmmaker unveils a tale he's nevertold before: his own. It's a touching, illuminating story about growing up in a world to which he didn't quite belong—seasoned, of course, with delicious stories of a life in showbiz—that's essential reading for any fan of his work on screen. 

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Featuring written works from Barry Jenkins, Lynn Nottage, Bryan Stevenson, Natasha Trethewey, and more, this book expands on the New York Times Magazine 's award-winning 1619 project with essays, poems, and works of fiction that examine how the legacy of slavery has impacted nearly every aspect of American life. 

Our Country Friends: A Novel

In what might be the first great novel to address the recent pandemic, Gary Shteyngart ( Super Sad True Love Story ) tells the tale of a group of friends who head to a house in the countryside to wait out lockdown restrictions. Over the next six months, the crew—writers, techies, friends, foes, and a movie star—stumbles hilariously through good times and bad, raising questions about the strength of friendship, the limits of chosen family, and the things that happen when we're all trapped inside. 

All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business

Career retrospective can be the dreariest of literary forms but not when written by the comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks, who has worked with some of the most interesting people on the planet. Brooks got his start on the Catskills circuit and then landed a spot in the writers room on Sid Ceasar’s  Your Show of Shows,  which included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. His autobiography delves into his inspiration and process creating films like  Young Frankenstein  and  The Producers  (both the film and theater versions) and his creative partnerships with people like Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, and of course, his wife Anne Bancroft.

Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone: A Novel (Outlander)

A Life of Picasso IV: The Minotaur Years 1933-1943

This fourth and final chapter of the late biographer John Richardson's series on Pablo Picasso follows the artist from 1933 though 1943 in France, Spain, and beyond—as he creates "Guernica" and "Minotauromachie" and meets Françoise Gilot. Richardson not only captures Picasso's genius in this work, but is brilliant himself in his observation and prose; reading his work can feel akin to standing in front of a great piece of art. 

Gallery Books Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan

This book, by the author of  Diana's Boys  explores the adult lives of princes William and Harry and investigates how this relationship could shape the future of the British monarchy. It goes beyond the headlines to explore how these two brothers (and the women they married) relate to one another and maneuver the world around them, and what it could mean for the future of one of the world's most watched dynasties. 

Roar!: A Collection of Mighty Women

Artist Ashley Longshore's latest is a collection of her unmistakable portraits, and the subjects are all inspiring women who've made their mark on the world, from Marie Curie to Maya Angelou, Peggy Guggenheim, Queen Elizabeth II, and Amanda Gorman. (Signed copies are available!)

Silent Cities: Portraits of a Pandemic: 15 Cities Across the World

It might be hard to recall now, but at the height of the recent pandemic, some of the world's busiest sites—from the Great Wall to the Colosseum—were eerily empty. Seeing these iconic places in new ways was strange, but also often striking. In this new book, Jeffrey H. Loria and Julie Loria recall the look of 15 global cities during their lockdowns, reminding us of the beauty that can be found in stillness and the resilience of the human race. 

ASSOULINE Diamonds: Diamond Stories

Clocking in at 260 pages, with nearly 200 images, this arresting love letter to natural diamonds celebrates the world's most coveted stone by telling the history of some of its most famous examples (including the Hope and Beau Sancy diamonds) and sharing insight from designers and aficionados. It might not replace the gift of jewelry this holiday season, but it's a truly excellent addition to any enthusiast's collection. 

Beachside: Windsor Architecture and Design

Whether or not you'll be spending time in Windsor—the destination community in Vero Beach, Florida—this winter, you can enjoy the distinctive look of the fabled getaway, including homes built by star architects and designed by the likes of John Stefanidis, Steven Gambrel, and Alessandra Branc, in this eye-catching new tome. 

Luxury: A History

Luxury: A History  is an ambitious title, one that demands a lot of moxie, reportorial rigor, and depth of experience of its author. The journalist Jill Spalding, a longtime magazine editor, critic, and radio broadcaster more than fits the bill, and her newest work is not just any old coffee table book but a Leviathan that admirably traces the arc of this hotly debated and sought-after concept, from Cleopatra all the way to Jenny from the Block. Its big takeaway: Love may not cost a thing but luxury does. 

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Here Are the 10 New Books You Should Read in November

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.

C ozy reading season starts now, with a crop of stirring new books offering something for everyone to curl up with. For those looking to reflect on deeply unsettling recent history, there’s Gary Shteyngart’s new novel set at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when a group of friends enter lockdown together in a country home. For those eager to escape, Nnedi Okorafor offers a break from reality with her latest work of sci-fi about an outcast living in near-future Nigeria. There are powerful essay collections from Ann Patchett and Emily Ratajkowski , incisive examinations of history and more. Here, the 10 new books you should read in November.

Our Country Friends , Gary Shteyngart (Nov. 2)

The plot of Gary Shteyngart’s new novel will hit close to home for many: in March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic makes itself known around the world, a group of friends decide to wait out lockdown together in a Hudson Valley home. Shteyngart details their conversations, frustrations, confusions and betrayals over the following six months. It’s a darkly comedic examination of isolation, friendship and love—a novel that captures the absurd, sad and sometimes funny moments that accompany living through an era that feels increasingly apocalyptic.

Buy Now: Our Country Friends on Bookshop | Amazon

1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, Ai Weiwei (Nov. 2)

In his new memoir, acclaimed artist and activist Ai Weiwei looks back on his life and family history. The author dives deep into the hardships that his father, Ai Qing, endured during China’s Cultural Revolution—and how that familial history shaped his own childhood and artistry. 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows is a close look at a father-son dynamic, written in affecting terms, as well as a narrative about legacy, politics and creativity.

Buy Now: 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows on Bookshop | Amazon

The Perishing , Natashia Deón (Nov. 9)

It’s 1930s Los Angeles when a teenager named Lou wakes up in an alley with no idea how she got there. Though she tries to get her life back on track—she gets placed with a nice foster family and eventually gets a job as a journalist—Lou is haunted by her lack of knowledge about her past. It turns out, as Natashia Deón describes in her intricately crafted novel, that Lou is immortal. As Lou learns more about her existence, she becomes determined to understand who she is and all that she experienced before this moment. It’s a plight that Deón illustrates in vivid and thrilling terms.

Buy Now: The Perishing on Bookshop | Amazon

My Body , Emily Ratajkowski (Nov. 9)

Last year, model and actor Emily Ratajkowski wrote an essay that went viral about reclaiming her image after multiple artists profited off of creating works based on her likeness. The piece delved into her relationship with the paparazzi, our culture’s obsession with female beauty and issues of consent. Building off those themes, Ratajkowski presents her hotly anticipated debut essay collection . In My Body , the author outlines her rise in the fashion and film industries as well as her journey to motherhood through essays that coalesce into a frank and intimate portrait of womanhood, power and sexuality.

Buy Now: My Body on Bookshop | Amazon

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity , David Graeber and David Wengrow (Nov. 9)

In their comprehensive account of human history, David Graeber and David Wengrow urge us to reconsider everything we thought we knew about social evolution. They outline how many of the assumptions we’ve come to accept as facts—including the rise of agriculture, the formation of cities and the evolution of social hierarchies—are not necessarily based on heaps of scientific evidence. They examine lesser-known findings in archeology and anthropology to highlight all that we don’t know about human history. The result is an illuminating and accessible new book that doesn’t just debunk the past, but also looks at how that past will impact the future.

Buy Now: The Dawn of Everything on Bookshop | Amazon

Noor , Nnedi Okorafor (Nov. 16)

The protagonist of Nnedi Okorafor’s thrilling new work of science fiction is a partially robotic woman who likes to be called AO, short for Artificial Organism. She’s living in a near-future Nigeria where she’s always felt different from everyone around her because of the augmentations made to her body. On a trip to the local market, AO is thrown into an unexpected situation with dire consequences that leaves her no choice but to run. She teams up with a herdsman who has been wrongfully accused of terrorism, and the two embark on a page-turning journey where they must do what it takes to survive. It’s an unsettling narrative that Okorafor imbues with searing commentary on the impact of technology on humanity .

Buy Now: Noor on Bookshop | Amazon

Reclamation , Gayle Jessup White (Nov. 16)

Growing up, Gayle Jessup White heard stories that suggested her father’s family were direct descendants of Thomas Jefferson. It wasn’t until several years later that the author confirmed her father’s ancestry, and learned that she was a direct descendant of not only Jefferson but also of Peter Hemings, the brother of Sally Hemings. In her memoir, Jessup White chronicles the research process that led her to these realizations and grapples with what it meant to her to learn about her family’s past. Her book is a stunning portrait of a woman reckoning with her racial identity and a powerful narrative about family legacy and racism in America.

Buy Now: Reclamation on Bookshop | Amazon

These Precious Days: Essays , Ann Patchett (Nov. 23)

Pulitzer Prize finalist Ann Patchett ruminates on life, friendship and love in her latest essay collection. The titular piece is a heartbreaking account of Patchett’s unexpected bond with Tom Hanks’ late assistant, Sooki—the two women forged a deep connection, with Patchett eventually housing Sooki while she underwent cancer treatments. Other essays are less devastating and vary in subject, from a meditation on Snoopy to her memories of time spent in Paris. Throughout, Patchett’s voice shines through as she breaks down the quiet moments of everyday living in her sharp and witty prose.

Buy Now: These Precious Days on Bookshop | Amazon

Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult , Faith Jones (Nov. 30)

Faith Jones grew up on a farm in Macau where she belonged to the extremist religious cult Children of God, which was founded by her grandfather. In her memoir, she describes her troubling coming-of-age, marked by hours of praying and preparing for the End Times. At 23 years old, Jones broke away from the cult and the only life she ever knew in order to get an education, eventually going to law school. Both inspiring and disturbing, Sex Cult Nun unravels Jones’ complicated upbringing, the trauma she endured as a result and her eventual path to liberation.

Buy Now: Sex Cult Nun on Bookshop | Amazon

People from My Neighborhood: Stories , Hiromi Kawakami (Nov. 30)

The characters that populate Hiromi Kawakami’s newly translated collection of interlinked stories are all in situations both strange and somehow terribly ordinary. Among them are a child who never ages, another who stores doll brains in a drawer and an elderly man with two very different shadows. These peculiar characters live in 26 tightly drawn narratives that feature Kawakami’s signature unsparing and clever prose. Like her novel Strange Weather in Tokyo , Kawakami’s latest is an offbeat and energetic look at the magical and mysterious elements that can arise in the most normal circumstances.

Buy Now: People from My Neighborhood on Bookshop | Amazon

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Best comics and graphic novels of 2021

Alison Bechdel on her exercise obsession and a spectacular cold war epic from Marvel veteran Barry Windsor-Smith are among this year’s finest

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Over the last 12 months, graphic novels have explored everything from injustice to hedonism. But perhaps unsurprisingly in a year that saw many reflect on their lives, a crop of fine memoirs dominated the shelves.

The biggest event of the year was the return of Alison Bechdel . The Secret to Superhuman Strength (Jonathan Cape) is a meditation on exercise and happiness that paints the Vermont cartoonist as a “neurotic wretch”, moving between sporting obsessions as relationships come and go. Karate, running, cycling, skiing and yoga all promise peace of mind, but it never lasts. Bechdel’s previous books have made her one of the superstars of graphic fiction, and this funny, perceptive and merciless account shows that, while her personal bests may have slipped, her talent remains undimmed.

Lauded in her native France, Élodie Durand’s Parenthesis (Top Shelf; translated by Edward Gauvin) is finally available in English. Durand’s young life was shattered by a tumour that brought severe memory loss, epilepsy, pill after pill and operation after operation. She draws tense consultations, giant tumours and gouged self-portraits in a desperately affecting book about the struggle to hold on to yourself when your world is in pieces.

Sabba Khan’s family moved from Kashmir to east London before she was born. The artist and architectural designer puts her overlapping identities at the heart of The Roles We Play (Myriad), which explores history, culture, family ties and psychotherapy. Imaginative framing, expressive sketches and thoughtful prose combine in a fascinating debut full of acute observations (after the 2005 London bombings, her headscarf has “grown louder than me”), with a recommended song for every chapter.

Where Khan explains herself with scrupulous care, Shira Spector’s Red Rock Baby Candy (Fantagraphics) spins a chaotic spectacle of bright collages and strange visions, her text bouncing off drum kits and reaching into bloodstains and ink spills. Vibrant illustrations sit alongside descriptions of her father’s cancer diagnosis and her attempts to conceive in an inventive debut memoir that’s as deeply felt as it is stylistically playful.

The finest British graphic novel of the year was In. by Will McPhail (Sceptre), a clever and touching account of a young illustrator dealing with his mother’s illness and his own ennui. This beautifully composed debut mixes nuanced observation with hipster satire, and scalpel-sharp one-liners about the things that don’t matter with stumbling attempts to articulate the things that do.

It has been some time since Barry Windsor-Smith was a promising newcomer – the comics veteran began his career drawing for Marvel 50 years ago – but Monsters (Jonathan Cape) is likely to be his defining work. This big, bruising epic about an attempt to create a cold war supersoldier features Nazi scientists, helicopter gunfights and psychic powers. But while Windsor-Smith doesn’t shirk on spectacle, he’s more interested in pulling back the curtain on sordid military-industrial compromises, and showing how hate leaches from one man to another in a study of violence, redemption and parenthood.

Exploitation echoes down the centuries in historian Rebecca Hall’s Wake (Particular), which delves into the neglected story of female slavery and resistance. Hall combines re-creations of revolts with an account of her own research, which is held back by unhelpful archivists and myopic official histories. She uncovers vital details, such as why women played a crucial role in slave-ship mutinies – they were often left unchained on deck. Aided by Hugo Martínez’s stark artwork, Hall compellingly describes the terror and resilience of people who were brought across the ocean in shackles and enslaved for generations, speaking of reckonings still to come.

Slavery shadows Dash Shaw’s Discipline (New York Review of Books), a startling, panel-free work that follows a Quaker family ruptured by the American civil war. Brother Charles abandons pacifism to fight for the Union, while his sister Fanny deals with schisms at home in a book whose powerful images spring out of white space. The seasons change as war takes its toll, and earnest letters – adapted from real correspondence – beat with tension beneath their matter-of-fact surface.

There was hedonism too this year, in the return of Brecht Evens, whose The City of Belgium (Drawn and Quarterly) explores a bacchanalian nightscape. Three characters, their lives on the edge of change, dance their way through lurid bars and dark passageways in a swirl of tall tales and lush inking. Evens is a master of crowd scenes and colour, and his psychedelic symphony bleeds into a pensive, washed-out dawn that suggests that even the wildest trips must end sometime.

Simon Hanselmann drew a webcomic every day for the first nine months of the pandemic. The collected Crisis Zone (Fantagraphics) sees his longstanding cast of witches and anthropomorphic animals cram themselves into a house, bicker, shoot pornography and take drugs. They are hit by Covid and become the subjects of a reality TV show in a provocative and funny descent into social-media notoriety and violence.

For something more wholesome, settle down with Esther’s Notebooks (Pushkin; translated by Sam Taylor), in which cartoonist Riad Sattouf lays out a series of strips based on his friend’s daughter’s Paris schooldays. They’re not exactly escapist – racism and the spectre of terrorism intrude on the playground frighteningly early – but these three funny, insightful volumes, packed with phone envy, classroom politics and friendship, are a comic treat.

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The 10 Best Books of 2021

Editors at The Times Book Review choose the best fiction and nonfiction titles this year.

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How Beautiful We Were

By imbolo mbue.

Following her 2016 debut, “ Behold the Dreamers ,” Mbue’s sweeping and quietly devastating second novel begins in 1980 in the fictional African village of Kosawa, where representatives from an American oil company have come to meet with the locals, whose children are dying because of the environmental havoc (fallow fields, poisoned water) wreaked by its drilling and pipelines. This decades-spanning fable of power and corruption turns out to be something much less clear-cut than the familiar David-and-Goliath tale of a sociopathic corporation and the lives it steamrolls. Through the eyes of Kosawa’s citizens young and old, Mbue constructs a nuanced exploration of self-interest, of what it means to want in the age of capitalism and colonialism — these machines of malicious, insatiable wanting.

Random House. $28. | Read our review | Read our profile of Mbue | Listen to Mbue on the podcast

By Katie Kitamura

In Kitamura’s fourth novel, an unnamed court translator in The Hague is tasked with intimately vanishing into the voices and stories of war criminals whom she alone can communicate with; falling meanwhile into a tumultuous entanglement with a man whose marriage may or may not be over for good. Kitamura’s sleek and spare prose elegantly breaks grammatical convention, mirroring the book’s concern with the bleeding lines between intimacies — especially between the sincere and the coercive. Like her previous novel, “A Separation,” “Intimacies” scrutinizes the knowability of those around us, not as an end in itself but as a lens on grand social issues from gentrification to colonialism to feminism. The path a life cuts through the world, this book seems to say, has its greatest significance in the effect it has on others.

Riverhead Books. $26. | Read our review | Read our profile of Kitamura

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

By honorée fanonne jeffers.

“The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois,” the first novel by Jeffers, a celebrated poet, is many things at once: a moving coming-of-age saga, an examination of race and an excavation of American history. It cuts back and forth between the tale of Ailey Pearl Garfield, a Black girl growing up at the end of the 20th century, and the “songs” of her ancestors, Native Americans and enslaved African Americans who lived through the formation of the United States. As their stories converge, “Love Songs” creates an unforgettable portrait of Black life that reveals how the past still reverberates today.

Harper/HarperCollins. $28.99. | Read our review | Listen to Jeffers on the podcast

No One Is Talking About This

By patricia lockwood.

Lockwood first found acclaim as a poet on the internet, with gloriously inventive and ribald verse — sexts elevated to virtuosity. In “ Priestdaddy ,” her indelible 2017 memoir about growing up in rectories across the Midwest presided over by her gun-loving, guitar-playing father, a Catholic priest, she called tweeting “an art form, like sculpture, or honking the national anthem under your armpit.” Here, in her first novel, she distills the pleasures and deprivations of life split between online and flesh-and-blood interactions, transfiguring the dissonance into art. The result is a book that reads like a prose poem, at once sublime, profane, intimate, philosophical, hilarious and, eventually, deeply moving.

Riverhead Books. $25. | Read our review | Read our profile of Lockwood

When We Cease to Understand the World

By benjamín labatut. translated by adrian nathan west..

Labatut expertly stitches together the stories of the 20th century’s greatest thinkers to explore both the ecstasy and agony of scientific breakthroughs: their immense gains for society as well as their steep human costs. His journey to the outermost edges of knowledge — guided by the mathematician Alexander Grothendieck , the physicist Werner Heisenberg and the chemist Fritz Haber , among others — offers glimpses of a universe with limitless potential underlying the observable world, a “dark nucleus at the heart of things” that some of its witnesses decide is better left alone. This extraordinary hybrid of fiction and nonfiction also provokes the frisson of an extended true-or-false test: The further we read, the blurrier the line gets between fact and fabulism.

New York Review Books. Paper, $17.95. | Read our review

The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency

By tove ditlevsen. translated by tiina nunnally and michael favala goldman..

Ditlevsen’s gorgeous memoirs, first published in Denmark in the 1960s and ’70s and collected here in a single volume, detail her hardscrabble upbringing, career path and merciless addictions: a powerful account of the struggle to reconcile art and life. She joined the working ranks at 14, became a renowned poet by her early 20s, and found herself, after two failed marriages, wedded to a psychopathic doctor and hopelessly dependent on opioids by her 30s. Yet for all the dramatic twists of her life, these books together project a stunning clarity, humor and candidness, casting light not just on the world’s harsh realities but on the inexplicable impulses of our secret selves.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $30. | Read our review

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America

By clint smith.

For this timely and thought-provoking book, Smith, a poet and journalist, toured sites key to the history of slavery and its present-day legacy, including Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello; Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary; and a Confederate cemetery. Interspersing interviews with the tourists, guides, activists and local historians he meets along the way with close readings of scholarship and poignant personal reflection, Smith holds up a mirror to America’s fraught relationship with its past, capturing a potent mixture of good intentions, earnest corrective, willful ignorance and blatant distortion.

Little, Brown & Company. $29. | Read our review | Listen to Smith on the podcast

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City

By andrea elliott.

To expand on her acclaimed 2013 series for The Times about Dasani Coates, a homeless New York schoolgirl, and her family, Elliott spent years following her subjects in their daily lives, through shelters, schools, courtrooms and welfare offices. The book she has produced — intimately reported, elegantly written and suffused with the fierce love and savvy observations of Dasani and her mother — is a searing account of one family’s struggle with poverty, homelessness and addiction in a city and country that have failed to address these issues with efficacy or compassion.

Random House. $30. | Read our review | Listen to Elliott on the podcast

On Juneteenth

By annette gordon-reed.

This book weaves together history and memoir into a short volume that is insightful, touching and courageous. Exploring the racial and social complexities of Texas, her home state, Gordon-Reed asks readers to step back from the current heated debates and take a more nuanced look at history and the surprises it can offer. Such a perspective comes easy to her because she was a part of history — the first Black child to integrate her East Texas school. On several occasions, she found herself shunned by whites and Blacks alike, learning at an early age that breaking the color line can be threatening to both races.

Liveright Publishing. $15.95. | Read our review | Listen to Gordon-Reed on the podcast

Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath

By heather clark.

It’s daring to undertake a new biography of Plath, whose life, and death by suicide at 30 in 1963, have been thoroughly picked over by scholars. Yet this meticulously researched and, at more than 1,000 pages, unexpectedly riveting portrait is a monumental achievement. Determined to rescue the poet from posthumous caricature as a doomed madwoman and “reposition her as one of the most important American writers of the 20th century,” Clark, a professor of poetry in England, delivers a transporting account of a rare literary talent and the familial and intellectual milieu that both thwarted and encouraged her, enlivened throughout by quotations from Plath’s letters, diaries, poetry and prose.

Alfred A. Knopf. $40. | Read our review

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

James McBride’s novel sold a million copies, and he isn’t sure how he feels about that, as he considers the critical and commercial success  of “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.”

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You never know what’s going to go wrong in these graphic novels, where Circus tigers, giant spiders, shifting borders and motherhood all threaten to end life as we know it .

When the author Tommy Orange received an impassioned email from a teacher in the Bronx, he dropped everything to visit the students  who inspired it.

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

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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Book News & Features

November book-ahead: what we're excited to read next month.

Meghan Collins Sullivan

November is looking crowded with some highly anticipated books — including the final in a trilogy, Jade Legacy, and a memoir by long-time Hillary Clinton confidant Huma Abedin. Here are a handful we are excited to read.

The Sentence

"Louise Erdrich 's The Sentence is intimate, often sardonic in tone, following the life of a Native American woman in Minneapolis who is recently released from prison," says reviewer Keishel Williams. "The woman, Tookie, struggles to understand why she's being haunted by a former customer and learns that ghosts of the pasts, spiritually or metaphorically, can linger as an extended penance for our sins. In this somewhat offbeat and quirky novel, Erdrich shows us just how much people can remain haunted by their previous actions, or lack thereof."

Win Me Something

"In the past few years, it seems like the volume of everything has been turned up to 11, so it's a great thing to find a book that's comfortable in its own quietness," says reviewer Michael Schaub. "In Kyle Lucia Wu' s debut novel, Win Me Something , a young woman in New York takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy family, and her relationship with the couple's precocious daughter causes her to consider her own childhood, as 'a remnant from a family that didn't exist.' It's a subtle reflection on unbelonging that's constructed beautifully and with great care."

Jade Legacy

Reviewer Jason Sheehan says: "Over the course of three books — Jade City , Jade War and now Jade Legacy , out at the end of the month — Fonda Lee has charted the entire history of one family over the course of 20 years of war, politics and murder. Those characters we met as young men and women in City have grown up now. Those who lived through War have husbands and wives, children who are growing into their own power. Lee's Green Bone Saga is The Godfather with an Asian cast, Game of Thrones in a suit, tie and sunglasses. It has all the earmarks of a modern, international gangster epic juiced with boardroom intrigue, economic theory and sword fights. Jade Legacy (which weighs in at over 700 pages) will serve as a fitting (and devastating) capstone to the trilogy."

Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA

"Misfire is a scathing critique of the NRA, but one based on history and facts instead of opinion," says reviewer Gabino Iglesias. "The NRA's corruption runs deep, but Tim Mak (an NPR correspondent) dug even deeper to expose its rotten core and why it's currently crumbling."

Both/And: A Life In Many Worlds

Reviewer Caitlyn Kim says she looks forward to reading Both/And : "Huma Abedin has never been far from Hillary Clinton. The gatekeeper and the knower of all things Hillary, Abedin's professional life followed Clinton's and Abedin's personal life also had unfortunate echos of Clinton's. Through it all she was often seen publicly, but rarely heard from. With this book, Abedin has a chance to step out of the shadow and talk about her life — the good and the bad — including her ill-fated marriage to former Rep. Anthony Weiner and his sexting scandals. I admit, I'm more than a little curious to find out what she thinks about 'Carlos Danger.'"

These Precious Days

The latest from Ann Patchett , author of The Dutch House and Bel Canto , collects her writings on everything from home to friendship to work in a neat little package of very personal essays.

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The must-read books of November 2021

Seija is a Los Angeles-based features editor. Follow her on Instagram @_seija_ for musings on the latest movies, books, and in-flight magazines (really).

Our Country Friends , by Gary Shteyngart

Perhaps the best of the COVID-pandemic-inspired novels so far, Our Country Friends plays with the social and cultural woes of early lockdown. A group of friends and colleagues decamp for an estate in upstate New York, each packing their own specific blend of neurosis and desire for self-destruction; as the pandemic wanes on, their collective plights become more and more complicated, all to the reader's delight. (Nov. 2)

Still Life , by Sarah Winman

A World War II novel that feels fresh is a rare commodity. The Tin Man author begins her story in 1944 Tuscany, as the Allied troops advance, and London, where a British soldier returns after riding out part of the bombings in an Italian wine cellar with an art historian. As the consequences of that chance encounter play out for the next two decades, constant literary surprises abound. (Nov. 2)

Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds , by Huma Abedin

Hillary Clinton's top aide is famous both for her privacy and the way in which her personal life has played out on the public stage. Here she finally takes the chance to tell her own story in her own words, tracing her life through the lens of straddling cultures, identities, faiths, and more. (Nov. 2)

You Can't Be Serious , by Kal Penn

The actor, of Harold and Kumar , How I Met Your Mother , and Obama administration fame, recounts his upbringing, his time in the Ivy League, and what it was like breaking into Hollywood. (Nov 2)

Five Tuesdays in Winter , by Lily King

After captivating readers with last year's Writers & Lovers , King returns to the page with a collection of short stories that continue to prove her prowess in all things love and human connection. (Nov 9)

My Body , by Emily Ratajkowski

Building on the momentum of her smash-hit essay for The Cut , "Buying Myself Back," Ratajkowski delves further into her relationship to feminism, sexual politics, objectification, and yes, her body. (Nov 9)

Love in the Big City , by Sang Young Park

Sang Young Park is one of the best-selling new authors in South Korea, and he makes his English-language debut with the translation of his novel about a student dealing with life — and loneliness — in Seoul. (Nov. 16)

I Hope This Finds You Well , by Kate Baer

The poet's viral erasure poems — Baer takes Instagram messages from disgruntled followers and collages them into feminist works — journey to the page for her next book, which will also use op-eds and court testimonies as source material. (Nov. 9)

The 1619 Project , by Nikole Hannah-Jones

The groundbreaking project from The New York Times , which created a new origin story for America based on the very beginnings of American slavery, is expanded into a very large, very powerful full-length book. (Nov. 16)

Flying Blind: The 737 Max Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing , by Peter Robison

Robison, an investigative reporter for Bloomberg, looks into the deadly 2018 and 2019 crashes of the 737 Max plane, exposing the disasters within Boeing that led to the tragic outcome. (Nov. 30)

White on White , by Ayşegül Savaş

A true portrait of artists young and old, White is narrated by a graduate student who rents an apartment from an older professor but is surprised to learn that his wife, a painter, will be joining her for much of her time abroad. Intrigue mixed with delight turns into something closer to horror as the painter's life — along with her marital drama and occasional madness — begins to overcome them both. (Nov. 30)

Better Angels , by Jeff Jensen and George Schall

EW alum Jeff Jensen teams up with illustrator George Schall for a graphic novel based on the life of Kate Warne, America's first female detective. (Oct. 27/Nov. 2)

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What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in March

Authors, critics and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

Francesca Specter, author and journalist

I was lucky enough to be sent an early copy of David Nicholls’ forthcoming novel, You Are Here , a publication well-timed for those who adored the recent One Day Netflix adaptation . Nicholls’ latest book has long been on my radar, as I’ve written extensively about its central themes of solitude and loneliness.

You Are Here’s lovers, Marnie and Michael, are aged 38 and 42, out of the heat of wedding-and-baby season yet far from later life. This meant a refreshing absence of typical romcom tropes (eg proposals, weddings, a birth). Instead, the plot is framed around a coast-to-coast walk, while dramatic tension is created by the spectre of an estranged wife. The romance has sincerity and authenticity, notably in a river wrestling scene where one party is wearing zip-away waterproof shorts/trousers. There were echoes of Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy , another book I loved.

For my neighbourhood book club, I read Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea , a feminist, postcolonial prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Antoinette Cosway, Mr Rochester’s “madwoman in the attic” first wife (whom he renames Bertha), is a powerful narrator with timeless resonance: “There are more ways than one of being happy, better perhaps to be peaceful and contented and protected.” It made me rethink the romanticisation of Jane Eyre’s Mr Rochester (last January, we read Wuthering Heights … same story with Heathcliff).

While I’ve never loved the short story medium, a friend convinced me that Alice Munro’s Runaway would be the exception. He was right. The Nobel prize-winning author’s prose is pithy with unforgettable details, like a lost goat’s reappearance amid the celestial halo of a car headlight. I enjoyed how several characters reappear across stories, too, like encountering an old friend.

Helen, Guardian reader

I have been reading Other Women by Emma Flint , a crime novel that is based on the real-life murder of Emily Beilby Kaye by her married lover in the 1920s. It is beautifully written, but harrowing and full of tension. Kaye is reimagined as Beatrice, a woman who falls in love with a colleague, having been “left over” after the first world war – she was what was considered to be marriageable age when most eligible men were away at war. It was interesting to read about a character based on such women, who strived to make a life and career and were almost invisible in society.

Alba Arikha, author

It’s been 10 years since Michael Cunningham wrote a book and, being a fan, I awaited his most recent one, Day , with trepidation. Over three consecutive Aprils, from 2019 to 2021, we follow a Brooklyn family during and after the onset of Covid. Just like in his other work, there is something haunting about Cunningham’s writing. It makes one acutely aware of the imperceptible fragility of life: the way we speak to each other, who we are, and what we make of it. The book is a powerful example of dysfunctionality, and what happens when cues are missed or ignored. But it’s also about desire, the spaces we attempt to inhabit and escape from, not always successfully.

Because I’ve always wanted to read him, and in preparation for a writing class I’ll be teaching this summer in Greece, I dived into a collection of Isaac Babel’s short stories, Of Sunshine and Bedbugs . I found myself airlifted 100 years back into the ebullient, rich and colourful port city of Odessa, in the company of Jewish thugs, sex workers, cart drivers, milkmaids and rabbis. Though pogroms loom in the background, humour and irreverence preside.

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I began reading How to Make a Bomb by Rupert Thomson on a flight from London to NYC and finished it just before landing. The midlife crisis of Philip, a history professor, and his decision to “dispense with structure, and open himself to possibility and chance” is completely gripping. There are no full stops in this beautifully written novel, and as a result, the fragmentary rhythm catapults one breathlessly forwards.

For nearly two decades, Ann Wroe has written obituaries for the Economist. I remember my late mother mentioning her with quiet admiration. Which is one of the reasons why I picked up her book Lifescapes . And I found that same quietude rustling through the pages, alternating between prose, poetry, memoir and biography. “The smallest things may offer vital clues,” Wroe writes of her obituaries, which she calls “catching souls”. Chronologies do not interest her. But those clues, from objects to images, strangers to ghosts, the sacredness in blood to the sound of snow, do. There is a magical quality to her unusual, almost ethereal writing. A soul catcher she is and I’m still thinking about it.

Two Hours by Alba Arikha is published by Eris (£1 4.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply

Rupert, Guardian reader

As a teenager in the 60s I followed Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s relationship along with the rest of the world. Now I have had the chance to revisit the subject again, by reading Erotic Vagrancy by Roger Lewis , a fascinating double biography that delves deeper into the lives of that (in)famous couple and all of the people who surrounded them. There is a relentless, almost obsessive quality to Lewis’s writing that had me reading well into the night. I highly recommended this book.

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Cuddle up with one of these new page-turners.

November’s finally here, bringing the holidays with it — along with a whole batch of exciting new reads . The most anticipated books hitting stores this month include titles from beloved authors, including Louise Erdrich, Nnedi Okorafor , Ann Patchett, Jodi Picoult, and Sherry Thomas, as well as plenty of highly-anticipated debuts.

It’s also a big month for fans of long-running series. Fonda Lee brings her Green Bone Saga to a close with Jade Legacy , and Ada Palmer continues her Terra Ignota series with Perhaps the Stars . Meanwhile, L. E. Modesitt, Jr. and Scarlett St. Clair are both launching new series this month with Isolate and King of Battle and Blood , respectively. In addition, rom-com lovers will be happy to see that Olivia Dade is releasing a new installment in her God of the Gates series, and Sara Desai is doing the same with her Marriage Game novels.

In short, there’s something for everyone this month. Below, 49 new books to look out for in November.

We only include products that have been independently selected by Bustle's editorial team. However, we may receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

Everything We Didn’t Say

After June’s younger brother was accused of murdering a local couple in cold blood, she decided to swear off her hometown. But now that she’s all grown up — and has a teen daughter of her own — she’s can’t help but return to look for answers.

Skin of the Sea

Faithful to her people’s old ways, Simi is the Mami Wata: a mermaid who collects dead souls from the sea and helps them cross over safely into the afterlife. But when she defies the order of things to keep a young boy alive, Simi must undertake a treacherous journey to make her amends. There is much she does not understand — about herself, the boy she saved, and their Supreme Creator — but she will soon find her answers, in Natasha Bowen’s Skin of the Sea .

The Perishing

Natashia Deón’s new novel centers on Lou, an immortal Black woman who wakes up in Los Angeles with no memory of who she is. Lou finds refuge with an adoptive family and slowly begins to build a life for herself in Great Depression-era California. But when she suddenly collides with a stranger from her past, Lou begins to realize who she is, and what she’s destined to do.

Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora

Edited by The Bronx Is Reading founder Saraceia J. Fennell, Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed brings together 15 poems and essays from celebrated Latinx writers like novelist Ingrid Rojas Contreras ( Fruit of the Drunken Tree ) and poet Natalie Diaz ( Postcolonial Love Poem ).

I Hate You More

A former teenage pageant queen, Ruby is no stranger to competing in the spotlight — but she never expected to do so alongside her elderly neighbor’s chonky golden retriever. Wheezy needs a lot of work before he’s ready for the dog show, and at least one person doesn’t believe Ruby has what it takes to get him there: Spencer, the hunky veterinarian set to judge the dogs. He thinks Ruby should cut her losses before it’s too late, but she — and Wheezy — might just prove him wrong.

As a pandemic forces Britain to shut down, an artist takes shelter in her sculpture studio with her new lover. Edith and Halit are just getting to know one another, but as the world changes rapidly outside their door, they find themselves forced to be more honest than ever before .

Lean Your Loneliness Slowly Against Mine

Klara Hveberg’s debut novel centers on Rakel, a gifted mathematician who finds herself falling for her older teacher — and increasingly curious about the subject of his work-in-progress, the Russian-born mathematics professor Sofja Kovalevskaja. Rakel and Sofja, it turns out, have a lot in common.

Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer

Rax King’s essay collection pays tribute to the cringiest fads of yesteryear, from Jersey Shore to the music of Creed. Just like with your favorite pop-culture train wrecks, once you start Tacky , you won’t be able to turn away.

A Certain Appeal

A burlesque Pride & Prejudice retelling? Yes, please! A Certain Appeal follows Liz, a down-on-her-luck interior designer, as she takes on a new side hustle: performing in a Manhattan burlesque revue. There, she meets Will Darcy, a financier with a stick up his butt about everything, including Liz. She wants nothing to do with him, so of course her best friend is dating his buddy. How long will she be able to grin and bear it?

Sofia and Antonia, two Italian American girls living in 20th-century Brooklyn, were inseparable — until Antonia’s father mysteriously disappeared, shortly after he cut ties with the mafia. As they grow up and have children of their own, Sofia and Antonia lead parallel lives, their choices shaped by the community they were raised in: the Family.

All Her Little Secrets

When her white lover and boss is murdered, hotshot attorney Ellice finds herself in charge of his Atlanta firm. She already stands out as the organization’s only Black lawyer, and the skeletons in her closet demand that she remain as low-profile as possible. But when Ellice uncovers a conspiracy that may tie together her past and present in unimaginable ways, she sees no clear way out.

Perhaps the Stars

Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series comes to a close with Perhaps the Stars . In a world where nomadic Hives have replaced nations with fixed borders, humanity must come to grips with governments’ bloody actions, carried out in the name of peace.

You Can Go Your Own Way

You Can Go Your Own Way , Eric Smith’s YA romance, is perfect for fans of You’ve Got Mail and Emma Lord’s Tweet Cute . The story follows Adam, who’s focused on protecting his late father’s pinball arcade from being bought out by a gaming café chain. Meanwhile, Whitney is dealing with a storm of recent losses by running the social media channels for her dad’s company — and engaging in a longstanding Twitter feud with a local pinball joint.

Miss Moriarty, I Presume?

In the latest novel in Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series, Charlotte Holmes must help her archenemy, Moriarity, find his daughter — but the missing persons case isn’t the only mystery for Charlotte to solve this go-’round. There’s also the issue of her sister’s beau — who may or may not be sending coded messages — and of Charlotte’s own love interest, Lord Ingram, who may finally be ready to make his move.

I Will Not Die Alone

The 2020s have been rough. We’ve lost more than 5 million people worldwide to the COVID-19 pandemic , in addition to jobs, hobbies, and our general sense of stability. Anxiety is on the rise across the globe. If you’re feeling terrible right now, you’re not alone — and Dera White and Joe Bennett’s I Will Not Die Alone is just the injection of melancholy optimism you need.

The Fastest Way to Fall

Wes and Britta may be the least well-advised match of the century. She’s a writer working on a story about FitMe, a fitness app that pairs users with body-positive personal trainers. He’s the CEO of the app company... and Britta’s assigned personal trainer. There are plenty of conflicts of interest at play here, but are they worth it for Wes and Britta’s shot at happily ever after?

Win Me Something

A biracial Chinese American woman and the daughter of divorced parents, Willa has always struggled to feel as though she belongs anywhere. When she takes a job working as a nanny in a wealthy white household, she finds herself re-analyzing her childhood experiences through a new lens.

Just Haven’t Met You Yet

Laura’s traveling to the Channel Islands to write about her parents’ love story from the place it all started, but right from the get-go, her journey hits an unexpected snag: She’s just mixed up her luggage with someone else’s. Laura’s positive that the bag she carried out of the airport belongs to her soulmate. Now, she’s just got to figure out who he is.

The Sentence

Set in a Minneapolis bookstore, Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence centers on Tookie, a formerly incarcerated person and newly hired bookseller. Over the course of a year, beginning on All Souls’ Day in 2019, Tookie must figure out why the shop is being haunted by its recently deceased patron.

The Way We Weren’t

In Phoebe Fox’s The Way We Weren’t , a retiree spending his twilight years alone in Florida launches an out-of-character rescue mission when he sees a young woman collapsed on the beach near his home, sparking the most unlikely friendship imaginable.

Sis Don’t Settle: How to Stay Smart in Matters of the Heart

Divorce Court host Faith Jenkins’ new book draws from her own personal experiences as a single woman dating in her thirties to offer up more general advice for anyone who desperately wants to start a family of their own.

Five Tuesdays in Winter

Writers & Lovers author Lily King returns to bookstores this month with Five Tuesdays in Winter , a story collection that focuses on humanity’s capacity for love, in all its myriad forms.

Year of the Reaper

Court intrigue drives Makiia Lucier’s YA fantasy, The Reaper . The novel follows an ex-soldier and medium as he works to learn the truth about an assassination attempt at his brother’s home, which took place in the aftermath of a nationwide plague.

Doctors and Friends

From the author of The Antidote for Everything comes this new novel about three doctors whose lives are forever changed by the spread of a highly contagious virus. Shifting between New York City, San Diego, and Atlanta, Doctors and Friends takes a long, somber look at the lives of frontline health care providers struggling to keep it together as their worlds fall apart.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr. transports readers to the fully realized world of Guldor — a land dependent on coal and emotional manipulation — in this fantasy series-starter. When a politician connected to a recent financial scandal dies, another goes missing, and a third is attacked by magical empaths, a bodyguard immune to empathic magic launches an investigation.

Back to Japan: The Life and Art of Master Kimono Painter Kunihiko Moriguchi

Frida Kahlo biographer Marc Petitjean is back with a look into the life of Kunihiko Moriguchi, one of Japan’s most famous kimono painters and the inheritor of a fabric-dyeing legacy.

Actor and model Emily Ratajkowski ( Gone Girl ) explores how Western culture fetishizes, commodifies, and demonizes women’s bodies in this collection of pointed essays.

Catch the Light

A teenage girl finds herself leading two lives on opposite coasts in this coming-of-age novel by Kate Sweeney. Marigold had a happy life in California, where she grew up as the middle child in a close-knit family of five. After Marigold’s father dies, though, her mom moves her and her younger sister to upstate New York, leaving her boyfriend and older sister behind. She’s trying to make the best of things, but when her new friendship in New York begins to turn into something more — and her long-distance relationship seems to grow more distant by the day — she must choose between the life she left behind and the one that could lie ahead.

Comfort Me with Apples

Catherynne M. Valente’s horror-fantasy novella centers on Sophia, a young wife living in the picture-perfect community of Arcadia Gardens, where a strict HOA code keeps everyone safe and happy. Sophia lives a normal suburban life — until she begins to notice some strange things. Why is there a lock of hair in her desk drawer? Why is there a bone in the knife block? And why can’t she go into her own basement?

Look for Me and I’ll Be Gone

This collection of short stories from American Histories author John Edgar Wideman explores the lives of Black Americans, and how they intersect with history, headlines, and pop culture artifacts.

Even Greater Mistakes

Victories Greater Than Death author Charlie Jane Anders is back in stores with this new story collection. Even Greater Mistakes draws out the absurd in the mundane, painting entrancing portraits of contemporary life.

All the Feels

Olivia Dade is back this month with another God of the Gates romance. This time, it’s Cupid actor and fanfic author Alexander Woodroe who’s been targeted by the god of love. When a bar fight results in bad press, Alex’s handlers hire a therapist to keep him from mucking up anything else. It’s a tall order for Lauren, who finds herself falling fast and hard for her charge. Another scandal’s about to rock the boat, but can Alex and Lauren weather the storm?

The Singles Table

Sara Desai’s The Singles Table centers on Zara, a matchmaker who has sworn off love, and Jay, a surly bodyguard whose celebrity clients could give Zara’s business a boost. They strike a deal — her matchmaking services for his famous clientele — but what happens when Zara herself begins to look like Jay’s most perfect match?

The 1619 Project

Expounding on Nikole Hannah-Jones’ groundbreaking journalistic project, The 1619 Project brings together 18 essays and 36 works of fiction and poetry to examine the enduring marks that chattel slavery has left on American society.

When religious fanatics who oppose AO’s cybernetic implants brutally attack her, she kills them in self-defense — and sets out to find a place to hide. Accompanying AO is DNA, a man whose Fulani heritage marks him as a terrorist. Together, they search for a place to call home, even as bounty hunters and corporate agents close in .

You Sexy Thing

Led by the respected Admiral Niko, a motley crew of retired soldiers must fight to keep their restaurant above water. If you like space pirates, sentient ships, and “they keep pulling me back in” stories, you’re going to love Cat Rambo’s You Sexy Thing .

The Four Humors

An aspiring doctor living with a mystery illness eschews modern medicine in favor of ancient medical theory in Mina Seçkin’s darkly funny The Four Humors .

The Last One

Part memoir, part novel, Fatima Daas’ The Last One revisits the author’s childhood in the French suburbs, where she grew up as the queer, youngest daughter in a family of Algerian Muslim immigrants.

Huda F Are You?

From the creator of Yes, I’m Hot in This comes Huda F Are You? , a coming-of-age graphic novel in which a young girl who used to being known for her hijab moves to Dearborn, Michigan, where most other girls at her school also wear the veil. Suddenly unoriginal, the fictional Huda sets out to find a new identity for herself.

These Precious Days

Commonwealth author Ann Patchett explores her own life and career in this poignant collection of essays. Drawing other authors’ works into her writing, Patchett situates herself among her contemporaries and forebears.

Couples Wanted

If you’re searching for an erotic thriller to heat up those cold winter nights, look no further. In Briana Cole’s Couples Wanted , two newlyweds decide to swap spouses with a pair of seasoned swingers, only to find themselves drawn into a web of coercion and control.

Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult

Faith Jones’ grandfather founded one of the world’s most infamous cults: The Children of God, aka The Family International. Growing up in one of the group’s communes in Macau, Jones taught herself about the outside world before finally escaping to the United States at age 23. In Sex Cult Nun , she tells her story as only she can.

Small Things Like These

In this novella inspired by Irish history, Bill, a married father of five, uncovers a conspiracy of abuse in a laundry facility operated by the local Catholic convent.

Jade Legacy

Fonda Lee brings the Green Bone saga to a striking conclusion with this new novel. In Jade Legacy , Kekonese jade has spread across the world, and a new generation of Kauls must struggle to maintain their supremacy over forces both within and without.

Hello, Transcriber

When her neighbor admits to hiding the body of an overdose victim — a death linked to Candy Man, a local drug dealer — aspiring novelist and police transcriber Hazel is pulled into a taut investigation.

Kith & Kin

Critical Role , a beloved RPG livestream, continues to expand into new mediums — this time with an origin story for its beloved sibling duo, Vax’ildan and Vex’ahlia. Penned by Before I Let Go author Marieke Nijkamp, Kith & Kin follows the half-elven twins (and Vex’s pet bear, Trinket, of course) as they attempt to free themselves from the grips of a sinister crime syndicate.

Wish You Were Here

Diana had her whole life planned out... until a global pandemic put a dark damper on things. Forced to turn her romantic birthday trip to the Galápagos into a solo jaunt, Diana quickly finds herself alone and isolated on vacation. After connecting with a local family, however, Diana begins to re-examine her life’s roadmap.

Dava Shastri’s Last Day

In Kirthana Ramisetti’s debut novel, an elderly billionaire with terminal brain cancer plans to spread a rumor that she’s already dead. Dava wants to know how she’ll be remembered, but when her obituaries leak a secret she thought she’d buried for good, she’s left with a mess to clean up before she takes her final bows.

White on White

Two women, an artist and an art researcher, can’t escape their increasingly fraught connection in Ayşegül Savaş’ White on White . Agnes has rented out her apartment to a student studying Gothic art, but she returns in the middle of the lease to take up residence in the attached art studio. As they get to know one another, the student begins to realize that Agnes’ sanity may be fraying.

King of Battle and Blood

Isolde knows that the only way to protect her people is to marry the king of the vampires — and then murder him on their wedding night. So when she heads to the altar, she believes it to be her last day among the living. But when Adrian survives her assassination attempt, Isolde is left wondering why he really married her.

The Sisters Sweet

Josie and Harriet Szász had a stable career as the Sisters Sweet — a vaudeville act in which they posed, convincingly, as conjoined twins. But when Josie leaves to pursue a Hollywood career, thereby exposing the truth about the Szász sisters, Harriet is left to pick up the pieces of her life and blaze her own trail.