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Raise your hand if you could use a pick-me-up. That’s what I thought—it’s been a hell of a year, hasn’t it? Luckily,PW has just what the doctor ordered: our selections for the 150 best books of 2025. Start with the top 10, where you’ll find cover author Vauhini Vara’s deeply humane reckoning with the possibilities and limitations of AI, as well as Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’sYour Name Here, an audacious literary experiment 20 years in the making. Now that the cobwebs have cleared and your faith in the brightest and boldest among us has been restored, turn to the longlists in each of the categories we regularly review in, from romance to comics to religion. Top it off with 50 amazing books for children and teens, including the delightful story of a curmudgeonly crow who saves the world. Feel better? I knew you would.—David Adams, adult reviews director TOP 10 > CHILDREN'S PICKS >

• Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance

  Ben Passmore(Pantheon)

  Passmore’s breakout book is a daring hybrid of social history, sci-fi, and memoir that spotlights Black resistance movements from the Reformation to the present day. Shot through with caustic wit and time travel shenanigans, the narrative upends sanitized histories of the fight for civil rights, calling out omissions and refusing to pull punches about the hypocrisies of radical heroes. It’s rallying and rollicking.

• Hot Date! Sweet & Savory Recipes Celebrating the Date, from Party Food to Everyday Feasts

  Rawaan Alkhatib(Chronicle)

  Poet Alkhatib’s cookbook debut is a gorgeous ode to her favorite fruit. In between instructions for mouthwatering meals drawing from her Indian and Palestinian heritage, Alkhatib provides a fascinating culinary history of the date accompanied by her own vibrant illustrations. The result is a sumptuous celebration that is more than the sum of its parts.

• The Intentions of Thunder

  Patricia Smith(Simon & Schuster)

  Smith’s astonishing volume of selected and previously uncollected work reveals memory to be an act of defiance and love in poems that resurrect past voices and rejoice in the spirit of Black joy. It’s an unforgettable offering from one of the most important voices in poetry.

• Aflame: Learning from Silence

  Pico Iyer(Riverhead)

  Iyer draws from years of visits he made to a Benedictine monastery in California for this singular meditation on silence as, among other things, a conduit between the self and community. Rendered in subtly powerful prose, the result sheds fresh light on the need for stillness in a noisy world.

• August Lane

  Regina Black(Grand Central)

  This emotional tour de force unfolds across two timelines: in 2009 Arkansas, two struggling Black teens bond over their shared love of country music before a stunning betrayal pulls them apart. In 2023, the pair are unexpectedly reunited by an upcoming concert. Black uses their wonderfully grounded second-chance romance to probe themes of authorship, authenticity, and self-acceptance. It hits all the right notes.

• Death of the Author

  Nnedi Okorafor(Morrow)

  Nebula Award winner Okorafor upends expectations in this stunning metafictional novel. Nigerian American author Zelu Onyenezi-Onyedele hits it big with her bestselling debut about a war between robots and AI, the text of which appears in alternating chapters with Zelu’s life story. Both narrative threads mesmerize on the way to an expertly executed final twist. It’s Okorafor’s best yet.

• Audition

  Katie Kitamura(Riverhead)

  This audacious novel begins with an intriguing mystery: who is the young man claiming to be the long-lost son of the narrator, an actor who knows she has never had a child? Halfway through, after the narrator adjusts to a difficult role in a play, the book turns on a surprising hinge that perfectly fastens together its form and subject.

• Archipelago of the Sun

  Yoko Tawada, trans. from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani(New Directions)

  Tawada concludes her dystopian trilogy about a Japanese expat searching for her lost homeland in a world where Japan has literally vanished from maps with a stellar finale. Loyal readers and newcomers alike will savor the closer’s mix of whimsical Wes Anderson–style charm and piercing insights into authoritarianism, xenophobia, and climate change.

• Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa: Join the Quest with Peru’s Famed Scientist and Potato Expert

  Sara Andrea Fajardo, illus. by Juana Martinez-Neal(Roaring Brook)

  “Playing an epic game of paka paka con la papa, potato hide-and-seek,” agronomist Alberto Salas travels the Andes searching for threatened wild potatoes whose “superpowers” might lend themselves to new cultivars. Melding playful language, a clear conservationist message, and lush illustrations, Fajardo and Martinez-Neal underline the importance of “a childhood game, helping to feed the world.”

• And the River Drags Her Down

  Jihyun Yun(Knopf)

  A grieving teen uses necromancy to revive her dead sibling with harrowing results in this spine-tingling novel, which triumphs in its frank examinations of sisterhood, grief, healing, and cycles of generational trauma. Throughout her gripping debut, Yun peppers heartrending prose that conjures meaningful interpersonal sequences with grisly, pulse-pounding depictions of supernatural horror.

• Cape Fever

  Nadia Davids(Simon & Schuster)

  This claustrophobic two-hander set in an unidentified British colony follows the tense relationship between Soraya Matas, a live-in Muslim housekeeper, and Alice Hattingh, her widowed British boss. As the pair engage in escalating psychological warfare, Davids expands her scope to consider the awful legacy of colonialism—to electrifying effect.

• 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia

  Philippe Sands(Knopf)

  Profiling two mass murderers who found sanctuary from international criminal courts in Chile—the country’s erstwhile dictator Augusto Pinochet and Walter Rauff, an early architect of the Holocaust—legal scholar Sands slowly unravels the shocking revelation that Rauff likely worked as a torturer under the Pinochet regime. It’s a hard, chilling view of a world where evil not only goes unpunished but flourishes.

• Candle Island

  Lauren Wolk(Dutton)

  Sensorial descriptions immerse readers in Wolk’s exquisite tale about a tween synesthete, new to Candle Island, Maine, who finds herself at the center of a simmering feud between the islanders and the seasonal vacationers. Leisurely pacing allows space for quiet contemplation about establishing one’s place in the world, culminating in a cathartic and resounding celebration of unconditional love and personal expression.

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

  Stephen Graham Jones(Saga)

  Horror- and revenge-driven thrills provide a vehicle for searing commentary on the history of violence against Indigenous populations in this wildly ambitious and staggeringly accomplished novel, about a Blackfeet warrior who becomes a vampire after he encounters a beast brought to his land by white settlers.

• Atavists

  Lydia Millet(Norton)

  This linked collection constitutes one of the best works of fiction about life after Covid-19. Millet writes with exhilarating freedom about people’s anxieties and contradictions, as when her characters confront the tension between their left-leaning worldviews and their own self-interest. Not only are the stories revelatory; they’re completely hilarious.

• Cranky, Crabby Crow

  Corey R. Tabor(Greenwillow)

  The stoic corvid at the center of this cleverly paced picture book sits on a telephone wire, rejecting other animals’ friendly overtures (“KAW!”) until a sudden signal kicks off a startling, high-octane plot turn that works out flawlessly for the good of all. Bone-dry humor and delightful visual surprises distinguish this wildly entertaining read.

• Angelica and the Bear Prince

  Trung Le Nguyen(Random House Graphic)

  In Nguyen’s enthralling graphic novel romance, a high schooler recovering from burnout struggles to balance grief, newfound responsibilities, parental expectations, and the beginnings of a crush on the person behind a local theater mascot. Fanciful, gorgeously rendered artwork; playfully ornate detail; and organic, often snarky tongue-in-cheek dialogue culminate in a whimsical tale about communal support during hardships both big and small.

• Crooks

  Lou Berney(Morrow)

  Working in a relaxed, episodic register, Berney tracks an Oklahoma crime family across five decades, stuffing a dazzling array of stories about the children of swindlers Buddy Mercurio and Lillian Ott into an overarching meditation on legacy and fate. Funny, fleet, and populated by unforgettable characters, it’s a triumph of tone that never forgets to be exciting.

• America, América: A New History of the New World

  Greg Grandin(Penguin Press)

  This monumental work from Pulitzer winner Grandin reconsiders the story of the Americas as a push-and-pull between the Northern and Southern continents, rather than between the Old and New Worlds. In a sweeping paradigm shift, he identifies how ideas about democracy, freedom, and colonialism ricocheted back and forth between the two Americas, developing into world-changing political philosophies.

• Graciela in the Abyss

  Meg Medina, illus. by Anna and Elena Balbusso(Candlewick)

  When a mortal boy’s mission to dispose of an enchanted harpoon is waylaid by the weapon’s creator, he must team up with an ocean spirit to protect the living and the dead. Intricately interwoven timelines and perspectives maintain suspense, while the Balbussos’ lush b&w illustrations convey haunting elements of magical realism in this insightful high-stakes adventure, Medina’s fantasy debut.

• Black Cohosh

  Eagle Valiant Brosi(Drawn & Quarterly)

  Casually brutal, in the manner of a child’s perfectly unsentimental gaze, Brosi’s gem of a debut captures his fractured upbringing and struggle to be heard through a speech impediment in the Appalachian back-to-the-land commune where he was raised in the 1970s and ’80s. The bittersweetness of this graphic memoir’s hard truths makes a lasting impression.

• How to Be Well: Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure at a Time

  Amy Larocca(Knopf)

  This deep dive into the multibillion-dollar wellness industry is necessary reading for anyone trying to improve their health. Journalist Larocca’s entertaining and empathetic narrative expertly unpacks the shady science behind wellness practices—from supplements and Ashwagandha to colonics and biohacking—and insightfully reveals how big business preys on legitimate fears to hawk products.

• The New Book: Poems, Letters, Blurbs, and Things

  Nikki Giovanni(Morrow)

  In this moving posthumous collection, Giovanni gathers poems and reflections that are alive with gratitude and wit. Her steadfast, wise voice traces happiness and sorrow as it brings friends and literary confidants to the page. The result is a testament to resilience and a reminder of poetry’s lasting guidance.

• As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us

  Sarah Hurwitz(HarperOne)

  Inspired by a midlife rediscovery of her own faith, Hurwitz takes a clear-eyed look at the forces that have shaped American Judaism into a more palatable, Christian-friendly religion that flattens tradition and severs Jews from their heritage. At once intimate and wide-ranging, it’s the year’s most trenchant analysis of the modern challenges facing an age-old faith.

• Female Fantasy

  Iman Hariri-Kia(Cosmo Reads)

  No man romance fanatic Joonie has ever met can compare with the lead of her favorite novel—so when she learns that he was based on a real person, she sets out on a madcap mission to track him down. Gleefully meta and laugh-out-loud funny, this is equal parts send-up of and love letter to the genre.

• The Incandescent

  Emily Tesh(Tor)

  This innovative spin on dark academia offers a harried administrator’s perspective on the happenings at a magical school. Dr. Sapphire “Saffy” Walden and school security officer Laura Kenning must work together to banish a demon summoned by a precocious student. It’s an enthralling premise enhanced by an atmospheric setting, a robust magic system, and a sweet romance between the leads.

• Capitalism and Its Critics: A History, from the Industrial Revolution to AI

  John Cassidy(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

  This enthralling intellectual saga traces the history of capitalism from the perspectives of its critics on both the right and left, finding fascinating commonalities across centuries and continents. What emerges is a vivid picture of capitalism as a visceral force within the lives of people from all walks of life. Elegant and erudite, it’s a totally unique view of the modern world.

• How to Say Goodbye in Cuban

  Daniel Miyares(Random/Schwartz)

  Vibrant watercolors render this reverent graphic novel that chronicles Miyares’s father’s childhood in 1950s Cuba. Even as the Cuban Revolution gains momentum, the protagonist’s family remains hopeful, relying on one another’s support to weather financial strain, political unrest, and tumultuous change. It’s an intimately told glimpse into the events’ effect on Cuban citizens and their future generations.

• A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe

  Mahogany L. Browne(Crown)

  In Browne’s mournful remembrance of those who died during the Covid pandemic, mesmerizing poetry and at times gut-wrenching prose combine to depict a series of seamlessly interconnected stories following New York City students, siblings, essential workers, and more. It’s a powerfully humanizing portrayal of, and ardently impactful love letter to, the resilient teens of N.Y.C.

• Authority: Essays

  Andrea Long Chu(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

  Pulitzer-winning critic Chu is at her best in this exceptional collection. She tackles a wide range of subjects—The Last of Us,The Phantom of the Opera, Zadie Smith, and the art of criticism, to name a few—with a precision that’s difficult to match, wielding harsh but stunning insights that leave the reader in awe.

• Bog Queen

  Anna North(Bloomsbury)

  What begins as a moody forensic murder mystery morphs into a brilliant millennia-spanning saga about a scientist who examines the well-preserved body of a woman found in a Northern England bog. North intriguingly ties both women’s stories together as they clash with friends and foes while pursuing their ambitions.

• Don’t Trust Fish

  Neil Sharpson, illus. by Dan Santat(Dial)

  This laugh-out-loud animal guidebook send-up starts innocently enough, with an image of a dairy cow appearing alongside a simple description of mammalian characteristics. But after bold type declares, “This is a FISH.// DON’T TRUST FISH,” Sharpson and Santat push ever further into conspiracy territory to create a rapid-fire comedy of piscine paranoia.

• The Doorman

  Chris Pavone(MCD)

  Pavone takes a Tom Wolfe–worthy look at Manhattan’s elite in his best thriller yet. It centers on ex-Marine Chicky Diaz, the doorman at a glitzy Upper West Side co-op. As Chicky observes the comings and goings of several shady characters across a single afternoon, Pavone makes potent points about unchecked privilege on his way to a firework-filled finale.

• Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told

  Jeremy Atherton Lin(Little, Brown)

  Lin’s brilliant follow-up toGay Bar braids together an account of his and his husband’s late-’90s love story with a look at the history of gay marriage, combining steamy sex, thoughtful social critique, and dogged reporting into a dazzling narrative that’s equal parts radical, tender, and timely.

• Counting Backwards

  Binnie Kirshenbaum(Soho)

  Over the course of this compassionate and quick-witted narrative, an artist copes with her husband’s decline from Lewy body dementia. With this novel and its marvelous predecessor,Rabbits for Food, about a woman’s mental breakdown, Kirshenbaum establishes herself as one of the finest contemporary writers of illness.

• Downpour: Splish! Splash! Ker-Splash!

  Yuko Ohnari and Koshiro Hata, trans. from the Japanese by Emily Balistrieri(Red Comet)

  Ohnari and Hata tell the story of a young person’s encounter with a summer rainstorm. As a scorching day gives way to a downpour, text renders elaborate, enthusiastic onomatopoeia in bright yellow type whose size conveys volume. It’s a dazzlingly energetic work that voices the joy of perceiving a storm as a part of the world that’s very much alive.

• The Corruption of Hollis Brown

  K. Ancrum(HarperCollins)

  A living teen seeking more out of life and a malevolent spirit with unfinished business find themselves sharing the same body in Ancrum’s striking queer romantic thriller. Subtle, rhythmic prose conjures a psychologically suspenseful and emotionally intimate tribute to matters of personhood, bettering one’s own circumstances and those of one’s community, and the simultaneously selfless and selfish nature of love.

• Fever Beach

  Carl Hiaasen(Knopf)

  The master of Florida crime fiction proves he’s still got it in this loopy romp that sends up white supremacy, corrupt politicians, and eccentric revolutionaries. As Hiaasen’s cast of indelibly drawn dimwits collide over a scheme to fund a far-right militia in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot, it’s impossible not to laugh, however uncomfortably, at the familiar absurdity.

• The Autobiography of H. Lan Thao Lam

  Lana Lin(Dorothy)

  Modeled after Gertrude Stein’sThe Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, this bold memoir sees Lin narrating her partner’s life story from their point of view. Intimate and moving while making the most of its brainy concept, the result will inspire readers to look more carefully at their own close relationships.

• The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze

  Derrick Barnes(Viking)

  In this powerfully perceptive tale, a Black middle schooler in a mostly white, sports-obsessed town experiences the downside of fame upon joining the high school football team. The indomitable 13-year-old’s POV excels in its depiction of a self-assured teen opting to reject popularity to stand up for—and with—his community as they oppose systemic racism and police brutality.

• The New Economy

  Gabrielle Calvocoressi(Copper Canyon)

  With humor, tenderness, and curiosity, Calvocoressi explores the dichotomy of human embodiment: the “skin sack” of the corporeal form and the “light body” of the soul. These poems celebrate the wisdom of aging, the pain of longing, and the strangeness of being alive and sentient.

• Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

  Angela Buchdahl(Viking/Dorman)

  Buchdal weaves into her riveting account of becoming the first ordained Asian American rabbi incisive commentary on the Jewish command to welcome strangers, the ways in which communities fall short of this principle, and how it might help bridge today’s social divides. The result is the rare religious memoir that resonates across faiths.

• A Gentleman’s Gentleman

  TJ Alexander(Vintage)

  In Regency England, the reclusive Lord Christopher Eden, who is trans, needs a wife in order to inherit his father’s estate and needs a valet to find a wife. Perfectly proper James Harding seems a good fit for the job, but the men’s mutual attraction soon complicates matters. The result is a witty romp replete with lush historical details and defiant queer joy.

• Midnight Timetable

  Bora Chung, trans. from the Korean by Anton Hur(Algonquin)

  Moving from room to room of a research institute devoted to the study of cursed artifacts, this haunting novel-in-stories chronicles each object’s origins. Hur’s crisp translation captures Chung’s dry wit, dazzling imagery, and stark sense of morality as the tales accumulate into a wonderfully weird and surprisingly life-affirming whole. This proves more than the sum of its parts.

• A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects

  by Robell Awake, illus. by Johnalynn Holland(Princeton Architectural Press)

  In this enlightening celebration of handcrafted objects and their makers, chairmaker and scholar Awake demonstrates the centrality of craft in Black history. Filled with beautiful illustrations and insights into the creative ways Black artists have fought back against injustice, this elevates the power of crafts.

• Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me

  Mimi Pond(Drawn & Quarterly)

  Pond revives Mitford-mania brilliantly in this dazzling chronicle of the soapy and scandalous lives of the eccentric British siblings who hobnobbed with fascists, communists, and royals in the 1930s. The acrobatic artwork makes every page a playful delight, and Pond’s nimble mix of history, gossip, and quotes from the sisters’ letters and diaries brings her subjects and their extravagant era to fabulous life.

• Endling

  Maria Reva(Doubleday)

  What’s a writer to do when her novel in progress, about snail conservation and mail-order brides in Ukraine, is interrupted by the Russian invasion? For Maria Reva, the protagonist of this scintillating metafiction, the answer is to begin writing about the war. In the real Reva’s hands, the solution feels at once liberating and reverent.

• Every Monday Mabel

  Jashar Awan(Simon & Schuster)

  Each Monday—“the best day of the week”—Mabel wakes up early, grabs a bowl of cereal, and drags a chair to the driveway to await the garbage truck. Mabel exudes the unshakable enthusiasm of a die-hard fan for this “best thing in the world” in Awan’s sprightly picture book about a vehicle that proves a worthy object of communal adoration.

• Baldwin: A Love Story

  Nicholas Boggs(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

  This meticulously researched and gorgeously written biography explores the life and writing of James Baldwin through the lens of four of his intimate relationships. Boggs’s unique approach delivers new insights into the private world of one of America’s greatest writers. It’s a vital contribution to Baldwin scholarship.

• On the Calculation of Volume, Book 3

  Solvej Balle, trans. from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell(New Directions)

  Balle raises the stakes and explores new possibilities in her series about a woman trapped in a time loop, who now finds others who are also stuck reliving the same day. The third of seven installments, this raises provocative philosophical questions about identity and how to best make use of one’s time, and confirms the series is destined to become an enduring classic.

• Malcolm Lives! The Official Biography of Malcolm X for Young Readers

  Ibram X. Kendi(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

  Propulsive, conversational text traces Malcolm X’s life in this expansive biography of a renowned activist as he cultivates his anti-racist ideology. Across succinct yet richly detailed passages, Kendi connects the figure’s experiences with their impact on contemporary literature, politics, and society, accessibly highlighting Malcolm X’s complex journey toward learning “how to stand up to what’s wrong. Even in oneself.”

• Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown

  Candace Fleming(Random House/Schwartz)

  Across this fascinating and disturbing work, Fleming highlights the potentially destructive values and demands of historical and contemporary cults to chronicle the events leading up to the murder of more than 900 individuals by Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones. Searing firsthand accounts intermingle with riveting forthright text that unravels Jones’s personal history and poses complicated ethical quandaries about autonomy and manipulation.

• The Human Scale

  Lawrence Wright(Knopf)

  Wright, a Pulitzer-winning journalist, brings his empathy and intelligence to bear on this wrenching thriller about an Irish-Arab FBI agent who travels to Gaza to connect with his roots, then gets roped into investigating the murder of an Israeli police chief. Resisting easy answers, Wright makes good on the book’s title, measuring with care and precision the human toll of a stomach-turning conflict.

• Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age

  Vauhini Vara(Pantheon)

  Vara’s most inventive work yet is a soulful, perceptive take on humanity’s relationship with technology. Both collaborating with and critiquing artificial intelligence in essays that are wholly unique and moving, she draws attention to the gap between the richness of reality and technology’s superficial approximation of it.

• Flesh

  David Szalay(Scribner)

  Szalay delivers a lean and muscular novel about a man who leads a guilt-filled life after accidentally killing someone as a teen. It builds to a gut-wrenching finale, which stays with the reader as much as the author’s indelible portrait of a man who’s simply trying to live.

• My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda

  Bibi Dumon Tak, trans. from the Dutch by Nancy Forest-Flier, illus. by Annemarie van Haeringen(Levine Querido)

  Twenty animals each give a lecture on a species of their choice in this comedic all-dialogue collection, which suggests that the dread (or excitement) of an oral presentation isn’t exclusive to humans. Tak’s irreverent text recounts critters’ attempts to provoke, cajole, and heckle their peers, while van Haeringen’s mixed-media sketches stylishly depict a chaotic interpretation of a classroom discussion gone rogue.

• Fireworks

  Matthew Burgess, illus. by Cátia Chien(Clarion)

  In limpid prose and sunny, softly stroked spreads, previous collaborators Burgess and Chien follow two children through a hot city Fourth of July. Across this joyous summer idyll, the creators capture with onomatopoeic eloquence the day’s sensations and establish the children’s time as free, expansive, and bursting with plenty of opportunity to savor sounds, sights, and “summer on our skin.”

• The Leaving Room

  Amber McBride(Macmillan/Feiwel and Friends)

  A teen steward acting as a bridge to the afterlife wonders if there’s more to her existence in McBride’s eerie and philosophical speculative novel, which considers the weight of grief and loss on Black youth. Richly imagined settings evoke Black Southern gothic imagery, adding texture to this achingly tender tale that explores existential questions about life and death.

• Listen

  Sacha Bronwasser, trans. from the Dutch by David Colmer(Viking)

  This slow-burn stunner keeps its cards close to its vest, painting an oblique portrait of the fallout from an affair between a ruthless artist and her young protégé before ripping the rug from under readers’ feet. When the full range of Bronwasser’s themes become clear—including questions about destiny and the very ethics of storytelling—it’s tempting to start again from page one.

• Bibliophobia: A Memoir

  Sarah Chihaya(Random House)

  Critic Chihaya’s refreshingly unsentimental debut illuminates the pleasures and limits of a life lived through books. As she catalogs the texts that transformed her, she also considers the damage done by narrativizing her own pain, both as a perennial outsider in adolescence and an adult struggling with mental illness. It amounts to a brilliant, unsettling blend of criticism and autobiography.

• We the Pizza: Slangin’ Pies and Saving Lives

  Muhammad Abdul-Hadi(Clarkson Potter)

  In this punchy and inspiring collection, the story of Philadelphia’s Down North Pizza unfolds via flavor-packed recipes, spirited anecdotes, and loving portraits of restaurant employees, all of whom were formerly incarcerated. It’s both an accessible guide to getting creative in the kitchen and a stirring ode to second chances.

• An Optimism

  Cameron Awkward-Rich(Persea)

  Expansive and introspective, this collection offers a rich portrait of Black trans life during a dangerous political moment. Weaving together past and present, Awkward-Rich celebrates the imagination of Black activists and thinkers. Marked by its hopefulness for the possibility of self-actualization, this is a generous and revelatory volume.

• Shamanism: The Timeless Religion

  Manvir Singh(Knopf)

  Stretching from the Paleothic era to the present, this sweeping history perceptively traces the evolution of shamanism and the core human needs underpinning it, particularly the yearning for mystery and the unknown. In the process, Singh offers keen psychological insight into why what he calls the world’s “oldest religion” persists in even the most ostensibly secular corners of Western society.

• Great Big Beautiful Life

  Emily Henry(Berkley)

  The reigning queen of the rom-com delivers her most ambitious book to date, combining her well-honed talent for crafting sparkling contemporary love stories with a bold dive into historical fiction. Two writers compete to pen the biography of an aging socialite whose glamorous—but not necessarily reliable—memories provide a fascinating backdrop to their entirely believable rivals-to-lovers romance.

• Notes from a Regicide

  Isaac Fellman(Tor)

  An intimate and deeply empathetic found family saga plays out against the backdrop of a dystopian future in this elegant queer sci-fi novel. Fellman intercuts journalist Griffon Keming’s recollections of his late adoptive parents, both of whom were trans, with excerpts from the memoir his dissident mother wrote in her prison cell. The result is a powerful exploration of art and revolution.

• The Once and Future Riot

  Joe Sacco(Metropolitan)

  Comics journalist Sacco is at the height of his powers in this muscularly drawn, sharply analyzed account of a 2013 riot in India and its aftermath. He unpacks not only the complex specifics of that bloody clash, but the reasons why violent uprisings are cyclical, exploring how the flames of sectarian violence are fanned by politicians and issuing an urgent warning about the fault lines of democracy in a divided America.

• The Sisters

  Jonas Hassen Khemiri(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

  It’s rare to find the narrator of a work of autofiction as invested in the lives of others as Khemiri’s is. Jonas, a writer, unspools an intimate decades-spanning saga of three Tunisian Swedish sisters, speeding up time as he and the sisters age. This narrative device reflects what time feels like as life passes and makes the novel become more propulsive as it goes.

• Night Chef: An Epic Tale of Friendship with a Side of Deliciousness!

  Mika Song(Random House Graphic)

  A culinary wunderkind raccoon finds herself guardian to a baby crow and determines to return the hatchling to his forest home in Song’s heartwarming graphic novel. Amiable creatures are always eager to lend a hand throughout the duo’s simultaneously serendipitous and harrowing adventure, relayed in fluid ink and watercolor, which celebrates the joy of making—and sharing—a meal.

• For a Girl Becoming

  Joy Harjo, illus. by Adriana M. Garcia(Norton)

  In deeply loving lines, former U.S. poet laureate Harjo follows an Indigenous family gathering to welcome an infant. As Garcia’s muralistic paintings trace the baby’s maturation, refrain-like text offers suggestions for moving through the world. Underlining values of family and interdependence, this is a profoundly tender blessing of a book for anyone in a place of becoming.

• One of the Boys

  Victoria Zeller(Levine Querido)

  After coming out as transgender, a high school athlete resigns herself to giving up her passion for football—until her former captain asks her to rejoin the team. Perceptive narration and alternating timelines set before and after the protagonist’s transition emphasize the vulnerable underbelly of locker room posturing in Zeller’s blistering debut, an experience-informed interpretation of toxic masculinity.

• A Murder in Paris

  Matthew Blake(Harper)

  After debuting with the brain-teasingAnna O., Blake dives back into the murk of human memory with this excellent whodunit about a WWII survivor who suddenly insists, at 96, that she murdered a woman at the end of the war. As her granddaughter tries to get to the bottom of the bizarre claim, someone dies, kicking off a chain of jaw-dropping twists.

• Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State

  Caleb Gayle(Riverhead)

  The charismatic, indefatigable Edward McCabe persevered in rising as a Black man through the political and business ranks of 19th-century America until one setback too many at the hands of racist adversaries set him on a radical, separatist path to turn Oklahoma into a Black homeland. Readers will be wowed by journalist Gayle’s propulsive history.

• Fox

  Joyce Carol Oates(Hogarth)

  With her trademark deep moral clarity and eloquent prose, Oates transcends the trappings of dark academia and police procedurals to spin the story of a pedophile teacher and his untimely death. Along the way, she offers a fierce examination of the predator’s enablers and the unraveling of his twisted self-justification.

• God and Sex

  Jon Raymond(Simon & Schuster)

  There’s plenty of god and sex in Raymond’s beautiful novel, about a spiritually minded nature writer and his affair with a married woman. What ties it all together, though, is an affecting and complicated portrayal of the friendship between the writer and his lover’s husband, which leads to one surprise after another.

• Reasons to Hate Me

  Susan Metallo(Candlewick)

  Told via blog posts, this affectionate character study follows an autistic theater kid’s attempt to navigate the aftermath of a friendship-ending error. Characterization is a standout feature of this poignant and self-aware debut, which Metallo presents using rueful, laugh-out-loud narration that balances acerbic comedy with insightful examinations of neurodivergence, friendship, forgiveness, and accountability.

• Saint of the Narrows Street

  William Boyle(Soho Crime)

  This hefty working-class crime saga cements Boyle as an essential Brooklyn novelist. Decades after a Gravesend woman accidentally kills her abusive husband, her son starts to wonder about his late father, setting the stage for a sprawling, tragic reflection on class and the ripple effects of violence across generations.

• The Broken King: A Memoir

  Michael Thomas(Grove)

  Nearly 20 years after his acclaimed first novel,Man Gone Down, Thomas returns with this harrowing self-portrait. Attempting to untangle what made him a “hard man,” he combs through his hardscrabble Boston childhood and profiles the men in his family with a poet’s eye and a clinician’s intellect. The result is arresting, unforgettable, and even, by the end, hopeful.

• Island Storm

  Brian Floca, illus. by Sydney Smith(Holiday House/Porter)

  Two children embark on an unaccompanied escapade to “see/ the sea before the storm” in this thrilling picture book. As the youths nudge each other forward, Floca and Smith capture the burgeoning storm’s energy and, when the sky opens, the children’s dash toward home. It’s a splendid story about a shared exploit—and a dynamic portrait of nature and volition unleashed.

• Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America

  Jeff Chang(Mariner)

  More than a biography of actor and martial artist Bruce Lee, this is an essential history of the Asian American experience. Journalist Chang pulls off the ambitious endeavor with nuance, flair, and heart. In sentences that pack a punch, he effortlessly puts a larger-than-life figure into the context of his time.

• The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli

  Karina Yan Glaser(Allida)

  Polished prose depicts two tweens—one in 731 Chang’An, China, the other in New York City’s Chinatown during 1931—embarking on parallel journeys to resolve their families’ respective medical and financial situations. Each meticulously researched timeline of this absorbing fantasy offers bustling adventure grounded by Yan Glaser’s b&w pencil sketches, making for an endearing tribute to bravery and friendship.

• Regaining Unconsciousness

  Harryette Mullen(Graywolf)

  Mullen delivers an unsettling and incisive interrogation of the technology-driven world. A work of unflinching imagination, its timely dystopian lens makes the connection between innovation, commerce, and the climate catastrophe plain.

• Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump

  Molly Worthen(Convergent)

  In this ambitious history, Worthen charts how leaders from Marcus Garvey to Donald Trump have risen to power via a kind of charisma that suggests divine connection and ignites a nearly religious fervor in their supporters. Seamlessly blending religious, social, and political thought, it’s an enlightening reconsideration of faith and power.

• House of Rayne

  Harley Laroux(Kensington)

  Mixing spicy erotica with chilling gothic horror, this addictive outing pairs a recently jilted woman with the mysterious proprietress of a possibly haunted bed-and-breakfast on a spooky island in the Pacific Northwest. The twisty supernatural mystery is pulse-pounding, and the kinky sex scenes are hot enough to scorch the pages.

• The Raven Scholar

  Antonia Hodgson(Orbit)

  Mystery writer Hodgson pivots to fantasy with this staggering epic. The tale kicks off with the murder of one of seven potential heirs to the throne of Orrun, and the ensuing investigation, conducted by prickly court scholar Neema, unfolds as a series of genuinely shocking twists. It’s more than 700 pages long, but in the hands of this master storyteller not a word is wasted.

• Spent

  Alison Bechdel(Mariner)

  The BDE (big dyke energy) of this hilarious autofiction allows for all the in-jokes Bechdel fans revel in, while also making room for those new to her oeuvre. Chronicling the travails of an anti-capitalist cartoonist named Alison as she navigates the queer subculture of middle-aged hippie, polyamorous Vermont, this tour de force pokes spiky fun at fame and progressive politics.

• When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World

  Jordan Thomas(Riverhead)

  An anthropologist and firefighter, Thomas delivers a rare up-close look at the perilous front lines of the climate crisis, recounting his stint with an elite wildland firefighting crew in California in 2021. He pairs this awe-inducing account with a captivating history of Indigenous controlled burns and an in-depth look at how private companies take advantage of fire disasters to make a profit.

• Martha’s Daughter

  David Haynes(McSweeney’s)

  Haynes’s gimlet-eyed collection amounts to a searing examination of the Black respectability politics shaping his characters’ families and communities. No good deed goes unpunished in this volume, and whether the stories’ moments of confrontation and disillusion elicit circumspection or rage on the part of the protagonists, Haynes’s writing is thoroughly cathartic.

• Oasis

  Guojing(Macmillan/Godwin)

  Siblings navigate their mother’s sudden absence with the help of a maternal robot in Guojing’s evocative graphic novel tale of sacrifice and compassion, set amid a somber desert landscape devastated by pollution and climate change. Soft lines, delicate pencil shading, and large uncluttered panels emphasize the characters’ youthful vulnerability and optimism, amplifying the narrative’s cozy ambiance.

• The Keeper of Stories

  Caroline Kusin Pritchard, illus. by Selina Alko(Simon & Schuster)

  Deliberately paced text joins collage and multimedia images as Kusin Pritchard and Alko recount the 1966 fire at New York City’s Jewish Theological Seminary Library and the subsequent volunteer effort to save its books. Readers are pulled into the desperate fight to rescue irreplaceable treasures throughout a work that emphasizes the crucial work done by libraries, and by communities and individuals, too.

• Reasons We Break

  Jesmeen Kaur Deo(Disney Hyperion)

  A formerly incarcerated Punjabi teen must protect his loved ones from the consequences of his past gang activity in this dazzling contemporary drama. First love blossoms across a high-stakes plot that explores Indo-Canadian gang culture and the pressures felt by children of immigrants, which Deo crafts via sharp, multifaceted narration that counsels empathy, fosters tension, and heightens urgency.

• Salt Bones

  Jennifer Givhan(Little, Brown)

  Refashioning the myth of Persephone and Demeter into a lyrical ghost story set in the Mexicali borderlands is no small task. Givhan more than meets the challenge, spinning an atmospheric, urgent, and frightening tale about a woman searching for missing girls near the Salton Sea.

• The Colonel and the King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, and the Partnership That Rocked the World

  Peter Guralnick(Little, Brown)

  Guralnick peels back myths about the exploitative relationship between Elvis and his manager Colonel Tom Parker to reveal a more complex—and intriguing—story of how Parker, a former carny, elevated his client to fame, creating a blueprint for the modern superstar in the process. Excerpts from never-before-seen letters bolster this uncommonly vivid portrait of one of rock’s most legendary partnerships.

• Your Name Here

  Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff(Dalkey Archive)

  In this vital metafictional narrative, DeWitt and Gridneff embark on a quixotic project to write a commercially viable book that will also disrupt the staid literary marketplace. The result is dizzying, yes, but it’s held together by the authors’ razor-sharp wit, and it’s poised to restore even the most jaded reader’s faith in the fun and power of literature.

• Open Up

  Thomas Morris(Unnamed Press)

  One of the most undeservedly overlooked books of the year, this collection blends gritty realism and allegorical fantasy with profoundly affecting stories of men and boys and their yearning for acceptance, either in contemporary Wales or the depths of the ocean among a herd of horny seahorses.

• The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne

  Ron Currie(Putnam)

  Currie introduces readers to a memorable mafiosa in this cinematic epic about a French American crime matriarch in Maine who embarks on a violent crusade after the death of her daughter. Juggling an impressive array of subplots without sacrificing stakes or character development, Currie envelops readers in Babs’s bloodthirsty revenge campaign until the bitter end.

• Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation

  Sim Kern(Interlink)

  This bold challenge to accepted American narratives about Israel is delivered by a prominent online Jewish activist who had a front-row seat to the propaganda war surrounding Israel’s campaign of destruction in Palestine after October 7. Kern breaks down the ways the Israeli government uses social media to shut down political dissent, and issues a powerful call for a clear-eyed reevaluation of the conflict.

• Lena the Chicken (but Really a Dinosaur!)

  Linda Bailey, illus. by K-Fai Steele(Tundra)

  Convinced she’s descended from mighty dinosaurs, fierce fowl protagonist Lena is vindicated when she goes full terrible lizard after a predator infiltrates the chicken coop. Gloriously goofy illustrations by Steele and theatrical dialogue from Bailey imbue Lena with delicious levels of gravitas across a triumphant telling that delivers important observations about honoring one’s nature.

• Run Away with Me

  Brian Selznick(Scholastic Press)

  Brimming with electric-feeling affection and longing, this extraordinary novel, Selznick’s illustrated YA debut, follows two teens who meet and fall in love in 1986 Rome. Elegantly overlapping through lines center the teens as they take in the sights and recount the “stories… secrets… histories” of the city, and their time together winds down, resulting in an intricately woven Roman holiday.

• Pocket Bear

  Katherine Applegate, illus. by Charles Santoso(Macmillan/Feiwel and Friends)

  A cat’s grudging POV injects humor into a gently sophisticated tale chronicling the lives of the misfit toys she watches over in the apartment she shares with mother-daughter refugees from Ukraine. Santoso’s detailed illustrations expertly complement Applegate’s nuanced renderings of the dwelling’s unique residents in this treasure of a book that evokes laughter, tears, and introspection in equal measure.

• Tongues, Vol. 1

  Anders Nilsen(Pantheon)

  Nilsen’s mind-bending epic spans millennia in acutely told moments: Prometheus remains chained but plays chess with his eagle torturer; gods threaten to be outdone by the iPhone; a young girl and a naive wanderer with a teddy bear strapped to his backpack traverse a war-torn landscape populated by armed mercenaries and mythical creatures. Every gorgeous, puzzle-like page is a masterpiece.

• Ordinary Love

  Marie Rutkoski(Knopf)

  In this tender and insightful sapphic romance, a woman trapped in a toxic marriage unexpectedly bumps into her high school sweetheart, now an Olympic athlete, at a party. Rutkoski neither shies away from nor sensationalizes the effects of emotional abuse, and her prose is lovely, sensual, and psychologically incisive as the fully realized heroines navigate their precarious reunion.

• Saltcrop

  Yume Kitasei(Flatiron)

  In a disquietingly realistic near-future world, Skipper and Carmen Shimizu set out to find their lost sister, who went missing shortly after making a major scientific breakthrough. As their captivating quest unfolds, Kitasei balances sweeping vistas of the climate change–ravaged Earth with grounded character beats. The worldbuilding is impressive, but it’s the heroines’ complex relationship that makes this shine.

• Pick a Color

  Souvankham Thammavongsa(Little, Brown)

  With this portrait of a nail salon, Thammavongsa crafts a mischievous and resonant novel drawn from the frame’s negative space: the immigrant workers’ native language, in which they exchange bawdy jokes and pass judgment on their unsuspecting English-speaking clients. It’s a fascinating view into lives that remain invisible to others.

• A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez

  María Dolores Águila(Roaring Brook)

  Via lucid and empowering poems, Águila reimagines the history ofRoberto Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District, a 1930–1931 court case. Brief, stirring free verse depicts fictionalized tween Roberto’s struggles navigating segregated education and shifting relationships, resulting in an impeccably researched account that imparts timely, resonant messages about personal identity and community activism.

• Skipshock

  Caroline O’Donoghue(Walker US)

  En route to boarding school in Dublin, a teen suddenly transported to another realm finds herself traveling alongside a time-jumping salesman in O’Donoghue’s sensational series opener. Inventive worldbuilding complements an elaborate plot that advocates for social justice and immigration reform, while witty banter and burgeoning romance inject buoyant atmosphere into increasingly dangerous, high-stakes action sequences.

• We Don’t Talk About Carol

  Kristen L. Berry(Bantam)

  A former investigative reporter tracks down details about an aunt she never knew in Berry’s sharp, expressive debut. When Sydney Singleton learns her aunt was one of six Black women to vanish from Raleigh, N.C., in a two-year period, the narrative turns an unflinching eye toward racial disparities in crime solving, making this among the year’s most potent mysteries.

• Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley

  Jacob Silverman(Bloomsbury Continuum)

  Tech reporter Silverman’s sharp and ominous account delves into the radicalizing worldviews of Silicon Valley billionaires in the lead-up to Donald Trump’s reelection, and warns of a fusion of corporate and state power through which tech titans seek to enact undemocratic agendas. It’s an essential unmasking of the growing extremism among America’s wealthy.

• Let’s Be Bees

  Shawn Harris(Holiday House/Porter)

  In Harris’s riotous readaloud, a caregiver and a child sit down with a book. “Let’s be bees,” its text begins, and a page turn later, two insects hover above the humans’ clothing with a “BUZZ!” The conceit gains momentum as the duo become birds (“CHIRP!”), trees (“RUSTLE!”), and more in this endearing celebration of voice that invites joyful mimicry of the natural world—and of the protagonists themselves.

• The Remembered Soldier

  Anjet Daanje, trans. from the Dutch by David McKay(New Vessel)

  Daanje unfurls a staggering modernist work of love, guilt, and the slippery nature of identity. It takes place in the years after WWI, when a woman recognizes an amnesiac veteran as her long-lost husband. The story grows increasingly complex as the veteran wonders if he should trust his wife’s version of the past.

• The Summer of the Bone Horses

  Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, illus. by Steph Littlebird(Amulet)

  Seamlessly layered plotting builds to a captivating climax in Sneve’s gentle chapter book about a Lakota youth immersing himself in his heritage while visiting his grandparents at their Rosebud Reservation home. As the summer progresses, he simultaneously contends with intense loneliness and gains valuable skills and confidence, experiences conveyed visually in Littlebird’s vivid colored pencil drawings.

• On Our Way with Mr. Jay

  Chelsea Lin Wallace, illus. by Thyra Heder(Holiday House/Porter)

  Kicking off Wallace and Heder’s School Heroes series, unshakably cool bus driver Mr. Jay travels his daily route as digital clock numbers count down the minutes until the 8:05 start of school. Starring a beloved adult who brings everyone together with attentive care, this jubilant picture book uses tightly scanning rhymes and lavishly energetic visuals to hail its school-commute VIP.

• Song of a Blackbird

  Maria van Lieshout(First Second)

  The stories of two girls—one in 2011 Amsterdam and another in 1943 Nazi-occupied Netherlands—intertwine in this touching graphic novel about a teen’s desire to investigate her family history. Told via an omniscient blackbird narrator and conveyed in van Lieshout’s fluid two-toned figure drawings, it’s a nuanced rumination on the importance of creative expression and art’s ability to foster change and connection.

• Your Steps on the Stairs

  Antonio Muñoz Molina, trans. from the Spanish by Curtis Bauer(Other Press)

  Cerebral, shocking, and winningly surreal, this shimmering suspense novel follows a man as he obsessively prepares an apartment in Lisbon for a wife who may or may not arrive. As the timeline starts to blur, Muñoz masterfully and ruthlessly immerses readers in the unstable psychology of loss.

• Is a River Alive?

  Robert Macfarlane(Norton)

  Mixing travel writing and natural history, Macfarlane elevates rivers from functional resources to living, breathing beings deserving of respect and legal rights. Both personal and political, Macfarlane’s perspective-shifting narrative unfolds in lyrical prose and enchanting detail, cementing his status as a master of language.

• You Weren’t Meant to Be Human

  Andrew Joseph White(Saga)

  Bestselling YA author White pulls no punches in his brutal and brilliant adult debut. Autistic trans man Crane believes he’s found acceptance among a cult that worships an alien hive mind—until the hive demands he carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. What follows is a gruesome and unrelenting take on pregnancy as body horror that feels especially urgent in the present moment.

• Sky Daddy

  Kate Folk(Random House)

  Folk transcends her novel’s bizarre conceit—a lowly San Francisco tech worker pursues her sexual attraction to airplanes by flying on them as much as possible, hoping to be forever united with one in a crash—by shaping it into a universal story of modern love and exploitative labor.

• Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America

  Bridget Read(Crown)

  This thrilling debut exposé fromNew York magazine journalist Read is a whirlwind journey through the greed and exploitation of multilevel marketing schemes. Spotlighting MLMs’ overlooked role in conservative politics and showcasing the devastation they’ve wreaked on individuals struggling to make ends meet, Read skillfully unravels the lies at the heart of this all-American grift.

• Our Lake

  Angie Kang(Kokila)

  Kang debuts with a fully felt story about siblings returning to a cherished location: “Brother is taking me up to swim in the lake like Father used to.” When the younger sibling hesitates before diving in, Father’s reflection materializes on the water’s surface, giving way to a kind of reunion and creating a place where “we are all together.”

• The Trouble with Heroes

  Kate Messner(Bloomsbury)

  Messner draws on personal experience to present a moving and profoundly funny verse novel about a tween who’s forced to hike all 46 Adirondack High Peaks in a single summer as penance for vandalizing a cemetery. Charmingly disgruntled narration relays the protagonist’s adventure grappling with the elements, even as he gains new perspectives on anger, grief, and the solace offered by nature.

• This Place Kills Me

  Mariko Tamaki, illus. by Nicole Goux(Abrams)

  In Tamaki and Goux’s incisive look at how corrupt organizations maintain power at the expense of vulnerable teen girls, instances involving substance use and sexual misconduct come to light when a boarding school student becomes embroiled in a murder investigation. Pink hues accent the noir-like illustrations, softening weighty emotional sequences and intensifying high-energy reveals across this arresting graphic novel.

• The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest

  Aubrey Hartman(Little, Brown)

  Via accessible, morally complex life-after-death scenarios, Hartman delivers a passionate folktale about an usher of wandering souls who must confront his own loneliness and fear of death. Vulnerable narration from a flawed, fully realized character navigating realistic feelings encourages bravery in the face of the unknown; the creator’s illustrations enhance this deeply emotional story’s wistful atmosphere.

• Papilio

  Ben Clanton, Corey R. Tabor, and Andy Chou Musser(Viking)

  Across distinctive but coordinated sections, Clanton, Tabor, and Chou Musser depict the stages of a black swallowtail’s life in this lively collaboration. Protagonist Papilio is introduced as a yellow egg who, after hatching into a wide-eyed green caterpillar, becomes a chrysalis, then a newly minted butterfly. With a light touch, the creators convey a wonderful sense of growth, optimism, and change.

• The Tournament

  Rebecca Barrow(McElderry)

  Three teenagers must decide the lengths to which they’ll go to win an intense survivalist competition in this stunningly propulsive dark academia thriller, which features a complicated love triangle and Shakespearean tragedy vibes. Barrow balances layered discussions of class differences with gruesome portrayals of hunting and medical drama to deliver a brutal tale about expectations and ambition.

• The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue: A Story of Climate and Hope on One American Street

  Mike Tidwell(St. Martin’s)

  In this powerful portrait of a community, travel writer Tidwell reveals that, far from a distant threat, the consequences of climate change have arrived at readers’ front steps. He brings a penetrating hyperlocal focus to a global problem, shedding light on how warming temperatures affect everything from wildlife to people’s health and their perceptions of the future.

• So Far Gone

  Jess Walter(Harper)

  A divided America provides the inspiration for Walter’s exciting, redemptive, and tragic novel of men armed with guns and the desire to set things right. It opens with an isolated retiree’s well-meaning but misguided quest to save his grandchildren from a Christian nationalist militia, and it builds to a moving depiction of a fractured family’s reconciliation.

• Softie

  Megan Howell(West Virginia Univ.)

  Howell’s debut collection blooms with harrowing beauty. In spare and candid stories about Black women and girls’ desire, turmoil, and misguided attempts at self-improvement, Howell explores her characters’ poignant compromises and self-erasure. The imagery is unforgettable, as when a woman’s use of an anti-aging cream turns her into a little girl.

• A Place for Us

  James E. Ransome(Penguin/Paulsen)

  Centering an unhoused child and caretaker, Ransome’s wordless story follows the two from school pickup to school drop-off. Together, the figures navigate a bustling metropolis, making their way to a fast-food restaurant, a library, and then to a park where they spend the night on a bench, all depicted in spectacularly composed images that brim with abiding love and care.

• Truth Is

  Hannah V. Sawyerr(Amulet)

  Slam poetry allows a pregnant teen the opportunity to explore her emotions and relationships, and provides the communal support needed to make difficult decisions in this empowering read. Sawyerr combines fast-paced, unwavering verse poems with authentic-feeling text messages, social media transcripts, and more to deliver an astounding portrait of a teen in transition that earns all the snaps.

• Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood’s First South Asian Star

  Mayukh Sen(Norton)

  The story of Merle Oberon, the first actor of color nominated for an Academy Award, who spent her career “passing” as white, is fascinating in itself. But Sen brings a uniquely compassionate lens to Oberon’s experience, delivering a nuanced portrait of a troubled star and an insightful depiction of the industry that shaped her.

• A World Worth Saving

  Kyle Lukoff(Dial)

  A transgender teen teams up with a golem to dismantle an evil supernatural conversion therapy program in this extraordinarily satisfying adventure. Unique interpretations of Jewish mysticism, paired with the protagonist’s own raw emotional journey, flesh out the thrilling fantastical plot as Lukoff tackles weighty real-world problems that disproportionately affect queer youth, including homelessness and suicide.

• Popo the Xolo

  Paloma Angelina Lopez, illus. by Abraham Matias(Charlesbridge)

  A journey through the Indigenous Mexican underworld ends in rest and remembrance in Lopez’s arresting debut, with luminous art by Matias. “Nana is surrounded by the love of family, but following a long day, it’s Popo, Nana’s tiny Xoloitzcuintle, who awakens her” and accompanies her through the Nine Levels of Mictlān in this tale of change and comfort.

• Marginlands: A Journey into India’s Vanishing Landscapes

  Arati Kumar-Rao(Milkweed)

  National Geographic journalist Kumar-Rao offers an elegant travelogue and environmental history of India that spotlights how disappearing Indigenous customs and agricultural practices are deeply in tune with the local ecology. The account culminates in an exhilarating call for readers to slow down and see the world around them.

• Twist

  Colum McCann(Random House)

  McCann’s novel of a journalist’s adventures aboard an underwater cable repair ship off West Africa explores the lingering appeal of Joseph Conrad’sHeart of Darkness, as the reporter compares the colonial trade routes depicted by Conrad to the cables that connect the modern world. It’s a page-turner packed with ideas.

• Universality

  Natasha Brown(Random House)

  Brown takes on class tensions and the rise of populist grifters in this sly and ambitious satire. It begins with a magazine article about an illegal rave at a country estate and develops into a nuanced story of the fledgling writer’s motivations and the famous controversial columnist who exploits her.

• So Many Years: A Juneteenth Story

  Anne Wynter, illus. by Jerome Pumphrey(Clarion)

  “How would you dress/ after so many years/ of mending your clothes with rags?” begins Wynter in this question-oriented look at Juneteenth’s past and present. Aptly exclamatory lines (“Oh, how you would dress!”) respond, while Pumphrey’s thickly stroked illustrations visualize historical scenes that move forward in time. It’s a smartly rendered tribute that converses with history’s resonances.

• Memorial Days: A Memoir

  Geraldine Brooks(Viking)

  The Pulitzer-winning novelist indexes the years immediately after her husband’s sudden death in this gut-wrenching account. Toggling between the story of the couple’s courtship, a portrait of the absurd administrative crises death can cause, and a tender recollection of Brooks’s eventual “unclenching of the soul,” it’s a revelatory meditation on a well-covered subject.

• The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains

  Pria Anand(Washington Square)

  Neurologist Anand ventures deep into the brain’s mysteries with medical tales drawn from her own practice, literature, fables, and more. In probing the intimate links between medicine and narrative—those the brain creates to rationalize its symptoms, but also those told by patients, doctors, and the medical system—she uncovers sharp, eye-opening insights into whose pain is believed and why.

• On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR

  Steve Oney(Avid Reader)

  Delivering an essential piece of media history, Oney chronicles the rise of NPR, from its early days as a countercultural force to its position as a mainstream media stronghold. Gossipy and unsparing, it’s a deeply researched and timely look at an institution that has frequently been made a political target and threatened with funding cuts.

• Racebook: A Personal History of the Internet

  Tochi Onyebuchi(Grove/Gay)

  In these sage and utterly original reflections on the relationship between race and the internet, Onyebuchi demonstrates the power of mining personal experience to uncover universal truths. Poetic and penetrating, his essays offer a nostalgic record of the internet’s early days, sharp critiques of the present, and glimmers of hope for the future.

• Vaim

  Jon Fosse, trans. from the Norwegian by Damion Searls(Transit)

  The Nobel winner offers a much more accessible but no less stunning story than the one found in his demandingSeptology. After a bachelor makes his annual voyage from his rural village to the city of Bergen, he has an unexpected encounter with his childhood sweetheart. From there, the magical novel grows increasingly surprising and poignant.

• Stalactite & Stalagmite: A Big Tale from a Little Cave

  Drew Beckmeyer(Atheneum)

  Beckmeyer views the history of life on Earth from within a cave via a conversation between a stalactite and stalagmite whose back and forth, and steady growth toward one another, continues while earth-shattering—and life-ending—events occur outside. The premise of a bond that lasts eras and epochs poses all kinds of possibilities, here pursued with wit, curiosity, and sparky energy.

• The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide

  Howard W. French(Liveright)

  Journalist French revisits the history of the Pan-Africanist movement through the life of Ghanaian prime minister Kwame Nkrumah, leader of the first African nation to gain its independence from colonialism. It’s an eloquent, erudite biography that develops into a towering history of ideas, and reframes the 20th century as a long struggle for liberation.

• The World Entire: A True Story of an Extraordinary World War II Rescue

  Elizabeth Brown, illus. by Melissa Castrillón(Chronicle)

  Brown’s quietly propulsive narration conveys escalating, life-and-death urgency as Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes performs an extraordinary feat of moral courage during WWII: haunted by the frantic, growing crowds gathered at his post, he violates orders, signing thousands of visas for refugees fleeing Nazi forces. Castrillón’s sweeping compositions convey the tide of events and the protagonist’s steadfast, heroic defiance.

• The Wayfinder

  Adam Johnson(MCD)

  With this quest narrative set in ancient Polynesia, Johnson raises profound questions about the nature of oral history and storytelling, and the ways in which a person’s cultural mythology shapes who they are. The narrative follows a girl’s mission to save her island’s people from starvation, and it transports readers with its evocative detail and heart-stopping drama.

• Shift: Managing Your Emotions—So They Don’t Manage You

  Ethan Kross(Crown)

  Kross draws from his own neuroscientific research for an enlightening and deeply humane guide to better handling emotions with minor shifts in perspective. Along the way, he adeptly debunks received mental health wisdom—including the idea that positive thinking is unequivocally helpful—while making clear how much of the human mind remains a mystery.

• Your Forest

  Jon Klassen(Candlewick)

  In this gentle board book, an entry in the Your Places series, Klassen positions familiar elements of a forest landscape against a blank white backdrop, offering each to the reader like a gift (“This is your sun. It is coming up for you”). As the setting coheres, lulling rhythms and interactive language give readers a place to watch over and return to whenever they like.

• Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America

  Russell Shorto(Norton)

  Shorto’s fast-paced, stylish account of the unprecedented deal struck between Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch administrator of New Amsterdam, and Richard Nicholls, the Englishman tasked with capturing the city, posits that the duo’s canny negotiation and eventual bloodless handoff of Manhattan presaged much of the American story to come. It’s a propulsive character study brimming with big ideas.

• The Wilderness

  Angela Flournoy(Mariner)

  Flournoy’s empathetic follow-up toThe Turner House follows four friends from their early 20s into middle age. Holding together the free-ranging novel, which delves into the housing crisis, campus politics, climate change, Covid-19, and much more, are the women’s lasting friendships and the author’s astute depictions of their rich inner lives.

• Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of ‘Born to Run’

  Peter Ames Carlin(Doubleday)

  Though the success of Bruce Springsteen’sBorn to Run now seems inevitable, Carlin’s blow-by-blow account of its creation reveals a process fraught with setbacks caused by the record company and Springsteen himself, who nearly scrapped the album after he finished recording it. With kinetic prose, Carlin turns the sometimes inscrutable process by which art gets made into a riveting story.

• Waiting for Britney Spears: A True Story, Allegedly

  Jeff Weiss(MCD)

  Weiss tumbles down the rabbit hole of 2000s celebrity culture in this colorful chronicle of Britney Spears’s rise and fall, drawn from his years as a tabloid reporter covering her career. What emerges is both an un-put-downable roller-coaster ride through the early aughts and a razor-sharp commentary on pop culture’s twin desires to glorify and demonize female superstars.

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