Books

Korean author Han Kang, winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, returns with We Do Not Part, her poetic, starkly beautiful fifth novel to be translated into English. Kyungha, the book’s narrator, wanders through a bewildering internal dreamscape, haunted by a recurring nightmare of graves inundated by rising water. She has lost or cut

I have finally reemerged from the depths of Most Anticipated Books of 2025 lists! I’ve been looking through dozens of lists across blogs, Instagram, Goodreads, and more to build a database of hundreds of new queer books out in 2025. It’s obviously not a complete list, but it’s a start! It also has very few

Téo Erskine is a Londoner in his 30s with an orderly, if somewhat aimless, life. As Tom Lamont writes in his smart, warm-hearted debut, Going Home: “He had been careful to arrange a life in which he could leave obligations at the door of his flat, next to the coins he saved for Ben’s poker

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Fact-Checking Chicken Soup for the Soul Readers who grew up in the ’90s and early 2000s will likely remember the ubiquity of Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Each installment of the series, originally created

Sarah, nicknamed Sally, is everything British society expects her to be: a polite, respectable, beautiful lady. An Egbado princess whom Queen Victoria claimed as a goddaughter, at 19 years old, Sally has learned to play the game of propriety and appearances. But it’s all in an effort to achieve her real goal: revenge against everyone

Everand—a company that offers a monthly subscription for access to ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts, and more—just released their 2025 State of Reading Report. They gathered data on why we read, how and what we read, our beliefs about books, and the evolution of reading by interviewing 1,500 US consumers aged 18-64 who had paid for an

In debut author Trisha Tobias’ Honeysuckle and Bone, 18-year-old New Yorker Carina Marshall is determined to make a fresh start, having recently experienced an upsetting series of events that culminated in the death of her best friend, Joy; her other friends’ subsequent abandonment of her; and an onslaught of online hate. Awash in guilt and

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Where is Publishing’s Response to the Neil Gaiman Allegations? On Monday, New York Magazine revealed this week’s cover story: Lila Shapiro’s deeply reported investigation into sexual assault allegations against Neil Gaiman. It’s a piece months

Throughout Ajay Anthonipillai’s life thus far, he’s dutifully adhered to his Sri Lankan parents’ rules. Their 16-item list, displayed at the end of Maria Marianayagam’s winning and inventive No Purchase Necessary, includes things like “Straight As only,” “No friendships with the opposite sex” and “No working while you’re in school.” Alas, ever since Ajay started

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. 100 Books to Look For in 2025 It’s always a good day when the folks at The Millions drop their winter books preview, and this year’s is no exception. Among the 100 most anticipated books

For civil rights attorney and legal scholar Michelle Adams, the story of the fight to desegregate schools in metropolitan Detroit in the 1960s and early 1970s is personal. Born and raised in the city, she was introduced to the law early: Her father was one of only two Black graduates from the Detroit College of

The horror genre has been steadily gaining popularity in recent years, and 2025 is delivering a slate of highly anticipated new horror books. There are new releases from beloved authors to watch for, like Never Flinch by Stephen King and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. But there are also some debuts exploding

Everyone loves a housewife; housewife here meaning not the barefoot and pregnant archetype, but a girlboss with hair extensions, implants and a whole lot of attitude who’s always willing to tussle with her “friends” for an audience of millions. But what happens when a reluctant housewife ends up dead—and she’s only the first casualty of

Kendra Winchester is a Contributing Editor for Book Riot where she writes about audiobooks and disability literature. She is also the Founder of Read Appalachia, which celebrates Appalachian literature and writing. Previously, Kendra co-founded and served as Executive Director for Reading Women, a podcast that gained an international following over its six-season run. In her

★ Remember When Mary Balogh offers a Regency-era, quietly enchanting story of second-chance love in Remember When. Nearing her 50th birthday, widow Clarissa Ware, the Dowager Countess of Stratton, returns to her family’s country estate alone, intent on contemplating the next phase of her life. With her children launched into society, she is seeking new

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

In How to Be Enough: Self-Acceptance for Self-Critics and Perfectionists, clinical psychologist Ellen Hendriksen tackles an issue that many might not consider a problem at all: perfectionism. In fact, Hendriksen concludes, the overly high standards, harsh inner voices, fear of judgment and other factors behind perfectionism interfere with our well-being and happiness, leaving us burned

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. A Big List of 2025 Books By Women of Color Electric Literature rounded up 48 books by women of color to look forward to in this fresh, new year. Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma

This book was nearly lost to history: It was burned with other papers of Hurston’s after her death, and only rescued, remarkably, by a friend of hers (Patrick Duval), who passed by the fire and was quick enough with a garden hose to save the manuscript. How, from there, did The Life of Herod the

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside

I wanted to write about motherhood.  I set pen to white paper and brainstormed around the circled word “MOTHER.” What were my word associations and allusions? The Queen of Coins. Marmee March and Cersei Lannister. Josephine Rabbit. The Capitoline wolf.  A she-wolf nursing infant twins is an unforgettable image. Strange, certainly. Unnatural, perhaps. It is

If you are subscribed to our book club newsletter, In the Club, you’ve seen us mention Jenna Bush Hager and her monthly book club picks for her Read with Jenna Book Club. Since she started the book club in 2019, it’s helped make 47 books New York Times bestsellers. Now, she’s turning that bestseller-making energy

What are your bookstore rituals? For example, where do you go first in a store?As a coffee addict, I’ll definitely stop by any coffee bar first. Then I like to sip and wander the new releases and sale tables. I’ll wind up seeing books written by my friends and internally (hopefully) I’ll say hello. I’ll

Travel from China to the United States with Haiwen and Suchi, lovers separated by time and one pivotal decision, from the ’40s to present day. In this excerpt, wander the vividly painted streets of wartime Shanghai with vendors, early risers, and troubled minds, and meet heartbroken Haiwen and Suchi on the cusp of the event

There are sound reasons that Adam Haslett’s debut short story collection, You Are Not a Stranger Here, and his second novel, Imagine Me Gone, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. With Mothers and Sons—a story about the self-inflicted pain of long-buried memories—he demonstrates once again his ability to produce graceful, emotionally affecting fiction whose characters’

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. The Book App AI That Rec’d Reading More White Authors What a day to not be on the Fable team. Even if you don’t use the social media app for readers and watchers, if you

In Mothers and Sons, Adam Haslett offers a family story, though it’s a fraught one. Peter Fischer, a gay immigration lawyer, is haunted by a secret he carries from his teen years. His mother, Ann, left behind her life as an Episcopal priest to build a women’s retreat center in Vermont. Their struggle to reconnect

It’s the moment every book lover dreads: you’re chatting with a friend/colleague/acquaintance/airplane seatmate. You mention that you like to read, they ask you for a few recommendations, and then…your mind goes blank. Books? What are those? Enter: the magic of a spreadsheet. Mine goes back to 2013, and let me tell you, that’s a wild

Throughout the year, I shout out queer books coming out each month, with even more queer new releases as weekly bonuses for All Access members. I keep track of these upcoming releases with a spreadsheet, which has been growing out of control in recent years. I already have more than 300 titles on my 2025

Emily has a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS, and she has an MFA in Creative Writing from GCSU in Milledgeville, GA, home of Flannery O’Connor. She spends her free time reading, watching horror movies and musicals, cuddling cats, Instagramming pictures of cats, and blogging/podcasting about books with the ladies over