Books

Nellie’s Big Splash

Bestselling author Cori Doerrfeld has reigned over many a bedtime with soothing titles such as The Rabbit Listened, and she’s bringing back her inspirational touch to Nellie’s Big Splash. Nellie is a newly hatched sea turtle, who is too afraid to join her siblings as they make their way down the beach, to the unknown ocean. Will she be able to overcome her fears?

The Trouble with Heroes

By Kate Messner

Kate Messner has written over 60 books that have inspired children in an amazing variety of ways, whether it’s been to pursue their dreams as scientists or try out the writing process. Her latest, The Trouble With Heroes, tackles hiking: specifically, the world of Adirondack 46ers, to which Messner belongs (what can’t she do?). Finn Connelly is struggling after the death of his father, and this culminates in him vandalizing the grave of someone who turns out to have been the first woman to have completed hiking all the 46 High Peaks in the Adirondacks. Instead of pursuing punishment, the woman’s daughter issues a challenge to Finn to summit all 46 peaks himself in one summer.

Sugar Shack

By Lucy Knisley

We were delighted by Lucy Knisley’s Woe, “a funny, touching saga” that chronicled the antics of Knisley’s cat, Linney. Middle grade audiences have had just as much to cheer for with Knisley’s Peapod Farm series, and Sugar Shack will provide an exciting conclusion to the story of Jen, who has faced big challenges as she’s adjusted to her new life on Peapod Farm, which has included barn chores and a pair of new stepsisters.

Dream On

By Marcela Cespedes

Shannon Hale, beloved for novels like The Goose Girl and Princess Academy (which received a Newbery Honor), is also on top of the graphic novel game, notably with her bestselling Real Friends series, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, and the Eisner-nominated Rapunzel’s Revenge, which was cowritten with her husband, Dean Hale. Illustrated by Marcela Cespedes, who has previously worked with Nickelodeon and Disney, Dream On tells the story of Cassie Carpenter, whose chaotic home life is interrupted by a letter telling her she is the grand prize winner of a magazine sweepstakes. Will this solve all of her problems?

Motherland

By Julia Ioffe

U.S. national security, foreign policy and politics reporter Julia Ioffe makes her literary debut with Motherland, a book that seeks to show how Russia’s history is inextricably linked to its women. Ioffe, whose family escaped the Soviet Union and migrated to New York City when she was 7, puts her formidable journalism skills to use as she braids family memoir with history, illuminating how the country’s treatment of women paved the way to the rise of today’s authoritarian government.

Katabasis

By R.F. Kuang

After a quick little detour telling the publishing industry about itself (2023’s ferocious satire, Yellowface), R.F. Kuang is back to fantasy and working in the mode that she, as an accomplished scholar, absolutely dominates: dark academia. And this time, it’s a dark academia love story. Between two scholars who have to go to hell to save their adviser’s soul. We do not deserve her.

I’ll Be Right Here

By Amy Bloom

Amy Bloom’s books have always been deeply felt, and her 2022 memoir, In Love, plunged readers deeper than ever, relating her husband’s treatment for early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and the end of his life. Her new novel, I’ll Be Right Here, sounds exceptional: a book that spans decades, celebrating “the lawlessness of love” through the story of four friends living in New York City who forge an enduring bond that transforms them into family.

King of Ashes

By S.A. Cosby

The lauded author of All the Sinners Bleed (our Best Mystery of 2023), S.A. Cosby has become one of the kings of Southern noir thanks to his fusion of genre thrills with matter-of-fact social commentary. His next novel, King of Ashes, is reportedly inspired by The Godfather, and there are few people better suited to provide a new take on that classic saga than Cosby, who understands that there are few things more American than crime.

The Listeners

By Maggie Stiefvater

The adored author of YA classics The Raven Cycle, The Scorpio Races and the Shiver Trilogy will finally make her adult debut with The Listeners, which seems of a piece with the dreamy, fabulist fantasy of The Raven Cycle. The Listeners will follow a midcentury hotel owner who is the only person who can “manage” the possibly/probably magical hot springs that have made the West Virginia hotel a luxury destination. However, it’s also 1942, and when the hotel owners make a deal with the State Department to house captured Axis diplomats, the beautiful environs are soon crawling with Nazis.

Disappoint Me

By Nicola Dinan

One of BookPage’s Best Books of 2023, Nicola Dinan’s debut, Bellies, was the real deal—a story of first love and heartbreak written with the exhilarating vulnerability of a Sally Rooney novel. We can’t wait to see what she does with the premise of her sophomore effort: A millennial trans woman begins dating a corporate lawyer in the hope that his highly traditional take on romance will fill the emotional void of her 30s.

Mark Twain

By Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton may have launched him into mainstream fame with the success of Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical adaptation, but the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer (for George Washington) is not resting on his laurels. Mark Twain is sure to illuminate the eponymous author’s life and times with delightfully excessive research and a brisk narrative pace. Fans of Twain and Chernow best set aside their TBR piles to indulge in this 1,200-page whopper from one of the eminent historians of our time.

Fever Beach

By Carl Hiaasen

The iconic writer (and inventor of what we like to call “Florida Guy Noir”) will return with his first novel for adults in four years, Fever Beach, a zany Sunshine State caper that begins with Dale Figgo, a man so stupid he was kicked out of the Proud Boys for being incompetent, picking up a hitchhiker. Things will, of course, soon spiral out of control in classic Hiaasen fashion, pulling in shady billionaires and dark money and skulduggery galore.

The Emperor of Gladness

By Ocean Vuong

It’s been six years since Ocean Vuong’s fiction debut, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, and although fans drank down his 2022 poetry offering, Time Is a Mother, anticipation for a second novel has been feverish and unrelenting. We can hardly believe it’s almost here! The Emperor of Gladness is set in Connecticut, and partially inspired by Vuong’s time spent working as a fast-food server.

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