Hachette Library – Starred Reviews
★AMITY
By: Nathan Harris
Booklist- Starred Review
In Louisiana, late in the Civil War, Coleman and June, siblings enslaved by the Harper family, find their dreams of a better future dashed by those who have exploited them. Mr. Harper, who has grandiose plans for a mining empire near the shifting Texas and Mexico border, takes June with him as a “companion,” leaving his wife, daughter Florence, and Coleman to follow, accompanied by the rough-hewn handler Mr. Turlow. In alternating chapters, Coleman and June narrate their perilous journeys, surviving numerous betrayals, shipwrecks, hostile soldiers, and the relentless cruelty of Harper and Turlow. Despairing of ever finding each other again, sensitive, bookish Coleman and practical June look to the past—their uneasy friendship with Florence as children and the mother they barely remember—and to the future, as Coleman plots to escape Turlow and June finds love and fresh hope in the all-Black community of Amity. Harris (The Sweetness of Water, 2021) offers a swiftly moving, brutal account of a time and place where political turmoil and an unforgiving landscape meant death was always near. Harper’s callous disregard for his wife and daughter stand in glaring contrast to Coleman and June’s heartfelt longing for each other, mirroring the desperation and loss experienced by millions of enslaved African Americans separated from beloved family. Painful, powerful, and bittersweet.
Little, Brown: September 2, 2025; ISBN: 9780316456241; Hardcover
★THE BIG ONE
By: Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker
Booklist- Starred Review
We are all still exhausted by COVID-19. But esteemed epidemiologist Osterholm and writer/filmmaker Olshaker caution that the next pandemic, “The Big One,” is inevitable. The only uncertainties are what microbe (probably one with airborne transmission such as influenza or a novel coronavirus), when (a year, a decade), and how prepared (or not) we’ll be. They cover all the bases in this superb overview of pandemic preparedness—basic science, medical treatments (vaccines, antiviral drugs, diagnostic tests), disease surveillance and public health, lockdowns and mandates, advance planning, and effective communication. Honesty, frequent reality checks, and humility are vital. Things to be addressed immediately are designing a comfortable, reusable, easy-to-produce, efficient N95 respirator mask for public use; improving indoor air quality; and regularly replenishing the national stockpile of antiviral drugs and personal protective equipment. A fictional case study describing possible responses to a future pandemic is included. Contagious, disease-causing microbes are never going away. More people have been killed by pandemics than by all the wars ever fought. Osterholm has called the COVID-19 pandemic a microbial 9/11. What lessons will we remember? This important playbook for anticipating the next catastrophic pandemic is about nothing less than human and societal survival.
Little, Brown: September 2, 2025; ISBN: 9780316258340; Hardcover
★UNEQUAL
By: Eugenia Cheng
Booklist- Starred Review
Many consider math to be a realm of absolutes, but this engaging book from category theory expert Cheng (How to Bake Pi, 2015; x + y, 2020) considers instances where seemingly discrete numbers and values actually do have similarities, creating all kinds of opportunities for new combinations. Cheng encourages thinking that recognizes nuances and multiple approaches, whether sussing out solutions to mathematical equations or finding overlapping interests that promote political and social harmony. She uses accessible examples plus charts, graphs, and diagrams to support her evolving arguments and explores the disruptions caused by human emotions (certainty, frustration, stereotypes) that adversely affect mathematical models relied on by pollsters and AI algorithms. Most readers will willingly follow Cheng as she considers increasingly abstract concepts (Yoneda Lemmas, isomorphisms, topological spaces) in the context of appreciating different viewpoints in everyday life (for example, unwavering allegiance to a sports team). Cheng ends with a perfect example of appreciating simultaneous dualities when describing a video call with a friend on the Space Station: “She had been there for months, and appeared perfectly calm and accustomed to her surroundings, while I was shrieking with excitement.” Intriguing, thought-provoking, and occasionally dizzying, Unequal offers new ways of formulating solutions for all kinds of problems.
Basic Books: September 2, 2025; ISBN: 9781541606555; Hardcover
★MAKE ME COMMISSIONER
By: Jane Leavy
Booklist- Starred Review
Leavy’s biographies of legends Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth made her one of the sport’s great historians. In her latest, she shifts her gaze to baseball’s present and its murky future. Leavy is pretty succinct in her ambitions: Make Me Commissioner. A job application, however, this is not. Leavy has crafted a treatise on how baseball has lost its claim to the title of
“America’s game.” As she crisscrosses the country, she visits small-town ballparks, dancing with the entertainment/baseball juggernaut, the Savannah Bananas. She also meets with some of the top mathematical minds forging the glut of stats into a winning formula—truly the new “moneyball.” As baseball wanes slightly in popularity, Leavy also looks at the development pipeline, where expensive travel systems have pushed out many African American players, leading to the historically low percentages of Black players in Major League Baseball (MLB). In many ways, Leavy is preaching to the converted: those who have read her previous books or followed her newspaper writing and those who believe in baseball’s great history and are worried about its future as technology begins to overtake instinct. Jane Leavy may not be MLB’s next commissioner, but readers will come away wishing she would be.
Grand Central: September 9, 2025; ISBN: 9780306834660; Hardcover
★THE ACADEMY
By: Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham
Booklist- Starred Review
Audre Robinson, head of Tiffin Academy, never expected that the boarding school would jump to number two in America Today’s rankings. That and the fact that the football team is actually winning should indicate an easy year, but what fun would that be? Influencer Dani Banerjee is still reeling from the death by suicide of her best friend, Cinnamon, but she finds distraction in the enigmatic new fifth-former, Charley Hicks, who dresses in vintage preppy clothes and seems determined not to fit in. Meanwhile, Andrew “East” Eastman, son of the president of the school’s board of directors, has plans for a secret room beneath the dorms, and he’s determined to get Charley involved. Which only makes young history teacher Simone Bergeron jealous as she fends off the attentions of a fellow first-year teacher. The Academy has all of Hilderbrand’s (Swan Song, 2024) breezy storytelling, roving points of view, and effortless characterization that her readers love. It adds up to a panoramic view of nine months in the life of a New England prep school, on which her co-author, daughter Cunningham, offers personal expertise. Addictive, dishy fun, with enough loose ends to suggest a sequel might be in the works. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hilderbrand’s first post-Nantucket novel, written with her daughter, will draw in her legions of readers.
YA: Teen admirers of prep-school and academia narratives will appreciate the adventures of Charley, East, Dani, and their classmates.
Little, Brown: September 16, 2025; ISBN: 99780316567855; Hardcover
★GRAY DAWN
By: Walter Mosley
Booklist- Starred Review
Easy Rawlins hasn’t been taking cases since readers last saw him in Farewell, Amethystine (2024), preferring to pass them along to his WRENS-L detective agency partners. But when Santangelo Burris shows up simmering with rage Easy knows too well, he’s reminded of his early PI days when he took cases to help poor Blacks whose plights rarely concerned police. Burris wants somebody to find his mother, Lutisha James, claiming that his grandmother wants to hear from her, and Easy accepts. It turns out, though, that card shark Lutisha has a reputation so deadly that Fearless Jones insists on watching Easy’s back. Meanwhile, Easy’s son Jesus is being hunted by federal agents who allege he’s been trafficking drugs from Mexico, and Easy’s dangerous lost love Amethystine has returned, determined to reclaim his affection. This would overwhelm most detectives, but even after Lutisha’s trail leads to a triple murder and a depraved powerbroker, Easy weaves together a plan that punishes predators and redraws the boundaries of his family. Mosley’s moving author’s note implores readers to see this work as a reminder of the ongoing toxicity of segregation, lynchings, and generations of casual hatred. In Mosley’s masterful hands, this is a portal to Los Angeles streets and their vastly different worlds, communities born of disadvantage, and mysteries that highlight universal truths. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Easy Rawlins fans are primed as this epic series hones its edge.
Little, Brown/Mulholland: September 16, 2025; ISBN: 9780316573238; Hardcover
★SOFTLY, AS I LEAVE YOU
By Priscilla Beaulieu Presley and Mary Jane Ross
Booklist- Starred Review
This engaging memoir finds Presley just as her first marriage is ending, the new mother and heartbroken 27-year-old terrified of striking out on her own after devoting half of her life to Elvis. Two things become apparent as this multifaceted and accomplished woman, now 80, shares important milestones from the five decades since that time. First, Priscilla will always be a person thrust into unimaginable fame and relentless public scrutiny, and second, she remains fiercely loyal to Elvis and his continuing legacy. She expresses endless gratitude to members of the Presley family and to the many mentors who helped her realize her business enterprises, charities, acting career, and her successful efforts to save Graceland from financial ruin. These warm sentiments turn dark only when she talks about mean-spirited people who wronged her loved ones (she’s especially vocal about Michael Jackson exploiting her daughter, Lisa Marie). Priscilla sets the record straight on many of the seemingly never-ending tabloid stories, candidly discussing her relationships with her kids and grandchildren plus marriages, divorces, substance abuse, Scientology rumors, money squabbles, and legal wranglings. She also weighs in on the depictions of her in recent movies. The King and all things Elvis remain as popular as ever, so expect lots of demand. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: It’s been 40 years since the release of Presley’s best-selling Elvis and Me. Especially on the heels of Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keogh’s blockbuster, From Here to the Great Unknown, readers are primed and ready to hear from Priscilla again.
Grand Central: September 23, 2025; ISBN: 9780306836480; Hardcover
★MIDNIGHT TIMETABLE
By: Bora Chung. Tr. by Anton Hur
Booklist- Starred Review
Seven chilling, thrilling interlinked stories capture the hair-raising experiences of current and former employees of the mysterious Institute in Booker International Prize and National Book Awards shortlisted Chung’s latest collection, translated by co-shortlisted translator-of-choice Hur. An unnamed first-person narrator new to the night staff shares the (supernatural) research center’s happenings. The opening “You Can’t Come in Here” examines seemingly impossible events that occur in stairwells and tunnels involving a reappearing “nondescript man.” A more experienced colleague tells the newbie, “I have to pretend they’re not there, pretend I don’t know. That’s the only way we can keep working here.” Other tales reveal hostile siblings after a manipulative mother’s death (“Handkerchief”), a thieving social media wannabe hired under false pretenses (“Cursed Sheep”), the deputy director’s tormented past (“Silence of the Sheep”), a rescued infant who avenges her country’s slaughter (“Blue Bird”), and an innocent feline and the consequences of his murder (“Why Does the Cat”). Beyond superb entertainment, Chung’s fiction deftly exposes political abuses, dysfunctional families, conversion therapy, injustice, and (most affectingly) animal testing and torture. Chung’s afterword divulges the intriguing provenance (personal phobias to ancient history) of these frightful narratives. “Midnight Timetable was not a deadline or a chore for me but a really fun amusement park of a book to work on,” she confesses.
Publishers Weekly- Starred Review
Chung (Cursed Bunny) serves up a chilling novel-in-ghost-stories set within the eerie, echoing halls of a mysterious research institute that exists to both study cursed objects and keep them contained. At the institute, doors vanish, footsteps echo with no one there, and employees disappear as easily as memories. One night shift, worker Sook sets out to catalog the supernatural histories attached to various items and people in the facility, among them a handkerchief charged with the fury of sibling rivalry, a stolen sneaker seeking revenge, and a man so entirely unremarkable that it takes a while for Sook to notice how often he appears at random and blocks the way. Sook goes from room to room at the institute, each one opening into a discrete tale of horror, that ultimately come together to form a dark mirror reflecting deeper societal traumas, like animal testing, conversion therapy, domestic abuse, and the dehumanizing grind of late-stage capitalism. With a bone-dry wit and biting allegorical edge, expertly captured in Hur’s translation, Chung turns the haunted-object trope into a vehicle for radical empathy and sharp critique. Part fable, part ghost story, and part social commentary, this is a beautiful and devastating excavation of how people make sense of the world’s violence and tragedies.
Library Journal – Starred Review
Never turn around when patrolling the Institute. Check doorknobs, but don’t open doors. Phones should never be answered—best to leave them behind. Don’t talk to unexpected figures in the shadows, and be careful of newly manifested hallways. This is advice given to the nameless new night watchperson of the Institute, along with eerie tales of employees past. The Institute does its best to keep haunted objects safely tucked away, but spirits don’t always follow the rules. Each chapter reclaims the joyous fright of sharing ghost stories and urban legends around the campfire. An unending road into darkness, a ghost cat, and an obsessive dead mother-in-law are thrillingly creepy until it’s time to step away from the light. Then, hesitate, foot lifted into shadow, and wonder if there could be any truth to the tales. Though Chung’s prior excellent books, Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia, received acclaim, this might be the most approachable introduction to her work. Chung knows how to entertain and unnerve simultaneously, while tucking in commentary on the modern world.
VERDICT A must-have socially aware horror novel easily recommended to fans of Johnny Compton’s The Spite House or Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions.
Algonquin: September 30, 2025; ISBN: 9781643756639, Paperback
★WITHOUT PRECEDENT
By: Lisa Graves
Booklist- Starred Review
From all outward appearances, Chief Justice John Roberts presents as a reasonable, congenial, fair-minded fellow, yet his fingerprints are all over some of the most divisive, repressive, punitive, and vindictive decisions ever handed down by the nation’s highest court. Graves portrays Roberts as an ambitious ideologue from the outset, nurturing his conservative credentials as early as prep school, refining them at Harvard, and honing them to a razor-sharp worldview while clerking for Justice William Rehnquist. His rise through the federal judicial system was calculated, driven by a zeal for overturning established laws that he and his backers, namely Leo Leonard and the Federalist Society, deemed too progressive. Voting rights, reproductive rights, and industry regulations were all in his crosshairs, but nothing, Graves argues, did more to threaten democracy and gut the Constitution than his efforts to buttress the theory of a unitary executive through his rulings in favor of Donald Trump’s immunity from prosecution as president. As a legal analyst working in government and for progressive causes, Graves presents an exposé that provides an invaluable counternarrative to the generally benign media approach afforded Roberts. A well-researched, cogently analyzed, and eye-opening chronicle of Roberts and his seemingly compromised Supreme Court.
Basic: September 30, ISBN: 9781645030676, Hardcover
★THE EYES OF GAZA
By: Plestia Alaqad
Booklist- Starred Review
In November 2023, student Plestia Alaqad became an internationally known journalist when she began video-blogging her experiences under the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza. While she documents the expected horrors—murdered loved ones, destroyed homes, nightly terror—she wants readers to remember that there is more to Gaza and to being Palestinian than endless suffering. In this moving account, she describes the beauty of her hometown and the fierce joy of Palestinian children at play. Parents strive to preserve vestiges of normal family life, teens and college students meet in bomb-ravaged coffee shops to talk, though they often exchange news of who lives and who has died. Children delight in making name bracelets for their relatives, even knowing that the bracelets may be the only way to identify their bodies. Alaqad is heartbroken as she watches thousands of people forcibly displaced to tents, “their whole lives packed into suitcases in the space of five minutes.” Yet even here there is a moment of grace: a child handing out sweets to displaced persons as they pass. The attacks, deprivation, and destruction are never over, “ceasefire is merely the space between tragedies,” yet Palestinians will always find a way to maintain sumud, their steadfast connection to their homeland, amidst “the unbearable weight of memories that cannot be undone.”
Little, Brown: September 30, ISBN: 9780316597456, Paperback
★TAYLOR’S VERSION
By: Stephanie Burt
Publishers Weekly– Starred Review
Literary critic Burt (We Are Mermaids) traces Taylor Swift’s musical evolution and contemplates the source of her artistic success in this impressively detailed analysis. Burt traces her musical evolution album by album, beginning with the pastoral twang of Swift’s self-titled country debut, after which she grew lyrically and sonically with the “New York City–based, pop-oriented, pleasure-loving” 1989, the narrative-driven folk of her two pandemic albums, Folklore and Evermore, and the hyperpop anxiety of Midnights. In the process, the author finds the secret to Swift’s success partly in her ability to speak directly to women, and to keep aspirational and relatable qualities in tension—cleverly “turning the accoutrements of fame” (paparazzi, high-profile breakups) “into relatable, empathetic dilemmas” about uncertainty, self-doubt, perfectionism, and heartbreak. Such a style positions Swift as listeners’ “companion, our super-ultra-mega-famous-friend,” even as she lives the kind of mega rich lifestyle fans can only dream of. Burt’s close readings of individual songs draw on a host of surprising literary references (she compares Yeats’s use of “pastoral” themes to depict an idyllic past to Swift’s use of country music tropes) and her analyses of the singer’s artistry and success are perceptive. The result is an affectionate fan letter with unexpected depth.
Basic: October 7, 2025; ISBN: 9781541606234 Hardcover
★REWINDING THE ’80S
By: John Malahy
Booklist- Starred Review
Malahy (Summer Movies, 2021) aims his cinematic eye toward a decade marked by its generation-defining blockbusters as well as its share of messy misfires. The rise of home video, coupled with the corporatization of the industry, shifted the landscape toward the commercial. Malahy covers the gamut of what made 1980s film an indelible period, from the teen-movie boom to Hollywood’s Cold War fascination to the rise of alternative cinema. While Rewinding the ‘80s can act as a semi exhaustive compendium of a decade’s worth of film, there is also a narrative thrust that develops as Malahy charts the shift from the auteur-driven artistry of the 1970s to more splashy and popular fare like E.T. and Beverly Hills Cop. While Malahy touches on the prototypical examples (Ghostbusters, Tom Cruise, the Brat Pack, and the decade-capping Batman), he also covers the impact of world cinema and, while still marginalized, the contributions of female and BIPOC filmmakers. He manages to touch on hundreds of films while still creating a rich throughline of a defining decade at the multiplex. Rewinding the ‘80s like totally takes it to 11 on the nostalgia scale, showcasing why we’ve yet to put away our legwarmers and Aviators.
YA/S: Teen cinephiles will appreciate this easy-to-digest compilation representing what would be, for them, “old Hollywood.”
Running Press: October 7, 2025; ISBN: 9780762489664 Paperback
★108 Asian Cookies
By: Kat Lieu
Booklist- Starred Review
Activist, creator of the global online group Subtle Asian Baking, and cookbook author Lieu offers over 100 innovative cookie possibilities inspired by Asian flavors, such as black sesame, nam yu (fermented red bean curd), lemongrass, miso, and matcha. Traditional Asian sweets are underrepresented in the European-dominated baking genre, and Lieu fuses the flavors and traditions of both in this enticing collection of recipes. Thai-tea ice cream sandwich cookies, matcha macadamia and white chocolate monsters, amaretti with pandan and pistachios, and oatmeal cookies with white mulberries breathe the heavenly allure of a luxury fusion bakery. But Lieu also includes traditional Asian sweets like Chinese walnut cookies (that some may recognize with their signature half-walnut pressed on top), Cantonese shortbread (typically eaten with a warm matcha), and Malaysian Kampar little chicken biscuits. It’s nice—not to mention necessary—to see a cookie book embrace and destigmatize ingredients like lard, MSG, baker’s ammonia, and other ingredients that have historically played an important role in traditional Asian baking. Lieu’s collection of creative and flavorful bakes serves not only to entertain but to enlighten Western bakers about the unique baking culture and history of Asian nations.
Little, Brown/Voracious: October 14, 2025; ISBN: 9780316579162 Hardcover
★ THE ILLUMINATED BOOK OF BIRDS
By: Robin Crofut-Brittingham
Library Journal – Starred Review
Birds have been connected to humans through nature for millennia and play roles in mythology, literature, and religions worldwide. This book explores species, both familiar and less so, to ignite a love of birds in budding naturalists and reignite the wonder of birds in seasoned birdwatchers. Each continent gets its chapter, which is then divided into geographical regions. Readers are introduced to the area with an overview of the habitat and its significance to some of the featured birds, as well as to the local people who inhabit it. On the facing page, all the birds are depicted together, reminiscent of a museum habitat diorama. The following page depicts two to three birds each, including a close-up illustration of the bird and a short caption that shares details about them. The watercolor illustrations are beautiful and add a sense of wonder to the book, evoking the beauty of illuminated medieval manuscripts. Crofut-Brittingham acknowledges that she is an artist, not a scientist, and the book is not meant for use as a guide.
VERDICT This will appeal to bird lovers and nature enthusiasts; as an art book, it makes an excellent addition to general-interest collections.
Timber: October 21, 2025; ISBN: 9781643265049 Hardcover
★ THE PROVING GROUND
By: Michael Connelly
Booklist- Starred Review
Mickey Haller, called “The Lincoln Lawyer” because of his longstanding practice of conducting business from the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car, takes a sharp U-turn. After his searing experiences in the preceding novel, Resurrection Walk (2023), Haller has moved from criminal defense work to civil defense. What the reader will encounter here is every bit as terrifying as in any previous Lincoln Lawyer thriller, made more terrifying by the contemporary threat of AI. Haller defends the mother of a high-school girl who was slain at school by her boyfriend. The mother’s suit against an enormous tech company claims that one of their inventions, a chatbot, went rogue and urged a young man to murder her daughter. As is customary with Connelly thrillers, danger expands, this time with the surveillance powers of the tech company, and its minions, threatening key witnesses and experts. Connelly works in extensive (and never tedious) background on the perils of AI by having an investigative writer join forces with Haller. As always, it’s fun to watch Haller argue, manipulate, and wheedle his way from pre-trial through the explosive trial itself. One of the best yet from best-selling author Connelly.
Little, Brown: October 21, 2025; ISBN: 9780316563826 Hardcover
★ CHAIM SOUTINE
By: Celeste Marcus
Booklist- Starred Review
Marcus slashes through the fog of assumptions surrounding the painter Chaim Soutine. Born in 1893 as the tenth child in a poor Jewish family in a village near Minsk, he soon displayed the preternatural artistic talent and commitment that propelled him to Paris. Marcus recounts the extreme poverty and squalor of his first years there with arresting details as she places this “misanthropic, awkward, semisocialized genius” within the city’s burgeoning immigrant-artist enclave. Modigliani, his temperamental opposite, befriended Soutine and steered him to art dealers and collectors in-between epic bouts of drinking and drama. Inspired by Rembrandt, Soutine painted in a frenzy from life: flowers, animal carcasses, people, and landscapes. A painter herself, Marcus describes Soutine’s kinetic approach with tactile exactitude and fresh insight, elucidating the urgency of his work as he sought “to convey through paint the vitality of the world.” Paralleling the churning of Soutine’s canvases is his rise from filth and hunger, a suspenseful story punctuated by vivid profiles of his supporters, including collector Albert Barnes, a remarkably “poetic” police commissioner, and two women who loved him. In great peril as a Jew in occupied France, Soutine died at age 50. Marcus’ electrifying and zealously corrective biography embodies the energy and boldness of Soutine’s paintings and extends our appreciation for the painter and his radical creations.
PublicAffairs: October 28, 2025; ISBN: 9781541703223 Hardcover
★ THE WAR BEYOND
By: Andrea Stewart
Booklist- Starred Review
The Hollow Covenant series continues what The Gods Below (2024) started: an epic fantasy of terrifying gods and character-driven rebellion. In this sequel, sisters Hakara and Rasha are both smarting after their painful reunion. Hakara has a corestone in her gut, a magical gem of the gods that is changing her from within as she tries to lead the Unanointed forward. Rasha is trying to stay alive even as she begins to doubt whether the all-powerful Kluehnn can be trusted. Meanwhile, Mull tries to escape from underground to figure out once and for all what happened to the man who made a pact with the gods, one that changed their world, and Sheuan has to find out who the Sovereign really is if she wants to survive. As with many second volumes in a three book series, this one has a bit less action and a lot more revelation and politicking. Still, readers will be fully invested in the characters discovering these secrets and how they can help the Unanointed claw back a Restored world without submitting to Kluehnn’s greed for supremacy. Once again, Stewart delivers a vivid, complex fantasy reminiscent of N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance trilogy. Readers will be eager for the trilogy’s conclusion.
Little, Brown: November 4, 2025; ISBN: 9780316564830 Hardcover
★ INTRODUCING MRS. COLLINS
By: Rachel Parris
Booklist- Starred Review
Charlotte Lucas knew that accepting Mr. Collins as a husband would bring challenges but knew her inner strength well enough to feel confident in the decision. It was more difficult to face the reactions of family and friends. Arriving at her new husband’s living under the patronage of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Charlotte steps quickly into her new roles as lady of the house, benefactress of the parish, and guest at Lady de Bourgh’s table, making positive impressions all around. When Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwillam arrive to visit their aunt while Elizabeth Bennet is staying with Charlotte, old wounds are reopened with new misunderstandings, and not just for Darcy and Elizabeth. Growing familiar with the Colonel and his aunt, Charlotte begins to wonder: what if? Parris’ debut provides a new perspective on the overlooked and underappreciated Collinses, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Lady Catherine and Anne de Bourgh. It’s fascinating to reevaluate the accepted dismissal of these characters; new backstories and motivations create unforgettable relationships and add drama to the proceedings. There are plenty of backstage glimpses of the action of the original Pride and Prejudice, and fans, old and new, will want to discuss every page in depth.
Little, Brown: November 4, 2025; ISBN: 9780316602358 Hardcover
★ THE FIRST EIGHT
By: Jim Clyburn
Booklist- Starred Review
South Carolina Congressman Clyburn presents a vividly written account of the life and times of the first eight African Americans who represented South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives. The first eight were Robert Smalls, Joseph Rainey, George Washington Murray, Robert DeLarge, Alonzo Ransier, Thomas Miller, Richard Harry Cain, and Robert Brown Elliott. They represented the state after the Civil War and served prominently in the state’s government and Republican Party. Whites opposing African American civil rights used legal chicanery, fraud, and violence to challenge the re-election of these eight men, but Smalls and Murray served several terms in Congress even after whites gutted Reconstruction. Clyburn expertly and concisely blends the history of Reconstruction and accounts of the differing backgrounds and lives of each of the first eight. Images of the time, including Thomas Nast cartoons, enrich the narrative. Clyburn acknowledges that these men sometimes undercut their efforts with needless disagreements, examines allegations of corruption against them, and details their efforts to battle corruption. Whether they advocated for civil rights or hurricane aid, the first eight served all South Carolinians with distinction. Clyburn, who learned he has many connections to Smalls’ descendants and may be related to Murray, compares the lives of the first eight to his personal and public experiences.
YA/C: YAs interested in or researching history and politics will appreciate Clyburn’s vibrant and accessible account of the first eight’s political coming of age and their careers.
Little, Brown: November 11, 2025; ISBN: 9780316572743 Hardcover
★ HISTORY HIDING BEHIND BROADWAY
By: Teale Dvornik
Booklist- Starred Review
When someone knows every nook and cranny of a city’s most iconic buildings and can recall arcane details about its most exciting industry faster than an AI search engine, then that person should write a book. Which is exactly what theater tour guide Dvornik, aka the Backstage Blonde, has done. Dvornik started amassing this wealth of knowledge when she began working at 24 on Broadway as a costumer for some of the theater’s biggest shows with actors who were both at the peak of their careers and others just climbing the ladder. Anyone who has ever taken a narrated tour—be it of museum, historic site, or architectural wonder—knows that the prowess and personality of the guide makes all the difference in the world. The best are informative without being pedantic, lively without being effusive. So it is with Dvornik’s behind-the proscenium- curtain view of Broadway. Adapted from her own tour scripts, Dvornik’s microhistory teases out the granular technicalities that make each of the 41 buildings in Manhattan’s theater district unique, while sidebars teem with fascinating factoids sure to delight even the most diehard theater buffs. Like Tony Award–winning plays themselves, Dvornik’s standing-ovation worthy history will leave readers shouting, “Brava!”
Little, Brown: November 11, 2025; ISBN: 9780762489107 Hardcover
★ BEASTS OF THE SEA
By: Iida Turpeinen
Translated by: David Hackston
Booklist- Starred Review
Turpeinen’s masterful debut, set over the course of two centuries, charts the tragic extinction of a magnificent mammal due entirely to human actions. In the middle of the eighteenth century, naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller joins a polar expedition. When the ship goes off course, stranding the crew, Steller makes a monumental discovery and records the existence of an incredible marine creature he dubs the sea cow. It isn’t long before the starving crew are hunting the sea cows for sustenance, but their clumsy methods cause them to slaughter and lose many of the creatures to the sea before they can reel them in. Over a century later, the governor of Alaska sends an expedition to recover a sea cow skeleton that Steller was forced to abandon, and the governor’s sickly sister finds her life’s purpose in studying the remains of this and other arctic creatures. It isn’t until the mid-twentieth century that the skeleton of the sea cow is properly restored and displayed in a Finnish museum, but hopes that the species may have survived human hunters are dashed. Turpeinen’s historical debut is a moving and tragic testament to a lost species and a gimlet-eyed look at the toll human existence takes on the ecosystem.
Little, Brown: November 18, 2025; ISBN: 9780316585835 Hardcover
★ THE BOOKSHOP BELOW
By: Georgia Summers
Booklist- Starred Review
Cassandra Fairfax was raised in a bookshop, but not just any bookshop. She was raised in one of the tributary bookstores of the river, which specialize in books that can grant readers their greatest desires—for a great price. Ten years ago, Cassandra was cast out of the bookshop and, in order to get by, had to turn to using her skill in reading the magic in a book to make that magic a reality and then stealing the books for private collectors. Now, her former mentor has been murdered and left the bookshop to her, but things are not right. The river is receding, and bookstores are disappearing, taking the magic with them. Cass will have to fight to save the river, and there are dark forces that want to see her fail. Will the river forgive her for the crimes she’s committed against it? Compulsively readable and unrelentingly moody, Summers’ latest (after The City of Stardust, 2024) shows that her worlds and plots just keep getting better; she’s an author to watch for imaginative, dark fairy tales. Perfect for fans of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus (2011) or Alix E. Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January (2019).
Redhook: November 18, 2025; ISBN: 9780316561839 Hardcover
★ Hemlock
By: Melissa Faliveno
Booklist- Starred Review
Sam returns to her family’s cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a plan to restore it to sell. Her father built the cabin himself but hasn’t been back since Sam’s mother disappeared in the woods years before. Sam tells herself she’ll stay for a few weeks before returning to New York and her boyfriend, Stephen, but the woods draw her in, and time slips away. Several nights, Sam wakes up deep in the woods, unsure of how she got there. A doe speaks to her as it eats corn in her yard. Though she’s been sober for ten months, Sam starts drinking again. Her grandmother and mother both struggled with alcoholism, and Sam feels the pull within herself towards oblivion. In her first novel, Faliveno’s prose shines as Sam deals with solitude and isolation, desire and fear. Her body strengthened by the work on the house, Sam’s gender feels increasingly fluid. Hemlock is a propulsive, atmospheric story of ghosts, monsters, and transformation, with a sharp eye for gender dynamics and the queer experience in rural places. This tension-filled exploration of an inescapable haunting is a nuanced story of addiction and inheritance.
Little, Brown: January 20, 2025; ISBN: 9780316588195 Hardcover
★ NIGHTSHADE AND OAK
By: Molly O’Neill
Booklist- Starred Review
Mallt y Nos wanders Roman-occupied Britain with her pack of loyal dogs, guiding souls out of their bodies and towards the afterlife. But when she’s caught up in a wayward spell by Belis, the desperate daughter of Boudicca who is trying to save her sister, she finds herself forced into a mortal body, a body that frustratingly can’t run a hundred miles in a day or slip between worlds. Together, the two women head towards the afterlife, Belis with the hopes of retrieving her sister’s spirit, and Mallt needing to get back her magic so that the souls of the undead won’t all come to haunt the British isles forever. O’Neill’s specialty, as she proved in Greenteeth (2025), is mildly inhuman creatures being forced to deal with mortals and their nonsense. Mallt is an exciting main character, and Belis provides readers with flashbacks of real British history and legend. O’Neill has delivered yet another excellent story rooted in the folklore of the British isles, this one charged with a slow-burn queer love story and two characters who have to confront their deepest selves to help save the world of the dead and those they care for most. — Leah von Essen
YA: YA readers will enjoy the folklore inspiration and bold, queer female protagonists.
Orbit: February 3rd, 2025; ISBN: 9780316584272 Paperback
