20 new books to read in February

We've got some love stories on this list pegged to Valentine's Day, but February is hardly short on great reads across all genres. Here are our top 20 picks.

Tomi Adeyemi is but one big name in the YA fantasy space to rave about this epic debut, "set in a kingdom where danger lurks beneath the sea, mermaids seek vengeance with song, and magic is a choice." The acquisition of this title was seriously competitive. (Feb. 4)

The biographer behind Fosse and Improv Nation has another compelling Hollywood tale to tell, this one surrounding the making of Chinatown and the stories behind Jack Nicholson, Roman Polanski, and more. (Feb. 4)

Twin sisters in Lagos, circa 1996. Their life of relative comfort is upended, and then upended again and again, once their mother loses her job. Abraham follows how their lives diverge, and they fight for survival amid uncertainty. (Feb. 4)

A new book by the Oscar winner, long one of our most literary celebrities, is always an event worth paying attention to. Her latest tenderly traces her evolving relationship with her younger brother. (Feb. 4)

New baseball novel worth reading, part 1. Nemens' wise debut, set during spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz., depicts a desert community post-2008 crash. Framed by a sportswriter's story about a Major League superstar whose life is slowly falling apart, the novel crafts a portrait by delving into the lives of those around him. (Feb. 4)

A young Nigerian woman struggles to be heard and seen in this tough but inspiring debut, which explores a spirit and hope that cannot be contained even in the grimmest of circumstances. (Feb. 4)

For those who like their privileged high schools dysfunctional, corrupt, and hilariously human, West's first novel takes readers to Liston Heights High, where no campus drama is too small for parents (and maybe the kids) to lose their minds. West's experience as a teacher adds gravitas to the absurdity. (Feb. 4)

New baseball novel worth reading, part 2. It's been a decade since we've had a new Gish Jen novel, but The Resisters is worth the wait. It's a typically inventive effort from the award-winning author, set in a realistic near-future America where a baseball prodigy is recruited to play in the Olympics. Ann Patchett says the book "should be required reading." (Feb. 4)

A fascinating history of desire and attraction, Knox's dig into the archives runs from Enlightenment all the way to the present day, and will reframe much of the way you think about this topic. (Feb. 4)

This bracing collection tells stories of great heartache, with creations both mundane and fantastical giving voice and imbuing with empathy experiences of trauma, grief, and isolation. Heavy reading at times, sure, but profound too. (Feb. 4)

This fizzy rom-com forces a cocky marketing manager and the woman his brother left at the altar to join forces for a lucrative business opportunity. Their rivalry — he'd encouraged his brother to break things off with her, after all — soon gives way to a surprising potential romance. (Feb. 4)

If this title seems a little unusual for a biography of our first president, it's also brilliantly appropriate for the book that follows. Coe does offer us an overview of George Washington's life here, but with an eye toward breaking down myths, interspersing facts with rich commentary, and having a little fun. (Feb. 4)

This study of gender and society cramps readers into the quarters of a 19th-century New England school for girls started by an academic, his twentysomething daughter, and his young acolyte. Things quickly go awry as students contract some sort of disease and a flock of creepy redbirds keeps showing up at pivotal scenes. (Feb. 11)

The "Dear Prudence" columnist and expert culture commentator returns with his sharpest, wittiest collection yet, a survey of pop culture ranging from scathing to plain weird. (Feb. 11)

Love is already pouring in for the new book by literary darling Offill, a slim volume that nevertheless captures a country in crisis, through the lens of a struggling family and its librarian matriarch. (Feb. 11)

A murder trial gets thrown for a loop when a juror changes her verdict, unearthing countless more secrets and lies, in the latest from Moore, who won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Imitation Game. (Feb. 18)

Big-city family moves to small-town Maine — and upon their arrival, a murder rocks the whole neighborhood. But cracks were already starting to show in the Foust clan: Matriarch Sadie, struggling with a big secret, didn't want to move; her husband, Will, is probably cheating; and in sons Tate and Otto and disturbed niece Imogen, they have their hands full. Netflix has already scooped up Kubica's page-turning latest. (Feb. 18)

Realities of race and sexuality threaten the peace of a tight college-town community over a late-summer weekend, when introverted Wallace, alienated from his white and seemingly straight peers, has a series of complex confrontations. (Feb. 18)

Rooted in the true experience of two men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, who both lost young daughters in the ongoing conflict, McCann’s storytelling radiates outward to include everything from meditations on Middle Eastern geography and the history of birds to the last meal of a French President and lost operas of the Holocaust. (Feb. 25)

EW called Vyleta's 2016 novel Smoke, set in the early 20th century, a "sprawling, ambitious novel, a Dickensian tale tinged with fantasy." Now he returns with a sequel that only builds on what came before it. (Feb. 25)