The Push by Ashley Audrain
A woman's uncertainty in pregnancy becomes uneasiness in the early months of motherhood becomes something a little more sinister, as her daughter not only fails to bond with her but displays increasingly alarming behavior ā that goes wholly diminished by her husband ā in this compulsively readable thriller. Let's just say: never distrust a mother's intuition. (January 5)
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Nick by Michael Farris Smith
The first novel to take advantage of the expiration of The Great Gatsby's copyright, this prequel imagines Nick Carraway's life in war-torn Paris and on the battlefront of World War II before he gets to West Egg. (January 5)
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The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
A love story of the most tragic proportions, revered writer Robert Jones, Jr. uses his debut novel to pry open our collective hearts. Isaiah and Samuel are two enslaved teenagers living on a plantation in the American South, whose bond both threatens their safety and provides one of the only reasons to hope within their community. (January 5)
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Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter by Shani Mahiri King
A children's tome filled with Black excellence, celebrating ā and providing the historical context for ā accomplishments of Black musicians, artists, journalists, politicians, scientists, and more. It goes without saying that this book offers something to adults as well as kids. (January 5)
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Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
Darren, a young Black man from Bed-Stuy, is recruited onto the sales team of a successful tech start-up ā plucked, if you will, from his gig as the manager of the Starbucks in the lobby of the company's office building. What comes next is a combination of character study, searing indictment of all the problematics of white corporate culture, and some good old-fashioned enjoyable sarcasm. (January 5)
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Life Among the Terranauts by Caitlin Horrocks
The author ofĀ The VexationsĀ turns her sights back onto short stories (this is her second collection); the works within take on a genre-bending, hauntingly environmental quality. (January 12)
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Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
The prequel we never knew we needed ā until author Angie Thomas announced its pending arrival, and then this story became as necessary as the original.Ā RoseĀ tells Maverick's backstory in fine detail, offering up insight into how he became the man we met inĀ The Hate U GiveĀ and giving us more reasons to love the Carter family. (January 12)
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Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu
Nadia Owusu, an urban planner and writer who pens her debut from the vantage point of her 28-year-old self, seems the perfect candidate for a memoir: The daughter of a U.N. public servant, sheās lived in Dar es Salaam, Addis Ababa, and Rome. Her mother left her as a toddler, and as a teen, her father died of what Owusu thought was cancer. She dispatches all of this heartache with blistering honesty, but does so with prose light enough that it never feels too much to bear. (January 12)
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The Divines by Ellie Eaton
A remote British boarding school provides the backdrop for the reflections of protagonist Josephine, who finds that although she may have escaped to Los Angeles, her past at St. John the Divine is never as far behind as she'd prefer. (January 19)
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This Will Be Funny Someday by Katie Henry
IfĀ The Marvelous Mrs. MaiselĀ were a YA novel, it would be this YA novel. Main character Izzy is a high school student who stumbles into a standup comedy career after pretending to be in college ā but without all the divorce drama, of course. (January 19)
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Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra Jonas
The actress tells her life story in her own words, starting with her childhood in India and spanning her stint as Miss Universe, her entrƩe into Bollywood and eventually Hollywood. (January 19)
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The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Namura
This nonfiction story of the first hospital staffed entirely by women could not be more timely. (January 19)
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Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion
The venerable journalist is back on our bookshelves with a tome full of never-before-collected essays and reported stories, mostly from the 1960s. Didion dug up tales on everything from a Gambler's Anonymous meeting in Gardena, Calif., to her own rejection from Stanford University. (January 26)
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Consent by Annabel Lyon
Beyond its intoxicating cover, this novel captivates in plot, too ā it follows two sets of sisters whose lives converge and diverge in eerily similar ways. (January 26)