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The New York Times had me doing a double take last week with the release of their Best Books of the Year So Far list. I mean, on the one hand, I get releasing their midway list a month or so before everyone else. But still, it’s not making my sense of time any less fraught. As far as the list goes, though, there are some givens—like Tayari Jones’ Kin, Namwali Serpell’s On Morrison, and Patrick Radden Keefe’s London Falling. I’ve been hearing great things about Serpell’s and Keefe’s books, while Jones’ was one of my most anticipated of the year.
Speaking of the most anticipated, the books to look forward to this month include a memoir by activist and pioneering scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, haunting Nigerian-set literary fiction, an “anti-western,” and more.
Nonfiction
Backtalker: An American Memoir by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
A force to be reckoned with, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw is known for being one of the most influential academic minds of our time. She helped establish “critical race theory” and coined the term “intersectionality.” Now she’s telling her own story. Backtalker follows a girl from Canton, Ohio, known for talking back. Once she found her voice, she never stopped using it. —Kendra Winchester
Another nonfiction book to add to the TBR: On Witness and Respair: Essays by Jesmyn Ward.
Literary Fiction
One Leg on Earth by Pemi Aguda
From the National Book Award finalist for Ghostroots comes a Lagos-set debut full of Nigerian folklore and history. Yosoye is a young woman who has just moved to Lagos with the promise of a new life when realizes she’s pregnant. The pregnancy is good news, since it means she’ll have the chance to finally feel love from someone. But there is something haunting the city’s pregnant women. Something that may be stalking Yosoye and is somehow connected to the uncanny deaths in the waters of Lagos. —Erica Ezeifedi
New Books
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Sci-Fi
The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee
From the author of the Green Bone Saga comes an exciting stand-alone sci-fi adventure! Isako is a legendary swordswoman at the end of her career, which means she’s ready to walk off into the frozen wasteland. But then she is offered a last mission. It involves espionage, danger, and her last apprentice. —Liberty Hardy
Romance
By the Bootstraps by Alexa Martin
What happens when a romance reader obsessed with cowboys sets out to find her own? Shenanigans only Alexa Martin could come up with. Luna is determined to make her own destiny and buys a farm in Celestial, Texas to pursue it. Tate is the local high school football coach, a handyman, and a member of the largest ranching family in Celestial. He hates cowboys, but can’t help but help out the new woman who’s definitely out of her depth with DIY home improvement projects. Neither is what the other expected, but they might be perfect for each other. —Jessica Pryde
Graphic Novel/Manga
As I Dream of You by Jennifer Lee and LeUyen Pham
Sam and Franny fall in love so easily that they almost can’t believe it’s really happening. They become convinced that not even death can end their story — but when death does threaten to come between them, they will each need to learn a bittersweet lesson about the strengths and weaknesses of true love. —Eileen Gonzalez
Mystery, Thriller, or True Crime
The Last Mandarin by Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung
For fans of spy thrillers and journalist authors!
Canadian journalist and author Mellissa Fung (Between Good and Evil) teamed up with the bestselling author of the Chief Inspector Gamache series, Louise Penny, to write a standalone spy thriller. Alice Li, a food blogger, and her mother Vivien Li, a Chinese dissident and human rights activist, are summoned to the White House after fire and security alarms go off around the globe and a worldwide panic ensues. There they learn that Alice’s friend was found dead in the Hong Kong harbor, that he was a spy, and that his last message was to her… —Jamie Canaves
Fantasy
The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean
Mercy Chan arrives in Hong Kong with nothing, not even any memories of her life before. She finds work as a ghost talker for the triad in Kowloon Walled City and begins wrangling ghosts. But when people start being murdered by a vengeful spirit, that spirit claims to be tied to Mercy and to know the secrets of the life she can’t remember. —Liberty Hardy
Another fantasy to add to the TBR: The Midnight Train by Matt Haig.
Historical Fiction
Treat Them as Buffalo by Blair Palmer Yoxall
Pitched as an “anti-western,” Treat Them as Buffalo follows a young man from a Métis community who loves to play buffalo hunter even though the days of seeing buffalo grazing along the plain have long since passed. But when Niko’s cousin goes missing, the first in a long string of Indigenous boys to do so, the tribe and a woman-led coalition of freedom fighters will have to go up against the Mounted Police who refuse to investigate and root out this evil for themselves. —Rachel Brittain
Horror
I’ll Watch Your Baby by Neena Viel
This historical horror novel is a haunting reimagining of the very real story of Linda Taylor, often referred to as “the welfare queen.” In 1974, Lottie Turner was running all sorts of scams, including trafficking young children to families desperately looking to adopt. In 1994, Bless found a real family in a crew of criminals traveling across the country. But when they end up hiding out in a house in Tennessee, Bless and the rest of the gang are terrorized by supernatural forces linked to Lottie. —Emily Martin
Young Adult
The Heirs by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
For fans of family drama, YA mysteries, and a dead billionaire mystery!
Billionaire Leontes Button adopted five children from around the world in order to prove his theories about prodigies and nature vs. nurture. When he’s murdered at his annual ball, his five 17-year-old children and all the guests become suspects and must remain in his manor. —Jamie Canaves
Children’s/Middle Grade
The Bookship by Hiba Noor Khan and Julian Ariza
Dealing with grief, healing and the importance of storytelling, The Bookship follows a young girl who loses her beloved grandfather, and, with him, the stories he tells. While she is trying to process her loss, the heroine finds a note from her grandfather telling her about the Bookship, a magical ship that will help her find stories of her own. —Alice Nuttall
Other Book Riot New Releases Resources:
- All the Books, our weekly new book releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts talk about eight books out that week that we’ve read and loved.
- The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz.
- Finally, if you want the real inside scoop on new releases, you have to check out Book Riot’s New Release Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by trending books, Rioters’ picks, and even LGBTQ new releases!
