It’s a new year, and we’re here for the new books! Readers have so much much to look forward to in the year ahead. But for now, we’re excited about all of the books that will be hitting bookshelves in January 2022. From thrilling thrillers to captivating memoirs, there’s something for everyone. So browse the list, mark your calendars, and prepare for a month of great reading!
JANUARY 2022 NEW BOOKS BY WEEK:
ROMANCE
Love at First Spite by Anna E. Collins
Falling in love is the ultimate payback in this delightful, breezy rom-com about an interior designer who teams up with an enigmatic architect at her firm to get revenge on her ex the only way she knows how: by building a spite house next door.
NONFICTION
George V by Jane Ridley
From one of the most beloved and distinguished historians of the British monarchy, here is a lively, intimately detailed biography of a long-overlooked king who reimagined the Crown in the aftermath of World War I and whose marriage to the regal Queen Mary was an epic partnership.
LITERARY FICTION
Velorio by Xavier Navarro Aquino
Set in the wake of Hurricane Maria, Xavier Navarro Aquino’s unforgettable debut novel follows a remarkable group of survivors searching for hope on an island torn apart by natural disasters and human violence.
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
In this taut and explosive debut novel, one lapse in judgment lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance.
No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib
Achingly intimate yet poignantly universal, No Land to Light On is the story of a family caught up in forces beyond their control, fighting for the freedom and home they found in one another.
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Seasonal Work by Laura Lippman
In a suspenseful collection of stories featuring fierce women–including one never-before-published novella–New York Times bestseller, Laura Lippman showcases why she is one of today’s top crime writers.
Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho
A witty, warm, and irreverent book that traces the lives of two young Taiwanese American women as they navigate friendship, sexuality, identity, and heartbreak over two decades.
Interesting Women by Andrea Lee
From the acclaimed author of Red Island House, Andrea Lee’s brilliant, outrageous collection of short stories confronts identity, desire, colliding cultures, and self-discovery.
A Deadly Affair by Agatha Christie
In this new collection of Agatha Christie short stories, witness the dark side of love–crimes of passion, games of the heart, and deadly affairs. This pulse-pounding compendium features beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, master of charades Parker Pyne, the enigmatic Harley Quin, and the adventurous Tommy and Tuppence, all on the ready to solve a tantalizing mystery.
MYSTERIES & THRILLERS
The Maid by Nita Prose
A charmingly eccentric hotel maid discovers a guest murdered in his bed. Solving the mystery will turn her once orderly world upside down in this utterly original debut.
When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham
In this page-turning psychological thriller from an author who Stephen King called “an absolute master,” a young female police officer faces danger on all fronts–from a clever victim of abuse, her colleagues on the force, and even her own mobster father.
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
From Rachel Hawkins, the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs, comes Reckless Girls, a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set on an isolated Pacific island with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.
NOVELS ABOUT FAMILY & FRIENDSHIP
30 Things I Love About Myself by Radhika Sanghani
Nina didn’t plan to spend her thirtieth birthday in jail, yet here she is in her pajamas, locked in a holding cell. There’s no Wi-Fi, no wine, no carbs–and no one to celebrate with. Unfortunately, it gives Nina plenty of time to reflect on how screwed up her life is. Just as Nina falls into despair, a book lands in her cell: How to Fix Your Shitty Life by Loving Yourself. It must be destiny. With literally nothing left to lose, Nina makes a life-changing decision to embark on a self-love journey. By her next birthday, she’s going to find thirty things she loves about herself.
Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades
A blazingly original debut novel about a group of friends and their immigrant families from Queens, New York–a tenderly observed, fiercely poetic love letter to a modern generation of brown girls.
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
A blazing talent debuts with the tale of a status-driven wedding planner grappling with her social ambitions, absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots–all in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
YOUNG ADULT
Echoes and Empires by Morgan Rhodes
A snarky seventeen-year-old must team up with an enigmatic criminal to cure herself of dangerous forbidden magic in the first book of a new fantasy duology from Morgan Rhodes, the New York Times bestselling author of the Falling Kingdoms series.
African Town by Charles Waters, Irene Latham
Chronicling the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860, African Town is told in 14 distinct voices, including that of the ship that brought them to the American shores and the founder of African Town. A historical novel-in-verse recreates a pivotal moment in US and world history.
HISTORICAL FICTION
The Last Dance of the Debutante by Julia Kelly
The author of the “sweeping, stirring, and heartrending” (Kristin Harmel, author of The Room on Rue Amélie) The Light Over London returns with a masterful, glittering novel that whisks you to midcentury Britain as it follows three of the last debutantes to be presented to Queen Elizabeth II.
NOVELS ABOUT FAMILY & FRIENDSHIP
Wahala by Nikki May
An incisive and exhilarating debut novel following three Anglo-Nigerian best friends and the lethally glamorous fourth woman who infiltrates their group–the most unforgettable girls since Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha.
The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis
Beloved New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis begins a new series–Sunrise Cove–set near beautiful Lake Tahoe, with a heartwarming story of found family and love.
MYSTERIES & THRILLERS
Find Me by Alafair Burke
The disappearance of a young woman leaves her best friend reeling and an NYPD homicide detective digging into her own past in this twisty mystery about the power of female friendships. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Better Sister and The Wife.
Just Like The Other Girls by Claire Douglas
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Do Not Disturb, an electrifying tale of psychological suspense in which an unsuspecting young woman finds herself trapped in an increasingly sinister web of mystery and lies.
HISTORICAL FICTION
The Torqued Man by Peter Mann
A brilliant debut novel, at once teasing literary thriller and a darkly comic blend of history and invention, The Torqued Man is set in wartime Berlin and propelled by two very different but equally mesmerizing voices: a German spy handler and his Irish secret agent, neither of whom are quite what they seem.
The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher
The dramatic story of how a humble bookseller fought against incredible odds to bring one of the most important books of the 20th century to the world in this new novel from the author of The Girl in White Gloves.
Yonder by Jabari Asim
The Water Dancer meets The Prophets in this spare, gripping, and beautifully rendered novel exploring love and friendship among a group of enslaved Black strivers in the mid-19th century.
FANTASY
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
A captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e , in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm and sets her on a dangerous path–where choices come with deadly consequences, and she risks losing more than her heart.
LITERARY FICTION
Hades, Argentina by Daniel Loedel
Raising profound questions about the sometimes impossible choices we make in the name of love, Hades, Argentina is a gripping, ingeniously narrated literary debut.
None But the Righteous by Chantal James
Lyrical, riveting, and haunting from its opening lines, None But the Righteous is an extraordinary debut that signals the arrival of an unforgettable new voice in contemporary fiction.
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
From the author of the classic A Little Life–a bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment, about lovers, family, loss, and the elusive promise of utopia.
Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
ESSAYS
You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Genevieve West
Spanning more than 35 years of work, the first comprehensive collection of essays, criticism, and articles by the legendary author of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston, showcasing the evolution of her distinctive style as an archivist and author. Introduction by New York Times bestselling author Henry Louis Gates Jr.
MYSTERIES & THRILLERS
The Ex-Husband by Karen Hamilton
Charlotte has an unsavory past, but she’s on the straight and narrow these days. She was so young then–she married the wrong man, falling for Sam’s sweet-talking charm and charisma, and got caught up in his con artist games.
The Other Family by Wendy Corsi Staub
New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub makes her trade paperback debut with a fast-paced thriller in the vein of Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs and Megan Collins’ The Winter Sister. Here, a family making a fresh start moves into a house which was the site of an unsolved triple homicide–and are watched by an unknown person.
One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a thrilling new novel that sends missing persons expert Frankie Elkin into a national forest in Wyoming looking for a young man who disappeared without a trace. But when the search team encounters immediate threats to their survival, Frankie realizes she’s up against something very dark–and she’s running out of time.
Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski
A compulsive, tenacious, and unexpectedly hopeful thriller set in a midwestern strip club, told by New York Times bestselling author Marie Rutkoski in the spirit of Gillian Flynn and Tana French.
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
For fans of Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven, a spellbinding and profoundly prescient debut that follows a cast of intricately linked characters over hundreds of years as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague–a daring and deeply heartfelt work of mind-bending imagination from a singular new voice.
Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester
A biting novel from an electrifying new voice, Kristi DeMeester’s Such a Pretty Smile is a heart-stopping tour-de-force about powerful women, angry men, and all the ways in which girls fight against the forces that try to silence them.
Engines of Empire by R. S. Ford
This epic fantasy tells the tales of clashing Guilds, magic-fueled machines, intrigue and revolution–and the one family that stands between an empire’s salvation or destruction.
ROMANCE
The Runaway Duchess by Joanna Lowell
A runaway bride dumps a duke and rewrites her own love story in this enchanting Victorian historical romance from the author of The Duke Undone.
Made in Manhattan by Lauren Layne
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Central Park Pact comes a reverse My Fair Ladyfor the modern era about a pampered and privileged Manhattan socialite who must teach an unpolished and denim-loving nobody from the Louisiana Bayou how to fit in with the upper crust of New York City.
How to Love Your Neighbor by Sophie Sullivan
A frothy, effervescent romantic comedy from the author of Ten Rules for Faking It, Sophie Sullivan delivers another read that will have you delighted from start to finish.
Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly
The first openly nonbinary contestant on America’s favorite cooking show falls for their clumsy competitor in this delicious romantic comedy debut.
NOVELS ABOUT FAMILY & FRIENDSHIP
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
Meet Yinka: a thirty-something, Oxford-educated, British Nigerian woman with a well-paid job, good friends, and a mother whose constant refrain is “Yinka, where is your huzband?”
What Might Have Been by Holly Miller
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird meets This Time Next Year in a sliding-doors style romance and coming-to-self story about fate, chance, and the choices we make.
Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang
HISTORICAL FICTION
The Leopard Is Loose by Stephen Harrigan
The fragile, 1952 postwar tranquility of a young boy’s world explodes one summer day when a leopard escapes from the Oklahoma City zoo, throwing all the local residents into dangerous excitement, in this evocative story of a child’s confrontation with his deepest fears.
LITERARY FICTION
The Antarctica of Love by Sara Stridsberg, translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner
The international star Sara Stridsberg returns with The Antarctica of Love, an unnamed woman’s tale of her murder, her brief life, and the world that moves on after she left it.
NONFICTION
Lorraine Hansberry by Charles J. Shields
The moving story of the life of the woman behind A Raisin in the Sun, the most widely anthologized, read, and performed play of the American stage, by the New York Times bestselling author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee.
LITERARY FICTION
The Hummingbird by Sandro Veronesi, translated by Elena Pala
The #1 international sensation from a master of European literature–winner of Italy’s Premio Strega–a saga of a Florentine family from the 1960s to the present that brilliantly captures the power of history and the multi-faceted experience of life itself as it explores how we contend with uncontrollable forces that both buffet and buoy us.
Devil House by John Darnielle
From John Darnielle, the New York Times bestselling author and the singer-songwriter of the Mountain Goats, comes an epic, gripping novel about murder, truth, and the dangers of storytelling.
Defenestrate by Renee Branum
A wildly inventive, exhilarating debut narrated by a young woman meditating on her Czech ancestors’ falling curse, her twin brother’s fall from a window, and the malleable, breakable bonds keeping her family from falling apart.
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
Light Years from Home by Mike Chen
The perfect combination of action, imagination and heart, Light Years from Home is a touching drama about a challenge as difficult as saving the galaxy: making peace with your family…and yourself.
Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi
In his adult novel debut, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Award finalist and ALA Alex and New England Book Award winner Tochi Onyebuchi delivers a sweeping science fiction epic in the vein of Samuel R. Delany and Station Eleven.
MYSTERIES & THRILLERS
The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf
True crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace.
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
In the tradition of Long Bright River and The Mars Room, a gripping and atmospheric work of literary suspense that deconstructs the story of a serial killer on death row, told primarily through the eyes of the women in his life–from the bestselling author of Girl in Snow.
Good Rich People by Eliza Jane Brazier
A destitute woman deceives her way into the guesthouse of a Hollywood Hills mansion and inadvertently becomes a target in the twisted game of the wealthy family upstairs in the next intoxicating novel from Eliza Jane Brazier.
Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner
A twisty, whip-smart debut thriller, as electrifying as the #1 New York Times bestseller The Girl on the Train, about impending motherhood, unreliable friendship, and the high price of keeping secrets.
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
Perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Lisa Jewell, this dazzlingly clever (The Sunday Times) murder mystery follows a community rallying around a sick child–but when escalating lies lead to a dead body, everyone is a suspect.
The Fields by Erin Young
It starts with a body–a young woman found dead in an Iowa cornfield, on one of the few family farms still managing to compete with the giants of Big Agriculture. When Sergeant Riley Fisher, newly promoted to head of investigations for the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, arrives on the scene, an already horrific crime becomes personal when she discovers the victim was a childhood friend, connected to a dark past she thought she’d left behind.
HISTORICAL FICTION
The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks
A provocative, immersive medieval novel starring one of literature’s most unforgettable characters in her own words–Chaucer’s bold and libidinous Wife of Bath.
The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis
Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue, returns with a tantalizing novel about the secrets, betrayal, and murder within one of New York City’s most impressive Gilded Age mansions.
Beyond the Wire by James D. Shipman
The bestselling author of Irena’s War blends fact and fiction in a gripping novel based on one of the most extraordinary true stories of World War II–an uprising behind the walls of Auschwitz concentration camp.
ROMANCE
Seoulmates by Jen Frederick
A Korean-American adoptee fights to be with the one she loves while coming to terms with her new identity in this enthralling romantic drama and sequel to Heart and Seoulby USA Todaybestselling author Jen Frederick.
Getting His Game Back by Gia De Cadenet
A sexy, charming debut romance about a man struggling to be his perfect self and a woman who is ready to break her “rules” for him, perfect for readers of The Wedding Date and Get a Life, Chloe Brown.
NOVELS ABOUT FAMILY & FRIENDSHIP
Strangers I Know by Claudia Durastanti, translated by Elizabeth Harris
Kinetic, formally dazzling, and spectacularly original, this book is a funny and profound portrait of an unconventional family that makes us look anew at how language shapes our understanding of ourselves. A work of fiction about being a stranger in your own family and life.
The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart
Where the Crawdads Sing meets The Four Winds as award-winning author Donna Everhart immerses readers in a unique setting–a turpentine camp buried deep in the vast pine forests of Georgia during the Great Depression–for a captivating story of friendship, survival, and three vagabonds’ intersecting lives.
NONFICTION
Miss Me with That by Rachel Lindsay
A candid, witty, and inspiring collection of essays from The Bachelor‘s first Black Bachelorette, exploring everything from relationships and love to politics and race.
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Manywhere by Morgan Thomas
Morgan Thomas’s Manywhere features lush and uncompromising stories about characters crossing geographical borders and gender binaries.
Have you read any of these books?
Are any of these books on your TBR? What books would you add to this list? What books are you looking forward to?
What a fabulous list! The ones you’ve highlighted sound excellent. I think I’m most looking forward to The Bookseller.