38 Brand-Spanking-New Books You Have to Read ASAP
Wow, shout-out to these titles for saving 2019.
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As this year comes to a close, let’s take some time to reflect on some of the hottest books that came out in 2019. Even if you haven’t read these yet, don’t worry! No better way to spend your holiday travel than with a nice book. It’s time to crack down on all these hot releases, even if it means setting multiple reminders on your phone. From murder set among the elite to addicting meet-cutes to thoughts on the madness of modern realities, here are the books you need to indulge in ASAP.
Cleis Press Queer Cosmos: The Astrology of Queer Identities & Relationships, by Colin Bedell
Cleis Press Queer Cosmos: The Astrology of Queer Identities & Relationships, by Colin Bedell
An astrological look at LGBTQ+ identities and relationships? Work. Queer Cosmos unpacks some of the most complex queer issues without gender-normative language. You truly have to stan. Oh! And it’s by Cosmopolitan astrologer Colin Bedell.
Imagine meeting the soon-to-be love of your life only to immediately discover the future shows him dying in your arms? That’s the distressing reality for Quinn when she meets Griffin in Frydman’s To Whatever End. She can’t help but try to save him. (*sobs thinking of my future soul mate*)
Release date: December 3
Horror junkies, gather round. Stephen King’s latest gut-wrenching tale takes us to suburban Minnesota where kids with special abilities (e.g., telepathy) are thrown into a brutal institution with no foreseeable escape. Think the terrifying, supernaturalness of King’s Firestarter combined with kids confronting evil in It.
Aciman—the author of Call Me by Your Name—revisits his complex, beloved characters decades after they first met. Find Me looks at Elio’s father, Samuel, who has a chance love encounter on his way to visit Elio, who now lives as a classical pianist in Rome. Across the pond, Oliver has a family and works as a New England college professor. Their stories grapple with whether true love ever *truly* dies.
Release date: October 29
Novelist Jimenez serves up your next rom-com to obsess and cry over. In The Friend Zone, Kristen finally finds a guy who can take her sarcasm and curb her hanger before it arises, but her infertility holds her back. He wants a big family, and she can’t give him that. In an effort to fight her attraction, she exiles him to the friend zone. But it’s difficult to keep him there.
From doing the laundry and remembering to pay the bills to school shootings and imminent environmental disaster, Ellmann swirls through the madness and nonsense of life as we know it. Don’t let the more than 1,000 pages scare you away from this book that will feel all too relatable.
Attenberg’s novel delves into the effects of a man who abuses his power (what’s new?). In this case, it focuses on how it affects his family. As he lies on his deathbed, his daughter Alex flies to see him in New Orleans and intends to get answers. If you feed off of dysfunctional family drama that’s not your own, you’ll eat this up.
Release date: October 22
If the movie Rocketman wasn’t enough of Elton John’s epic musical story for you, dive into his first and only official autobiography. An international superstar’s rise to fame never loses intrigue for us mere mortals, right?
Release date: October 15
Womanhood. Death. Sex. A risky flirtation with a teenage boy. In Jacobs’ latest novel, she weaves together desire and disaster as a burned-out 40something throws herself into the nightlife of teenagers in the heat of the Italian summer. Sounds like…she predicted my future?
Release date: November 5
If you’ve ever attempted to summon spirits (because spooky season), bestselling author Bardugo packs Ninth House with plenty of paranormal activities that will draw you in. College dropout Alex survives a multiple homicide and is offered a second chance at school—this time at Yale—by unknown benefactors. But there’s a catch: She has to keep an eye on the school’s sinister, secret societies.
Release date: October 8
It’s what we all say we want in a solid, healthy relationship: honesty. When Penelope and Sanjay agree to outright honesty, secrets unravel, putting their marriage at risk. Author Pagán’s page-turner begs the question: Is total honesty the answer to a better bond or the destruction of it?
If you’re a fan of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s celebrity profiles (her Tom Hiddleston post–Taylor Swift breakup interview is legendary), please run, don’t walk, to your credit card and buy Fleishman Is in Trouble. About a man at a loss after his wife disappears and leaves him with their two kids, Brodesser-Akner’s witty debut novel is one I’ll be lending to my friends and annoyingly forcing them to read.
I can’t say enough good things about Out East, a debut memoir about John Glynn’s time at The Hive—aka the Montauk vacation home he and his friends rent during a truly transformative summer. This book captures unrequited love and longing perfectly, as John struggles with growing feelings for his fellow vacationer. I typically give books to friends after I read them (NYC apartment living = not conducive to hoarding), but this one is staying on my shelf forever.
I can’t think of a book that better encapsulates that feeling of young, passionate, embarrassed love in all its confusing and f*cked-up glory. Normal People is a delicate and brutally honest story about what it means to be totally transfixed by another person while you’re also finding yourself. You’ll want to live inside its pages forever.
Kay, all I’m gonna say about this book (about an elite performing arts high school) is that the second half will leave you shaken to your very core. Never have I ever encountered a narrative twist that caused me to question everything I’d just read, so prepare yourself accordingly.
Everything Jasmine Guillory touches turns to gold, and The Wedding Party is no exception. This flirty romance follows the constantly feuding best friends of a bride-to-be, who randomly hook up and make a pact to end it after the wedding. It’s sexy, it’s witty, and—like all of Guillory’s work—I’M OBSESSED WITH IT.
A strange illness in a Southern California college town begins plaguing its citizens in this new novel from the New York Times best-selling author (Walker wrote 2012’s The Age of Miracles). People begin falling into a deep state of sleep from which they can’t be woken up but are dreaming intensely as loved ones try to solve the mystery.
In what Roxane Gay called “an incisive and necessary work of brilliant satire,” Ruffin’s new novel tells the story of a futuristic Southern town where violent racism still persists in America, as told by a father and his biracial son.
In 1946 Manhattan, one woman discovers the secrets of a ring of female spies during the time of World War II. Jenoff, best-selling author of The Orphan’s Tale, brings serious girl power to this story of brave women and the war.
If you’re still obsessing over A Star Is Born (because, same), you’ll love this new romance novel by Erin Hahn. Hahn tells the story of Annie Mathers, an heir to a country-music fortune being pursued by bad-boy musician Clay Coolidge. When Annie joins him on tour, fans begin to obsess over a potential relationship, but Annie has her doubts about Clay’s past.
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