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Readers' Most Anticipated September Books
At the beginning of each calendar month, Goodreads’ crack editorial squad assembles a list of the hottest and most popular new books hitting shelves, actual and virtual. The list is generated by evaluating readers’ early reviews and tracking which titles are being added to Want to Read shelves by Goodreads regulars.
Each month’s curated preview features new books from across the genre spectrum: contemporary fiction, historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, romance, horror, young adult, nonfiction, and more. Think of it as a literary smorgasbord. Check out whatever looks delicious.
New in September: British author Ian McEwan imagines the world circa 2119 in What We Can Know. Author and activist Arundhati Roy delivers her long-awaited memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me. And Angela Flournoy chronicles a 20-year friendship among five Black women in The Wilderness.
Also on tap this month: a murder mystery in Ireland, a horror story in New England, and a gentle giant in Wisconsin Amish country.
Each month’s curated preview features new books from across the genre spectrum: contemporary fiction, historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, romance, horror, young adult, nonfiction, and more. Think of it as a literary smorgasbord. Check out whatever looks delicious.
New in September: British author Ian McEwan imagines the world circa 2119 in What We Can Know. Author and activist Arundhati Roy delivers her long-awaited memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me. And Angela Flournoy chronicles a 20-year friendship among five Black women in The Wilderness.
Also on tap this month: a murder mystery in Ireland, a horror story in New England, and a gentle giant in Wisconsin Amish country.
Remember your first serious love? And your first serious heartbreak? Well, the narrator of Heart the Lover does, too. Author Lily King returns to shelves this month with a new novel rooted in literature, memory, and the complexity of the human heart. King’s story evokes the salad days of college life with a literary love triangle among three fiery literature students. Many years later, the past comes barging in with secrets, regrets, and a few consequences. Stupid past.
In a similar vein, author Angela Flournoy (The Turner House) writes about the passing of time among a tight circle of friends in her latest novel, The Wilderness. The title refers to that fraught and consequential period between young adulthood and midlife plateau. The book follows five women as they navigate this tricky terrain—and fight to preserve their friendship—in the first wobbly years of the new millennium. Early readers are saying very nice things about this sustained meditation on female friendship.
Author Nathan Harris returns to the post–Civil War era of his acclaimed 2021 debut, The Sweetness of Water, with this story of bondage, escape, and what happens next. In the chaotic aftermath of the war, two ostensibly emancipated siblings must struggle to simply survive in the treacherous frontier of the Mexican desert. With vicious bounty hunters in pursuit, June and her brother Coleman grapple with an awful truth: In this time, in this place, freedom demands a fight.
Fans of sweeping historical fiction and mutigenerational family drama will want to consider the new novel from author Patrick Ryan (Gemini Bites). Buckeye follows two families in a small Ohio town whose fates become forever tangled during World War II. Moving back and forth in time, Ryan follows his characters to the Vietnam era and its attendant traumas. Early readers are praising the detailed character portraits in this story of love and loss in the heart of the 20th century.
Boston horror author Mona Awad made quite a splash in 2019 with her monster hit Bunny, concerning a deeply unsettling graduate school experience. Awad’s new novel is designed to function as a prequel, sequel, and standalone story. Having survived her initial acquaintance with her MFA cohort, Samantha returns to campus on a book tour. But the Bunnies don’t like Samantha’s new book. They don’t like it one bit. Recommended for readers who like their grad school horror dark, funny, and uncomfortably familiar.
More trouble this month from the shadows of dark fantasy. Alchemised is the traditional publishing debut from author SenLinYu, who has been quietly assembling an online army of devoted fans with her dark-side fan fiction. The book introduces a world of students, necromancers, and alchemists that may feel eerily familiar. Interested readers are encouraged to poke around in the Ratings & Reviews page for a sense of what’s what.
Future dystopia books play a lot differently these days, when the impending collapse seems about five minutes away. But this new story from acclaimed British author Ian McEwan (Atonement) offers something quite different. The book begins in the eco-ravaged future of 2119, where a historian from Britain’s remaining islands investigates a mystery from our world today. The rest of the book unfolds in the here and now, as McEwan encourages us to think about how we think about history.
Richard Osman’s wildly popular Thursday Murder Club series continues with this latest mystery, in which our elderly sleuths crack the case of an upcoming wedding and a missing Best Man. Complicating matters: a supposedly unbreakable code and a giant pile of cryptocurrency somewhere in the ether. Bonus trivia: The Netflix film adaptation of the first book is slated to debut online on August 28.
Seems there’s another deadly wedding in the mix this month: This debut whodunit from California author Joan O'Leary is set at a five-star hotel built inside an old Irish castle. The posh nuptials are threatened when the icy matriarch of a global beauty empire winds up dead. Journalist Christine Russo is caught in the chaos as rich people behave appallingly in luxury suites and secret passageways. Look for multiple POVs and a kind of Knives Out/White Lotus vibe.
Canadian author Elsie Silver’s popular Rose Hill series concludes with one final tale of love and lust in a rugged Rocky Mountains lake town. This time around, Silver tackles an especially tricky romance trope when Gwen falls hard for fire pilot Sebastian “Bash” Rousseau. In fact, as it happens, Gwen and Bash are temporarily living under the same roof. The complicating factor? Bash is Gwen’s ex-boyfriend’s dad. Hoo, boy.
British Nigerian author and self-described "romcomoisseur" Bolu Babalola returns with the second book in her Honey & Spice romance series. The story continues the saga of Kiki Banjo and Malakai Korede, three years after their breakup, forced to meet again as Best Man and Maid of Honor at an upcoming wedding. Bonus trivia: Author Babalola wrote her master’s degree thesis on Beyoncé's Lemonade. Won an award for it, too. True story.
Romance readers who like their stories on the cozier side may want to check out this latest entry in author Laurie Gilmore’s Dream Harbor series. The plotline centers on a holiday wedding (Jeanie and Logan, if you’re a returning reader) but narrows the focus to escalating romantic tensions between bakery owner Annie and perpetual irritant Mac. New readers may want to note that previous series titles include The Pumpkin Spice Café and The Cinnamon Bun Book Store. So, yeah, that’s the vibe.
With her new novel, Tourist Season, dark romance specialist Brynne Weaver introduces the seaside villa of Cape Carnage, where troublesome visitors are dispatched with relish. Dill, typically, but mango pickle is good, too. Alas, the tables are turned when a visiting serial killer targets local gal Harper Starling. Heads up that this series is on the dark side of dark-and-funny romance, and new readers may want to consult the content warnings on Weaver’s other books.
Author Jennifer L. Armentrout returns to her hugely popular Blood and Ash series with this new installment of the romantasy saga, now slated for publication on September 23. In the mix: difficult choices with deadly consequences, a world on the brink of destruction, and ancient powers rising from their slumber. Returning readers will note that The Primal of Blood and Bone is now reckoned to be the second-to-last book in the series, with the concluding volume bumped to next year.
If you’re in the market for a good old haunted house story—with twists—this new horror novel from author Rachel Harrison (Cackle) puts a 21st-century spin on the well-worn storytelling template. The book introduces Clio Barnes, an online influencer hoping to generate some content by returning to her recently inherited (and supposedly haunted) childhood home. Clio’s recently deceased mom even wrote a book about the haunting. What could go wrong?
Set in and around the Wisconsin Amish community, this intriguing novel from author Ron Rindo follows the life of Gabriel Fisher, an 18-pound newborn who grows into a gentle giant with a pretty amazing story by the end. Author Rindo uses multiple POVs and whispers of magical realism to explore his themes of family, faith, love, loss, and the Amish way of life. Early readers report that this one hits you right in the heart.
Nantucket enthusiast and queen of the beach read Elin Hilderbrand returns to bookshelves this month with The Academy, a boarding school drama cowritten with Hilderbrand’s daughter, Shelby Cunningham. The book follows the events of one particularly interesting year at New England’s Tiffin Academy. And by “interesting” we mean “deliciously scandalous.” Rules will be broken. Secrets will be revealed. And wait till you hear about the admissions director.
Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy has written about everything you can write: screenplays, journalism, essay collections, and more than 20 nonfiction books concerning politics and human rights issues. She also won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1997 for her debut novel, The God of Small Things. With her first foray into the memoir format, Roy excavates her loving but complex relationship with her late mother, Mary Roy, the formidable educator and feminist who passed away in 2022.
Very possibly the world’s most curious individual, author Mary Roach specializes in science writing on oddball topics, investigated with journalistic gusto. Previous book-length exposés include Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. With Replaceable You, Roach explores the surprising number of human body parts that can now be lab grown, 3D-printed, or otherwise approximated. Returning readers will tell you—Roach can be very funny, too.
From the author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic, the new memoir All the Way to the River is the latest in candid revelation from writer and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert. The book centers on Gilbert’s relationship with her partner, Rayya Elias, who died in 2018. From there, the book moves both outward and inward, exploring issues of love, addiction, and various remedies for that baffling human instinct toward self-destruction.
Stanford University neuroscientist Andrew Huberman takes a direct and no-nonsense approach to the self-help manual with Protocols, which is being billed as An Operating Manual for the Human Body. Huberman provides an array of practices and guidelines designed to improve both mental and physical health, using evidence-based solutions and proven scientific principles.
