Reader's Choice Nominees July – October 2026 |
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Automatic Noodle
by Annalee Newitz
When a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food—the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around—for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war.
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The Carpool Detectives
by Chuck Hogan
The incredible true story of a group of moms who, united by a search for new purpose, attempt to solve a 15-year-old double murder.
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Dissolution
by Nicholas Binge
Maggie Webb has lived the last decade caring for elderly husband, Stanley, as memory loss gradually erases all the beautiful moments they created together. It's the loneliest she's ever felt in her life. When a mysterious stranger named Hassan appears at her door, he reveals a shocking truth: Stanley isn't losing his memories. Someone is actively removing them to hide a long-buried secret from coming to light.
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The Favorites
by Layne Fargo
Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship. A shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end. As the 10-year anniversary approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession.
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The Formidable Miss Cassidy
by Meihan Boey
When Miss Leda Cassidy arrives at her new employer's home and discovers the family is being terrorized by a vampiric spirit, she sets about righting the situation. But it seems that as soon as she puts one supernatural creature to rest, another appears to take its place.
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Fun for the Whole Family
by Jennifer E. Smith
The four Endicott siblings were once inseparable, a bond created by the absence of their dazzling, mercurial mother, who would return for a few weeks each summer to whisk them off on sprawling road trips around the country. Decades later, the unthinkable has happened: the Endicotts haven't spoken in years until one, now a famous actress, summons them to a small town in North Dakota.
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Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon
by Matthew Norman
The new year had barely begun when Grace White and Henry Adler both lost their spouses. Now, nearly a year later, the first holiday season approaches. Although their mothers scheme to matchmake the two surviving spouses, it's clear that neither is ready to date again.
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Harlem Rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray
In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness.
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House of Monstrous Women
by Daphne Fama
Josephine is alone taking care of the family home. An unexpected invitation from her childhood friend Hiraya offers an escape to play a game. If Josephine wins, she’ll get whatever her heart desires. Josephine’s heard the dark whispers: Hiraya is a witch and her family spits curses. But still, she’s just desperate enough to seize this chance to change her destiny.
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If It Makes You Happy
by Julie Olivia
As the narrator attends to her deceased mother's bed and breakfast in Copper Run, Vermont, the divorcee is distracted by the handsome and charming single father who lives next door.
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The Inheritance
by Trisha Sakhlecha
A billionaire is primed to announce the succession plan for his company to his family at a lavish reunion, but at least one person won't make it through the week alive. Most family reunions end in tears. This one will end in murder.
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The Odds of You
by Kate Dramis
Celeste Sage Collins knows a thing or two about odds. A year ago, she was a data analyst until she burned it all down to pursue her dream of becoming an author. One whirlwind bestseller and a struggling second book later, Sage isn't sure she'll ever write a novel again. Then an accidental encounter with an irritating passenger on the flight to Comic Con leaves Sage in an untested position. That passenger is Theo Sharpe: a breakout actor on the cusp of fame.
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Raising Hare
by Chloe Dalton
Chloe Dalton, political advisor and speechwriter, spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, holding a wild baby hare, bottle-feeding it, and allowing it to roam around her home.
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The Ride
by Kostya Kennedy
Fresh research into archives, family letters, diaries, and contemporary accounts reveals Revere's ride to be more complex than it is usually portrayed. While Revere was central to the ride and its plotting, other men (and, perhaps, a woman with information about the movement of British forces) helped to set in motion the events that would lead to America's independence.
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The River Has Roots
by Amal El-Mohtar
In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honor an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family's latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. When Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, the sisters' bond and lives will be at risk.
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So Far Gone
by Jess Walter
Rhys Kinnick has gone off the grid, with no one around except a pack of hungry raccoons. Now Kinnick's old life is about to land right back on his crumbling doorstep. Can this failed husband and father reemerge into a broken world to track down his missing daughter and save his sweet, precocious grandchildren from the members of a dangerous militia?
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The Vanishing Place
by Zoë Rankin
Growing up with her younger siblings in the unforgiving New Zealand bush, Effie believed their parents had cut them off from civilization because they loved nature. She never suspected that their reasons might be more menacing.
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The Wolf Tree
by Laura McCluskey
Eilean Eadar is a barren, windswept rock inhabited by a few hundred humans and sheep. Until now, the island was best known for the disappearance of three lighthouse keepers in 1919, a mystery that was never solved. But when a young man is found dead at the foot of the same lighthouse and the injuries are inconsistent with suicide, two detective inspectors are sent from Glasgow to investigate.
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The Women of Wild Hill
by Kirsten Miller
For generations, the Duncan women of Wild Hill have carried gifts both wondrous and dangerous. But tragedy fractured the family, scattering the sisters and leaving their legacy untended. Now Brigid, Phoebe, and Phoebe's daughter Sybil are called home. To reclaim their heritage, they must face old wounds, long-buried secrets, and the powerful ties that bind them as family.
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You Are Fatally Invited
by Ande Pliego
Mila is hired to host a writing retreat where six thriller authors, all masters of deceit, misdirection, and mayhem are invited. Then a guest turns up dead. With a storm isolating the island, and the body count rising, Mila must outwit a killer who knows literally every trick in the book.
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