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Books people are talking about. |
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LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 BOOKER PRIZE Harrowing, hilarious, magnificent ...this novel will be read decades from now, pored over in seminars and bookmarked on subway commutes ... James'] defiant queer epic belongs to us all. -The Boston Globe Among Marlon James's most ambitious and history-making works... James is a singular literary talent. -Booker Prize judge's citation From Marlon James, author of the Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings the electrifying story of the murder of a gay man in 1980s Jamaica and its far-reaching consequences In 1988, eight men in Kingston, Jamaica, begin rehearsals for a play. Though strangers to one another, they share an inescapable truth: All of them are gay. And they live in a world that refuses to accept them. One night the men are savagely beaten and one of them is killed. As their bodies heal, the survivors begin to face the hatred and contempt that the violence laid bare. Some try to ignore what happened. Others double down on retribution. Some disappear completely. In this spellbinding novel, Marlon James has written a propulsive crime story that is also a deeply human account of connection and acceptance. Full of fascinating characters, biting humor, and unapologetic sex, The Disappearers is both a thrilling page-turner and a finely etched portrait of queer life.
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Book Club: Audacious (Roxane Gay)
Fierce, fabulous, and very funny. - Oprah Daily, Best Books of Fall 2026 listA raucous and moving tale of triumph told with biting wit. - #1 on People's Must-Read Books of Fall 2026A smart and saucy delight. The church ladies still have secrets in The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman.... Gird up thy loins. - Ron CharlesA Most Anticipated Book by Goodreads, Audible, PEN America, Kirkus Reviews, Electric Literature, The Root, BookPage, Lit Hub, Ms. Magazine, Debutiful, Country Living, She Reads, Book RiotThe wife of a popular and powerful megachurch pastor upends her charmed rags-to-Rolex life when her secret past comes roaring into the spotlight--in this funny and juicy and sexy and delicious peek behind the pulpit (Samantha Irby) from the acclaimed and beloved author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.From the moment Scharisse Freeman ditched her humble roots and married a megachurch pastor fifteen years her senior, she's been labeled too brash and too of the world by church folks who grudgingly accepted her into their fold, and too holy by her estranged childhood bestie Petra. Schar doesn't have many allies, but that hasn't stopped her from building an enviable business empire spanning books to clothing to branded products, and living the comfortable life her husband's power affords her.On the eve of her 40th birthday, Schar gets the final bit of validation she's always dreamt of: a coveted invitation to participate in the First Lady USA pageant. This is her chance to be accepted by the other pastors' wives--First Ladies--who are like Jesus' disciples if they had been a group of mean girls. Finally, blissfully, the ice between Schar and the other First Ladies begins to thaw.But as the pageant nears, a sensational scandal breaks with Schar at its center, and her carefully curated life implodes. Schar faces down shame and terrible secrets from her childhood and is reminded that in the eyes of the church, optics can matter more than the truth.Unflinchingly funny, frank, and splendidly unruly, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman exults in the luscious, messy pleasure of finally feeling free.Smart and juicy and compulsively readable. - Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Date and The ProposalPhilyaw has created a heroine you can't help but root for, and a book you can't help but love. - Rufi Thorpe, author of Margo's Got Money Troubles |
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by Rioghnach RobinsonBook Club: Good Morning America A book that could only ever have been written by R oghnach Robinson, whose clear, clever voice and incisive social commentary elevate the book's irresistible will-they-won't-they romance to a once-in-a-lifetime read about truth, art, vulnerability, and all the sticky places they intersect. BAD WORDS LEFT ME BUZZING. - EMILY HENRY, #1 New York Times bestselling authorA sharp and deeply felt debut about the connections that both inspire and undo us.Parker Navarro's debut novel was meant to define his career - until critic Selina Chan's blistering review made it the flop of the decade. Four years later, his new book is his shot at redemption; for Selina, reviewing him again is a professional risk she can't refuse. When her second takedown ignites a viral feud, both their fortunes shift overnight. But as the literary world feeds on their public sparring, a quieter dialogue begins - one that challenges everything they thought they knew about success, sincerity, and each other. Both incisive and tender, Bad Words lays bare the costs of creation - the pull between ambition and integrity, the vulnerability of being seen, and the unexpected closeness that can grow in the space between critique and care. A genre-redefining romance that sets a thrilling new standard... Easily one of my favourites of the year, if not the decade. - Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling authorFull of blistering barbs, incisive takedowns and searing gazes, Bad Words is smart and propulsive. - Mary H.K. Choi, New York Times bestselling author
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It's Only Dancing by Jasmine GuilloryBook Club: Good Morning America YA PickNew York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory makes her highly anticipated young adult debut with a Dirty Dancing-inspired contemporary romcom It's the summer before her senior year of high school and Kat (Kitty to her family) planned to spend it reading good books, working on her college applications, and enjoying her independence. Instead, she's stuck for an entire month with her family at a camp in the desert in Southern California.When she stumbles across a staff party on the first night, she's jealous of their joyful, uninhibited dancing. She hasn't danced like that since two years ago, when she was forced to quit ballet, which she once loved more than anything. She's determined to leave dance where it belongs -- the past.But Jordan, the handsome and magnetic hip-hop dance instructor, keeps dragging it into her present. As Kat begins sneaking around and lying to her parents to spend time with Jordan, she'll have to ask herself -- what is she willing to risk to finally feel free? And is it possible her feelings for Jordan could reignite her love for dance?
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Edith's Diary by Patricia HighsmithBook Club: Natalie Portman From a writer dubbed one of the finest crime novelists by the New York Times, a sinister story of madness, dread, and murder, set in 1950s suburban America
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Book Club: Oprah's Book Club OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK - A Goodreads Editors' Book Pick - For readers of The House on Mango Street and We the Animals, this striking debut brings to life an unforgettable young narrator and the complicated, loving, cruel, and generous figures that make up her universe. A riveting new novel from first-time author Amanda Rizkalla compassionately tackles the difficult subject of families who live outside the margins, living unhoused, and makes us see not only their struggles, but their hopes, dreams, and the perseverance it takes to face another day. --Oprah Sofia's mother promises that soon she'll have her own bedroom to decorate. Soon, too, she'll be able to see her friends, go back to school, and eat the colorful, tempting cakes in the grocery store's display case. For now, though, twelve-year-old Sofia lives with her mother and younger brother in their car. For now, Sofia's days are a blur of freeways and strip malls as her mother searches for a safe place to park for the night. For now, Sofia tries to carve out a space and an identity for herself while grappling with her family's disintegration. This haunting and lyrical novel captures the fault lines of an existence marked by economic insecurity, exploring what it means to come of age during a moment of displacement. Beautiful, evocative, and emotionally charged, Amanda Rizkalla's Hungered is an indelible ode to survival, memory, and the search for home in its many forms. |
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Partita by Barbara KingsolverBook club: Read With Jenna From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Demon Copperhead, a story of a brief, passionate, life-changing love affair, wrapped up in what might be the greatest romance of all: our eternal human longing for art and beauty.Livia Cable has made her peace with her marriage and modest livelihood in the farm country where she grew up, until a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core. Decades earlier, this man knew her as Livia Bohusz, a music conservatory student estranged from her home and family, uncertain of anything except her passion for music and promise as an extraordinary pianist. His request, now, to see her again stirs up ghosts she's kept at bay for a lifetime.Shifting between past and present, Livia's decision to meet or reject the reunion means confronting step by step, in memories framed as musical dances, the experiences of childhood loss, abandonment, self-immolating passion, and perilous attachment to a man who broke her belief in love and ruptured the course of her life.With razor-sharp acuity and deep affection, Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver's unforgettable new novel reflects on class barriers, the risks of ambition, and the timeless, life-changing power of art.
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Book Club: Good Housekeeping
Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason is our October Reese's Book Club pick A funny and tender story about loneliness, connection, and finding your way back to yourself. --Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club October '26 Pick)The great pleasure of this novel, aside from its depiction of Sophie coming into her own, is its celebration of reading and writers. --Wall Street JournalA TOP TEN LIBRARY READS PICK - AN INDIE NEXT PICK - A MARIE CLAIRE, FORBES, WOMAN'S WORLD, SHE READS, AND GOODREADS MOST ANTICIPATED READThe brilliant (Ann Patchett) and much beloved author of the critically acclaimed Sorrow and Bliss returns with a tender and hilarious novel about heartbreak and the journey from isolation and loneliness toward love.Sophie Pattison loves books. And as well as a dream job at a local book festival, she has a husband she adores; a lifelong best friend, Emma; and a brother she's always been close to. Which makes you wonder why since Christmas Sophie has been living alone, estranged from Emma, avoiding her brother, and about to be fired.Now it feels like the only thing she has left is reading. When Sophie rediscovers an author she first read in her twenties, the words on the page reach her in a new way--becoming both solace and company. Sophie devours every one of the author's novels and begins to dream of meeting her, but knows they never will. But what if they did? What if, by then, the author feels like a friend? What if, for Sophie, it feels almost like love?In this much anticipated novel, Meg Mason captures the heartache and dark humor of our relationships in all their complexity, with a story about the power of connection and an ode to the inexplicable nature of the human heart.So smart, so funny, so moving. I absolutely loved it. --Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry |
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A teenager's idyllic summer of freedom is shaded by the growing weight of responsibility and a recognition of the fallibility of the adults around him. Actor and director Ed Burns returns with the continuing fictionalized saga of growing up on Marlboro Road. In this his second Marlboro Road novel, Edward Burns continues the tale, loosely based on his own childhood. The Guardian called Burns's first novel, A Kid from Marlboro Road, keenly felt...vivid...a tender-hearted complement to the Irish-American stories that Burns captures in his films. The boy that was twelve in the first novel is now fourteen, about to turn fifteen, when he will enter an all-boys Catholic High School. He spends a lot more time with his best friends, Mark, T-Mac, Zeppo, Louie and Cakes than he does with his given family. But for all their newfound freedom, the kids find the larger world of Valley Stream and the neighboring towns a more dangerous place than they're prepared for, where dads can hurt you when they reveal their own emotional scars and the local beach might be ruled by gangs of older kids you might have to defend yourself from. In this larger world our narrator starts to see even his own family as not so perfect. The Marlboro Road Gang is a novel where darker currents start to invade the innocent pastorale of childhood, and where a boy might lose his bearings in the confusion.
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What an incredible life of triumph and tragedy, faith, and love. -- Anderson Cooper, #1 New York Times bestselling author of VanderbiltA daughter's tender homage to a consequential woman. -- Kirkus ReviewsA vivid, intimate biography of American icon Ethel Kennedy by her daughter Kerry Kennedy, told through her firsthand memories and exclusive access to Ethel's personal papersWhen her husband Robert F. Kennedy was killed in 1968, Ethel Skakel Kennedy--then pregnant with their eleventh child--drew national attention for her grace, dignity, and resolute commitment to furthering his work in human rights, even in her grief. But as her daughter Kerry witnessed, Ethel was so much more than a dutiful wife and keeper of Robert's legacy of service. She was courageous, curious, compassionate, boisterous, and witty, always guided by faith and an instinct for speaking truth to power.Kerry delves into her own memories, her family's recollections, and her mother's private papers, describing: Ethel's family's journey from a working-class Chicago background to life in tony Greenwich, ConnecticutEthel's fairytale romance with Kerry's father RFK--a courtship that inspired a Taylor Swift song half a century laterHow the bold, athletic Ethel quickly became more Kennedy than the KennedysThe years on the famed family properties in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and the Hickory Hill estate in Virginia, where Kerry and her ten siblings grew up amidst presidents and politicians, Olympians and Hollywood stars, and a rambunctious menagerie of pet animalsMoments of pain and loss--RFK's death just five years after that of his brother; and the tragic deaths of two of Kerry's siblingsEthel's unflagging commitment to global human rights causes that carried on through the decadesEthel Kennedy inspires us to reject cynicism and to live bigger and bolder.The book includes 24 pages of color photographs.
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Verity by Colleen HooverSOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed--the inspiration for the major motion picture starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson-- Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read--page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her. Sublimely creepy with a true Hoover pulse. Where to watch: Catch Verity in theaters. |
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Incidents Around the House: A Novel: The Inspiration for the Movie Other Mommy by Josh MalermanA young girl's troubled family is haunted by an entity she calls Other Mommy in this chilling tale from the author of Bird Box. COMING SOON AS THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OTHER MOMMY, STARRING JESSICA CHASTAIN To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There's Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: Can I go inside your heart? When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay. Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel. But Other Mommy needs an answer. Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror about a family as haunted as their home. Where to watch: Catch The Other Mommy in theaters. |
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Whalefall by Daniel KrausSoon to be a major motion picture from 20th Century Studios A USA TODAY BESTSELLER From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angel Down comes a scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who's been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool's errand--to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it's a long shot, but Jay feels it's the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad's death by suicide the previous year. The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid's tentacles and drawn into the whale's mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out--one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale. Where to watch: Catch Whalefall in theaters on October 16th. |
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Klara and the Sun by Kazuo IshiguroNobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro does not disappoint with the story of Klara, an advanced and keenly observant Artificial Friend whose sole purpose is to help the child who owns her. Hopeful and haunting at the same time, Klara’s story leads to big questions that will leave you digging deep for answers. Jenna Ortega is set to star in the film adaptation of this captivating story. Where to watch: Catch Klara and the Sun in theaters on October 23rd. |
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Wildwood by Colin MeloyThe first book in the New York Times best-selling fantasy series full of magic, wonder, and danger from Colin Meloy, lead singer of the highly celebrated band the Decemberists, and Carson Ellis, the award-winning illustrator of Du Is Tak and Home. Prue McKeel's life is ordinary. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where it rains a lot. She has a mother and a father and a baby brother. Ordinary. At least until her brother is abducted by a flock of crows. And then things get really weird. You see, on every map of Portland there is a big splotch of green in the center of the city labeled I.W. This stands for Impassable Wilderness. No one's ever gone in -- or at least returned to tell of it. And this is where the crows take her brother. So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend Curtis deep into the Impassable Wilderness. Where to watch: Catch Wildwood in theaters on October 23rd. |
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East of Eden (Netflix Tie-In) by John SteinbeckThe masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years--at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis--now a Netflix limited series, written and executive produced by Zoe Kazan, starring Florence Pugh. In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden the first book, and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks and the Hamiltons--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Where to watch: Catch East Of Eden on Thursdays, October 1st on Netflix (all episodes of the series will be available) |
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Carrie by Stephen KingStephen King's legendary debut, the bestselling smash hit that put him on the map as one of America's favorite writers - In a world where bullies rule, one girl holds a secret power. Unpopular and tormented, Carrie White's life takes a terrifying turn when her hidden abilities become a weapon of horror. Unpopular at school and subjected to her mother's religious fanaticism at home, Carrie White does not have it easy. But while she may be picked on by her classmates, she has a gift she's kept secret since she was a little girl: she can move things with her mind. Doors lock. Candles fall. Her ability has been both a power and a problem. And when she finds herself the recipient of a sudden act of kindness, Carrie feels like she's finally been given a chance to be normal. She hopes that the nightmare of her classmates' vicious taunts is over . . . but an unexpected and cruel prank turns her gift into a weapon of horror so destructive that the town may never recover. Stephen King's first novel changed the trajectory of horror fiction forever. Where to watch: Catch Carrie on Wednesday, October 7th on Prime Video (all episodes of the series will be available) |
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