Migrations

by Charlotte McConaghy

Franny goes to the ends of the earth tracking the last migratory pattern of birds and will stop at nothing to find them, and herself. This novel moves back and forth in time as she runs both away from her past and straight toward it.

(Flatiron Books)

Sweet Sorrow

by David Nicholls

Charlie Lewis is in a dark place, but that doesn’t explain why the 16-year-old joins a theater troupe putting on Romeo and Juliet. Told in flashbacks by his adult self, the secret, and a tantalizing love story, slowly unfolds.

(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

The Wife Who Knew Too Much

by Michele Campbell

A fast-paced, frothy thriller set among the rich and not-so-rich in the Hamptons. Filled with twists and turns, social scandals, and a killer, this novel is a perfect, gripping page-turner.

(St. Martin’s Press)

Luster

by Raven Leilani

This debut novel tells the story of a 29-year-old Black woman who gets involved with an older, married white man. As the plot zigs and zags, this deeply funny and wry book investigates race, art, and identity.

(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

The Evening and the Morning

by Ken Follett

Set in England at the dawn of the Middle Ages, this prequel to Follett’s bestselling The Pillars of the Earth is an addictive tale of rivalry and ambition, love and hate.

(Viking)

Nonfiction

Caste

by Isabel Wilkerson

Using individual stories to lay out her expansive and historical argument — that we aren’t just divided by race, but by caste — Wilkerson reaches back into history to confront painful truths. This book is nothing short of an awakening.

(Random House)

Wandering in Strange Lands

by Morgan Jerkins

The author of This Will Be My Undoing sets out to find her family’s roots. In so doing, she paints a larger portrait of African American displacement and disen- franchisement during the Great Migration and its effects on her.

(Harper)

The Journalist

by Jerry A. Rose and Lucy Rose Fischer

This memoir gives readers a view into the early days of the Vietnam War from one of the first reporters who covered it — from being caught in firefights to scooping news stories to dodging the secret police.

(SparkPress)

What Can I Do?

by Jane Fonda

In a memoir that functions as a call to action, Fonda takes readers on her journey of activism, including her conversations with scientists and regional community organizers that led to Fire Drill Friday, her weekly climate change demonstrations.

(Penguin)

A Knock at Midnight

by Brittany K. Barnett

This vital and deeply personal memoir follows a young Black woman who becomes a lawyer to fight for people unfairly incarcerated for minor drug charges and faces a justice system all too happy to throw people’s lives away.

(Crown)

Devolution

by Max Brooks

The residents of a high-tech compound are cut off from the world after Mt. Rainer erupts. Now something big and foul-smelling seems to be watching from the woods. Despite the gore, this is a marvelously fun, rip-roaring read.

(Del Rey)

The Vanishing Half

by Brit Bennett

Though identical twins, the Vignes sisters lives look so very different: Desiree lives in their childhood home with her daughter, and Stella is posing as a white woman. Can the bonds of sisterhood overcome their differences?

(Riverhead Books)

Fair Warning

by Michael Connelly

When a reporter Jack McEvoy had a one-night stand with is murdered and McEvoy himself becomes a suspect, he uncovers the existence of a serial killer working under the radar of law enforcement.

(Little, Brown, and Co.)

28 Summers

by Elin Hilderbrand

IIN 1993, Mallory and Jack fell in love on Nantucket over Labor Day weekend. Their lives take them in different directions, but they vow to meet there every Labor Day and r-create that fateful summer.

(Little, Brown, and Co.)

A Burning

by Meghanns Majumdar

Set in a slum in India, commuter trains, and a prison, this debut novel offered the story of three intersecting lives in the wake of a terrorist attack in a take that’s alive with humanity (and a bit of comedy).

(Knopf)

Hollywood Park

by Mikel Jollett

Despite the hardships and abnormalities of his childhood — a cult, abuse, drugs, and alcohol — the front man of the band Airborne Toxic Event found a path where lyrics, compassion, and family set him free and on the road with his brand.

(Celedon)

The Next Great Migration

by Sonia Shah

The bestselling author of Pandemic takes a measured look at historical migration and misinformation to determine what current mass migration patterns mean for the future of the planet.

(Bloomsbury)

More Than Love

by Natasha Gregson Wagner

For the first time ever, Natalie Wood’s daughter gives her account of her mother, her childhood, and what is was like to learn that her mother had drowned and her beloved stepfather was the prime suspect.

(Scribner)

Dot Con

by James Veitch

Rather than delete calls for money from Nigerian princes and snail farm, Veitch responds with his own stories, requests, and sagas. The result is a hilarious account of his forays into spamming the email scammers.

(Hachette)

Rebel Chef

by Dominique Crenn

The first female chef to receive two Michelin stars recounts her struggle in a male-dominated industry to become a wold-renowned chef and owner of one of the world’s best restaurants.

(Penguin Press)

Apeirogon

by Colum McCann
Two fathers, one Palestinian and one Israeli, have both lost their daughters to violence. Their lives intertwine as they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace.
(Random House)

The Mirror & the Light

by Hilary Mantel

This third installment of the much-ballyhooed Wolf Hall trilogy details the downfall and grisly end of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s infamous chief minister.
(Henry Holt)

Saint X

by Alexis Schaitkint

Years after her sister was murdered on a family vacation to the Caribbean, Claire forges a bond with a resort employee who was arrested for the crime but released for lack of evidence.
(Celadon Books)

Writers & Lovers

by Lily King

Casey Peabody, a struggling writer who has been utterly undone by the death of her mother, must pilot through some of life’s most profound, confusing, and difficult transitions.
(Grove Press)

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird

by Josie Silver
Just as Lydia forces herself to start dating again after losing her partner of 10 years, she begins living parallel lives, one in the present and one where Freddy is still alive.
(Ballantine)

The Splendid and the Vile

by Erik Larson
Drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, and recently declassified material, this is a front-row seat to Winston Churchill’s first year as prime minister, when the Germans were closing in on London.
(Crown)

Rust

by Eliese Colette Goldbach
The author returns to her hometown of Cleveland and takes a job at the steel mill because the paycheck offers a way out of poverty. But, well-educated and bipolar, she’s not your typical steel worker.
(Flatiron Books)

Untamed

by Glennon Doyle
In her most personal book yet, the activist and bestselling author shares her story of falling in love, divorcing her husband, marrying her wife, and realizing that the most important voice to listen to is your own.
(The Dial Press)

The Velvet Rope Economy

by Nelson D. Schwartz
A gripping look at how a virtual velvet rope divides Americans in everyday life — from airport security lines to theme parks — creating a friction-free life for the moneyed and a Darwinian struggle for the middle class.
(Doubleday)

Chanel’s Riviera

by Anne de Courcy
The Cote d’Azur in 1938 was awash in glamour, with Coco Chanel at its center. But as Nazis swooped in, it was transformed by war, and the city under siege wrought powerful stories of tragedy, sacrifice, and heroism.
(St. Martin’s Press)

My Dark Vanessa

by Kate Elizabeth Russell

This story of a 14-year-old girl who becomes involved with her manipulative but magnetic teacher will be one of the big novels of the year. To quote Stephen King: “A hard story to read and a harder one to put down.”

(William Morrow)

When We Were Vikings

by Andrew David MacDonald

A quirky, heartfelt novel about an unlikely heroine — a woman who survived fetal alcohol syndrome. Her journey will leave you wanting to embark on a quest of your own.

(Gallery/Scout Press)

Long Bright River

by Liz Moore

A compulsively readable thriller about a beat cop who patrols a Philadelphia precinct that has been rocked by the opioid crisis. While the police search for a dangerous serial killer, the protagonist’s homeless and addicted sister goes missing.

(Riverhead)

Processed Cheese

by Stephen Wright

When a bag of money literally falls from the sky, it changes the lives of Graveyard and his wife Ambience forever. They can have anything they want, but of course the owner of the bag wants his money back.

(Little, Brown & Co.)

American Dirt

by Jeanine Cummins
Hailed as a Grapes of Wrath for our times, this is the story of a Mexican mother who flees Acapulco after her family is murdered by the local cartel. Her objective: make it to the U.S.
(Flatiron Books)

Franklin & Washington

by Edward J. Larson
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson’s dual biography of America’s two preeminent Founders reveals how their unexplored relationship forged the United States.
(William Morrow)

Until the End of Time

by Brian Greene
There aren’t many best-selling physicists, but Brian Greene is one of them, and for good reason — here he juxtaposes our understanding deep time with our search for deeper meaning.
(Knopf)

The Scientist and the Spy

by Mara Hvistendahl
In 2011, three ethnic Chinese men were found trespassing near a field in Iowa. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author tells the story of international espionage that unfolded from the incident.
(Riverhead)

The Boston Massacre: A Family History

by Serena Zabin
The nameless British troops who did the shooting at the Boston Massacre weren’t just soldiers; they were their victims’ neighbors. This story explores the personal conflicts that led to the massacre.
(HMH)

Uncanny Valley

by Anna Wiener
The story of a young woman who left a publishing job in New York for a job at a San Francisco tech start-up. This memoir is a rare firsthand glimpse into the high-flying, reckless start-up culture right when it was taking off.
(MCD)

Fiction

Cemetery Road

by Greg Iles

The suspense writer and author of the remarkable Natchez trilogy returns to weave a tale of friendship, betrayal, and dark secrets that threaten to destroy a small Mississippi town.

(William Morrow)

Daisy Jones & The Six

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is one of the biggest novels of the first half of the year, told in the form of an oral history, about a young woman making music in the 1970s.

(Ballantine Books)

Gingerbread

by Helen Oyeyemi

In this fantastical novel, a daughter goes in search of her mother’s past, a journey that takes her to a far-off land where gingerbread is currency and magic might just be real.

(Riverhead Books)

A Wonderful Stroke of Luck

by Ann Beattie

A young man is reunited with his old teacher from boarding school days, disturbing his equilibrium and throwing everything that he feels, and thinks he remembers, into question.

(Viking)

Miracle Creek

by Angie Kim

An experimental medical device kills two in rural Virginia and sets off a courtroom drama that draws on the author’s own life as a Korean immigrant, trial lawyer, and mother.

(Sarah Crichton)

The Lady from the Black Lagoon

by Mallory O’Meara

This book uncovers the life and work of Milicent Patrick, one of Disney’s first female animators and creator of one of Hollywood’s classic movie monsters.

(Hanover Square Press)

Horizon

by Barry Lopez

In an extraordinarily thoughtful memoir, the National Book Award-winning author of Arctic Dreams examines the places he has visited in his life to tell his unique story.

(Knopf)

The Second Mountain

by David Brooks

The author examines how, in a self-centered world, we might actually be able to identify and take on causes bigger than ourselves.

(Random House)

The Moment of Lift

by Melinda Gates

In her first book, Gates looks at the past 20 years she has spent working to empower women and comes to one conclusion: If you want to lift a society up, you need to stop keeping women down.

(Flatiron Books)

Infinite Powers

by Steven Strogatz

Without calculus, we wouldn’t have cellphones, TV, GPS, or ultrasounds. Here is a brilliant, appealing explanation of how calculus works and why it makes our lives so much better.

(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)