With cooler weather on the way, October is the perfect time to curl up with a brand new book. Our editors and book lovers have scoured this month's new releases to find the very best titles tailored just for your interests. Looking for a cozy mystery, a gripping fantasy or an empowering nonfiction book? We have the perfect new release books just for you. Here are the titles we're most excited to read this month.
- Broken Rival by Tessa Baily offers romance, time travel, fantasy and more after Magnolia's parents leave her stranded 50 years in the past.
- In Barbara Kingsolver's highly anticipated novel Partita, an unexpected phone call from an old lover reawakens a woman's previous life in the world of music.
- Philippa Gregory, the queen of historical fiction, is at it again with Royal Witch, which follows the arrival and ambitions of Eleanor Cobham in the court of Henry V.
- How does sound shape the world we live in? Find all the answers about how rhythm, sound and vibration affect our health and the world around us in The God Notes.
- Have you ever felt that instant sense of connection with someone you just met? Vibe explains why we automatically click with some people but struggle to connect with others.
- Just in time for Halloween, What Happens at Nightfall is a contemporary romance complete with Gilded Age ghosts and gothic cemetery gardens.
Check out our top six picks below, or dive deeper to see our latest book recommendations for your Reader Type.
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Beach Reader
by Elle Cosimano & Hannah Morrissey
Two rival special agents. One picture-perfect Christmas town. And a murder that definitely wasn’t on the holiday itinerary. Holly and Mark must solve the case before the town’s biggest festival, while competing for the same promotion and confronting some seriously unresolved chemistry.
Bookworm
by Imbolo Mbue
After losing his pregnant wife in a tragic accident, Wolo has slowly pieced his life back together. Then a letter arrives from the woman who was driving that day, forcing him to confront grief and the possibility of forgiveness. A deeply moving novel about love lost and the complicated road from heartbreak to healing.
Dragon Slayer
by Alix E. Harrow
What if history happened a little differently? Alix E. Harrow turns the past sideways in this fantastical collection filled with dreamers, ghosts, rebels, lovers and ordinary people who refuse to stay in the margins. Spanning ancient battlefields, roadside attractions and places just beyond reality, The Slantwise Histories brings together Harrow’s acclaimed short fiction, including her Hugo Award-winning “A Witch’s Guide to Escape,” along with five all-new stories.
Galactic Guru
by Jasper Fforde
Literary detective Thursday Next is back for one last adventure, and this time, the story itself is in danger. Old enemies are plotting to make her final novel literally unpublishable, Martians have escaped from an H. G. Wells book and a mysterious realm holds all the deleted books and abandoned ideas that never made it onto the page.
The Hobbyist
by Megan Trottier
Whether you’re brand-new to mahjong or ready to sharpen your strategy, this beautifully illustrated guide makes mastering the game approachable and fun. Learn the tiles, rules, patterns and winning plays, then put your skills to work at your next game night with confidence and style.
Game Day Hero
by Peter King
For four decades, sportswriter Peter King had a front-row seat to the NFL’s biggest moments, personalities and turning points. In The Game, he takes readers behind the scenes with everyone from John Madden and Deion Sanders to Peyton Manning and Patrick Mahomes, revealing the stories that helped transform professional football into an American cultural powerhouse.
Leading Lady
by Lydia Millet
When their friend Claire dies suddenly and mysteriously, Mara and Jen are left to make sense of the loss, and of each other. Told in two parts from each woman’s perspective, Fair Ones follows the longtime friends through grief, new relationships and old secrets as they discover how deeply our lives are shaped by the people closest to us.
Lifelong Learner
by Nathaniel Philbrick
In The Rush, award-winning historian Nathaniel Philbrick brings the California Gold Rush vividly to life, from mining camps and booming San Francisco to the halls of power in Washington. Following fortune seekers, Native communities, ambitious politicians and larger-than-life characters, Philbrick reveals how the scramble for wealth transformed ideas about freedom, power and belonging, and helped push an already divided nation toward the Civil War.
Maverick
by Richard Cooke
We use it to settle arguments, tumble down research rabbit holes and answer questions we didn’t even know we had. But how did Wikipedia become one of the world’s greatest repositories of knowledge? Journalist Richard Cooke goes behind the pages to uncover the personality clashes, passionate volunteers, fierce debates and unlikely ideas that built the encyclopedia anyone can edit.
Modern Romantic
by Katee Robert
Kestrel enters the deadly Tarot Trials to claim her place as Champion of the Moon and uncover the truth about her mother’s execution. With tarot-fueled magic, dangerous alliances and betrayal at every turn, this high-stakes fantasy blends revenge, romance and a competition where winning could cost everything.
Self-Starter
by David Byrne
Why do some brilliant ideas disappear, only to resurface decades or even centuries later? Musician David Byrne explores the breakthroughs that nearly slipped through history’s cracks, from dark matter and continental drift to Bach, Vermeer and Moby-Dick. Curious, hopeful and wide-ranging, Sleeping Beauties reveals what forgotten ideas can teach us about recognizing the next great thing.
Serial Reader
by Freida McFadden
When Julia retreats to her family’s centuries-old Massachusetts estate, she expects a refuge, not a haunting. Strange events lead her to uncover the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692 and generations of buried family secrets. From Freida McFadden comes a chilling, twist-filled thriller where the past refuses to stay buried.
Spiritual Seeker
by Richard Paul Evans
In 1874, Etta Wheeler’s search for purpose leads her into the tenements of Hell’s Kitchen, where she discovers a young girl living in desperate conditions. Inspired by a remarkable true story, Mercy’s Child follows one woman’s fight to save a child and the courageous act of compassion that would help spark lasting change across America.
Stunt Double
by Michael Connelly
When a settlement forces Harry Bosch to revisit the troubled children’s facility where he grew up, memories of a boy’s unsolved death come roaring back. Determined to uncover the truth, Bosch follows a decades-old trail that leads to a predator with a long history of violence. Michael Connelly takes his legendary detective into his most personal case yet.
Time Traveler
by Elizabeth Kostova
Elizabeth Kostova returns to the haunting world of The Historian with a gothic thriller that follows Jay Turner as he uncovers his family’s dangerous connection to Dracula. His search leads from present-day Boston into the glittering world of Gilded Age theater, where an infamous actor, a young actress and an ancient darkness are bound together by secrets that refuse to stay buried.
The Trendsetter
by Jonathan Van Meter
How did Kim Kardashian go from reality-TV star to one of the most influential figures of the modern celebrity age? Drawing on extraordinary access to Kardashian, her family and inner circle, Jonathan Van Meter explores the ambition, savvy and reinvention behind her rise, while examining how fame, fashion, technology and culture helped create the phenomenon known simply as Kim.
Woke Up Like This
by Annalee Newitz
Alien graduate student Gardenpath expects their research on a mysterious planet to launch a brilliant scientific career. Instead, meeting Murtis, a woman living in ancient Pompeii, changes everything. A Wall Is Also a Road is a warm, wildly imaginative first-contact story about science, discovery, friendship and finding meaning in the most unexpected corners of the universe.
World Traveler
by Neil Price
Forget everything you think you know about the Vikings. Archaeologist Neil Price journeys from Greenland to Greece to reveal a world of raiders and traders, sorceresses and shape-shifters, farmers and diplomats. Drawing on the latest discoveries, The Sea-King and the Sorceress brings the Viking Age to life in all its fascinating complexity.
Young at Heart
by Renée Watson
Bliss spends her days working in her family’s funeral home and wondering what it really means to live. Then she meets Solomon, a boy searching for answers about the mother who left him, and an unexpected connection changes them both. Everything New Again is a tender story of first love and self-discovery in the face of endings.
Cool Mom/Dad
by Nara Aziza Smith
Nara Aziza Smith makes cooking from scratch feel both achievable and undeniably chic. In her debut cookbook, Homemade, the viral culinary creator shares 80 family-friendly recipes inspired by her childhood in Germany, her family and her belief in slowing down and cooking with intention.
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