Autumn brings fresh perspectives and powerful opportunities for reflection, change and personal growth. For readers who are passionate about social justice, equity and inclusive voices, our Woke new release list highlights the autumn season's hottest essays, memoirs, and novels.
Explore socially aware new release books that elevate marginalized perspectives and spark meaningful conversations. Featuring bold, visionary works from impactful writers like Ibram X. Kendi, Roxane Gay, Clint Smith, and modern progressive essayists, these reads offer essential insights for our changing world.
October 2026 New Book Releases From Diverse Voices
A Wall Is Also a Road
by Annalee Newitz
Bestselling author Annalee Newitz invites us to explore a large and not-so-lonely universe in this science fiction adventure about what happens when the alien becomes familiar-and beloved.
Gardenpath is a graduate student. They also happen to be an amoeba-a slime mold, to be exact-from an ancient civilization that dwells in the space between the stars. And when they turn their many eyes to researching a remote spot on one spiral arm of the galaxy, they stumble upon a discovery that will change everything they thought they knew: a mysterious planet teeming with unexpected life, language, and culture.
One of these alien animals is a creature named Murtis, who lives in a city she calls Pompeii and works in a brothel known as "the lupanar." Unfazed when her strange visitor says she's from the stars, Murtis takes Gardenpath into her care, introducing her to the seaside tourist town full of immigrants and shopkeepers who are just trying to get by.
Before they met Murtis, Gardenpath expected to finish their research, present their discovery, and return home to become an acclaimed scientist. But as they look into their new friend's bizarre sensor bulbs from within the suit that allows them to survive and blend in on her surprising planet, they are beginning to wonder if there's more to life than academic achievement.
They're not sure what it is, but they're going to use science to find out.
A thought-provoking and heartwarming novel about science, the meaning of life, and love, perfect for fans of Becky Chambers, Ryka Aoki, and Martha Wells.
And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress
by Sophia Bush
Sophia Bush has always understood the power of stories.
She's seen it in the connection millions around the world have had to the women she's played on-screen―including Drs. Sam Griffith on Good Sam and Cass Beckman on Grey's Anatomy, Erin Lindsay on Chicago P.D., and, of course, the iconic, beloved Brooke Davis on One Tree Hill―and in activism, where exposing truths about inequality and power has opened eyes, forced change, and made her a symbol of fearlessness. She's also seen it in her personal life, when her experiences and opinions have been distorted to drive clicks and create drama.
Stories are powerful. And now, in And I Will Tell You Mine, these will be shared by the woman they belong to: Sophia herself.
With unflinching honesty, she opens up about her bohemian childhood in Los Angeles and the unexpected road from journalism student to actor; the life-changing decade of One Tree Hill, where she navigated relationships on- and off-screen and fought for her character's integrity; the realities of marriage and divorce in the spotlight; and her years in Chicago, where a dream job forced her into two lives-a badge-wearing protector in one, and a woman in need of protecting in the other. She also offers a side of herself that's not often seen: the curious, human, laugh-out-loud-funny Sophia, who boldly defies demands that she stay in her lane instead of pursuing activism; hops on a last-minute flight to attend a dance party at the White House; gathers community and finds chosen family in unexpected places (including a cruise); and makes the most of vacations gone horribly, hilariously wrong.
Beautifully written, and at turns both personal and universal, And I Will Tell You Mine is Sophia's unforgettable journey through becoming, un-becoming, and becoming again; embracing the light when the world feels overwhelmingly dark; and finally, joyously, coming home to your truest self.
As You Wake, Break the Shell
by Becky Chambers
Explore a universe of stubborn survival and found family, of persistent danger and quiet wonder in the first installment of a heartfelt new duology from Hugo Award-winning author Becky Chambers.
Life on the resource-poor planet of Fortune is challenging, but for its inhabitants, it's home. For two of them, Signy and Cora, this home might no longer be enough.
Signy is a brilliant but reclusive botanist who bio-prints medicine from her small plant shop, often bending the rules to help those the system leaves behind. Her life is filled with the green of her store, the warmth of her one elderly friend, and the quiet determination to help others without putting herself in danger.
Cora is a rorqual pilot, one of the few with the unique ability to navigate the massive, living ships that connect the scattered settlements of their solar system. Her bond with her rorqual, Colibri, is profound--a connection that is both her greatest gift and a threat to her career.
It is that threat--the "mindbleed," a dangerous side effect of her piloting--that brings her to Signy's shop, and her appearance puts Signy in the danger she so fears. But it's soon apparent it's not just about losing her license--this delicate balance between risk and trust has the potential to change everything for them.
Told in an alternating timeline of their initial coming together and a not-so-distant future where they have found domestic bliss, this is a story harrowing and haunting, heartfelt and hopeful. Through a love story centered around survival, we are given a glimpse into the very best of what Becky Chambers does in her writing: explore what it means to be human, and what it means to come together.
New Book Releases From Diverse Voices
The Disappearers
by Marlon James
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 BOOKER PRIZE
"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.
East of the River: A Memoir of Los Angeles Girlhood
by Guadalupe Rosales
From acclaimed artist and Instagram star Guadalupe Rosales comes this moonlit memoir, a visually stunning, poignant account of growing up in '90s Los Angeles that weaves stories with snapshots and social media moments.
"A vibrant and wild time capsule of a '90s girlhood in East L.A., assembled by a chronicler who lived it, breathed it, danced it ... Her evocative pics and tenderly witnessed stories are a treasure trove." – Quiara Alegría Hudes, author and playwright
Guadalupe Rosales chronicles her Boyle Heights childhood and adolescence in East LA, finding joy and danger from Commerce Center to Whittier Boulevard. Her frank, intimate prose captures the freedom and fear pulsing through that time and how sisterhood helped her survive it.
After losing loved ones to violence and struggling with drugs and depression, Rosales moved across the country to New York City. A stack of starshots from her youth became a lifeline and eventually inspired her to create two Instagram archives while she was away from home: Veteranas and Rucas celebrates '90s LA women, while Map Pointz focuses on the party crew scene. Thanks to her, they're thriving online communities.
Now this beloved artist--whose work hangs in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and elsewhere--extends her project of collective memory by sharing her own story of adolescence in a treacherous time, finding herself as an artist far from home, coming to terms with her own queerness, and returning to her beloved Los Angeles transformed. Elegantly designed, the text is interspersed with photography, flyers, Rosales's own artwork, and social media conversations.
An altar to a past era and a map to the future, this book is a reminder that memory, celebration, and community make us whole.
How Bright the Path Grows: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the March on Washington
by Marcia Chatelain
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Franchise comes the little-known story of the pioneering Black women artists and activists who were seen, but barely heard, at the 1963 March on Washington.
"Chatelain lets us see the complexities of these women's lives, feel their pain, and marvel at their ability to cut through the thicket of racism and sexism."--Carol Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of White Rage
"Chatelain brilliantly reframes one of the most enduring images in American memory through the women erased from its frame."--Alexis Coe, New York Times bestselling author of You Never Forget Your First
There is no shortage of footage immortalizing the men who spoke at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when 250,000 Americans gathered beneath the Lincoln Memorial to call for an end to segregation. There were reverends and rabbis, activists and Rat-Pack icons--and of course the day's headliner, whose prophetic dream of a post-Jim Crow world has forever defined the Civil Rights Movement. But there is no "class photo" of the Black women who helped organize the march, performed on its main stage, or were honored during its "Tribute to Negro Women Fighters for Freedom."
In How Bright the Path Grows, Marcia Chatelain weaves a gleaming group portrait of these singular women. Among this cohort were several household names: vaudeville icon Josephine Baker; civil rights activist Rosa Parks gospel legend Mahalia Jackson, and Daisy Bates, champion of the Little Rock Nine. But many were relative unknowns, including Eva Jessye, the choir director who designed the day's musical program, and Anna Hedgeman, the coordinator who pushed in the eleventh hour for a tribute to Black women's work.
How Bright the Path Grows is a scintillating group biography, rendering the lives of thirteen Black women visionaries--some famous, others soon to be--in novelistic detail and like never seen before.
Miss Greene's Secret: Based on the True Story of the Black Librarian Who Shaped the Morgan Library
by Nicolas Antona - Nina Jacqmin
She changed her name and her past, risking everything for a chance to make her way. A remarkable graphic novel drawn from the life of Belle da Costa Greene--longtime director of the Morgan Library--who passed into white society during the Jim Crow era.
At the dawn of the 20th century, American society continued to draw a strict racial line. Even the faintest trace of African ancestry was enough to classify a person as Black, shaping every aspect of life in a deeply segregated nation.
It was under these conditions that Belle Greener reinvented herself as Belle da Costa Greene. A young woman from Washington, D.C., she made the difficult decision to conceal her African heritage and rose to become one of the most influential cultural figures of her time, running the prestigious Morgan Library for forty-three years.
For decades, she sustained this delicate balance. But what does it mean to build an extraordinary life on a truth that must remain unspoken? What is lost, when you trade one identity for another?
This graphic novel biography draws from the few remaining primary sources to bring Belle's story to life through careful research and thoughtful fictionalization where the historical record falls silent.
Queenie Is Working on It
by Candice Carty-Williams
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Candice Carty-Williams, internationally bestselling author of Queenie (now a television series on Hulu), reunites us with the iconic character nearly ten years on, facing new chaotic choices in life and love with cherished old friends and family in this highly anticipated sequel.
Queenie Jenkins is moving on up.
She's thirty-three, the editorial director for The Good Sis, a thriving media network amplifying the voices of Black women--a far cry from her former toxic workplace. With a great platform and a renewed sense of purpose, she's fighting the good fight.
So when an appointment for research goes haywire and reveals startling truths about her own fertility, Queenie is confronted with a racing biological clock when she's not even sure she wants kids in the first place. She's sort of seeing someone, but it's not that serious (according to him), and her mom, grandma, and aunt Maggie all mean well, but they keep asking when she's going to settle down.
Surrounded by loyal friends who seem to fall in love with their person and get pregnant at the drop of a hat and the reappearance of an old flame she never stopped loving while being pulled into a series of confusing "situationships" that really do NOT go anywhere means that for Queenie, time is running out in all parts of her life. She's determined to do what she thinks is best to get back on track, no matter how many mistakes it takes to get this right.
Bigger. Not better. Older. Not wiser. The beloved and flawed Queenie Jenkins is scared, she is frustrated, she is confused...but she is working on it.
Terrestrial
by Cristina Rivera Garza - Christina Macsweeney
A fiercely poetic, tenderly observed portrait of young women's travels on the fringes of Mexico and the United States, by the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Liliana's Invincible Summer
One of Publishers Weekly's 10 Most Anticipated Books of the Year
In this new collection of genre-defying stories by Cristina Rivera Garza, a woman visits what she thinks could be her old lover's hometown after being abandoned by her, years earlier. Two herons hitchhike across Mexico. A group of workers build a new home, only to see it destroyed by the state.
With little baggage and much bravado, the characters in Terrestrial hitchhike, migrate, take trains, wander or, at times, fly, to survive the mandates of patriarchy and capitalism. On dusty roads or by a lake turned suddenly ominous, they remain in close contact with the earth's surface, sensing its wild promise and capacity for violence, its degradation and enduring beauty.
As she did in her Pulitzer Prize winning memoir Liliana's Invincible Summer, Rivera Garza forges new forms, experimenting with structure and time as she tails the intrepid travelers with shimmering and honest prose. Combining journalism, novelistic writing, and themes of female freedom, gore capitalism, and class struggle, Terrestrial is a meditation on travel and distance, and our ties to the earth we tread on.
The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman
by Deesha Philyaw
"Philyaw 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
"Smart and juicy and compulsively readable." - Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Date and The Proposal
The 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.
"Deesha Philyaw has already established herself as one of the greatest short story writers, but in The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman she cements herself as the most soulfully entertaining writer of her era." - Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy and Long Division
The Weight of Angels
by John Boyne
Can one rash decision prove the difference between a life well lived and a life destroyed?
When the Marquess of Queensberry left his calling card at the Albemarle Club in February 1895, it bore only his name and five words: "For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite." The most celebrated playwright of his day famously sued for libel, which led to his arrest, criminal prosecution, and ultimately prison. From then on, his gilded existence spiraled into public disgrace, humiliation, and an early death.
But what if he had simply ignored the insult? What direction might his life have taken? This is the premise of John Boyne's extraordinary new novel, The Weight of Angels. Rather than dying in penury in Paris at age 46, what if Wilde had lived to bear witness to the momentous events and cataclysmic changes of the first part of the twentieth century, and even influence some of them? What if the second half of his life were as dramatic, tumultuous, and exhilarating as the first?
In imagining the life that Oscar Wilde never had, John Boyne has written one of the great what-if stories of modern literature, giving the iconic Anglo-Irish poet and playwright a fresh new voice and the opportunity to take an entirely different path.
For more new release books for your Reader Type, check out our book recommendations for Bookworms or The Hobbyist.