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Readers’ Most Anticipated November Books
At the beginning of each calendar month, the crack editorial squad at Goodreads assembles a list of the hottest and most popular new books hitting shelves, actual and virtual. The list is generated by evaluating readers’ early reviews and tracking which titles are being added to Want to Read shelves by Goodreads regulars.
Each month’s curated preview features new books from across the genre spectrum: contemporary fiction, historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, romance, horror, young adult, nonfiction, and more. Think of it as a literary smorgasbord. Check out whatever looks delicious.
New in November: Sarah Jost explores a sinister French chateau in The Estate. Juhea Kim profiles the return of a Russian ballerina in City of Night Birds. And Toshikazu Kawaguchi details Japanese time travel in Before We Forget Kindness.
Also on tap this month: A Scottish murder mystery, some scary short stories, and the hotly anticipated new novel from Haruki Murakami.
Add the books that catch your eye to your Want to Read shelf, and let us know what you're reading and recommending in the comments section.
Each month’s curated preview features new books from across the genre spectrum: contemporary fiction, historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, romance, horror, young adult, nonfiction, and more. Think of it as a literary smorgasbord. Check out whatever looks delicious.
New in November: Sarah Jost explores a sinister French chateau in The Estate. Juhea Kim profiles the return of a Russian ballerina in City of Night Birds. And Toshikazu Kawaguchi details Japanese time travel in Before We Forget Kindness.
Also on tap this month: A Scottish murder mystery, some scary short stories, and the hotly anticipated new novel from Haruki Murakami.
Add the books that catch your eye to your Want to Read shelf, and let us know what you're reading and recommending in the comments section.
The long-awaited new novel from Japanese author Haruki Murakami—his first in six years—returns readers to that literary liminal space that only Murakami can really conjure. Featuring parallel realities, dreamscapes, and a remote village in Fukushima, the new book is being billed as “a love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them.” Devotees of magical realism will want to check in on Murakami’s ongoing celebration of the human imagination.
Set in the cutthroat world of elite Russian ballet performers, City of Night Birds Is the highly anticipated second novel from Korean-American author Juhea Kim (Beasts of a Little Land). Prima ballerina Natalia Leonova has just returned to St. Petersburg after a traumatic accident. Surrounded by dubious friends and ambitious rivals, she makes some unpleasant discoveries about her new circumstances. Bonus trivia: Author Kim is founder and editor of the ecological/literary journal Peaceful Dumpling.
This fifth entry in the beloved Japanese book series invites readers into a very special café, where customers travel back in time to tweak the trajectory of their own lives. It sounds like sci-fi, but Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s books read more like adventures in heartfelt magical realism. Before We Forget Kindness profiles four new guests, including a remorseful father, a hopeful child, and a woman holding a child with no name. The only rule? Each traveler must return before the coffee gets cold.
Irish author and playwright Niall Williams (This Is Happiness) returns with another novel set in the quiet village of Faha, where everyday people encounter extraordinary twists of fate. Time of the Child flips the calendar back to the Christmas season of 1962, when town doctor Jack Troy and his adult daughter get an unexpected addition to the family. Williams’ books often turn on gentle moments of transcendence. In fact, the new book can be read as a kind of Christmas miracle story from a very specific time and place.
Just in time for Halloween reading, this scary story collection from acclaimed British author Eliza Clark looks like good, clean, terrifying fun. Author of the novels Boy Parts and Penance, Clark expands her canvas here with stories set in the past (Old West America), the future (an unexplored planet), and several weird spots in between (an incel-infested IT office). Bonus trivia: Back in 2020, Clark established the then-Twitter account @GoodreadsBazaar, dedicated to nonsensical Goodreads reviews.
Toggling between alternating timelines, Katherine Greene’s sophomore thriller begins in 1998 North Carolina, where a terrifying rash of disappearances is plaguing a local university. Twenty-four years later, the sister of one long-missing girl decides to start her own investigation. Also on the job: a true-crime podcast dedicated to chasing down cold-case leads. After an unsettling discovery, a local lake gets a morbid new nickname. Bonus trivia: Author Greene is actually two authors. Neat trick, that.
But why settle for two authors when you can have three? This intriguing collaborative novel by the team of Williams, Willig, and White initially presents as a classic locked-room mystery set in a remote Scottish castle. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh has a dead novelist to deal with, but things get weird when he discovers that his three witnesses are also novelists, each with a dubious alibi. Fact and fiction get terminally blurred in this cozy mystery with some satirical perspectives on the publishing world itself.
The debut mystery-thriller from new author Marie Tierney goes to some extremely dark places to tell a story of a small town with a big problem. Fourteen-year-old Ava Bonney has an unhealthy obsession with death and decay. Late at night, she collects roadkill to study rates of decomposition. When Ava comes across the body of a classmate, her particular expertise reveals an awful truth about her small-town world. Heads up on this one: While Deadly Animals has a young adult protagonist, it’s not a young adult book. Please shelve accordingly.
Recommended for fans of Travis Baldree and Sangu Mandanna, this debut novel from author Julie Leong might be most usefully described as cozy fantasy. Itinerant fortune teller Tao makes her living advising villagers on crops and cows and the occasional love affair. But when a child goes missing, Tao finds herself on an adventure with a semi-reformed thief, an ex-mercenary, an excitable baker, and at least one magical cat. The Teller of Small Fortunes also wins this month’s unofficial award for Loveliest Book Cover Art.
How’s this for an intriguing story premise? Art historian Camille Lerray has a secret: By way of inborn magical ability, she can enter the abstract world of artwork itself, moving through time and space and form. But when Camille makes a critical mistake, she discovers that another person knows all about her magic. That’s where the sinister French chateau comes in. Combining elements of fantasy, mystery, and history, The Estate is recommended for fans of scholarly speculative fiction like The Cloisters and The Cartographers.
With her popular Crowns of Nyaxia series, author Carissa Broadbent blends complex romance (mortal and immortal) with dark magic and aristocratic power plays. The author describes the series as “bloody, angsty, stabby, and spicy.” Can’t argue with that. This newest installment—book three, technically—is being described as Dante’s Inferno meets A Court of Thorns and Roses. Think reluctant vampires, underworld quests, vengeful ghosts, and one burning question: Is it even possible to kill the god of death? Let’s find out!
If you like your contemporary romance novels set on 8,000 acres of prime Western pasture land, consider Lost and Lassoed, the latest in author Lyla Sage’s Rebel Blue Ranch series. Stressed-out rancher Gus Ryder has reluctantly accepted help from his little sister’s bestie, the free-spirited Teddy Anderson. Will this forced proximity trigger a kind of enemies-to-lovers dynamic? Depends on how well you know your romance novel tropes. In any case, early readers are loving this one, based on the Goodreads community reviews.
The tortured book title pun is a proud tradition in romance publishing, and author Jamie Wesley is doing noble work in this regard with her Fake It Till You Bake It series. Her new book introduces the impossibly appealing August Hodges, a professional football player who also happens to be an ardent feminist and accomplished cupcake artist. When August needs a social media specialist for his new business venture, he turns to family friend and old crush Sloane Dell. The rest is all hot sex and quality frosting. Good times.
When author Isabel Ibañez published her novel What the River Knows last year, readers enthusiastically embraced the book’s clever mix of romance, fantasy, and historical fiction. Set in 1880s Egypt, this sequel book follows the continuing adventures of Bolivian Argentinian heiress Inez Olivera. The quick skinny: With her inheritance on the line, Inez must consider marriage to her former nemesis, British soldier Whitford Hayes. Magic is in the air! Unfortunately, it’s old-world magic, tricky and treacherous.
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
by Robin Wall Kimmerer, illustrated by John Burgoyne
by Robin Wall Kimmerer, illustrated by John Burgoyne
Meanwhile, big news over in the nonfiction aisles this month: Author and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass) is back on shelves with The Serviceberry, her latest book offering powerful insights into the hidden workings of the natural world. Kimmerer has won a global readership with her research, which combines her Native American heritage with scientific rigor and passionate environmental advocacy. The new book narrows its focus to the humble serviceberry, and what it can teach us about “reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude.”
Which new releases are you looking forward to reading? Let’s talk books in the comments!
Comments Showing 1-23 of 23 (23 new)
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Mica
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Nov 01, 2024 02:56PM
I like The City and Its Uncertain Walls and The Lake of Lost Girls!
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In addition to The Author’s Guide to Murder, I am anticipating:11/5/24
One Life by Barbara Winton
Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier
11/12/24
Her Lotus Year by Paul French
Our Jackie by Karen M Dunak
Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik
11/19/24
The Mirror by Nora Roberts
All look intriguing, so I can't say I'd skip any. I'll read What the River Knows first if I can get my hands on it. Can you recommend me a good book to read from this list?
I’m intrigued by the plots of “The Estate” and “The Teller of Small Fortunes”. Of course new murder mystery is always a great option so “The Authors Guide to Murder” is a must 😍
Lazarus by Richard Price is a November must read for me.
Based on this list I put The Authors Guide to Murder on hold at the library . The Teller of Small Fortunes looks good.
I have ordered the following{The City and Its Uncertain Walls,
The Teller of Small Fortunes,
The Songbird and the Heart of Stone, and
Where the Library Hides
It will be a great month
Lake of Lost girls - I am ready to read it just because of the title.
Debbie wrote: "In addition to The Author’s Guide to Murder, I am anticipating:11/5/24
One Life by Barbara Winton
Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier
11/12/24
Her Lotus Year by Paul French
Our Jackie by Kar..."
In addition to that...
11/12/24
Games Untold by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Skyshade by Alex Aster
None of these look interesting to me. This is a first, there usually are a few that I want to read or have read on the monthly list.
So many of them look good to me. I love books that have library in the title!
Mica wrote: "I like The City and Its Uncertain Walls and The Lake of Lost Girls!"Agreed ... Lake of lost girls looks good ... so does Time of the Child.
harry cohen wrote: "Lazarus by Richard Price is a November must read for me."I am super pumped to read that book, too!
Deadly animals look very very interesting. I will add it to my TBR list.
I have just read Lola Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. It was SO GOOD!!! I was not happy about the foul language but otherwise it was AMAZING!!
It covers all present day topics in such a quirky and fun way!
I highly recommend it!!
I would love to read APRIL STORM. It’s new and since the author has since passed away, it is her last book. I read all of hers. She was an amazing author. You would love her books!!
Leila Meacham ( author).
Titles: Roses, Titans, Somerset, Crowning Design, and others.
Darkly by Marisha Pessl! Her last book was 2018!
I want to read 2:City of Night Birds
The Estate
And I also saved the 1st novel of the Secrets of the Nile series!
I went to the meet and greet with the W authors and got a signed copy of the authors guide to murder
