By The New York Times Books Staff
Let us help you choose your next book
- Give me a thrilling new take on an American masterpiece
- I’d like a moody, mesmerizing crime novel from a master
- I need something to help me through a hard time
- I’d like a short memoir by a well-known author
- I want to read a book everyone is (still) talking about
- Give me a swashbuckling tale of survival
- I’d like a smart romantic comedy that avoids cliché
- How about a revelatory biography of an icon?
- I want a great historical novel full of humanity
- How about a heartwarming novel to suit any mood?
- I’d love a literary novel that surprises me at every turn
See the full list of our latest recommended new books.
Find an Audiobook to Love
Try before you buy: Sample clips from recent audio releases.
- Day
by Michael Cunningham
Julianne Moore reads this gracefully restrained portrait of a single family’s trajectory before, during and after the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- My Name Is Barbra
by Barbra Streisand
In recording her chatty, brick-size memoir, “My Name Is Barbra,” the superlative diva adds a little freestyling.
- The Fraud
by Zadie Smith
This is a 19th-century novel of manners in which various people have very bad ones, and the result is vigorously, insistently funny.
- Alice Sadie Celine
by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
A lauded feminist becomes entangled with her daughter’s best friend. Chloë Sevigny brings alive wickedly delightful prose.
- The Motherlode
by Clover Hope
This honors contributions to hip-hop by the women, like Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne Shanté and Megan Thee Stallion, who’ve made it what it is today.
- Surely You Can't Be Serious
by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker
In the audiobook oral history “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of ‘Airplane!,’” a cast of dozens fondly revisits a now-classic film.
- Leslie F*cking Jones
by Leslie Jones
She has been a comedian for decades, but listening to her read her memoir, you get the impression that she still has all the vigor of someone only getting started.
Pineapple Street
by Jenny JacksonTrespasses
by Louise KennedyA Hacker's Mind
by Bruce SchneierVictory City
by Salman RushdieThe Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
by Stacy SchiffLives of the Wives
by Carmela CiuraruEmpress of the Nile
by Lynne OlsonG Man
by Beverly GageDirtbag Massachusetts
by Isaac Fitzgerald
The Best Books of the Year (So Far)
The nonfiction and novels we can’t stop thinking about.
Beautyland
by Marie-Helene BertinoGood Material
by Dolly AldertonHeadshot
by Rita BullwinkelMartyr!
by Kaveh AkbarEveryone Who Is Gone Is Here
by Jonathan BlitzerJames
by Percival Everett
Can’t Miss Thrillers
The Second Stranger
by Martin GriffinKill Show
by Daniel Sweren-BeckerIlium
by Lea CarpenterThe Plinko Bounce
by Martin ClarkKids Run the Show
by Delphine De ViganThe Last One
by Will DeanFirst Lie Wins
by Ashley ElstonMy Husband
by Maud VenturaHow Can I Help You
by Laura Sims
- Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here
by Jonathan Blitzer
This urgent and propulsive account of immigration makes a persuasive case for a line from U.S. foreign policy in Central America to the current migrant crisis.
- The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
by Janice Hallett
A modern take on the epistolary novel, this thriller follows a true-crime journalist trying to discover the real story behind a series of occult deaths years before.
- Piglet
by Lottie Hazel
Two weeks before her wedding, a young woman learns of her fiancé's betrayal. Hazell’s debut novel is a tantalizing layer cake of horror, romance and questions about the power of appetite.
- I Heard Her Call My Name
by Lucy Sante
Sante, who for decades has been a leading literary and cultural critic, here traces her late-in-life gender transition, reflecting on a career of seeking truths through writing while hiding an important truth about herself.
- Praiseworthy
by Alexis Wright
This bracing satire of clashing worldviews in Australia more than lives up to its name. Beginning with a toxic haze settling over an Aboriginal town, where one resident believes he can fight climate change.
- Language City
by Ross Perlin
In this history of New York, Perlin focuses on residents fighting to preserve their spoken heritages. The result is sweeping and intimate, both a call to arms and a tribute to a place that contains almost as many tongues as speakers.
- Martyr!
by Kaveh Akbar
An Iranian American writer and recovering addict grieves his parents’ deaths while fantasizing about his own. But this debut novel is full of life.
Great New Romances
The Marquis Who Mustn't
by Courtney MilanWith Love, From Cold World
by Alicia ThompsonCodename Charming
by Lucy ParkerTime to Shine
by Rachel ReidThe Art of Scandal
by Regina BlackNot Here to Make Friends
by Jodi McAlisterDon't Want You Like a Best Friend
by Emma R. AlbanA Fire Born of Exile
by Aliette de BodardStarling House
by Alix E. Harrow
6 Short Books You Can Read in a Day
Your literary life doesn’t need to suffer, even if you’re pressed for time.
The Factory
by Hiroko OyamadaTinkers
by Paul HardingSula
by Toni MorrisonDept. of Speculation
by Jenny OffillNew People
by Danzy SennaThe Lover's dictionary
by David Levithan
See the full list of 2023's best children's books.
- What If One Day. . .
Written by Bruce Handy. Illustrated by Ashleigh Corrin.
In this playful story, precious things (water, the setting sun) are taken from us, and then joyfully returned.
- There Was a Party for Langston
Written by Jason Reynolds. Illustrated by Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey.
A poetic picture book makes a party out of language.
- Big
by Vashti Harrison
A Black second grader is made to feel “too big” in so many ways that she grows almost larger than the book, until the story restores her inner glow.
- A Walk in the Woods
by Nikki Grimes, Jerry Pinkney and Brian Pinkney
A wise and heartfelt tale follows a young boy grieving his father, who discovers sketches, poems and a note telling him to draw and write his own story
- The Eyes and the Impossible
Written by Dave Eggers. Illustrated by Shawn Harris.
This comedic story for middle-grade readers is narrated by a vivacious dog.
- Mexikid
by Pedro Martín
Martín’s wildly entertaining graphic memoir chronicles his family’s 1977 trip in a used Winnebago from California to Jalisco.
- Remember Us
by Jacqueline Woodson
Woodson conjures a captivating, elegiac story from the ashes of a frightening summer in 1970s Brooklyn.
The author of “A Gentleman in Moscow” talked about the novels and writers that have stuck with him. Read his By the Book interview.
- Go Tell It on the Mountainby James Baldwin
- Cigarettesby Harry Mathews
- The Sun Also Risesby Ernest Hemingway
- A Good Man Is Hard to Findby Flannery O'Connor
- The Tree of Manby Patrick White
- The Splendid and the Vileby Erik Larson
Science Fiction and Fantasy
The Saint of Bright Doors
by Vajra ChandrasekeraInk Blood Sister Scribe
by Emma TörzsInfinity Gate
by M.R. CareyUnraveller
by Frances HardingeEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
by Heather FawcettUntethered Sky
by Fonda LeeTitanium Noir
by Nick HarkawayWhite Cat, Black Dog
by Kelly LinkWitch King
by Martha WellsThe Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch
by Melinda Taub
The Best Books of 2023
Chosen by the staff of the Book Review.
- Chain-Gang All-Starsby Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- Master Slave Husband Wifeby Ilyon Woo
- The Bee Stingby Paul Murray
- The Fraudby Zadie Smith
- The Best Mindsby Jonathan Rosen
- Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughsby Kerry Howley
- Fire Weatherby John Vaillant
- Some People Need Killingby Patricia Evangelista
- North Woodsby Daniel Mason
- Eastboundby Maylis de Kerangal
Happy reading! Check back soon for new recommendations, and find all our coverage at nytimes.com/books
