Today in Bookish and Literary History, January 20

 2025 A New Lease of Life by Celia Anderson - AUS

A warm, laugh-out-loud story of fun and friendship for women of a certain age. She's getting rid of old baggage and looking forward to a new lease of life!

2025 The Train That Took You Away by Catherine Hokin - UK

An absolutely devastating, heartbreaking page-turning story of a family torn apart by war – and the hope that can sustain us in the darkest of places. Perfect for fans of The Book of Lost Names and The Nightingale.

2025 How Do I Tell You? by Nicola May - UK

Thirty-five-year-old Victoria Sharpe has a decent job as an illustrator, a perfectly good if predictable relationship, and great friends. So why can’t she shake the feeling that something is missing?

2026 The Poet Empress by Shen Tao - US

The Poet Empress is an epic fantasy that explores darker themes, subjects, and scenes that may not be suitable for all readers. Please see the author's content note at the beginning of the book.

2026 How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley - US

A bold, inventive, and fiercely original debut novel that begins with an uncle dead and his tween niece’s private confession to the reader—she and her sister killed him, and they blame the British.

2026 Room 706 by Ellie Levenson - UK

A married woman is trapped with her lover in a hotel under siege: If she knew it would end this way, would it ever have begun?

2026 The Friend of the Family by Dean Koontz - US

A girl liberated from a carnival sideshow discovers her mysterious purpose in a moving novel about family, sacrifice, and transcendent love by #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.

2026 George Falls Through Time by Ryan Collett - US

George Falls Through Time isas much an inward journey as an outward one: an immersive exploration of identity and dislocation that pits present-day sensibilities against a raw and alien backdrop, a strangely perfect canvas for the absurd anxieties of our modern lives. It's a profound meditation on the nature of desire perfect for fans of Madeline Miller and The Ministry of Time.

2026 When We Were Brilliant by Lynn Cullen - US

They were an unlikely pair—a blond bombshell and a photographer determined to be taken seriously—but Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold would make a deal that would change their lives in this dazzling new novel from the national bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and The Woman with the Cure.

2026 The Flower Bearers by Rachel Eliza Griffiths - US

In The Flower Bearers, Griffiths inscribes the trajectories of two transformational relationships with grace and honesty, chronicling the beauty and pain that comes with opening oneself fully to love.

2026 Anne of a Different Island by Virginia Kantra - US

A woman learns to be the heroine of her own life in this heartfelt novel inspired by Anne of Green Gables by New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra.

2026 Fruit of the Flesh by I.V. Ophelia - US

Behind the glamour of Gilded Age New York, a marriage of convenience between an artisan and a ballerina masks their shared appetite for revenge in this darkly seductive gothic romance.

2026 How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days by Jessie Sylva - CAN

HOW TO LOSE A GOBLIN IN TEN DAYS is a comfort read fantasy romance between a halfling and a goblin: imagine a classic opposites-attract romcom taking place in a cosy fantasy setting. Expect romantasy, magical forests, interfering wizards, lots of home cooking and maybe even a kiss at the Harvest dance…

2026 Just Watch Me by Lior Torenberg - US/ISR

Fleabag meets Big Swiss in this bold debut about a charismatic misfit who livestreams her life for seven days and nights to raise money to save her comatose sister—a poignant and darkly funny exploration of grief, forgiveness, and redemption.

2026 One Aladdin Two Lamps by Jeanette Winterson - UK

A woman is filibustering for her life. Every night she tells a story. Every morning, she lives one more day. One Aladdin Two Lamps cracks open the legendary story of Shahrazad in One Thousand and One Nights to explore new and ancient questions. Who should we trust? Is love the most important thing in the world? Does it matter whether you are honest? What makes us happy?

2026 Departure(s) by Julian Barnes - UK

On the occasion of his eightieth birthday, one of our great novelists delivers a playful and profound work about memory, love, and the writer's endgame.