November arrives with a rich harvest of new fiction and nonfiction, inviting readers to settle into stories from Louise Kennedy, Tom Drury, Elizabeth McCracken, Michelle Porter, and many others. Alongside these novels, seasoned historians and investigative journalists deliver fresh works for today’s bookshelf. Below is the full lineup for the month—enjoy the reads!
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Louise Kennedy, Stations (Riverhead)
“An insightful and emotionally charged examination of how first love leaves its mark.”
–Economist
Tom Drury, West of Loveland (Grove)
“With dry wit, an insatiable appetite for storytelling, and a keen eye for the strange beauty woven into daily life, Drury’s new novel offers a memorable reading experience that renders the world both less solitary and more mysterious.”
–Yiyun Li
Elizabeth McCracken, Seven Stories About Tammy (Biblioasis)
“One of the best works I have ever read. It made me laugh aloud and filled me with joy… McCracken stands among our greatest writers.”
–Ann Patchett
Dan Jones, Castles: A Fortified History of the World (Viking)
“A lively and engaging work that will spark the imaginations of castle enthusiasts everywhere.”
–Library Journal
Ian Rankin, The Heights (Cardinal)
“Terrific.”
–Mick Herron
Alex Pappademas and Joan LeMay, Friends of the Devil: West Texas Cowboys, Brown-Eyed Women, and Other Sunshine Daydreamers from the Songs of the Grateful Dead (Random House)
“It is difficult to imagine a more exhilarating or visionary homage to the Grateful Dead than Friends of the Devil.”
Michelle Porter, A Glacier’s Guide to Dying (Algonquin)
“As layered as the glacier’s ice, this is a narrative that invites rereading to fully grasp its depth and brilliance.”
–Amanda Peters
Robert Wilson, The Space Behind the Face: Life Stories (Penguin Press)
“Maps in an engaging and thoughtful way the life he crafted and the influences that shaped his aesthetic.”
–Willem Dafoe
Kwan Ann Tan, The Waiter: An Interactive Story (Union Square)
“A garden of branching paths filled with urban legends and temptations, inviting entry yet resisting easy escape.”
–Ed Park
Jo Baring, Totem: The Untold Story of Sculpture (Ecco)
“A beautifully revealing and poignant tribute to a universal, ever-evolving, and endlessly resonant art form.”
–Booklist
Lucy Apps, Gloria Don’t Speak (Mariner)
“Apps thoughtfully grapples with the limits of language—specifically when it falters—asking readers whose viewpoints are heard and what means of communication lie beyond spoken words.”
–Alice Evelyn Yang
Simon Garfield, The Pen: A Human History (Crown)
“A jubilant homage to the writing instrument—glorious and gleaming. Finally, a book that celebrates my most treasured possession.”
–Emma Thompson
Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes, Clear Water (Flatiron)
“[An] intensely atmospheric novel that blends mystery and horror with relentless tension.”
–Booklist
Stephen Kinzer, Boiling Point: How America Brought War to Ukraine (Henry Holt)
“A provocative and penetrating examination of the underpinnings of the Ukraine conflict.”
–Joby Warrick
Karen Olsson, Dear Thorns (Astra)
“A passionate, intelligent mid-life awakening and reckoning, gripping on every page.”
–Dana Spiotta
Mark Binelli, Just a Shot Away: Martin Scorsese’s Life in Film (Metropolitan)
“A detailed, witty, and revealing biography that does justice to its subject’s grandeur.”
–The American Scholar
Irene Solà, Dams (Graywolf)
“Solà’s captivating project is filled with surprises.”
–Publishers Weekly
Judi Dench, Is It Too Late to Make a Run For It? (St. Martin’s)
“A delightful chronicle of a life well spent.”
–Kirkus
Jeff Zentner, Love, Like Apples (Grand Central)
“A heartfelt portrait of how chosen family and everyday kindness shape us and endure.”
–Booklist
Ramachandra Guha, Arguments with Gandhi (W. W. Norton)
“A deeply erudite yet thoroughly readable account of Mahatma Gandhi’s many afterlives, and the debates that continue to surround his legacy.”
–Amitav Ghosh
