We delight in poring over all the books we can get our hungry little hands on, all in order to bring you the very best of the best. Alas, we can’t always cover everything we want to talk about — and this inspired us to look back over the last few months to highlight more of the fabulous reads that recently landed in paperback.
Take a look below to find some of our faves from the literary fiction, light fiction, and thriller stacks on our shelves. These 15 new paperback options make perfect last minute gifts for the holidays. Add them to your list as a stocking stuffer or a delicately wrapped present.
These Things Happen
by Michael Eon
Sponsored
“A nostalgic and often beautiful story. [A] charming ode to growing up in Brooklyn and a subtle love letter to the music of the time.” –Kirkus Reviews
Growing up in 1970s Brooklyn under the shadow of his tyrannical father and against the backdrop of the Son of Sam murders, the Karen Ann Quinlan tragedy, and the New York Yankees' back-to-back championship seasons, Daniel Zimmer struggles to find a sense of safety and belonging. When faced with an unexpected family tragedy, Daniel discovers the magical escape that alcohol can provide. Carrying the trauma of his youth into adulthood, Daniel is forced to face his demons head-on as he struggles to take things one day at a time. [Paperback original 9.19.2023]
Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death
by Maria Vale
Sponsored
"A weird, adorable stunner of a romance." –The New York Times
Death needs a do-over. Azrael – Grim Reaper, Destroyer, Angel of Death – has messed up. Instead of taking Molly Molloy's soul, he accidentally saves her from choking on a chicken wing. Molly has been visited by Death before. He took her parents, her grandparents. Her first love. But now this utterly unexceptional waitress at a breastaurant in New York can see him. Touch him. Talk to him. Say “no” to him. Make him doubt. The Powers that Be are waiting for Death to fix his mistake but before he can, he makes one more. He falls in love. [Paperback original 8.21.2023]
Moth
by Melody Razak
A Millions Most Anticipated Book of 2022, An Oprah Daily Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Novel of 2022, A Betches Summer Pick
Delhi, 1946. Fourteen-year-old Alma is soon to be married despite her parents' fear that she is far too young. But times are perilous in India, where the country's long-awaited independence from the British empire heralds a new era of hope – and danger. Alma is precocious and headstrong, and her excitement over the wedding rivals only her joy in spinning wild stories about evil spirits for her younger sister Roop. But when Alma's grandmother interferes with the engagement, her meddling sets off a chain of events that will wrench the family apart. Set during the most tumultuous years in modern Indian history, Melody Razak recreates the painful turmoil of a rupturing nation and its reverberations across the fates of a single family. [Hardcover originally published 8.9.2022]
Endpapers
by Jennifer Savran Kelly
A Buzzfeed, Electric Lit, LitHub, and LGBTQ Reads most anticipated book of 2023.
Artist Dawn Levit is stuck. A bookbinder who works in conservation at the Met, she is utterly uninspired. Art isn't the only thing that feels wrong: wherever she turns, her gender identity clashes with the rest of her life. Then, one day at work, Dawn finds something hidden behind the endpaper of an old book: the torn-off cover of a '50s lesbian pulp novel. On the front is a campy illustration of a woman looking into a handheld mirror and seeing a man's face. And on the back is a love letter. Dawn becomes obsessed with tracking down the note's author, and as she searches for the letter's author, she finds she is also looking for herself. [Hardcover originally published 2.7.2023]
The Rabbit Hutch: A Novel
by Tess Gunty
A New York Times bestseller, National Book Award winner, and a Best Book of the Year for The New York Times, TIME, NPR, Oprah Daily, and People.
Ethereally beautiful and formidably intelligent, Blandine lives in a building called the Rabbit Hutch. She shares her apartment with three teenage boys she neither likes nor understands, all, like her, now aged out of the state foster care system that has repeatedly failed them, all searching for meaning in their lives. Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom. [Hardcover originally published 8.2.2022]
The Atlas of Love
by Laurie Frankel
“Immensely likable, playful and literary, this is a novel full of love." –Cathleen Schine
When Jill becomes both pregnant and single at the end of one spring semester, she and her two closest friends plunge into an experiment in tri-parenting, tri-schooling, and tri-habitating as grad students in Seattle. Naturally, everything goes wrong, but in ways no one sees coming. Janey Duncan narrates the adventure of this modern family with hilarity and wisdom and shows how three lives are forever changed by (un)cooperative parenting, literature, and a tiny baby named Atlas. This book originally came out quite some time ago, but this paperback edition – in advance of the author's next brand-new novel – is well worth picking up if you hadn't before. [Hardcover originally published 8.17.2010]
For Twice in My Life
by Annette Christie
“Second chances take center stage in this cute contemporary ... This is a charmer.” –Publishers Weekly
Layla's chaotic life transformed when she met Ian Barnett. Ambitious, committed, and thoughtful, Ian has been everything she'd dreamed of. When he breaks up with her out of the blue, Layla is stunned. What went wrong? But then, Layla gets a call from the local hospital. Ian's had a biking accident. He's okay, but he needs an assist – and he doesn't remember he ended things. Layla gets a second chance to get things right. That is, until Ian's younger brother comes to town. As things get more complicated, Layla realizes she may have to come clean about the stories she's been telling: to Ian, to Matt, to her family, and most importantly, to herself. [Hardcover originally published 2.7.2023]
Heartbroke
by Chelsea Bieker
Finalist for the California Book Award, NPR and Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a Bustle Most Anticipated Book of the Month, a Book Riot Must Read Story Collection
From the acclaimed author of Godshot comes a defining book of Californian stories where everyone is seeking or sabotaging love. Heartbroke brims over with each character's attempt to salvage grace where they can find it. Told in bright, snapping prose that reveals a world of loss and love underneath, Chelsea Bieker brilliantly illuminates a golden yet gothic world of longing and abandonment under an unrelenting California sun. [Hardcover originally published 4.5.2022]
Tracy Flick Can't Win
by Tom Perrotta
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Reese Witherspoon.
Tracy Flick is a hardworking assistant principal at a public high school in suburban New Jersey. Still ambitious but feeling a little stuck and underappreciated in midlife, Tracy gets a jolt of good news when the longtime principal, Jack Weede, abruptly announces his retirement, creating a rare opportunity for Tracy to ascend to the top job. But is she really a shoo-in for the principal job? Is the Superintendent plotting against her? Why is the School Board President's wife trying so hard to be her friend? And why can't she ever get what she deserves? A sharp, darkly comic, and pitch-perfect chronicle of the second act of one of the most memorable characters of our time, Tracy Flick Can't Win delivers. [Hardcover originally published 6.7.2022]
The Clementine Complex
by Bob Mortimer
"It's as hilarious and surreal as you would expect... stuffed with laugh-out-loud moments." –Daily Mail
Unremarkable legal assistant Gary Thorn goes for a pint with his coworker Brendan, when he meets a beautiful woman – but she leaves before he catches her name. All he has to remember her by is the title of the book she was reading: The Clementine Complex. When Brendan goes missing, too, Gary needs to track down the girl he now calls Clementine to get some answers. And so begins Gary's quest, through the estates and pie shops of South London, to find some answers and hopefully, some love and excitement in this page-turning, witty, and oddly sweet story with a cast of unforgettable characters. [Paperback original 9.5.2023]
The Twist of a Knife
by Anthony Horowitz
“Playful ... An efficiently old-fashioned whodunit with all the surprises you'd expect.” –Kirkus Reviews
"I'm sorry but the answer's no." Reluctant author, Anthony Horowitz, has had enough. He tells ex-detective Daniel Hawthorne that their book deal is over. The truth is that Anthony has other things on his mind. His new play, a thriller called Mindgame, is about to open at the West End's Vaudeville Theater. The next day, Sunday Times critic Margaret Throsby – who panned the play – is stabbed in the heart. Thrown into prison and fearing for both his personal future and his writing career, Anthony is the prime suspect in Throsby's murder. He realizes that only one man can help him. But will Hawthorne take the call? [Hardcover originally published 11.15.2022]
Where They Lie
by Joe Hart
“The tragic crash of a small plane sets an Oregon social worker on the trail of even greater tragedies behind it . . . A well-paced exposé of dark family secrets.” –Kirkus Reviews
Kaylee Volk's vlogs celebrate a happy home, a happy family. Everything is perfect until the day the family's private plane plummets into the ocean. Only Kaylee manages to survive – with a shocking revelation: one of her children did it. This is particularly devastating for Nora McTavish, a child protective services agent already familiar with the family. Secret by secret, Nora pieces together a Volk family puzzle that's more twisted than anyone saw. And the closer Nora looks, the more disturbing it gets. [Paperback original 5.1.2023]
A Killer in the Family
by Gytha Lodge
“A darkly deceptive, twisting, masterful mystery. Gytha Lodge should be on every crime fiction fan’s must read list.” –Chris Whitaker
When the police found the first body, left on a bonfire in the forest, they worried it had the hallmarks of a serial killer. Panic about the "Bonfire Killer" quickly spreads through the sedate suburban area of Southampton. But single mom Aisling Cooley has a lot to distract her. When she gets a match on a DNA site she tries, she is filled with an anxious excitement that her questions about her father's disappearance from her life might finally be answered. But it's not her father who's found her. It's a detective. And they say her DNA is a close match for the Bonfire Killer. [Paperback original 8.8.2023]
The Playground
by Michelle Frances
“Michelle Frances manages to bring fresh energy to this age-old theme of family secrets . . . The finale doesn't disappoint” Daily Mail
Looking to escape her old life, Nancy and her ten-year-old daughter Lara move to Ripton. A quiet, picturesque village in the rolling Derbyshire countryside, it seems like the perfect place to settle down. But when Nancy reaches the school gates, she learns that beneath the quaint village atmosphere is a minefield. As much as Nancy finds the playground politics absurd, they soon become impossible to ignore when Lara is accused of hurting another girl. Nancy is about to learn just what lengths a parent will go to for their child. [Paperback original 9.12.2023]
Scenes of the Crime
by Jilly Gagnon
"An absorbing, meta-fictional variation on a locked-room mystery, full of pointed observations about class, money, and the inherent competition that lies beneath many female friendships." –Joanna Margaret
It should have been the perfect spring break: Five girlfriends. A remote winery on the Oregon coast. An infinite supply of delicious wine at their manicured fingertips. But then Vanessa vanished without a trace. Emily was perhaps the last person to see her alive. Now, years later, Emily is inspired to finally tell the story that's been percolating inside her for so long: Vanessa's story. But first, she needs to know what really happened on that fateful night. So she puts a brilliant scheme into motion. [Paperback original 9.5.2023]